ALL GOOD THINGS 3 stars. Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, working at the top of their games, star in this "true crime" drama about the scion of a New York real estate family suspected of killing his wife. It's a strange, thrilling tale, begrimed by bad memories, by bad deeds. 1 hr. 41 R (violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - Steven Rea
ANOTHER YEAR 3 1/2 stars.Mike Leigh's meditation on why some people chase happiness and others radiate it takes the form of four seasons in the life of a couple for all seasons, shaggily played by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen. 2 hrs. 09 PG-13 (profanity) - Carrie Rickey
BHUTTO 2 1/2 stars. One part biography, one part idol worship, this portrait of the late Pakistani prime minister, the first woman to lead a Muslim state, is a bullet train through South Asia, chronicling its subject's 54 years while providing an incomplete, if sympathetic, portrait of her. 1 hr. 51 No MPAA rating (mature themes, political violence) - Carrie Rickey
BLACK SWAN 4 stars. Natalie Portman in the performance of her career, as a fiercely disciplined prima ballerina struggling with the dual roles of "Swan Lake, and with a newly recruited dancer (Mila Kunis) threatening to steal her part. Vincent Cassell, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder are on board for this thrilling, nutty psychodrama, from "The Wrestler's Darren Aronofsky. 1 hr. 43 R (sex, nudity, drugs, physical torment, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea
BLUE VALENTINE 2 1/2 stars. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are a couple going through the throes of new love, old love and no love at all; there's a loose, verite vibe, and times when they root down deep to deliver something resonant and true. But this modern-day kitchen sink drama is ultimately too painful, too labored, to care about. 1 hr. 52 R (sex, nudity, profanity, domestic violence, adult themes) - Steven Rea
BURLESQUE 2 1/2 stars. Preposterously entertaining shlock starring Cher as a nightclub owner and Christina Aguilera as the corn-tasseled Iowa girl who makes her name there. 1 hr. 56 PG-13 (erotic dancing, sexual innuendo, posterior nudity) - Carrie Rickey
CASINO JACK 2 stars. Kevin Spacey gives a slick but soulless performance as disgraced super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff in this tonally all-over-the-map account of hubris and greed in the nation's capital. 1 hr. 48 R (violence, profanity, drugs, nudity, sex, adult themes) - Steven Rea.
CEDAR RAPIDS 3 stars. Human cork Ed Helms bobs to the surface of the river of raunch in this gentle, gross-out comedy that tickles laughs from the misadventures of a small-town innocent at large in a midsize, Midwestern burg With Anne Heche and John C. Reilly. 1 hr. 27 R (profanity, drugs, alcohol, sexual candor) - Carrie Rickey
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER 2 1/2 stars. Maybe it's the postproduction 3-D enhancements, but in this effects-laden Odyssey for tweens, sometimes humans and beasts seem more wax-and-paint than flesh-and-blood. Director Michael Apted deftly handles the elements of Christian allegory; it's the infernal digital effects that prove to be beyond his capacity. 1 hr. 55 PG (violence) - Carrie Rickey
THE COMPANY MEN 3 stars. John Wells' intelligent, involving film about the effects of corporate layoffs on an executive (Tommy Lee Jones), a middle manager (Chris Cooper) and a salesman (Ben Affleck) at a Boston shipbuilding conglomerate, is about how each responds to being thrown overboard. Will they sink, or swim? Kevin Costner is excellent as the film's stealth hero, a guy initially contemptuous of those who have resumes instead of tangible skills. R (nudity, profanity) - Carrie Rickey
