Opening This Weekend
Synopsis: Will Smith reunites with his Pursuit of Happyness director, Gabriele Muccino, to play a suicidal IRS agent consumed with guilt who sets out to help seven strangers. Then he falls in love with a woman (Rosario Dawson) and the plan gets disrupted. Woody Harrelson co-stars.
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy Sony
Synopsis: High-concept comedy ensues when Jim Carrey, starting out as a cynical banker, gets swept up in a self-help movement. He decides to say yes to all requests, and winds up falling for quirky stranger Allison (Zooey Deschanel). Peyton Reed (The Break-Up) directs.
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy Warner Bros.
Mini review: Carrey's sad-sack working stiff works best when he skips the funny faces and weird voices perfected in previous roles. Fortunately, Carrey only goes over the top a few times in this uplifting romantic comedy, which benefits mightily from Terence Stamp who plays a self-empowerment huckster and Deschanel as the bubbly love interest who's open to anything. – Lewis Wallace
Rating:
Synopsis: In a faraway kingdom, hero mouse Despereaux ventures to the royal palace where he meets a kindly princess (voiced by Emma Watson). She teaches him to read while a good-natured rat (Dustin Hoffman) listens in. When the rats revolt, Despereaux has to choose sides. Animated by Framestore for directors Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhagen.
Rated: G
Image courtesy Universal
Gran Torino (limited)
Synopsis: Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this story about a Korean War veteran who springs into action when a teen neighbor tries to steal his prized 1972 car.
Rated: R
Mini review: Grimacing and gruff, Eastwood owns the screen as Walt Kowalski, a racist relic watching his neighborhood go to hell. Raking in the laughs as he spits out one creative ethnic slur after another, Kowalski proves charming to Hmong neighbors after his wife's death. But Gran Torino's sturdy morality tale is marred by so-so acting in supporting roles and a fairly predictable plot. – Lewis Wallace
Rating:
Timecrimes (expanding)
Synopsis: From writer-director Nacho Vigalondo comes this story about a man transported back in time who overcomes science and body doubles to save the life of the woman he loves. Spanish with English subtitles.
Rated: R
Nothing but the Truth (limited)
Synopsis: Inspired in part by The New York Times reporter Judith Miller's Valerie Plame articles, writer-director Rod Lurie (The Contender) casts Kate Beckinsale as a journalist who goes to jail after reporting the identity of an undercover CIA agent (Vera Famiga).
Rated: R
The Wrestler (limited)
Synopsis: Mickey Rourke plays a washed-up wrestler itching to get back in the ring after a heart attack. Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood co-star for director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream).
Rated: R
Now in Theaters
Synopsis: Alien invasion remake stars Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, who tries to warn mankind of impending disaster but is quickly captured by fearful earthlings. Jennifer Connelly plays the scientist who befriends the stranger from another planet. Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates and Jaden Smith co-star for director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Hellraiser)
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy Fox
Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still Takes a Tumble
The remake of the '50s sci-fi classic updates its message, but the environmental fable fails to rise above a shop-worn "earthlings are stupid" message.
Rating:Feature: From Hulk to Gort, Monster Man Gets Creative With Creatures
A dedicated freakmaker, concept designer Aaron Sims has helped bring aliens, demons and comic book characters to the silver screen. His latest task: reinventing giant robot Gort for the remake of sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Nothing Like the Holidays
Synopsis: Comedy ensues when a Puerto Rican family gathers in frigid Chicago for a Christmas celebration. Ensemble cast includes Luis Guzman, John Leguizamo, Debra Messing, Alfred Molina and Freddy Rodriguez.
Rated: PG-13
Doubt (limited)
Synopsis: Director John Patrick Shanley adapts his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a priest (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) suspected of abusing students at a private Catholic school in the Bronx. Meryl Streep and Amy Adams co-star as nuns.
Rated: PG-13
The Reader (limited)
Synopsis: Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes appear in this Holocaust-themed coming-of-age drama from Stephen Daldry (The Hours), which features David Kross as a smitten German student circa 1958.
Rated: R
What Doesn't Kill You (limited)
Synopsis: Based on a true story by writer-director Brian Goodman, this crime drama casts Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke as Boston hoods who graduate from petty offenses to organized crime.
Rated: R
Synopsis: Set in the 1950s, this fact-based piece about race, sex, music and money tells the story of Chicago R&B label Chess Records and its roster of pioneering musicians. Beyoncé Knowles plays Etta James with Mos Def as Chuck Berry and Jeffrey Wright as blues shouter Muddy Waters. Adrian Brody co-stars as impresario Leonard Chess.
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Sony Pictures
Synopsis: Title character Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) resumes his one-man vigilante crusade to take on the disfigured mobster Jigsaw (Dominic West) and his thug army. Based on the Marvel Comic series.
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Lionsgate
Frost/Nixon (limited)
Synopsis: Director Ron Howard re-creates the 1977 post-Watergate interview between talk show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) and disgraced President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella).
