Thursday, January 20, 2011

GoErie.com: Movie Capsules - Movie capsules: What's playing at Erie's Tinseltown, Millcreek 6 and Movies at Meadville, Dec. 23-Dec. 30

CHECK IT OUT. The movie listing feature at GoErie.com/events has movie times and more.

NOTE. Movie schedules are subject to change. Check Showcase movie ads and check online for changes.

NEW MOVIE SHOWING TONIGHT AT TINSELTOWN: "Gantz" (2:30, R.)

Tinseltown: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I." "Gulliver's Travels." "The Tourist."

Millcreek 6: "Life As We Know It." "The Warrior's Way." "Legend of the Guardians." "Red."

NO STRINGS ATTACHED. A guy (Ashton Kutcher) and girl (Golden Globe winner Natalie Portman) try to keep their relationship strictly physical. It's not long before they learn that they want something more. Also with Ludacris, Kevin Kline. Directed by Ivan Reitman ("Animal House," "Ghostbusters.") (1:48. R for sexual content, language, drug material.)

BLACK SWAN. A thriller that zeros in on the relationship between a veteran ballet dancer (Natalie Portman) and a rival (Mila Kunis) who are up for the same role in "Swan Lake." (1:50. R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use.)

BURLESQUE. A small-town girl with big dreams and a big voice arrives in Hollywood and wows the world with her talent. But not everyone has her best interest at heart, so she'll have to cling to her values to figure out whom she should trust. And she'll do it ... in song! They should provide a cliché checklist at the door of "Burlesque." Sure, this song-and-dance extravaganza is sufficiently shiny and sparkly, an explosion of sequins and feathers and sass. "Burlesque" is never the juicy diva smackdown of "Showgirls," but it's good enough as a guilty pleasure. (1:59. PG-13 for sexual content, partial nudity, language and some thematic material.)

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER. Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world. Helmed by Michael Apted, this may be best "Narnia" yet. (1:56. PG for some frightening images, fantasy scenes.)

COUNTRY STRONG. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kelly Canter, whose boozy benders are legendary. Her husband-manager (Tim McGraw) pulls her out of rehab early to put her back on the road. Along for the ride are the honky-tonk hipster with whom she's having an affair (Garrett Hedlund) and a beauty queen with her own dreams of stardom (Leighton Meester). What follows is a series of flirtations and dalliances, breakdowns and inebriated episodes, none of which seems to carry any more significance than any other. Still, the music is enjoyable if not earth-shattering and is actually sung by the movie's stars. (1:57. PG-13 for thematic elements involving alcohol abuse and some sexual content.)

THE DILEMMA. Chicago engineers and buddies Ronny Valentine (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Brannen (Kevin James) each have long-term partners: Ronny's girlfriend, Beth (Jennifer Connelly), and Nick's wife, Geneva (Winona Ryder). After Ronny sees Geneva cheating on Nick with another man (Channing Tatum), he descends into a world of infidelity where seemingly everyone is cheating. Ron Howard's comedy begins and ends in hokey cliché, but for a brief period it carries a slight hint of Billy Wilder, playing uncomfortable stuff for not entirely dumb laughs. (1:50. PG-13 for mature thematic elements involving sexual content.)

DUE DATE. Robert Downey Jr. is miserable, stuck on a cross-country drive with a creepy Zach Galifianakis. It's easy to imagine how he feels: It's often torturous sitting through the movie, and we're not the ones trapped in the middle of Texas with the guy. The script comes from Director Todd Phillips ("The Hangover") and three other writers. But "Due Date" lacks the consistent hilarity and originality of that last-summer hit. (1:35. R for language, drug use, sexual content.)

FASTER. This is The Rock's return to his bread-and-butter, macho action films. He's an ex-con seeking vengeance so badly he's barely out of prison before he's shooting people in the head. He's simply a bullet of fury in a relentlessly revved-up but hopelessly dumb film. (1:38. R for violence, some drug use and language.)