COUNTRY STRONG 2 1/2 stars. Gwyneth Paltrow stars in this Nashville romantic quadrangle set at the fork between the roads to redemption and ruin. With the Heath Ledgerish Garrett Hedlund, Taylor Swifty Leighton Meester and Tim McGraw, a complete cipher. 1 hr. 51 PG-13 (sexual candor, alcohol abuse) - Carrie Rickey
THE DILEMMA 1 1/2 stars. Vince Vaughn and Kevin James are best buds, Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder the respective girlfriend and wife, in this Ron Howard-directed infidelity comedy distinguished by its resounding unfunnyness and emotional dishonesty. 1 hr. 58 PG-13 (profanity, violence, adult themes) - Steven Rea
THE EAGLE 2 1/2 stars. Muscularly entertaining adventure set in second-century Britain inspired by Rosemary Sutcliff's historical fiction Eagle of the Ninth, It stars Channing Tatum as a Roman centurion on a quest to restore his father's honor and Jamie Bell as his Caledonian (as in Scottish) slave. 1 hr. 54 PG-13 (combat violence, mild gore) - Carrie Rickey
THE FIGHTER 3 1/2 stars. Based on the real-life career, and comeback, of welterweight champ "Irish" Micky Ward and the relationship with his wacko half-brother, erstwhile prizefighter Dicky Eklund, this roiling, colorful film is great in the ring, and great outside the ring, too. Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale are the pugilist sibs, Melissa Leo their mom, Amy Adams is Micky's bareknuckle barkeep girlfriend. 1 hr. 5 R (violence, profanity, drugs, sex, adult themes) - Steven Rea
FOUR LIONS 2 1/2 stars. Fanaticism gets the farce treatment in director Chris Morris' whopping strange and incendiary comedy about a band of bumbling British Jihads. When it works - and it doesn't half the time - it's as if Monty Python were back, putting its merrily imbecilic stamp on the dark world of terrorism. Pushing the envelope of political correctness well into another dimension. 1 hr. 37 R (profanity, violence, adult themes) - Steven Rea
GNOMEO & JULIET 2 stars. A clever concept - Shakespeare's tragic romance, with garden gnomes - gets bungled every which way in this CG-animated bore, full of second-rate puns, hackneyed scenarios and an overdose of Elton John tunes. The voices of James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine and Maggie Smith are put to no good use. 1 hr. 24 G (cartoon mayhem, domestic discord) - Steven Rea
THE GREEN HORNET 1 1/2 stars. Seth Rogen co-wrote and co-stars in this superhero spoof that aims or irreverence and settles for irrelevance. Director Michel Gondry fails to put his surrealist stamp on the material. Only Jay Chou, as the Hornet's sidekick who is really his superior, emerges with any personality. PG-13 - Carrie Rickey
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS 1 1/2 stars. Jack Black is the big doofus who stumbles on little Lilliput in this brain-dead reworking of the Jonathan Swift satirical classic. With Amanda Peet, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel and Billy Connolly. It's murderously unfunny, and includes, for want of anything better, a noisy faceoff between Gulliver and a towering, Transformer-like robot. 1 hr. 25 PG (mild profanity, cartoon violence, adult themes) - Steven Rea
HOW DO YOU KNOW 3 stars. Enjoyable, if uneven, comic romance more of the prickly-pear than love-apple variety. Reese Witherspoon is a softball player courted by baseball star Owen Wilson and out-of-work businessman Paul Rudd. 2 hrs. PG-13 (profanity, sexual candor) - Carrie Rickey
THE ILLUSIONIST 4 stars. Full of bittersweet whimsy and gorgeous hand-drawn animated tableaus, this gem from the director of the Oscar-nominated "The Triplets of Belleville" follows an aging magician as he ekes out a living, and runs into an innocent girl who changes his life, and he hers. Inspired by Jacques Tati, and adapted from the French comedy great's unproduced screenplay. 1 hr. 20 PG (adult themes) - Steven Rea.