Rated: R
Synopsis: Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in this epic romantic action adventure set in the vast expanses of Australia. On the brink of World War II, English aristocrat Lady Ashley inherits a vast spread, where she meets a local cowboy known as The Drover. Cattle robbers, an aboriginal child and Japanese bombs form the backdrop to their contentious relationship. Baz Luhrman (Moulin Rouge) directs.
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy Fox
Synopsis: Jason Statham reprises his role as tough operative Frank Martin. Dispatched to save a Ukraine leader's kidnapped daughter (Natalya Rudakova ), he beats back a succession of thugs en route from France through Germany, the Czech Republic and back to Odessa along the Black Sea. Directed by the French director who calls himself Olivier Megaton.
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy Lionsgate
Synopsis: After years of avoiding family get-togethers, a happily married couple (Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn) are forced to visit all four divorced parents over the holidays after they're spotted on TV stranded at the airport. Dysfunction ensues. Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight and Dwight Yoakam co-star.
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy New Line
Milk (limited)
Synopsis: Sean Penn plays San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, California's first openly gay man to be elected, who was assassinated in 1978. The Gus Van Sant-directed biopic also features James Franco and Josh Brolin.
Rated: R
Lake City (limited)
Synopsis: On the run from drug dealers, a young man returns to his Southern home and estranged mother. Sissy Spacek, Troy Garity, Dave Matthews and Rebecca Romijn star.
Rated: R
Synopsis: Daniel Craig returns as James Bond in this sequel to Casino Royale. Trying to get over the loss of Vesper, his late girlfriend, Bond sets out to squash a villainous entrepreneur (French actor Mathieu Amalric) from monopolizing Latin America's natural resources. Judi Dench is back as the formidable boss M with Olga Kurylenko as the new Bond girl. Mark Forster (Finding Neverland) directs the script by returning Casino writers Paul Haggis, Neil Purvis and Robert Wade.
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy Sony
Rating:
Slumdog Millionaire (limited)
Synopsis: When a former street kid from Mumbai becomes a contestant on India's TV game show version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire., he flashes back to his ghetto childhood for the correct answers. On the verge of winning the big jackpot, the uneducated "slumdog" prompts suspicions among cops and society at large. Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto star for director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later).
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight
A Christmas Tale (limited)
Synopsis: Childhood death, mental illness, decades-old sibling hatred, mother-son standoffs, bone marrow transplants, cancer and a holiday reunion ... nobody does Christmas like the French. Director Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen) tells the story of a dysfunctional family holiday, ruined by the demands of a harsh matriarch (played by Catherine Deneuve). Her predicament gives rise to recriminations, complications and a twisted back story of betrayal and disappointment. Mathieu Amalric (Quantum of Solace) co-stars with Jean-Paul Rousillon, Melvil Poupaud and Anne Consigny.
Rated: Unrated
Photo courtesy IFC Films
JCVD (limited)
Synopsis: Action star Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself in this semi-fictional satire. He's a cash-strapped actor in a bitter custody fight for his daughter. Unable to find work in Hollywood, Van Damme returns to his native Brussels and gets thrown into a violent bank holdup. French and English dialogue.
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Peace Arch Entertainment
Synopsis: Animated comedy finds the talking animals from New York City marooned on the shores of Madagascar after a plane piloted by penguins breaks down over Africa. There, the beasts discover their roots. Voice actors Ben Stiller (the lion), Chris Rock (zebra) David Scwimmer (giraffe) and Jada Pinkett Smith (hippo) return for the sequel, joined by Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Bernie Mac, Sherri Shepherd, Alec Baldwin and will.i.am.
Rated: PG
Image courtesy DreamWorks Animation
Synopsis: Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd star as two energy drink salesmen who wreck a company truck. In court, they pick community service over jail and go to work mentoring kids in the Sturdy Wings program. Elizabeth Banks plays the girlfriend with Jane Lynch as a stern, formerly coke-addicted probation officer. Rudd co-wrote the script with director David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer).
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Universal
Synopsis: Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac sing, dance and crack jokes as down-and-out backup singers for a once-great Motown-style act. Estranged for 20 years, they hit the stage after the lead singer of their old group dies. John Legend, Sharon Leal and Sean Hayes co-star in the comedy from director Malcolm D. Lee (Undercover Brother).
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Weinstein Company
Synopsis: Futuristic sci-fi gorefest takes place during an organ failure epidemic. Exploiting the situation, a biotech company sells access to healthy new organs. If a customer won't pay the bill, the repo man retrieves the throbbing replacement part. Meanwhile, a sick young girl (Alexa Vega) goes on the quest of a lifetime. Paul Sorvino, Paris Hilton, Sarah Brightman and Anthony Head co-star for director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III, IV).
