SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Blame it n Fidel!
Nina Kervel-Bey, Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi. Directed by Julie Gavras. 99 minutes. Not rated. In French with English subtitles.
A 9-year-old girl weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970s Paris. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 507-3400. 12/4, 7 pm, free.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Voices of Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, Tracy Stratford. Directed by Bill Melendez. 25 minutes. Rated G.
Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas. The District at Green Valley Ranch, 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway, Henderson, 564-8595. 11/30, 7 pm, free.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
John Cameron Mitchell, Michael Pitt, Miriam Shor. Directed by John Cameron Mitchell. 95 minutes. Rated R.
A transsexual punk rocker from East Berlin tours the U.S. with her band as she tells her life story and follows the ex-boyfriend/bandmate who stole her songs. Film and live cast performance. Tropicana Cinemas, 3330 E. Tropicana Ave., 243-7469. Second & fourth Sat of month, 9:30 pm, $10. Info: www.rhpsvegas.com.
The Holiday
Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Jude Law. Directed by Nancy Meyers. 138 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Two women with romantic problems swap homes, and they each fall in love with a local guy. The District at Green Valley Ranch, 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway, Henderson, 564-8595. 12/1, 7 pm, free.
IMAX Theatre
Deep Sea 3D, Fighter Pilot, Mystery of the Nile, Dinosaurs 3D: Giants of Patagonia, Lions 3D: Roar of the Kalahari
Call for showtimes. $11.99 each show.
Luxor, 3900 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 262-4629.
Mildred Pierce
Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott. Directed by Michael Curtiz. 111 minutes. Not rated.
After her cheating husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce (Crawford) proves she can become independent and successful, but can’t win the approval of her spoiled daughter. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 507-3400. 12/4, 1 pm, free.
My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas
Voices of Kathleen Barr, Adrienne Carter, Janyse Jaud. Directed by Victor Dal Chele. 44 minutes. Rated G.
A new Christmas adventure starring the My Little Pony characters. Galaxy Cannery, 2121 E. Craig Road, 639-9779. Thru 11/30, noon, $3.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Tim Curry. Directed by Jim Sharman. 100 minutes. Rated R.
The perennial 1975 cult classic is a mix of horror, comedy and musical, featuring sex, transvestites and the Time Warp. Augmented by a live cast and audience participation. Onyx Theater inside The Rack in Commercial Center, 953 E. Sahara Ave., #101. First & third Sat of month, 11:30 pm, $7. Info: 953-0682 or www.divinedecadence.org.
The Santa Claus Brothers
Voices of Brian Cranston, Caroline Rhea, Harland Williams. Directed by Mike Fallows. 60 minutes. Rated G.
With Santa Claus set to retire, his three sons compete to see who will take over the family business. Galaxy Cannery, 2121 E. Craig Road, 639-9779. 12/1-12/31, noon, $3.
St. Olaf Christmas Festival
Live broadcast of holiday concert from St. Olaf College. Century Santa Fe Station, 4949 N. Rancho Drive, 395-0222. 12/2, 1 pm, $20. Info: www.fathomevents.com.
New this week
Awake (Not reviewed)
Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Lena Olin. Directed by Joby Harold. 78 minutes. Rated R.
A man (Christensen) suffers “anesthetic awareness” and finds himself awake and aware, but paralyzed, during heart surgery. His young wife (Alba) must wrestle with her own demons as a drama unfolds around them.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Not reviewed)
Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young. Directed by Ridley Scott. 118 minutes. Not rated.
The latest restored edit of Scott’s sci-fi classic about a cop chasing rogue androids, called replicants.
Holly ** 1/2
Ron Livingston, Thuy Nguyen, Virginie Ledoyen. Directed by Guy Moshe. 114 minutes. Rated R.
See review online.
One More Chance (Not reviewed)
John Lloyd Cruz, Bea Alonzo, Derek Ramsey. Directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina. 115 minutes. Rated PG-13.
A pair of once-inseparable lovers struggle to define the future of their relationship.
Sleuth **
Jude Law, Michael Caine. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. 86 minutes. Rated R.
See review online.
