Short Takes

Special screenings

Citizen Kane

Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead. Directed by Orson Welles. 119 minutes. Rated PG.

A reporter delves into the sordid life of a newspaper tycoon following his death. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 507-3400. 1/8, 1 pm, free.

Come Early Morning

Ashley Judd, Laura Prepon, Scott Wilson, Jeffrey Donovan. Directed by Joey Lauren Adams. 97 minutes. Rated R.

In small-town Arkansas, a woman in her 30s looks for love and direction in her life. Presented by Las Vegas Weekly film critic Josh Bell. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 507-3400. 1/8, 7 pm, free.

Hansel and Gretel

155 minutes. Not rated.

Encore broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera Company’s performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera based on the classic fairy tale. Cinemark Orleans, Santa Fe Station, Sam’s Town. 1/6, noon, $15-$22. Info: www.fathomevents.com.

Happy Here and Now

Liane Balaban, Ally Sheedy, Karl Geary. Directed by Michael Almereyda. 89 minutes. Rated R.

The mysterious disappearance of her sister propels Amelia (Balaban) into New Orleans. She goes to the home of her distracted Aunt Lois (Sheedy), where, with the help of a retired private eye, she discovers a link to her missing sister through a computer that contains traces of an online correspondence between her sister and an elusive, philosophical cyberspace cowboy. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 507-3400. 1/3, 7 pm, free.

IMAX Theatre

Deep Sea 3D, Mystery of the Nile, Dinosaurs 3D: Giants of Patagonia, Lions 3D: Roar of the Kalahari, Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure

Call for showtimes. $11.99 each show.

Luxor, 3900 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 262-4629.

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.

New this week

One Missed Call (Not reviewed)

Edward Burns, Shannyn Sossamon, Ana Claudia Talancon. Directed by Eric Valette. 87 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Several people start receiving voice-mails from their future selves—messages which include the date, time and some of the details of their deaths.

Revolver * 1/2

Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Andre Benjamin, Vincent Pastore. Directed by Guy Ritchie. 106 minutes. Rated R.

Now playing

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (Not reviewed)

John Ortiz, Steven Pasquale, Johnny Lewis. Directed by Colin Strause and Greg Strause. 86 minutes. Rated R.

Warring creatures from space descend on a small town, where unsuspecting residents must band together for any chance of survival.

Alvin and the Chipmunks (Not reviewed)

Jason Lee, voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney. Directed by Tim Hill. 91 minutes. Rated PG.

Three chipmunk brothers are adopted by a man named Dave (Lee) and turned into singing sensations.

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

Atonement ***

Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai. Directed by Joe Wright. 122 minutes. Rated R.

Atonement is best in its first third or so, which focuses on a tense day at the English country estate of the Tallis family on the eve of the Second World War. Precocious and self-important 13-year-old budding writer Briony (Ronan) witnesses a series of incidents between her older sister Cecilia (Knightley) and Robbie Turner (McAvoy), the son of the family’s housekeeper. Misinterpreting the pair’s budding love as something more sinister, Briony, through a series of tragic coincidences, ends up condemning Robbie to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. When the film switches perspectives and time frames to focus on Robbie, now a soldier in the war a few years later, it’s less effective. Filmmaking skill aside, Wright never quite connects the emotion of the story to his awe-inspiring presentation of it, and that leaves the film beautiful but always just out of reach. –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

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.

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

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

Charlie Wilson’s War *** 1/2

Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Julia Roberts. Directed by Mike Nichols. 97 minutes. Rated R.

Hanks puts his enormous charm to use as the seemingly oblivious politician who latched onto the conflict between the Russians and the Afghans in the 1980s and made it into his personal crusade, increasing funding for covert operations and, as the movie would have it, becoming almost single-handedly responsible for repelling the Russians from Afghanistan. This, apparently, is what has been missing from all of this year’s movies about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East: humor. It seems like a simple thing, but the reason that Charlie Wilson’s War is just about the only one of these films worth seeing is that it actually cares about entertaining its audience, about giving them something to laugh at and have fun with before hitting them over the head with how bad things are. –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

Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig. Directed by Chris Weitz. 114 minutes. Rated PG-13.

The orphaned Lyra (Richards) lives at tweedy Jordan College in alternate-world Oxford, England, occasionally visited by her distant uncle Lord Asriel (Craig), an explorer investigating a mystical substance called Dust. Lyra is quickly whisked away from Jordan by the charming Mrs. Coulter (Kidman) to work as her ostensible apprentice for a pending voyage to the frozen northern land of Svalbard. It isn’t long, though, before Lyra discovers that Mrs. Coulter is at the head of a conspiracy to kidnap children and do something nasty to them. It’s all a little much, and Weitz rushes through it like it’s a race, turning in a film much shorter than your typical fantasy epic, but also much less satisfying. –JB

The Great Debaters **

Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Nate Parker. Directed by Denzel Washington. 123 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Washington plays teacher Mel Tolson in the inspired-by-real-events story of a 1935 college debate team struggling to fight through racism in the Deep South in order to tackle the Ivy League. As both director and star, Washington walks us through the inspirational-teacher playbook. This is the kind of movie where all white characters are either corrupt lawmen or gun-toting, redneck pig farmers. There are good points to be made with this story, but as any good debater knows, constantly resorting to hyperbole only undermines your argument. –MSH

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 Am Legend **

Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan. Directed by Francis Lawrence. 100 minutes. Rated PG-13.