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Lionsgate
Synopsis: Comedy casts Seth Rogen (Superbad) opposite Elizabeth Banks (W.) as roomies with cash-flow problems. When their water and electricity get turned off, they come up with a get-quick-rich scheme and shoot a porn flick. As the production heats up, so does their formerly platonic relationship. Written and directed by Kevin Smith (Clerks).
Rated: R
Photo courtesy The Weinstein Company
Review: Zack and Miri Scores With Funny Porno Farce
Raunchy yet surprisingly sweet at times, Smith's lighthearted romantic comedy about a couple of 21st-century slackers amuses with goofball antics, a sci-fi send-up and a gross-out money shot.
Rating:
Changeling (expanding release)
Synopsis: Angelina Jolie stars in Clint Eastwood’s fact-based period piece, set in 1928 Los Angeles, as working single mom Christine Collins who returns home to find her son missing. Five months pass and the cops locate an 8-year-old boy in rural Illinois. The twist: Collins gets pilloried for saying the child is not hers. A radio reverend (John Malkovich) steps in to help find the real son. Amy Ryan co-stars in the film, scripted by Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5).
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Universal Pictures
Mini review: She'll probably get an Oscar nomination for this performance, but Jolie sheds so many tears as the mourning mom that the slow-to-start saga gets soggy at times. Still, the camera adors Jolie, who hits deep notes as her everywoman crusader survives unbearable cruelty, civic corruption and nightmarish stints in a psych ward. Serviceable supporting performances are trumped by a stand-out turn from Jason Butler Harner as a sadistic creep. – Hugh Hart
Rating:
Synecdoche, New York (expanding release)
Synopsis: In this nightmarish comedy, Oscar winning writer Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) directs Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a hapless small-town theater director beset by a mysterious illness that shuts down his autonomic functions one by one. After his wife and daughter desert him for Berlin, he receives a MacArthur Grant and embarks on the art work of a lifetime: to render a detailed re-creation of New York City. Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, and Catherine Keener co-star.
Photo courtesy Sony Pictures Classics
RocknRolla (expanding release)
Synopsis: When a multimillion-dollar real estate scam falls apart, small-time hoodlums, old-school mobsters and Russian gangster billionaires all want in on the action. Set in London, the hyperviolent action piece stars Gerard Butler, Idris Elba, Thandie Newton, Tom Wilkinson, Jeremy Piven and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges. Guy Ritchie (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) directs.
Rated: R
Photo courtesy Warner Bros.
High School Musical: Senior Year
Synopsis: The perky kids from East High (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman) return for another go-round. With a basketball championship, prom dates and spring musical in the offing, singin' and dancin' can't be far behind. Choreographed, produced and directed by franchise veteran Kenny Ortega.
Rated: G
Photo courtesy Disney
Synopsis: Gritty cop drama pits one detective against another after four policemen are killed during a drug bust. When NYPD boss (played by Jon Voight) names his son Ray (Edward Norton) as lead investigator, brother-in-law (Colin Farrell) and brother (Noah Emmerich) get entangled as clues point to a family-incriminating inside job. Gavin O'Connor (Miracle) directs.
Rated: R
Photo courtesy New Line
Synopsis: Videogame-based revenge tale stars Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne, a ticked-off maverick cop with a dead family who butts bloody heads with a shadowy roster of lawbreakers and corrupt businessmen. Joining him is an assassin (Mila Kunis) who's looking for her sister's killers. Chris O'Donnell, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Beau Bridges co-star for Irish director John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines).
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy Fox
Synopsis: Josh Brolin channels George W. Bush in the latest political bio-pic from Oliver Stone (Nixon, JFK). The movie follows Bush through his hard-drinking frat-boy period, the fateful meeting with wife-to-be Laura, his born-again conversion and, finally, his handling of the Iraq War. The ensemble cast includes Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney along with Elizabeth Banks (Laura Bush), Toby Jones (Karl Rove), Scott Glenn (Donald Rumsfeld), Jeffrey Wright (Colin Powell), Thandie Newton (Condoleeza Rice), Ellen Burstyn (Barabara Bush) and James Cromwell (George Herbert Walker Bush).
Rated: PG-13
Photo courtesy Lionsgate
Previously Reviewed
Burn After Reading
The Dark Knight
- Review: Joker Plays the Wild Card in Dazzling Dark Knight
- Dark Knight Director Shuns Digital Effects for the Real Thing
- The Dark Knight: 'Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?'
Death Race
Hancock
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- Review: Hellboy II Is Hell-Bent on Monstrous Visuals
- Hellboy's Mike Mignola Talks 'Language of Monsters'
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Pineapple Express
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
- Review: Clone Wars Returns Star Wars to Its Youthful Roots
- 10 Reasons Why Clone Wars Beats Any Lucas Prequel
- I Sense a Disturbance in the Star Wars Canon
Wall-E
Wanted
- Review: Angelina Jolie Speed-Races Through *Wanted'*s Sexy Violence
- Secrets of Wanted's Insane Onscreen Action
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