THE FIGHTER. A terrific ensemble cast elevates this look at the early years of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his brother (Christian Bale) who helped train him before Micky went pro in the mid 1980s. Also with Amy Adams as Ward's fierce girlfriend and Melissa Leo as his controlling mother. (1:54. R for language throughout, some drug content, some violence and sexuality.)

FOR COLORED GIRLS. Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of 20 poems that the film is based on. They reveal different issues that affect women in general and women of color in particular. Adapted from the play and directed by Tyler Perry with Thandie Newton, Janet Jackson, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, Kerry Washington. (1:34. R for some disturbing violence, including a rape, sexual content, language.)

THE GREEN HORNET. Based on the 1930s radio show, "The Green Hornet" stars Seth Rogen as Britt Reid, playboy heir to the Los Angeles publishing empire built by his father (Tom Wilkinson). But when his father dies suddenly, Britt realizes he has a chance to use his fortune for good and decides to become a vigilante crime fighter with the help of his father's mechanic, the soft-spoken but ever-resourceful Kato (Jay Chou). With Michel Gondry, known for visually inspiring films, at the helm, this looked promising. But it's a surprisingly generic, bombastic action movie with no 3-D excitement. (1:59. PG-13 for sequences of violent action, language, sensuality and drug content.)

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. Travel writer Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) takes an assignment in Bermuda, but ends up on the island of Lilliput, where he towers over its tiny citizens. (1:52. PG for brief rude humor, mild language and action.)

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART I. Doom and gloom permeate nearly every minute of the beginning of the end of the behemoth boy-wizard series. This seventh film in the franchise begins with nearly suffocating tension as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) finds himself face-to-face with his destiny: being the target of the evil Lord Voldemort's (Ralph Fiennes) deadly wrath. Friends and allies will have to band together to protect him; some of them won't make it out alive. The film thrills at the start, repeatedly sags in the middle and picks up at the cliffhanger climax. (2:26. PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence, frightening images, brief sensuality.)

HOW DO YOU KNOW. Reese Witherspoon stars as a professional softball player who's just been cut from the U.S. team. She's torn between Paul Rudd, who plays a corporate executive wrongfully under federal investigation, and Owen Wilson, as an endearingly cocky pitcher for the Washington Nationals (not believable for one second). Jack Nicholson goes to waste in a handful of scenes as Rudd's father and boss. Nothing about this would-be romantic comedy ever jells -- neither the romance nor the comedy and, worst of all, not the characters. Rare misfire from writer-director James L. Brooks. (2:01. PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language.)

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT. Katherine Heigl has again been saddled with an unexpected baby. Unlike Heigl's "Knocked Up" co-star, Seth Rogen, Josh Duhamel is in her league. They have good, believable chemistry as opposites pushed together through fate. Their handsome movie-star presences keep the movie entertaining, even though its familiar story passes with nothing to distinguish itself from the many other similarly plotted films and sitcoms. (1:55. PG-13 for sexuality, drug use.)

LITTLE FOCKERS. Meet the latest in Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller's comedy franchise. Grit your teeth through the fairly short though agonizing duration of its stay. Director Paul Weitz delivers a string of dumb episodes as De Niro's father-in-law from hell again puts Stiller's nervous son-in-law under surveillance. The whole gang returns, including Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Owen Wilson, Teri Polo and Blythe Danner, with Jessica Alba, Laura Dern and Harvey Keitel joining the cast. Hopefully, the Fockers will call it quits after this. (1:38. PG-13 for mature sexual humor and language.)

MEGAMIND. A dastardly supervillain who turned evil because of a bad upbringing finds himself seduced to the good side to defeat an even worse guy. The latest action comedy from DreamWorks Animation features dazzling computer-animated design and action. Yet despite a clever hook -- what's a villain to do when he manages to defeat his superhero nemesis? -- it's a thin story that feels familiar and unfolds with no surprises. The movie offers an amiably goofy voice cast led by Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey and Jonah Hill. (1:36. PG for action, some language.)

