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Here are selected minireviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically.
Some reviews originate at other newspapers that do not award star ratings.
“(500) Days of Summer”
Romantic comedy. ****. PG-13. Boy meets girl. It seems so simple. Even so in director Marc Webb’s super debut (wondrous screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Webber), it’s 500 days of joy and disaster as Tom and Summer prove how love can be a figment of yearning and utterly real — sometimes at the same moment. Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues to trace the arc of subtle but true stardom. Zooey Deschanel is all eyes and smart talk as she rebuffs romantic nonsense at every turn. (Kennedy) 96 minutes
“Afghan Star”
Documentary. ****. Unrated. “Afghan Star,” the TV show, is exactly what “American Idol” would look like if the contestants were playing for the biggest stakes imaginable: political and social freedom, gender equality, a chance to heal a country 30 years under the yokes of war and religious dictatorship. (Ty Burr, Boston Globe) 87 minutes
“Aliens in the Attic”
Evil Aliens. **. PG. While on a summer vacation in the middle of nowhere, four cute and not-quite menacing aliens crash-land in the family’s summer rental house attic. Once the five kids of the family come across the four knee-high aliens, they soon discover that the aliens are not of the E.T. variety, but rather the kind bent on conquering and destroying the world. How? By using a special device that takes control of people’s bodies and minds. The problem, at least for the aliens, is their device only works on matured adults, leaving it up to the kids, immune to the alien’s mind-control tactics, to fend off the alien invasion without alerting their parents. 86 minutes
“Away We Go”
Comedy. ** 1/2. R. We have our protagonists — a rootless, pregnant couple feeling their way into the world of adult responsibility on a road trip to scout the best environment in which to raise their child. And yet as the ambivalent pair visit Miami, Montreal and elsewhere in search of their destiny, nothing resembling a fleshed-out movie emerges. While the film is amusing in short bursts and boasts some sharp dialogue, it’s weak on plot and drama. With an excellent Maggie Gyllenhaal, brassy, hare-brained Allison Janney, comedy champs Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara, and John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as the pregnant couple. (Colin Covert, Monneapolis Star Tribune) 97 minutes
“Brüno”
Mockumentary. ** 1/2. R. Sacha Baron Cohen, the knave of punk’d who made Kazazh journalist Borat an unlikely but oddly likeable star, returns to the big screen, this time as Brüno. The self-described “gay fashionista” heads from Austria to American for fame, only he’s too lame to know when to quit. The same can be said for his portrayer. (Kennedy) 82 minutes
“The Cove”
Documentary. *** 1/2. PG-13. A thriller, a heist flick, an edge-of-your-seat ride. These are just some of the ways to describe “The Cove,” a documentary about a small Japanese fishing village with a dark secret. Director Louie Psihoyos and dolphin captivity foe Ric O’Barry team up to expose the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. The engaging use of tensions associated with genre flicks is a fresh surprise. Don’t be surprised, however, if this locally produced film makes it into Oscar chatter. (Kennedy) 96 minutes
“Food Inc.”
Documentary. ****. PG. The documentary offers a none-too-comforting look at how the FDA and USDA have been rendered powerless by legislation and court rulings, and how a revolving door between international food corporations and the federal government has led to lax health and safety controls. Another startling issue is secrecy: the lack of basic information available to consumers about what they are eating. (Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer) 93 minutes
“Funny People”
Comedy. ***. R. Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star as a comic with a terminal diagnosis and the aspiring stand-up comedian he hires in this thoughtful (if at times self-serving) movie about comedy, celebrity and the toll they take on comics who are — but also aren’t — mere mortals. Written and directed by Judd Apatow, this is a morality tale with a mortality setup. What happens when a funny guy (Sandler) stands on the brink? And what does he learn as he takes a step back from that long drop? Is it funny? Yes. Is it riotous, ribald yet empty? Absolutely not. (Kennedy) 146 minutes
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
Magical Adventure. *** 1/2 PG. Love and menace are in the air. And both get their unnerving due as Harry James Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), dear friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, as well as rival Draco Malfoy, return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Director David Yates writer Steve Kloves approach the sixth installment of J.K. Rowling’s page-turners with an appreciation of shadow and light, grief and hope, that makes these adaptations joyous and weighty. New to the gifted cast: Jim Broadbent as a former Hogwart’s professor. Horace Slughorn may hold the clue to the mystery of Thomas Riddle, the student who became “He who must not be named.” (Kennedy) 153 minutes
“The Hurt Locker”
Psychological Thriller. *** 1/2. R. “The Hurt Locker,” directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, is the most intense and jarring experience of the summer thus far. War films have not done particularly well theatrically during our long years in Afghanistan and Iraq, a fact that makes kind of sorry sense. Yet, “The Hurt Locker” deserves and earns our edgy attention. The action is taut, intelligent. The performances, in particular Jeremy Renner’s as a maverick detonation expert, are wounded, credible and riveting. Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty also star. (Kennedy) 130 minutes