Now playing
30 Days of Night*** 1/2
Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston. Directed by David Slade. 113 minutes. Rated R.
In 30 Days of Night, the sense of helplessness, of being cut off from any aid the outside world could offer, is intensified and used to great effect, making the small town of Barrow, Alaska, feel like a terrifying prison for the movie’s main characters. That’s because they’re being stalked and killed by vampires, drawn by Barrow’s titular month of darkness. Night sometimes stretches to make its story fit to feature length, adding numerous secondary characters who serve mostly as fodder for the vampires. But director Slade effectively builds suspense throughout most of the film, giving those minor characters enough personality that you care whether they live or die. –JB
Across the Universe ***
Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson. Directed by Julie Taymor. 131 minutes. Rated PG-13.
A psychedelic take on the stage trend of the “jukebox musical,” Universe uses more than 30 Beatles songs in service of the rather bland story of young lovers Jude (Sturgess) and Lucy (Wood), set against the turmoil of the 1960s. Just as often silly as it is clever, Universe is the work of a filmmaker whose large and wonderful visions feel cramped inside a trite and forgettable little fable. –JB
American Gangster*** 1/2
Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin. Directed by Ridley Scott. 157 minutes. Rated R.
Gangster switches back and forth between 1970s Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas’ (Washington) empire-building and New Jersey narcotics cop Richie Roberts’ efforts to take him down. It’s a sweeping period epic, based on a true story, and Washington and Crowe (as Roberts) bring the requisite heft to lift the film to grand heights. Beginning with the death of Lucas’ mentor, the previous drug lord of Harlem, Scott meticulously charts the former bodyguard’s rise to prominence. With the pieces in place, Scott moves them expertly toward their inevitable collision; when Washington and Crowe finally share a scene toward the end of the film, it’s well worth the wait. –JB
August Rush**
Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Directed by Kirsten Sheridan. 114 minutes. Rated PG.
Cute musical prodigy Evan (Highmore) is a sad orphan who runs away from his seemingly innocuous group home to search for his parents. Following the music of his soul (or something like that), he heads to NYC, where he’s picked up by a Dickensian mentor/corruptor called Wizard (Williams, disturbingly pierced and soul-patched), absorbed into a photogenically diverse group of street-musician moppets and rechristened August Rush. Sheridan lacks the sense of whimsy necessary to carry off so many illogical plot developments, and the leaden script is full of empty romantic pronouncements that sound neither believable nor wondrous. –JB
Bee Movie ** 1/2
Voices of Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick. Directed by Steve Hickner and Simon J. Smith. 90 minutes. Rated PG.
Disaffected honeybee Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) is unwilling to commit himself to a regimented life of honey production and eager to experience life beyond the hive. So Barry ventures into the human world, where he breaks the bee law against communicating with people and strikes up a friendship with florist Vanessa (Zellweger). There are a few funny lines here and there, and the bee society is sometimes creative and clever. But the film is mostly a collection of tired celebrity voice cameos and stale Seinfeld riffs repackaged to relate to the bee world. –JB
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead ** 1/2
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei. Directed by Sidney Lumet. 116 minutes. Rated R.
A seemingly foolproof robbery scheme goes horribly awry for loser brothers Andy (Hoffman) and Hank (Hawke). Both hurting for money, they hatch a scheme to knock off the suburban jewelry store owned by their parents. No one gets hurt, insurance takes care of Mom and Dad, and the brothers come away with a tidy profit—right? Well, of course not, and how it all unravels is what should make the movie interesting. But veteran director Lumet structures the film in an odd temporal loop, doubling back multiple times to show various perspectives. It’s a tired tactic that consistently works against the story’s momentum. Just when Lumet starts to build some decent tension, he cuts back, losing the suspense and replacing it with a rehash of what we’ve already seen. –JB
Bella * 1/2
Eduardo Verastegui, Tammy Blanchard, Manny Perez. Directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde. 91 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Bella tells the story of Jose (Verastegui) and Nina (Blanchard), a chef and waitress at a Mexican restaurant. One day, Nina shows up late to work, so the restaurant owner, Jose’s brother, fires her. Inexplicably, Jose decides to walk out on his brother, leaving the kitchen in shambles, and spends an impromptu day with Nina in New York City. We get a handful of cute moments followed by a serious talk about family or abortion, and then the whole process repeats. The circumstances surrounding these conversations are completely random and interchangeable, and there’s rarely a sensible catalyst for why the pair go where they go or do what they do. –MSH
Beowulf ****
Voices of Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Crispin Glover. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. 113 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary have taken an ancient narrative that was as base as “monster shows up, hero kills monster, repeat,” and with a little creative license, have crafted an epic tale that functions as an ode to mythological hubris. The story now has ironies that any modern audience can appreciate and snappy one-liners worthy of any action-packed popcorn movie. The motion-capture technique has preserved all of the subtle, human nuances in the performances that might have been overlooked in a drawn-from-scratch approach, and as a result, it’s easy to forget that you’re watching a cartoon. But action is the main attraction, and Beowulf is relentlessly brutal in this regard. –MSH
The Brave One ***
Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews. Directed by Neil Jordan. 119 minutes. Rated R.
