FINDING NEVERLAND (PG) Finding Neverland depicts the friendship between Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie (an unusually subdued Johnny Depp) and the five young sons of a beautiful young widow (Kate Winslet), giving us a romance, a coming-of-age tale, and an elaborate parlor game in which we're teased with the bits from Barrie's life that served as inspiration for his classic-to-be about a boy who refused to grow up. It's best to put history out of your mind here, since the movie whitewashes several key facts of Barrie's life, but then again Finding Neverland is a movie designed to lift spirits, not dash them. Mark Foster, a talented director previously responsible for the much grittier Monsters Ball, coaches solid performances from the cast and layers Neverland with pleasing symmetries, wit and moments that make good on a clear intention to appear "magical." What we get is pleasant enough but a bit too pre-digested to take completely seriously. Also stars Radha Mitchell, Julie Christie and Dustin Hoffman. 
1/2
FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (PG-13) A by-the-numbers re-working of Robert Aldrich's 1965 curiosity about a ragtag group of plane-crash survivors stranded in the middle of the desert and attempting to survive while they rebuild their plane. The 2004 version turns the characters into a much blander crew of misfits, adds some awful-looking CGI sequences and a couple of supposedly rousing inspirational speeches, and pads the action with extended and almost entirely gratuitous montage sequences set to classic rock songs (and a smattering of new tunes that smack of readymade nostalgia). Giovanni Ribisi is fairly interesting as the quirkiest member of the crew, but the rest of the cast is utterly forgettable, not excluding Dennis Quaid, who spends a lot of time with his shirt off but is not remotely up to the task of slipping into Jimmy Stewart's shoes. Also stars Tyrese Gibson and Miranda Otto.
THE INCREDIBLES (PG) The Incredibles mines some familiar movie models — three parts action blockbuster to two parts classic spy flick, shaken not stirred, and complete with cool gadgets, dastardly arch-nemesis and a groovy Goldfinger-esque score. Like all of Pixar's little animated opuses, however, it is also essentially a love letter to the family unit, and although this smart and very funny movie's emotional center might be a touch less overtly warm and fuzzy than something like Finding Nemo, it still gets the job done nicely. Featuring the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee.
KINSEY (R) The so-called sexual revolution of the 20th century is a can of worms we still struggle with today, and this classy biopic of pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey gamely lays it all out, a bit provocative around the edges, but never off-putting. The film is handsomely crafted, witty, sensitive and frequently thoughtful, but it's also a bit bloodless, at least for what this material would seem to demand. Kinsey doesn't exactly ignore the meatier, thornier implications of its own story, but it folds them neatly and a little too smoothly into quantities of more conventionally appealing biopic material, beginning with Liam Neeson in the title role as another Schindler for another moment, a flawed but benevolent facilitator of refugees seeking asylum of the sexual kind. Kinsey may have been somewhat robotic in real life (think of him as the original sex machine), but Hollywood has never had much trouble making androids endearing, a feat accomplished here with the casting of Neeson, a supremely sympathetic actor, and by a sprinkling of carefully calculated insights into Kinsey's personal life and background. Also stars Laura Linney, Peter Sarsgaard, John Lithgow, Chris O'Donnell, Timothy Hutton and Tim Curry. Currently playing at Tampa Theatre. Call to confirm. 1/2
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (PG) Morbidly witty, imaginatively stylized and with surprisingly little pandering to tiny or otherwise tiny-minded viewers, there's much to enjoy in this dark-but-not-too-dark fantasy about the trials and tribulations of a trio of ingenious orphans. Jim Carrey dons a series of elaborate disguises as the young pups' nemesis, an evil actor who keeps putting the kiddies in a succession of increasingly harrowing predicaments from which they must use all their considerable, McGuyver-like resources to escape. It's not exactly Shakespeare, but there are lots of curious characters, bizarre and outlandish landscapes, and a tone that's more or less faithful to the dark, disarmingly dry sensibility of the original books. The film is a production designer's dream, with wonderfully odd little Edward Gorey-esque flourishes and filigrees loitering about the edges of nearly every frame. Also stars Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep and Jude Law. 1/2
