MOVIES
Movies are rated on a letter-grade scale, from A to F. Opinions by R-J movie critic Carol Cling (C.C.) are indicated by initials. Other opinions are from wire service critics.
Motion Picture Association of America ratings:
G - General audiences, all ages.
PG - Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG-13 - Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children under 13.
R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian.
NC-17 - No one under 17 admitted.
NR - Not rated.
BRICK LANE
(B) A Bangladeshi transplant to East London (Tannishtha Chatterjee), forced into an arranged marriage at 17, yearns for her rural village, the sister she left back home -- and a young Muslim garment worker (Christopher Simpson) -- to rescue her from her passionless life. This quietly observant (and quite beautiful) adaptation of Monica Ali's 2003 novel boasts strong performances and a heartbreaking story, delivering a rich, revealing and rewarding portrait of its central character -- and her conflicted world. (101 min.) PG-13; sexual situations, profanity.
THE DARK KNIGHT
(B) Why so serious? This sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins" wants desperately to be taken seriously. Mostly, it deserves to be -- but it sometimes takes itself too seriously for its own good, as the Joker (an indelible Heath Ledger) wreaks havoc in Gotham City, prompting the interest of not only the Caped Crusader (Christian Bale) but crusading new D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). So overstuffed with characters, plots and counterplots that Batman sometimes seems like a supporting character in his own movie, but Ledger's Joker is one for the ages -- or, more precisely, this age. Even without the actor's tragic death, this sequel cloaks itself in funereal black. It's as if somebody sprinkled ashes in the popcorn. (132 min.) PG-13; intense violence and menace. (C.C.)
GET SMART
(C+) Missed it by that much: Steve Carell steps into the (phone-equipped) shoes of Don Adams to play bumbling Maxwell Smart, a world-class intelligence analyst who finally gets the chance to trade his desk job for a globe-trotting field assignment, accompanied by savvy Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). By grafting a typical origin story onto a typically breakneck espionage plot, "Get Smart" fails to capture the delirious slapstick lunacy of the classic '60s sitcom that inspired it. Sorry about that, Chief. (110 min.) PG-13; rude humor, action violence, profanity. (C.C.)
HANCOCK
(C) After he's saved by a boozy, surly superhero (box-office king Will Smith), a struggling L.A. marketing expert (Jason Bateman) volunteers to rehabilitate the snide good guy's tarnished image. It's an intriguing concept, but the iffy execution -- and director Peter Berg's inability to meld the movie's jokey first half with its anguished and emotional conclusion -- makes for a bumpy ride indeed. With Smith, Bateman and Charlize Theron headlining the classy cast, it's a downright shame imagining what might have been -- if only "Hancock" had lived up to their potential. (92 min.) PG-13; intense sci-fi action and violence, profanity. (C.C.)
THE HAPPENING
(C) He still sees dead people, but this time they're in a dead movie: Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense," "Signs") tries, and fails, to revive his movie mojo with this tale of an apocalyptic crisis that triggers global hysteria -- and prompts stars Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo to go on the run. This mash-up of "The Birds" and "War of the Worlds" (or maybe it's "The Birds" meets "The Blob") tries to be topical, but the premise is too thin to deliver any real chills. It's beyond good and evil; it's just dumbfounding -- and dumb. (91 min.) R; violent and disturbing images.
