New this week
BEASTLY (PG-13) This purportedly edgy teen romance looks primed to cash in on all that Twilight heat, minus the vampires and warewolves. Instead of RPatz and KStew and Lautner's abs, Beastly features a cast headlined by Vanessa Hugens, Alex Pettyfer, Mary-Kate Olsen and Neil Partic Harris. How long until Breaking Dawn opens? (Not reviewed)
THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (PG-13) See CL auction winner Upohar Haroon's review.
TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT (R) Topher Grace (That '70s Show) and Anna Faris star as 20-somethings looking to party before adulthood sinks its claws into them. While the movie looks like a Can't Hardly Wait retread, the promised soundtrack of '80s hard rock should be a hoot. (Not reviewed)
RANGO (PG) Johnny Depp gets animated in this flick about a chameleon who wants to be a cowboy and ends up in a Western town living his dream. Rango screened too late for us to get a review into print, but look for Kevin Hopp's take online at dailyloafblog.com.
Recent releases
BLUE VALENTINE (R) Blue Valentine follows Dean and Cindy (Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) at two different points in their relationship, as they first fall in love and then years later after the marriage has turned miserable. The plot contrivance works to show how much the couple has changed, and how the goofy chemistry they once shared has turned into unbearable tension. The actors make the most of this dual structure, not only manipulating themselves physically to look like they have aged, but also maturing their mannerisms along the way. Williams, who's been nominated for an Oscar for her performance, makes these difficult transitions seem effortless. It's hard to recommend a painful film like Blue Valentine, but thinking about the film a month after I've seen it, the beautiful honesty outweighs the emotional brutality. —Anthony Nicholas
THE FIGHTER (R) Director David O. Russell's The Fighter depicts the rough-and-tumble story of boxers/brothers Dicky Eklund and Micky Ward. However, the story set in Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1990s, is about much more than boxing. Consistently intense and dynamic, the first half of The Fighter centers around Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), who is still boasting about his match with Sugar Ray Leonard as his life slowly disintegrates due to his inability to stop smoking crack. The second half is centered around Ward's (played by Mark Wahlberg) improbable run as the junior welterweight champion. Anchoring the film are the women in the cast, especially Melissa Leo, who gives an indelible performance as the mother of the boxing brothers. —Mitch Perry
GNOMEO & JULIET (G) A 3D candy-colored mess, Gnomeo & Juliet is pretty to look at, and so eager to please the viewer with its energy and visual splendor, that it overlooks the need to tell a coherent, engaging story. The film's screenplay is credited to seven writers and they have little to show for their collective effort. Though I should probably qualify that by saying your appreciation for the movie may depend on how irresistibly cute and funny you find the concept of garden gnomes participating in lawnmower races and falling in love. —Anthony Salveggi
HALL PASS (R) An air of "been there, done that" lingers over the entirety of Hall Pass. The premise — two men are given a pass by their wives to play outside the bonds of marriage for a week — feels tired and, in light of our narcissistic times, pretty lame and unprovocative. Owen Wilson and Jenna Fischer make for a cute married-with-children pair, comfortably in the same middle-class league with onscreen spouses Jason Sudeikis and Christina Applegate. Yes, Hall Pass is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but the humor isn't born of character or circumstance or misunderstanding. Instead, the movie clumsily drags a series of moments strung along loosely by a gimmicky premise masquerading as plot. Unlike co-directors the Farrelly Brothers' better movies, Hall Pass never reaches the sustained zaniness and unpredictability that would make its flaws easier to overlook. —AS
THE ILLUSIONIST (PG) The latest animated film by acclaimed director Sylvain Chomet, The Illusionist takes place in a melancholy Edinburgh populated by aging vaudevillian performers trying to stay alive in a fast-changing modern world. We center on Tatischeff, an old-school magician finding it harder to book gigs, who finds temporary work in a seaside town in where he befriends an orphan girl who believes his magic is real. Chomet is working with an abandoned screenplay by one of cinema's greatest comic directors, Jacques Tati. The Illusionist is a profoundly sad film — but one that goes down surprisingly easily. There are light comic touches everywhere and an adorable little love story tucked in the middle. Like Chomet's previous film, 2003's The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist functions as a silent film, with a world of character development portrayed through simple gestures and body language. It's cinema in its purest form. —AN
JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER (PG) Part documentary, part snazzy 3D concert film, Never Say Never does for Justin Bieber what Riefenstahl did for the Nazis. The documentary portions of the film are actually quite engaging, and the concert footage interspersed throughout is not tragically grating. Justin Bieber is uber-talented, a seemingly good kid and a decent-looking teenage lesbian, and Never Say Never is a fun little snapshot of him, one that offers more proof that he's got the goods. But be warned: This film makes it clear that Justin is going to continue to use his super-powers for world domination. —Rabid Nick Refer
THE KING'S SPEECH (R) Do believe the hype: Colin Firth's exquisitely detailed performance as King George VI, the reluctant monarch with the persistent stammer, deserved its Golden Globe and deserves an Oscar. Geoffrey Rush gets a little too twinkly at times as the unorthodox speech therapist who challenges the king to overcome his speech defect, but the intellectual (and sometimes visceral) sparring matches between the two are a pleasure to watch. —David Warner
SANCTUM (R) With James Cameron listed as executive producer, the square-jawed, cartoonish machismo and casual sadism of Sanctum comes as little surprise. What is a surprise is that this lazily written, lifeless film was deemed worthy of theatrical release. A thoroughly rote, lackluster story with an unconvincing father-son conflict are front and center in this Australian production. The few scenes of claustrophobic suspense can't compensate for Sanctum's terrible line readings and Z-grade dialogue. Along with its shallow characterizations and juvenile, scatalogical humor, Sanctum dares to reach for emotional resonance. But the cheap spectacle of daddy and son working out their issues as they try to navigate "the mother of all caves" is offensive for its pandering. —AS
UNKNOWN (PG-13) Liam Neeson stars as a man who wakes from a coma in a foreign country on to find another man (Adian Quinn) has assumed his identity and his wife (Mad Men's January Jones) is playing along. Unknown is very similar to Neeson's 2009 flick, Taken, though the plot of Unknown is much more complex, and the film is more thought-provoking for the audience. I enjoyed Unknown more, but is that really saying much? It's yet another "thrill ride" that depends solely on action and intensity as opposed to solid story structure and a sense of reality. Mildly recommended. —Anthony Allen
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2011.