Some reviews originate at newspapers that do not award star ratings. Ratings range from zero to four stars
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“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” Reviewed on Page 1D
“Crime After Crime” Reviewed on Page 7D
“The Change-Up” Reviewed on Page 7D
“Another Earth”Reviewed on Page 7D
“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” Reviewed at
“Vincent Wants to Sea” Reviewed at
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Here are selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically.
“Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest”
Hip-hop documentary. R.A fair amount of unvarnished acrimony during the seductive, jazz-inflected hip-hop innovators’ 2008 “Rock the Bells” reunion tour. Shows off-stage footage reveals four men (Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White) struggling to relearn their own camaraderie. (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune) 98 minutes
“Captain America: The First Avenger”AdventurePG-13. Captain America was born out of a “super soldier” experiment during WWII. They have to back-engineer its way into the meeting between the Captain (Chris Evans) and the Avenger leader we know as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and give us a credible version of future Iron Man Tony Stark’s inventor dad, Howard Stark. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 118 minutes
“Cowboys & Aliens”Gunslingin’ hybrid PG-13. Sure, it’s a mashup that could have gone south, but director Jon Favreau gives this meeting of cowboys, Apache and, yup, aliens a decidedly (and appreciated) Western flavor. Daniel Craig plays the laconic hero who wakes up in the New Mexico Territory with a shackle on a wrist and no memory. Harrison Ford is the town of Absolution’s embittered overlord. (Kennedy) 112 minutes
“Crazy, Stupid, Love”Romantic comedy PG-13. With the summer’s most promising cast, this multigenerational rom-com about soon-to-be-divorced Cal (Steve Carell) and mentor in hookups Jacob (Ryan Gosling) should have been crazier, sexier, cooler. Which doesn’t mean it’s stupid. Only the direction never finds the sweet spot between hopeful and bitter. Worse, the filmmakers waste the gifts of Marisa Tomei, hardly easy to pull off. Still, it does boasts one of the finest “didn’t see that coming” scenes in a long while. Emma Stone and Julianne Moore star as romantic Jacob’s and Cal’s romantic game changers. (Kennedy) 105 minutes
“Friends With Benefits”Romantic comedy R. In this acutely self-aware rom-com, likables Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake are headhunter Jamie and graphic design recruit Dylan. The foxy duo hit it off well enough to begin a friendship and they’re silly enough to believe they can stir sex into the mix without complications. Yes, to paraphrase Yogi Berra it’s “No Strings Attached” all over again. Only, so much better. (Kennedy) 109 minutes
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2″FantasyPG-13. A battle- packed, emotionally charged and morally deft end to a series that has never shied away from deep and aching meaning. Harry and dearest friends Ron and Hermione arrive at the showdown with the Dark Lord Voldemort. (Kennedy) 130 minutes
“Horrible Bosses”Payback comedy R. The latest addition to the raunchy-comedy subgenre finds three friends plotting the demise of their respective employers. Not as easy at they might hope — or fear. Justin Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day have carbonated chemistry as the fairly decent bumblers considering the unspeakable. Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell have a blast, playing the titular tormentors. (Kennedy) 98 minutes
“Page One: Inside The New York Times”DocumentaryR. This documentary arrives at a peculiar point for print journalism. People are reading the work of journalists more than ever. The Internet has made it possible, for the time being at least, to read the work of journalists for free, and so daily newspapers, including that seemingly unshakable monolith The New York Times, are in peril. (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle) 108 minutes
“Sarah’s Key”Horror and remembrance saga R. A journalist and a child are inextricably linked when the former’s husband begins to renovate a Paris apartment once occupied by a child named Sarah’s family. Kristin Scott Thomas is brilliantly restrained as the magazine writer who untangles the story of Sarah, a girl who tried to protect her brother from the infamous Vel d’Hiv roundup of French Jews in 1942. In English and French and with subtitles. (Kennedy) 105 minutes
“The Smurfs”Animated kids movie. PG. Six Smurfs are sucked through a magical vortex and dropped into Central Park. Hot on the Smurfs’ blue trail is evil sorcerer Gargamel and his feisty cat, Azrael, who somehow manage to pursue our adventurers to the Big Apple. Luckily, the Smurfs take shelter with gentle Grace and her workaholic husband. (Sean O’Connell, Washington Post) 102 minutes
“Tabloid”Documentary R. Joyce McKinney, former Miss Wyoming became a British scandal-sheet sensation in 1977 after kidnapping her former boyfriend, a Mormon doing missionary work in England, and manacling him to a bed for sex. (Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune)87 minutes
“Winnie the Pooh”Timeless toonG. Tale of a bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. (Kennedy) 73 minutes