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
(B) When the mythical world rebels against humanity, hoping to take over Earth, cigar-chomping, beer-guzzling demon superhero Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his team -- including pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), aquatic empath Abe (Doug Jones) and protoplasmic mystic Johann -- lead the charge to save the planet. Like its 2004 predecessor, this has a middling storyline, but it's made memorable by the dark, freaky visions of writer-director Guillermo del Toro, who seems to have transplanted every weird creature he couldn't cram into "Pan's Labyrinth." In case you're wondering, that's a good thing. (110 min.) PG-13; sci-fi action and violence, profanity.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK
(C+) No smash! Edward Norton (who co-wrote the script with "X2's" Zak Penn) takes over from 2003 "Hulk" Eric Bana as troubled physicist Bruce Banner, who keeps trying to extinguish his inner monster, even as he's hounded by a military that wants to harness his mean green power. Starts great, but finishes in noisy, effects-heavy waves of tedium, stranding such capable actors as Norton, William Hurt and Tim Roth. Alas, it's no "Iron Man" -- although if you sit through the credits, a jokey Robert Downey Jr. cameo will remind you how much better "Iron Man" is. (138 min.) PG-13; sci-fi action violence, disturbing images, brief partial nudity.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
(B-) In your face, in more ways than one: The first live-action feature shot in digital 3-D is an update of Jules Verne's durable 1864 fantasy, about an absent-minded professor (Brendan Fraser), his surly teenage nephew (Josh Hutcherson) and an Icelandic guide (Anita Briem) on a fantastical, and possibly fatal, journey to the otherworldly (innerworldly?) title realm. Without 3-D, this is just another empty-calories cinematic thrill ride; with 3-D, it's still a cinematic thrill ride, but at least it's a relatively fun one, chock full of reach-out-and-touch images guaranteed to make you giggle, squirm -- or do both at the same time. (92 min.) PG; intense adventure action, scary moments. (C.C.)
KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL
(B) "Little Miss Sunshine's" Abigail Breslin stars as the first "American Girl" heroine to make it to the big screen; she's a plucky Depression-era lass who's determined to get an article published in the local newspaper -- and help the down-on-their-luck hoboes haunting her neighborhood. This classy, heart-on-its-sleeve movie's commitment to down-home values, meticulously researched back stories and be-all-you-can-be girl power has a seductive wholesomeness -- and laudable life lessons appropriate for any era, including our own. (100 min.) G; all ages.
KUNG FU PANDA
(C) Kung phooey: This computer-animated romp follows the fortunes of roly-poly Po (voiced by Jack Black), a pot-bellied panda who's plucked from obscurity to train as a martial arts warrior under the tutelage of pint-sized Master Shifu (a wry Dustin Hoffman). Kids will adore the broad slapstick (and maybe even the "you gotta believe" homilies), but the all-star vocal cast (including Jackie Chan, David Cross, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu and Ian McShane) is largely wasted and the movie never figures out how mesh its comedic and chop-socky elements. (124 min.) PG; martial arts action. (C.C.)
THE LOVE GURU
(D) Raised by gurus, American-born Pitka (Mike Myers) returns to the U.S. to break into the self-help business as the title swami. His first challenge: a lovelorn hockey star whose wife has left him for a rival. This alleged comedy of low blows and elephantine misfires wastes the varied talents of everyone from Jessica Alba to Justin Timberlake to Ben Kingsley, illustrating the shrinking imagination of Myers, who continues to believe that penis activity and the politically incorrect are the cutting edge of screen humor. Not! (88 min.) PG-13; crude and sexual content throughout, profanity, comic violence, drug references.
MAMMA MIA!
(C) S.O.S.: Meryl Streep (having a blast, even when we're not) turns singing-and-dancing queen in this adaptation of the hit ABBA musical about a former rock singer, now running an inn on a remote Greek island, whose three ex-flames (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsg?rd) show up at her daughter's wedding. Occasionally entertaining, more often excruciating (especially when poor Pierce tries to sing), this movie may have a stellar cast (augmented by "Big Love's" Amanda Seyfried and veteran scene-stealers Christine Baranski and Julie Walters), but the narrative thread's flimsier than dental floss -- and director Phyllida Lloyd, who helmed the stage original, hasn't the slightest idea how to direct a movie. But never mind; this show's legion of fans undoubtedly won't. (108 min.) PG-13; sexual references. (C.C.)
