“Up in the Air”
**** (out of 4 stars)
Before a sneak preview at the Telluride Film Festival, folks wondered if the Jason Reitman’s comedy starring George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a frequent flier who crisscrosses the country helping corporations lay off workers, might have a hard time landing an audience. Its themes of economic downturn were just too glum, too close to the bone. It is precisely Reitman’s wholehearted, smart-minded depiction of the sorrow of workers, the pitilessness of employers and the seductive arguments against forming bonds — familial and romantic — that make this classy, sexy comedy so current and enduring. As a fellow traveler and co-worker respectively, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick soar as they threaten to clip Ryan’s wings.
R. 1 hour, 47 minutes. Lisa Kennedy
“The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day”
** (out of 4 stars)
For most of its running time, “All Saints Day” plays like a boozy, amiably foulmouthed remedial-school reunion: Here are the three stoogelike Boston detectives, here’s the ghost of Rocco, and doddery old Gerard Parkes as a bartender with Tourette’s syndrome. “All Saints Day” still feels like it was edited with a hacksaw, and the crude comic dialogue still scrapes along the barroom floor, but the general vibe is one of relaxed, murderous high spirits, and the movie hardly ever is smug. R. 1 hour, 27 minutes. Ty Burr, Boston Globe
“Planet 51”
** (out of 4 stars)
The 1950s Hollywood tradition was that an alien spaceship landed on Earth and was surrounded fearfully by military troops. “Planet 51” is true to the tradition, but this time the ship comes from Earth, and it lands on a planet inhabited by little green men. It’s still the 1950s, however. It’s perfectly pleasant as kiddie entertainment, although wall-to-wall with pop references to the American 1950s.
PG. 1 hour, 30 minutes. Roger Ebert
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