Some reviews originate at newspapers that do not award star ratings. Ratings range from zero to four stars.
OPENING
“Bellflower” Reviewed on Page 7D
“Littlerock” Reviewed on Page 7D
“Seven Days in Utopia”
Reviewed on Page 6D
“The Tree”Reviewed on Page 6D
“Apollo 18”Not screened in advance; check
“A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy” Reviewed on Page 7D
“Shark Night 3D” Not screened in advance; check
CONTINUING
Here are selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically.
“30 Minutes or Less”On-the-brink comedy. R. In the shoulda-been-funnier category comes “Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer’s sophomore feature. Dwayne and Travis strap a bomb to pizza-delivery guy Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) and send him off to rob banks. Nick’s partner in unattended crime is ex-best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari). (Kennedy) 83 minutes
“Attack the Block”Hoods vs. aliens. R. In a South London housing project, a group of teen thugs and one feisty nurse (Jodie Whittaker) square off against extraterrestrials. The young actors, newcomers mostly, appeal. The action is R-rated, the aliens a bit silly. (Kennedy) 88 minutes
“Captain America: The First Avenger”
Adventure. PG-13. Captain America was born out of a “super soldier” experiment during WWII. They have to back-engineer a way into the meeting between the Captain (Chris Evans) and the Avenger leader we know as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 118 minutes
“Conan the Barbarian”
Action. R. Good vs. Evil in the fictional land of Hyboria. As frenetic and violent as could be expected. Ultimately, it’s so pedestrian it’s hard to work up much enthusiasm for it. (Cary Darling, McClatchy Newspapers) 102 minutes
“Colombiana”
Action. PG-13. Zoe Saldana stars as Cataleya, who saw her parents killed in front of her when she was just a 9-year-old schoolgirl living in the slums of Bogota. Fifteen years later Cataleya has become a highly efficient professional assassin, but she still seeks revenge against the drug kingpin and his right-hand man who are responsible for her parents’ deaths. (Christy Lemire, The Associated Press) 108 minutes
“The Devil’s Double”
Biopic. R. The story of a real- life Iraqi “Scarface” and the poor sap ordered to be his stand-in. Dominic Cooper plays Uday Hussein, the singularly sadistic son of Saddam, and the fatalistic, fearful Latif Yahia, a former schoolmate of Uday’s yanked out of the army and told to impersonate the dictator’s son. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 108 minutes
“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”
Horror. R. Story of a couple and a young girl menaced by nasty little things that swarm up from beneath the mansion they’re restoring. (David Germain, Associated Press) 100 minutes
“The Guard”Black (Irish) comedy. R. Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle make a fine and prickly pair playing an Irish cop and a FBI agent thrown together in Ireland’s wild west to solve a murder and nab three rather erudite drug traffickers. The language is tart. The shenanigans are frisky. And penned and directed by John Michael McDonagh, the lessons are grim and lively. (Kennedy) 96 minutes“The Interrupters”Documenatry. Not rated but strong language and some images of violence. Tense, moving, even brain- draining. During 2009 — a particularly bloody year in Chicago — director Steve James and cocreator Alex Kotlowitz followed three members of the Chicago-based organization CeaseFire as they intervened in conflicts. The work is volatile and painstaking. The “interrupters” are compelling. And the quandaries raised are absolutely fundamental to our nation’s health. (Kennedy) 125 minutes
“One Day”
Romance. PG-13. Snapshot album of these attracted opposites, Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, capturing where they are every July 15 for the next 18 years. They question whether friendship is a barrier to love or the basis of it. (Carrie Rickey, Philadelpia Inquirer) 108 minutes
“Our Idiot Brother”
ComedyR. Paul Rudd stars as an amiable, ambling dude named Ned who has no real goals in life; what he does have is a guilelessness that consistently gets him into trouble, both with his family and with the law. (Christy Lemire, The Associated Press) 90 minutes
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
A chimp’s tale. PG-13. Surprisingly engaging even when it’s kind of silly, this quasi-prequel to the cult-beloved franchise establishes how humanoid apes came to be in the first place. Biotech tinkering, of course. James Franco plays a pharmaceutical researcher. John Lithgow is his dad and Freida Pinto his love interest. (Kennedy) 110 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 the family of a child named Sarah. 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
“Senna”Sports bio-documentary.PG-13. Making deft use of archival footage and eschewing talking- head interviews, “Senna” tracks the rise and challenges of Aryton Senna, legendary Formula One racer. Smartly edited, directed by Asif Kapadia, the film is a psychologically intriguing portrait of a competitor who often held pole position in his profession. (Kennedy) 104 minutes
“Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World in 4D”
Kids spy spoof. PG. A retired spy is called back into action, and to bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along for the adventure to stop the evil Timekeeper from taking over the world. The fourth D is Aroma-Scope. (Marc Savloc, Austin Chronicle) 89 minutes
V