I AM NUMBER FOUR 2 stars. Tapping into the same vein of teen melodrama that runs through the "Twilight" franchise, this silly adaptation of the popular Pittacus Lore book hurls a moody adolescent from outer space into the halls of a small-town American high school. The quarterback's girlfriend falls in love with "John Smith," and interplanetary trouble ensues. 1 hr. 50 PG-13 (violence, action, adolescent themes) - Steven Rea
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS 3 stars. Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star in this improbably true story of a inexhaustible con artist and his mad passion for a fellow inmate. Prison escapes and wild scams ensue. But so does a wonderfully sweet love story. 1 hr. 33 R (sex, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea
INSIDE JOB 3 1/2 stars. Charles Ferguson's bracing account of the 2008 financial collapse and its continuing aftershocks has the twists and turns of a classic heist movie, one with real-world conequences. Narrated by Matt Damon. 2 hrs. PG-13 (drug and sexual references) - Carrie Rickey
JUST GO WITH IT 2 stars.A perfect storm (although "perfect" is definitely the wrong word) of potty jokes, sex jokes, breast implant jokes, bratty kid jokes and sheep CPR jokes, starring Adam Sandler as a womanizing plastic surgeon, Jennifer Aniston as his long-time assistant and Brooklyn Decker as the hottie he thinks he's fallen for. Cheap laughs and Hawaiian backdrops. 1 hr. 56 PG-13 (sex, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea
JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER 3 stars. The Justin Bieber story: One part backstage biography, one part concert film charting the roots and meteoric rise of Justin II, successor to that supernova surnamed Timberlake. 1 hr. 45 G (nothing unsuitable for children) - Carrie Rickey
THE KING'S SPEECH 4 stars. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush star in this rousing Odd Couple comedy, drawn from real life, about King George VI, a stutterer, and his speech therapist. 1 hr. 51 R (profanity, but otherwise family-friendly for those 12 and over) - Carrie Rickey
LEAVING KRISTIN 3 stars. Scott Thomas gives another quiet and anguished performance as a doctor's wife who falls for a Spanish construction worker in this gloomy but engaging film from French writer/director Catherine Corsini. 1 hr. 25 No MPAA rating (violence, sex, nudity, adult themes) - Steven Rea
LITTLE FOCKERS 2 stars. Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller return as the suspicious father-in-law who places unreasonable expectations on his daughter's spouse. Sporadically funny, with Viagra jokes that don't so much provoke laughs as cringes. 1 hr. 38 PG-13 (sexual candor) - Carrie Rickey
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS 2 1/2 stars. Tonally askew romantic comedy with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway naked a lot. But along with the sex jokes and raunch (it's the mid-'90s, Viagra has just hit the market - and Gyllenhaal is a Pfizer salesman), there's a "Love Story-like bummer-o-rama element, too. Hathaway's character has early on-set Parkinson's. 1 hr. 52 R (sex, nudity, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea
MADE IN DAGENHAM 3 stars. The irrepressible Sally Hawkins is the little engine that could in this fact-based story about a 1968 strike at a Ford plant in London that helpd change legislation. A story of labor triumph for this era of labor pain. 1 hr. 53 R (profanity) - Carrie Rickey
THE MECHANIC 2 stars. Terse, tough Jason Statham and twitchy, angsty Ben Foster star in this solemn remake of the 1973 Charles Bronson B, about an ace assassin and the protege he reluctantly takes on. Lots of things go kaboom. 1 hr. 40 R (violence, sex, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea
MEGAMIND 3 stars. With an origin story borrowed from Superman, a lair borrowed from Batman and a skin complexion borrowed from a robin's egg, Megamind - the title character of DreamWorks Animation's smart, snappy superhero send-up - is a villain to love. Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt deliver the snappy dialogue, and the DreamWorks Animation team delivers the goods. 1 hr. 36 PG (cartoon violence) - Steven Rea