MEET DAVE
(C+) Newly arrived New Yorker Dave Ming Chang (Eddie Murphy) seems suspiciously uncomfortable in his own skin -- possibly because he's not really a he at all, but a space ship built in the image of its miniature-sized captain. Elizabeth Banks, Gabrielle Union and Scott Caan co-star for Murphy's "Norbit" director, Brian Robbins, in a family-friendly sci-fi comedy that might have been developed for Murphy's "Bowfinger" co-star Steve Martin. Murphy is frighteningly funny at suggesting that Dave is a sophisticated piece of machinery occupied by a crew at cross purposes; once again, he proves he can do anything -- even in a movie that's not up to his talents. (90 min.) PG; bawdy and suggestive humor and action, profanity.
MONGOL
(B) This sweeping, Oscar-nominated epic, from award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov ("Prisoner of the Mountains"), traces the rise of Genghis Khan (played by Japanese pop star Tadanobu Asano) from nomadic boy prince to conqueror -- and founder of the 12th-century realm that became history's largest contiguous empire. Highly entertaining and replete with highly stylized mayhem and even romance; if Bodrov's goal was to humanize a man synonymous with conquest and invasion, he's succeeded. In Mongolian with English subtitles. (124 min.) R; bloody combat sequences.
PRICELESS
(C) "Amélie's" Audrey Tautou stars as a serial gold-digger on the Riviera who mistakes a hotel bartender ("The Valet's" disarming Gad Elmaleh) for a wealthy guest, igniting his passions in a frothy French romantic comedy that plays like a broadly amoral take on "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Alas, it suffers from a serious case of who-should-we-care-for: He's a sap, she's a soulless vamp and their patrons are either cruel, self-deluding or both. In French with English subtitles. (104 min.) PG-13; sexual content, nudity.
THE SINGING REVOLUTION
(B) The power of song comes alive in this acclaimed documentary, which focuses on how Estonians expressed their resistance to Soviet rule after World War II through music -- including a fateful 1969 festival where thousands of Estonians repeatedly sang a patriotic song banned by the Soviets, fueling a nonviolent rebellion that ultimately led to Estonian independence. Filmmakers James and Maureen Castle Tusty may not always be able to make historic tidbits come alive, but at least they do know how to make them sing. In English and Estonian with English subtitles. (94 min.) NR; contains footage of wartime atrocities; not recommended for children under 10.
SPACE CHIMPS
(D) The wrong stuff: Astronaut chimps, led by the slacker grandson of the first chimp in space (voiced by "Saturday Night Live's" Andy Samberg), go ape during a mission to a distant planet, where they help embattled residents fight a tyrannical leader. The plot couldn't be more boring, the unattractive animation evokes the Teletubbies (not a good thing) and young kids won't get some of the jokes -- not that they're funny. Sure, it's just a G-rated romp, but does that mean it has to be dull and unimaginative? Anybody who's seen "Wall-E" knows the answer to that. (81 min.) G; all ages.
WALL-E
(A) Play it again, Pixar: "Finding Nemo" writer-director Andrew Stanton strikes again with a wonderful, full-of-wonder tale about a lonely garbage-compactor robot, stranded on an abandoned 29th-century Earth, who follows an alluring probe droid back to her mother ship -- and discovers what happened to the humans who used to occupy the planet. Skipping from poignant comedy to sly satire, "Wall-E" deftly synthesizes cinematic influences from Charlie Chaplin to "Star Wars' " R2-D2, yet never feels derivative, thanks to a magical blend of soaring imagination and down-to-earth emotions. Preceded by the hilarious short "Presto," about an arrogant magician, his hungry bunny and not one but two magic hats. (97 min.) G; all ages. (C.C.)
WANTED
(C-) Un-"Wanted": Angelina Jolie plays a kick-butt killer training a mild-mannered office drone ("Atonement's" James McAvoy) to take his place in an ancient, clandestine society of assassins. This mindless, soulless action workout directed (make that overdirected) by Russia's Timur Bekmambetov ("Nightwatch," "Daywatch") confuses quantity with quality, style with substance, adrenaline with artistry. Not content to concentrate on mere mayhem, it aims for something more, and winds up achieving less, trying to pass off a heaping helping of the old ultra-violence as something visionary and profound. (C.C.)
