“New in Town”
*** (out of four)
Minnesoooooota is always going to be the perfect setting for a frozen “fish-out-of-water” romantic comedy, which is a big reason “New in Town,” the first genuinely funny film of 2009, works. It’s a formula as old as the hills. Send a cynical Miami city slicker (Renee Zellweger) to take over a dairy products plant in New Ulm, Minn., and lay off half its workforce. Hurl her against stubborn employees (J.K. Simmons) and chummy, too-helpful ladies who scrapbook (Siobhan Fallon). Let her make the worst possible impression with the hunky local “Bud-drinking redneck with a pickup truck” (Harry Connick Jr.) and let the chips fall where they may, where they always may. Rated PG. 1 hour 36 minutes. Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel
“Crips and Bloods: Made in America”
**1/2
Director Stacey Peralta’s well-meaning film about two of the nation’s longest running, longest warring African-American gangs mixes Los Angeles history, American sociology and raw interviews with present and former gang members. Late in the film, Hall of Fame footballer and social activists Jim Brown offers this insight, “They aren’t gang members. They’re human beings.” Yet the documentary treats its subjects too often as the former, letting gang-banger boiler-plate eclipse deeper, more personal insights. Not rated. 1 hour, 33 minutes. Lisa Kennedy
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