Erica Bain (Foster) is victimized as she walks, blissfully happy, through Central Park with her perfect dog and her perfect fiancé (Andrews). A gang of thugs appears at the dark end of a tunnel, steals the dog and beats both lovers senseless. Erica wakes up in the hospital, but her husband-to-be is gone. She buys a gun and begins to exact her own revenge. Lucky for her, wherever she goes, violence rears its ugly head, and she is able to use her new weapon to punish it. The highly skilled Jordan relies on two very strong performances and their interesting chemistry, as well as a feel for the big city. He presents the material with intelligence. –JMA
Control * 1/2
Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Joe Anderson. Directed by Anton Corbijn. 121 minutes. Rated R.
The line from first-time feature helmer Corbijn is that, in making his biopic about Ian Curtis, singer for miserablist icons Joy Division, his main priority was to not make a “music film.” Considering that Curtis’ short life was entirely defined by escaping into and later making music before his suicide at age 23, it’s unsurprising that the result is a folly—and an uneventful, unthoughtful one at that. Relying on a succession of uninflected, essentially static shots, Corbijn appears either ignorant of or disinterested in using cinema grammar for dramatic effect. –IG
Dan in Real Life **
Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook. Directed by Peter Hedges. 95 minutes. Rated PG-13.
That Carell is able to make newspaper advice columnist Dan Burns even somewhat likable is a testament to the actor’s charisma, since Dan engages in stupid and insensitive behavior almost from the moment that he shows up at his parents’ house for a family-reunion weekend. A widower raising three daughters on his own, Dan starts out as a fairly typical lunkheaded sitcom-style dad. He runs into Marie (Binoche), with whom he makes an immediate connection. He returns to the family home only to discover that Marie is actually the new girlfriend of his brother Mitch (Cook). None of the characters behaves in a way that even approaches believability, and for a film that is supposed to be life-affirming and heartwarming, Real Life has about as much genuine feeling as a cheap greeting card. –JB
Enchanted*** 1/2
Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden. Directed by Kevin Lima. 107 minutes. Rated PG.
Adams plays Giselle, an animated Disney girl hoping to marry a prince. The cartoon Prince Edward (Marsden) rescues Giselle, and they fall in love. But Edward’s stepmother, a bitter, evil queen, throws Giselle down a well that leads to live-action, modern New York City. Divorce lawyer and single dad Robert (Dempsey) finds her and reluctantly lets her stay on his couch. Although Enchanted doesn’t fully take advantage of its unique idea, it’s still a hugely entertaining, clever comic fairy tale. –JMA
Fred Claus **
Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, John Michael Higgins. Directed by David Dobkin. 116 minutes. Rated PG.
What if Santa Claus had a brother, and that brother was Vince Vaughn? That’s the premise behind Fred Claus, and it’s just as thin as Santa’s latex-covered hands are thick. The problem is that for all of Vaughn’s fast-paced babbling, nothing winds up being very funny. In an attempt to compensate, the film struggles to find something else to be about, but every subplot is so random and poorly thought-out, it just leaves us scratching our heads. –MSH
The Game Plan **
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Madison Pettis, Roselyn Sanchez, Kyra Sedgwick. Directed by Andy Fickman. 110 minutes. Rated PG.