MORNING GLORY 2 1/2 stars. With her motormouth delivery, Rachel McAdams nails the role of the morning-TV producer who'll lower the bar to get a ratings boost. But other than McAdams, this workplace comedy also starring Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton is, at best, sporadic. 1 hr. 50 PG-13 (sexual situations, profanity) - Carrie Rickey
NEVER LET ME GO 3 1/2 stars. Sci-fi for the Belle & Sebastian set: a beautifully mopey adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's much-praised novel, with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield as young Brits in dark mood and rumpled mode, trapped in a mysterious - and, for them, tragic - alternate Britain of the 1970s and '80s. 1 hr. 44 R (adult themes, sex, nudity) - Steven Rea
THE NEXT THREE DAYS 3 stars. Russell Crowe stars as a Pittsburgh college prof plotting to break his wife (Elizabeth Banks) out of jail, where she's doing time on a murder rap. Taut B-movie fare, with, alas, a pace-killing police chase tagged on the end. 2 hrs. 13 PG-13 (violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - Steven Rea
NO STRINGS ATTACHED 3 stars. Affable comedy with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman as friends with benefits. She'd like to keep the arrangement strictly physical, but his emotions keep getting in the way. 1 hr. 48 R (sexual content, profanity, drugs) - Carrie Rickey
127 HOURS 3 1/2 stars. Danny Boyle's blunt, mythic and gutwrenching account of Aron Ralston (James Franco), the outdoorsman whose right hand and forearm are pinned to a canyon wall by a falling boulder, and his Sisysphusean struggle to survive. Not for the squeamish. 1 hr. 33 R - Carrie Rickey
RABBIT HOLE 3 stars. Wrenching, poignant, and quietly healing, John Cameron Mitchell's adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play about a tightly-wound wife (Nicole Kidman) and her unraveling husband (Aaron Eckhart), still reeling months after losing a child. It is Kidman's most engaging and emotionally-layered work and a triumph for all involved. 1 hr. 31 PG-13 (mature themes, profanity) - Carrie Rickey
THE RITE 2 1/2 stars. A young American priest experiences a crisis of faith and then goes to Rome to study under a highly unorthodox Catholic exorcist in this half-classy, half-loony supernatural thriller starring Anthony Hopkins. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (violence, disturbing images, theologisms, adult themes) - Steven Rea
THE ROOMMATE 1 1/2 stars. Thriller about a college student who becomes obsessed with her new roommate. Stars Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly lack the acting chops the create the tension that makes a quality thriller. 1 hr. 33 PG-13 (adult themes, violence, mild sexuality, murdered kitten) - Tirdad Derakhshani
SANCTUM 2 1/2 stars. An elimination-round spelunking nightmare, shot with James Cameron's "Avatar" cameras and set in "the mother of all caves" in Papa New Guinea. Trapped underwater in an unexplored cave system, a band of hearty adventurers face one daunting disaster after another. With a cast of Aussies and Brits - two-dimensional cutouts in a 3-D tableau. 1 hr. 49 R (intense action, graphic images, profanity, violence, adult themes) - Steven Rea
SEASON OF THE WITCH 1 1/2 stars. Nicolas Cage is a knight of the Crusades, on the lam with fellow deserter Ron Perlman, when they're recruited to escort a girl accused of witchcraft to her trial. Swordplay, sorcery and anachronistic dialog ensues. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (violence, pestilence, adult themes) - Steven Rea
A SOMEWHAT GENTLE MAN 2 1/2 stars. Like its star, Stellan Skarsgard, who plays a sensitive former hitman, Hans Petter Molander's film walks the line between funny-ha-ha and funny-awkward. Think of it as the Coen Brothers, Norwegian style. 1 hr. 43 No MPAA rating - Carrie Rickey
SOMEWHERE 3 stars. Sofia Coppola's moody, graceful study of a Hollywood star (Stephen Dorff) whose plush, drug-and-booze-fueled world is upended when his 11-year-old daughter comes to live with him. Elle Fanning radiates intelligence and spirit in the role. 1 hr. 37 R (nudity, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - Steven Rea
SUMMER WARS 3 stars. Trippy, eye-popping anime fun about a virtual world universe colliding with real-world teen romance. Animator Mamoru Hosoda combines Miyazaki-like elegance with pop art, psychelia and the cartoonish whimsy of Takashi Murakami. Cool. 1 hr. 54 PG (profanity, cartoon mayhem, adult themes) - Steven Rea