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”
Animated. ** 1/2. PG. The third in a thinning franchise, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” plunges its loving, affably voiced herd of animals into two daunting worlds (rendered in 3D, natch): that of parenthood and that of hungry dinosaurs. Mammoths Ellie and Manny are expecting. Saber-toothed tiger Diego, possums Crash and Eddie, and a sloth named Sid wrestle with their changing roles, while trying to get back from the movie’s land of the lost. The greatest joys come from the show-within-a-show slapstick of Scrat vying with a flirtatious squirrel-rat for his acorn. She loves me, she loves me nut. (Kennedy) 94 minutes
“In the Loop”
Satire. ****. Not Rated. “In the Loop,” a sharply written, fast-talking, almost dementedly articulate satire on modern statecraft, commences with a verbal slip-up. The principal doves — Karen and a sensitive Pentagon general played by James Gandolfini — are as puffed up and shabby as the hawks. Nobody’s motives are pure, and when it’s all sorted out, the killing war will start. (A.O. Scott, New York Times) 106 minutes
“Julie & Julia”
Comedy. *** 1/2. PG-13. What a celebration of appetite and marriage Nora Ephron has cooked up using Julia Child’s “My Life in France” and Julie Powell’s cooking memoir “Julie & Julia.” Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci delight as Julia and husband Paul. As Julie and Eric Powell, Amy Adams and Chris Messina capture the pleasures and challenges of being stressed young marrieds living in Queens in 2002. (Kennedy) 123 minutes
“My Sister’s Keeper”
Drama. *** 1/2. PG-13. Anna Fitzgerald walks into a lawyer’s office and asks that he represent her in a suit against her loving parents. They want her to donate a kidney to her older sister who is battling leukemia. The 9-year-old doesn’t want to contribute any longer to her sis’ survival. Based on Jodi Picoult’s best-selling novel about a kid born to provide healthy cells, bone marrow, even an organ to her ailing sibling, “My Sister’s Keeper” humanizes vexing questions about medical ethics without sacrificing rattling family drama. (Kennedy) 109 minutes
“The Orphan”
Horror. ***. R. The movie hinges on a classic thriller device: The heroine knows the truth and insists on it even though everyone is convinced she’s mad. You want a good horror film about a child from hell, you got one. Do not, under any circumstances, take children to see this. Take my word on this. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) 101 minutes
“A Perfect Getaway”
Suspense Thriller. ***. R. A romantic vacation hiking the wilds of Hawaii is not in the cards for one couple in this somewhat engrossing thriller. Since there are three couples on that trail, the trick to this not-very-tricky mystery is figuring out which couples are potential victims and which are murderers. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 95 minutes
“The Proposal”
Romantic Comedy. **. PG-13. Sandra Bullock is chilly, demanding book editor Margaret Tate. Ryan Reynolds plays her overly dedicated assistant, Andrew. When she finds herself about to be deported to Canada, they agree on a fake marriage. To seal the deal they head to Alaska where his parents (Craig T. Nelson and Mary Steenburgen) and willy-zany grandma (Betty White) live. Predicatable gaffs and some laughs ensue. Choreographer turned director Anne Fletcher (“17 Dresses”) never gets this tale, with all the diagrammed moves of a dance-step chart, to tango and glide. Evenso, winner Reynolds gets and gives the best lines. (Kennedy) 104 minutes
“Tetro”
Drama. *** 1/2. Not Rated. Francis Ford Coppola hits his highest notes in years with this drama about two brothers set in Buenos Aires. Tetro and Bennie (Vincent Gallo and newcomer Alden Ehrenreich) struggle mightily to escape their father’s reach and establish themselves as writers. Klaus Maria Brandauer appears briefly, boldly as Carlo Tetrcino, patriarch and reknown conductor. This atmospheric beauty is shot in lush black-and-white with saturated-color flashbacks. Terrific Spanish actors Maribel Verdu and Carmen Maura play very different forces in Tetro’s anguished life. Exclusively at the Chez Artiste. (Kennedy) 127 minutes
“The Ugly Truth”
Romantic Comedy. **. PG-13. Abby’s a capable morning news producer who turns dumb and desperate when it comes to men. Mike’s a dispenser of testosterone truths — have an otherwise. In other words, “sparks!” The truths of this lesser rom-com, starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, are as homely as they are familiar: borrowing screwball comedy’s battle-of-the-sexes gestures and gussying them up with R-rated language is a sorry commentary on the genre: women writers (there were three) can serve up empty calories to undernourished female audiences just as cynically as their counterparts. (Kennedy) 96 minutes
“Up”
Animated. *** 1/2. PG. A codger and a kid take us up-up-and-away in a house carried aloft by balloons in this buoyant tale about aging and adventure, youth and sweet wisdom. Ed Asner and newcomer Jordan Nagai soar as retired balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen and Wilderness Explorer Russell. Directed by Pete Docter, “Up” screens in 35mm and Digital 3D. Regardless the format, it’s the multidimensional storytelling that endears and endures. Bob Peterson (codirector and cowriter) provides howlingly amusing riffs as Dug, a dog with a collar that translates his thoughts into speech. Christopher Plummer also stars. (Kennedy) 96 minutes