Johnson (slowly phasing out his pro-wrestling nickname) gets stuck in the Disney production The Game Plan, doing his best to smile his way through the story of star football player Joe Kingman, who is suddenly saddled with a daughter he never knew he had. Everything that follows is right out of the proverbial playbook, as the two antagonize each other at first and then of course form a strong bond, while both becoming better people. Director Fickman and the three screenwriters drag this inevitability out for close to two hours, with a tiresome back-and-forth of conflicts and reconciliations. –JB
Gone Baby Gone*** 1/2
Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Ed Harris. Directed by Ben Affleck. 114 minutes. Rated R.
Longtime residents of Boston’s working-class Dorchester neighborhood, private-dick couple Patrick Kenzie (Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Monaghan) are hired to investigate the kidnapping of a 4-year-old girl, ostensibly because potential witnesses are more likely to talk to them than to the cops. The deeper they look, however, the murkier things get—and even when the case is “solved” (sooner than you expect), uneasy questions linger, as does the film’s all-enveloping sense of moral turpitude. Quietly morose rather than operatically overheated, Affleck’s film won’t likely win any major Oscars, despite featuring the single best performance I’ve seen all year. But it should earn its director something more valuable still: respect. –MD
Good Luck Chuck (Not reviewed)
Dane Cook, Jessica Alba, Dan Fogler. Directed by Mark Helfrich. 96 minutes. Rated R.
In order to keep the woman of his dreams (Alba) from falling for another guy, Charlie Logan (Cook) has to break the curse that has made him wildly popular with single women: Sleep with Charlie once, and the next man you meet will be your true love.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ***
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint. Directed by David Yates. 138 minutes. Rated PG-13.
There are at least a few significant things going on in Phoenix, which once again finds Harry (Radcliffe) at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, facing the imminent threat of Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). When you have a film series that’s seven installments long, eventually you are going to get to the placeholder chapter, and that’s where the Harry Potter series has ended up with its fifth big-screen outing. Longtime Potter fans will probably be eager to forgive Phoenix’s flaws, and even casual viewers will still find plenty to like, but the feeling of marking time, of nothing especially momentous going on in the latest incremental step toward Harry’s final showdown with evil wizard Voldemort, is fairly hard to shake. –JB
Hitman * 1/2
Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko. Directed by Xavier Gens. 100 minutes. Rated R.
Hitman is the latest in a series of movies based on video games that ignore what makes their source material unique. In the video-game series, you play the part of a chrome-domed contract killer, code-named 47. You’re assigned a target, and you have to figure out one of many clever ways to assassinate this person (and only this person). You’re actually penalized for collateral kills. That means that Olyphant, who plays 47 in the film, would really suck at Hitman. In addition to leaving far too many bodies in his wake, Olyphant is never sure whether to play 47 as stone cold or to wink at the camera. It doesn’t help that the equally confusing script has no shame in finding the most ludicrous ways to get us into an action sequence as quickly as possible. –MSH
I’m Not There**
Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw. Directed by Todd Haynes. 135 minutes. Rated R.
I’m Not There is Haynes’ exegesis of the many personae of Bob Dylan. No matter how well-worn your copies of Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks, odds are good that you’ll emerge from its welter of references and allusions utterly befuddled. Six different actors play Dylan, each one representing a different period of his life and a unique facet of his mercurial public image. I’m Not There, with its panoply of surface affectations and its deliberate structuring absence, is more of a great idea for a movie than a great movie per se. Rabid Dylanistas may appreciate it somewhat more than the great unwashed, but even those who recognize every stray reference will likely experience the film as little more than a vaguely playful blur. –MD
Into the Wild*** 1/2
Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt. Directed by Sean Penn. 147 minutes. Rated R.