A few years after an “elegant” man-made virus has wiped out most of the world’s human population, Robert Neville (Smith), a military microbiologist stationed in Manhattan and the city’s last healthy biped inhabitant, scavenges the island for supplies in the company of his German shepherd. Battling loneliness, he also conducts experiments to reverse the effects of the disease on “dark-seekers”—physically ravaged, vampire-like victims of the disease who huddle in cavernous hovels during the day and feed by night. The introduction of a pair of healthy, itinerant survivors (Braga and Tahan) midway through is the final straw, and from there the movie lumbers toward a hasty, predictable conclusion that even manages to mangle the meaning of Matheson’s lovely title. –MH

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

Juno *** 1/2

Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner. Directed by Jason Reitman. 92 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Pregnant high-school student Juno (Page) is a sullen indie-rock chick who sleeps with her best friend/bandmate Bleeker (Cera) because she’s “bored,” listens exclusively to punk rock made before she was born and peppers her speech with self-consciously artificial language that proves how much smarter she is than just about everyone she interacts with. Reitman continues to show his aptitude for sharp comedy in the face of situations that most people would find appalling, and he brings the at-times overly mannered screenplay to life in a visually inventive way, downplaying the preciousness that could make it come off like a riot-grrrl version of a Wes Anderson movie. –JB

Khalid Abdalla, Zekeria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, Homayoun Ershadi. Directed by Marc Forster. 122 minutes. Rated PG-13.

At the heart of the movie are the natural and moving performances of the two boys, Ebrahimi as Amir and Mahmidzada as the sad but loyal servant Hassan. Although from different social classes, they are inseparable, enjoying dubbed American Westerns at the theater and flying kites in the streets of Kabul. These early sequences provide a vibrant portrait of the culture of late-’70s Afghanistan, until Hassan chases a fallen kite down the wrong alleyway one day. Soon after, the Soviets invade. Forster’s direction is sincere but still manipulative, as the picture’s structure is mostly an alternating series of inspirations and catastrophes. –BS

Margot at the Wedding ****

Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, Zane Pais. Directed by Noah Baumbach. 91 minutes. Rated R.

Kidman plays the title character, a brittle, easily offended Manhattan fiction writer who grudgingly arrives to attend the marriage of her estranged sister Pauline (Leigh) to goofy slacker Malcolm (Black). Along for the ride is Margot’s androgynous teen son, Claude (Pais), whom she alternately smothers and chastises. Baumbach seems to be getting to a purer form of misanthropic comedy with each film, and here he wrings humor from domestic abuse, rape, sex with minors and parental neglect. As uncomfortable an experience as the film often is, it’s never less than fascinating, and shows how easily seemingly harmless jabs and white lies can mount up into a lifetime of barely concealed bitterness. –JB

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

Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger. Directed by Jon Turteltaub. 124 minutes. Rated PG.

Treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) looks to discover the truth behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by uncovering the mystery within the 18 pages missing from assassin John Wilkes Booth’s diary.

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

The Perfect Holiday (Not reviewed)

Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Queen Latifah. Directed by Lance Rivera. 96 minutes. Rated PG.

Too busy to think about herself, Nancy (Union), a divorced mother of three, has been single so long she’s forgotten what it’s like to have romance in her life. Unbeknownst to her, the man of Nancy’s dreams is waiting in the mall disguised in a fake white beard and dressed in a jolly red suit.

P.S. I Love You (Not reviewed)

Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow. Directed by Richard LaGravenese. 126 minutes. Rated PG-13.

A young widow discovers that her late husband has left her 10 messages intended to help her ease her pain and start a new life.

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.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street *** 1/2

Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman. Directed by Tim Burton. 117 minutes. Rated R.

Demented barber slits the throats of his customers, who are then ground up and baked into meat pies by his equally amoral accomplice, Mrs. Lovett. Sweeney Todd is the alias of a man named Benjamin Barker, who was falsely imprisoned by a corrupt judge with designs on Barker’s lovely wife. Freed from prison some 15 years later, Barker/Todd returns to London seeking revenge, only to be informed by Mrs. Lovett, whose mingy bakery is just downstairs from his former home, that his wife is long dead and his daughter is now the judge’s ward. The film veers back and forth between intimacy and extravagance, and the juxtaposition of Sondheim’s lyrical melodies and intricate wordplay with Burton’s great geysers of arterial blood—this is decidedly not a film for the squeamish—produces a delectable cognitive dissonance. –MD

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.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story *** 1/2

John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows. Directed by Jake Kasdan. 91 minutes. Rated R.

Walk Hard runs through every tired showbiz biopic plot point with a shiny new skewer. In the biopic, every major event in the artist’s life is treated as an epiphany, as if he could sense the importance of this moment of origin. Walk Hard underlines and exaggerates these moments; it’s especially daring given that, since we’ve never actually heard of the country-rock singer Dewey Cox, these moments work. The many celebrity “cameos” use the same kind of logic to hilarious effect. The movie never misses a note; it ridicules age makeup and all the typical rock-history stuff. The movie is cunning enough to step back just enough to remain funny, and though it won’t hold up to multiple viewings, it happily stabs at a sacred cow that has needed stabbing for years. –JMA

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (Not reviewed)

Alex Etel, Ben Chaplin, Emily Watson. Directed by Jay Russell. 111 minutes. Rated PG.

A lonely boy discovers a mysterious egg that hatches a sea creature of Scottish legend.

JMA Jeffrey M. Anderson; JB Josh Bell; MD Mike D’Angelo; MH Mark Holcomb; MSH Matthew Scott Hunter; BS Benjamin Spacek