THE NEXT THREE DAYS. The latest movie from Paul Haggis ("Crash") finds Elizabeth Banks' Lara Brennan being charged and convicted of killing her boss in a Pittsburgh parking garage. Once all of Lara's appeals have run out and she's on the verge of being transferred to a state penitentiary, her husband, John (Russell Crowe), hatches a scheme to break her out of the joint. Chalk it up to miscasting, a lack of chemistry, whatever: It's simply too hard to buy Crowe and Banks as husband and wife. And that's a problem, since it undermines our ability to become emotionally immersed in the life-threatening danger in which they find themselves. (2:13. PG-13 for violence, drug material, language, some sexuality and thematic elements.)

SEASON OF THE WITCH. After killing untold numbers of men in the name of God during the Crusades, Nicolas Cage's character, Behmen, and his wisecracking sidekick, Felson, decide to pack it in. But to avoid being imprisoned for desertion, they must transport a suspected witch (Claire Foy) to a faraway abbey for trial. You expect this kind of schlock in January, but "Season of the Witch" isn't even bad in an enjoyable way. (1:35. PG-13 for thematic elements, violence and disturbing content.)

THE SOCIAL NETWORK. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin have created an epic tale based on ... well, minutiae. The story of Facebook is filled with high drama, betrayal, and rage -- just one of the many contradictions that make the film so smart, meaty, and compulsively watchable. With Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake. (2:00. PG-13 for sexual content, drug and alcohol use, profanity.)

TANGLED. "Rapunzel" gets the modern treatment, complete with 3-D rendering, digital animation and a slacker rogue in place of the traditional knight. The story gets her out of the tower and on the road, where the wide-eyed Rapunzel takes in the world, include a tavern full of theatrical thugs and moments of budding romance. "Tangled," Disney's 50th animated feature, is not in the league of the studio's best, though Donna Murphy shines as passive-aggressive Mother Gothel. Still, it's sturdy and pleasantly executed by the animation machine. (1:40. PG for brief mild violence.)

TRON LEGACY. Director Joseph Kosinski's feature film debut is thrilling and cool-looking for about the first half. But its races, games and visuals eventually grow repetitive, which only draws attention to how flimsy and preposterous the script is. "Tron: Legacy" is a mishmash of pop culture references and movie rip-offs, Eastern philosophy and various religions, and one insanely cute, strategically placed Boston terrier. With the return of Jeff Bridges, there's plenty of Dude-ishness for you fans of "The Big Lebowski." (2:05. PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief mild language.)

TRUE GRIT. While Joel and Ethan Coen's "True Grit" is entertaining, it also lacks emotional resonance, as well as the intriguing sense of ambiguity expected in Coen pictures. Only toward the end does it feel like anything is at stake, but at least it's enjoyable while you're waiting. Hailee Steinfeld in her film debut is a revelation as Mattie Ross, the 19th-century pioneer teenager who demands vengeance for her father's murder with the help of U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Matt Damon again proves he can do anything as a preening Texas ranger. (1:50. PG-13 for some intense sequences of western violence.)

THE WARRIOR'S WAY. A warrior-assassin is forced to hide in a small town in the American Badlands after refusing a mission. With Dong-gun Jang, Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush. (1:40. R for strong bloody violence.)

YOGI BEAR. A documentary filmmaker travels to Jellystone Park to shoot a project and soon crosses paths with Yogi Bear (voiced by Dan Aykroyd), his sidekick Boo-Boo (voiced by Justin Timberlake), and Ranger Smith (voiced by Tom Cavanagh). (1:26. PG for some mild rude humor.)

CAPSULE REVIEWS have been excerpted from the Associated Press. Previews are courtesy of the Internet Movie Database.

RATINGS by the Motion Picture Association of America are G for general audiences; PG parental guidance because of material possibly unsuitable for children; PG-13 parents are strongly cautioned to give guidance for attendance of children younger than 13; R restricted, younger than 17 admitted only with parent or adult guardian; NC-17 no one younger than 17 admitted.

Source: http://www.goerie.com

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