Christopher McCandless was a young Emory grad who donated his life savings to Oxfam International, broke off all contact with his family and spent two years as a wandering nomad, eventually starving to death alone in an abandoned bus outside Alaska’s Denali National Park. Penn opens Into the Wild with Chris’ trek into the Alaskan wilderness, and after a quick flashback to his college graduation, the film alternates between his final, fatal weeks in Alaska and the various pit stops he made during the nearly two years it took him to get there. However insufferable one may find Chris’ general attitude, it’s impossible not to be charmed by the open, welcoming relationships he forms with practically everyone he encounters. The film isn’t so much a character study as it is a genial portrait of self-marginalized America as seen through the eyes of its newest and most eager member. –MD
Lions for Lambs **
Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Michael Pena, Derek Luke. Directed by Robert Redford. 88 minutes. Rated R.
The film switches among three intersecting stories, two of which involve little more than people sitting in a room and debating issues. A world-weary reporter (Streep) interviews an ambitious young senator (Cruise) about a new military strategy in Afghanistan, while an equally world-weary college political-science professor (Redford) debates a jaded student who refuses to engage with class material. Meanwhile, a pair of soldiers (Pena, Luke) are shot down and stranded on a mountain in Afghanistan. All the good intentions in the world can’t make up for Lions’ complete failure as drama, or its wooden, statistics-laden dialogue that comes off more like dueling position papers than actual human beings having a conversation. –JB
Love in the Time of Cholera**
Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt, Giovanna Mezzogiorno. Directed by Mike Newell. 138 minutes. Rated R.
Bardem plays Florentino Ariza, the slightly awkward but practical young man who falls for Fermina Daza (Mezzogiorno) and waits for her for over half a century. During that time, he watches his fortunes grow and becomes a lover extraordinaire. The story takes place over 50 years, which in a novel is no problem. But in a movie it requires layers of age makeup, a process that, as movie technology gets better and better, seems to get worse and worse. And, on an emotional level, stories that cover that kind of immense time span tend to leave out the most innocuous but telling and truthful moments in favor of great plot lurches and story highlights. –JMA
Lust, Caution*** 1/2
Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen. Directed by Ang Lee. 157 minutes. Rated NC-17. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
Stealth and sneakiness happen to be the watchwords of Wang Jiazhi (Tang), who, when we first meet her, in Japanese-occupied Shanghai circa the waning years of WWII, appears to be the indolent, glamorous young wife of a prosperous businessman. In the extended flashback that makes up most of the movie, however, we discover that Wang is actually a fiercely patriotic former drama student who’s volunteered to seduce high-ranking collaborator Mr. Yee (Leung), who’s reputed to be in charge of interrogations that double as murders. If you can adjust your expectations a bit, and look at Lust, Caution as the Asian equivalent of a first-rate Merchant-Ivory picture—literate, resolutely old-fashioned, maybe a tad stodgy—you’ll find that its emotional power sneaks stealthily up on you. –MD
Martian Child ***
John Cusack, Bobby Coleman, Amanda Peet. Directed by Menno Meyjes. 108 minutes. Rated PG.
Cusack’s David Gordon is a successful science-fiction writer and widower who decides to take the plunge and adopt a precocious young boy named Dennis (Coleman). As it turns out, the kid claims to be from Mars, which may help explain some of his eccentricities. At heart, though, this is a father-son story. Cusack retains the rare ability to earn an audience’s sympathy without reaching for it. Meanwhile, Coleman gives such a transparent performance as the damaged Dennis that his wild claims and earnest sentiments come off with equal conviction. If you can’t feel affection for these two, you’re not from this planet. –BS
Michael Clayton*** 1/2
George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton. Directed by Tony Gilroy. 119 minutes. Rated R.
Michael Clayton (Clooney) works at a high-powered Manhattan law firm where he is the in-house “fixer,” the man who makes nasty problems go away. The film finds Clayton trying to clean up the mess caused by his friend and mentor, Arthur Edens (Wilkinson), after Edens suffers a nervous breakdown in the middle of a deposition for a multibillion-dollar lawsuit. The movie proceeds so smoothly and efficiently that at times it seems almost mechanical, and the sequences that fill in Clayton’s back story feel a bit incomplete. But Clooney fills in the emotional blanks with his alternately steely and haggard performance, making Clayton more than just a piece in a puzzle. – JB
The Mist *** 1/2
Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden. Directed by Frank Darabont. 127 minutes. Rated R.