TANGLED 3 stars. A fractured fairy tale in the spirit of "Enchanted," "Tangled" is a boy-friendly version of "Rapunzel," more of a hair-raising adventure than a yearning romance. 1 he. 32 PG (mild violence) - Carrie Rickey
THE TEMPEST 2 stars. There is little magic to Julie Taymor's flatfooted rendition of Shakespeare's late-career play about the sorcerer, Prospero, stranded on a remote island. Taymor has reimagined him as Prospera and cast Helen Mirren,quite fine, but as beached as the character she plays. With Djimon Hounsou, Alfred Molina, Russell Brand and Ben Whishaw. 1 hr. 50 PG-13 (nudity, some scary imagery) - Carrie Rickey
TINY FURNITURE 3 1/2 stars.Writer/director/star Lena Dunham's fiercely witty, self-lacerating study of a college grad's aimless return to the family nest (in artsy downtown New York). Bad sex and identity crises ensue. A tiny indie with big, bold ideas - and a big prize from the South By Southwest Film Festival. 1 hr. 38 No MPAA rating (sex, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea
THE TOURIST 2 stars. Alarmingly charmless, pace-challenged stab at Cary Grant-Grace Kelly international intrigue and romance, with Johnny Depp (as a clueless decoy) and Angelina Jolie (as a sophisticated Brit). Notable for nice shots of Venice and for the total absence of movie star heat that movie stars are paid to radiate. 1 hr. 44 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - Steven Rea
TRON: LEGACY 2 stars. With its Zen jargon, martial-arts moves and neon glow, the sequel to the 1982 cult picture that explored the inner life of videogames demonstrates that you can teach an old dog new Matrix. But for the hipster ravings of Jeff Bridges the sequel would otherwise be merely a gaudy Nintendo prototype. 2 hrs. 06 PG (lots of flashing lights and loud noise) - Carrie.Rickey
TRUE GRIT 3 1/2 stars. The Coen Brothers adapt Charles Portis' novel about a plucky girl who hires a bounty hunter to collect her father's killer, and rides on the hunt herself, determined to see things right. With Jeff Bridges as the one-eyed, boozy gunslinger Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon as a comically fussy Texas Ranger, Josh Brolin as the villain and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as the impossibly composed and gumptious 14-year-old heroine. 1 hr. 5- PG-13 (violence, cqcussing, adult themes) - Steven Rea
UNKNOWN 3 stars. Liam Neeson is the victim of an elaborate identity theft scheme in this tricky thriller, set in a gray, wintry Berlin and co-starring January Jones, Diane Kruger, Aidan Quinn, Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella. Lots of Hitchcockian huggermugger, fights and chases, and the ending isn't as satisfying as it could be, but still lots to recommend. PG-13 (violence, action, adult themes) - Steven Rea
WASTE LAND 3 1/2 stars. Lucy Walker's Oscar-nominated documentary offers an inspiring, insightful look at a world-renowned artist, Vik Muniz, and his years-long collaborative portrait project with garbage pickers in a Rio de Janeiro landfill. 1 hr. 38 No MPAA rating (adult themes) - Steven Rea
THE WAY BACK 3 stars. Peter Weir's World War II-era survivalist saga of gulag prisoners who escape from Siberia and embark on a 4,000-mile trek south to Mongolia and across the Gobi Desert, up to the Himalayas to find sanctuary in Tibet and India. 2 hrs. 13 R (intense images of survivalists in extreme situations, suitable for strong-stomached viewers over age 12) - Carrie Rickey
WHITE MATERIAL 4 stars. Isabelle Huppert owns the character of a steel-willed French African in filmmaker Claire Denis' study of a woman trying to hold her plantation business and her family together in the throes of violence and political upheaval. A mournful, frightening, beautiful film. 1 hr. 45 No MPAA rating (violence, nudity, adult themes) - Steven Rea
WILD TARGET 2 1/2 stars. A throwback to an earlier era of comedy, when silliness needed no subtext and soundtracks tooted whimsically, this screwball hitman-on-the-run thriller is worth seeing (1) for Bill Nighy doing his drop-dead deadpan, (2) for Emily Blunt being, well, Emily Blunt and (3) to see what Ron Weasley is up to when he's not running around with that sorcerer pal. Yes, "HP's" Rupert Grint, sporting a scruffy beard and cigarettes, also stars. 1 hr. 28 PG-13(cartoon mayhem, sex, adult themes) - Steven Rea
RATINGS:
4 stars: Excellent; 3 stars: Good; 2 stars: Fair; 1 star: Poor
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