After a particularly bad storm in a small New England town, a mysterious mist rolls in, trapping a group of ordinary folks in a grocery store. The mist is pervasive and dangerous, full as it appears to be of malicious insect-like creatures. Hero David Drayton (Jane) tries to rally the townspeople and come up with a plan of survival, while doomsaying religious nutbag Mrs. Carmody (Harden) preaches that the end of days has arrived, and calls for human sacrifice. The film’s commentary on religious fundamentalism is sloppy, but its ability to build tension is much more effective, with Darabont making good use of the mist to show only the most disturbing bits of the creatures outside. – JB
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (Not reviewed)
Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Jason Bateman. Directed by Zach Helm. 93 minutes. Rated G.
Molly Mahoney (Portman) is the awkward and insecure manager of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, the strangest, most fantastic toy store in the world. But when Mr. Magorium (Hoffman) bequeaths the store to her, a dark and ominous change begins to take over the Emporium.
My Kid Could Paint That **** 1/2
Directed by Amir Bar-Lev. 83 minutes. Rated PG-13.
The story of Marla Olmstead, an acclaimed painter whose big, smeary canvases began selling for upwards of five figures when she was only 4 years old, raises much bigger and more troubling questions than the one most likely envisioned by director Bar-Lev. From one paltry case of potential fraud, My Kid Could Paint That fashions a disturbing cultural diagnosis. And this hunger for a compelling story, damn the cost, ultimately permeates the film itself, as Bar-Lev finds himself torn between his genuine affection for the Olmstead family, who welcomed him into their home, and his desire to make a kickass movie that would betray their trust. –MD
No Country for Old Men ****
Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones. Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. 122 minutes. Rated R.
While hunting in the West Texas mountains, Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), a hard-luck but humane Vietnam War vet, stumbles across a botched heavyweight drug deal and impulsively makes off with a $2 million cache of very dirty money. When a delayed bout of guilt inadvertently tips off his identity to the thugs involved, Moss becomes the quarry of ultraefficient psychopathic hit man Anton Chigurh (Bardem) and kind-hearted but demoralized small-town sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Jones). In a return to the bleak physical setting and hair-trigger brutality of 1984’s Blood Simple, the brothers Coen pull out of their multi-film slump and then some with this violent, pitch-black adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 chase thriller. –MH
Saw IV (Not reviewed)
Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Lyriq Bent. Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. 108 minutes. Rated R.
Sadistic killer Jigsaw subjects more people to elaborate torture devices.
This Christmas (Not reviewed)
Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, Chris Brown. Directed by Preston A. Whitmore II. 117 minutes. Rated PG-13.
This year, Christmas with the Whitfields promises to be one they will never forget. All the siblings have come home for the first time in years, and they’ve brought plenty of baggage with them. As the tree is trimmed and the lights are hung, secrets are revealed and family bonds are tested.
Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? (Not reviewed)
Tyler Perry, Janet Jackson, Jill Scott, Sharon Leal. Directed by Tyler Perry. 118 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Eight married friends take their annual reunion vacation in the Colorado mountains. Revelations of infidelity involving one pair shatter the mood, forcing the remaining friends to take a hard look at the strength of their own marriages.
We Own the Night ***
Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Duvall. Directed by James Gray. 117 minutes. Rated R.
Night stars Wahlberg and Phoenix as brothers on opposite sides of the law: Wahlberg’s stolid, forthright Joe has followed their hardass police-chief father (Duvall) into blue, while Phoenix’s laid-back, fun-loving Bobby runs a Brooklyn nightclub that’s become the hot spot for scary Russian mobsters. When Joe is gunned down by one of them, Bobby reluctantly agrees to go undercover. Not a bad idea, except that Gray has an unfortunate tendency to spell everything out in clunky capital letters. The film’s dialogue is almost painfully literal, stating ideas and themes as starkly as a Cliff’s Notes chapter summary. And while Phoenix and Wahlberg can be superb actors, they’re both superb in a modern, anti-iconic way that works against the grain of Gray’s conception. –MD
JMA Jeffrey M. Anderson; JB Josh Bell; MD Mike D’Angelo; IG Ian Grey; MH Mark Holcomb; MSH Matthew Scott Hunter; BS Benjamin Spacek