MOVIES

OPENING THIS WEEK

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME

Read Carol Cling's review.

SEX AND THE CITY 2

Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and BFFs Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristen Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) trade the sidewalks of New York for the sands of Abu Dhabi on an all-expenses-paid luxury jaunt -- but the sudden appearance of Carrie's former flame Aidan (John Corbett) complicates matters for the current Mrs. Big, whose Mr. (Chris Noth) is back home in Manhattan. At multiple locations. (146 min.) R; strong sexual content, profanity.

ALREADY IN THEATERS

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.

AMANDA

(not reviewed) In this romantic comedy, 40-year-old bachelor Joe, convinced true love has passed him by, meets the title character -- and it's love at first sight, much to the dismay of Joe's quirky but loving parents. Randy Ryan ("Public Enemies") and Ariana Dubynin ("The List") lead the cast. (85 min.) NR; recommended for audiences 17 and over.

AMERICAN SUNSET

(not reviewed) The late Corey Haim's final completed project, this thriller casts him as a desperate husband who must find clues, and solve riddles, to free his missing wife (Angela Cullins) from a diabolical captor. Frank Molina co-stars. (93 min.) NR; recommended for audiences 13 and over.

BABIES

(B) Little people, big personalities: French filmmaker Thomas Balmes takes a documentary look at a year in the life, from birth to first baby steps, of four impossibly cute infants -- Ponijao (from Namibia), Bayar (from Mongolia), Mari (from Tokyo) and Hattie (from San Francisco) -- and reveals how much we have in common, despite different families, cultures and countries. If you're not into infants, you're unlikely to like "Babies." Otherwise, you'll be moved nearly to tears by this artful, intimate film's beautiful universality. (79 min.) PG; cultural and maternal nudity throughout.

THE BACK-UP PLAN

(C) A New York pet store owner (Jennifer Lopez) undergoes artificial insemination and immediately meets Mr. Right (Alex O'Loughlin), creating allegedly comic complications for the fated-to-be-mated couple in yet another disposable contrivance that tests our tolerance -- and our patience . Unless you're a fan of movies where you can predict the plot moves before they happen and recite the dialogue along with the actors, better find a back-up plan. (104 min.) PG-13; sexual content, crude references, profanity. (C.C.)

CITY ISLAND

(B) Everybody's got a secret in this beguiling indie, a slice-of-ethnic-life comedy set in the title Bronx fishing enclave, where a prison guard (a terrific Andy Garcia) with acting aspirations disrupts his already dysfunctional family even further after he brings home a young ex-con ("10,000 BC's" Steven Strait). Julianna Margulies, Alan Arkin, Emily Mortimer, Ezra Miller and Dominik Garcia-Lorido (Andy's daughter) round out the all-aces cast; writer-director Raymond De Felitta ("Two Family House") balances quirky comedy and rueful human truths with heartfelt and infectious charm. (100 min.) PG-13; sexual content, smoking, profanity. (C.C.)

CLASH OF THE TITANS

(C) "Avatar's" hunky, charisma-free Sam Worthington returns in a high-tech revamp of the campy 1981 extravaganza, as Perseus, the human son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), tries to prevent nasty Hades (Ralph Fiennes, having a blast) and his underworld underlings from spreading evil to the heavens -- and Earth. Decent but forgettable digital effects, combined with and a disappointing 3-D conversion, make for a long, joyless slog. (118 min.) PG-13; fantasy action violence, frightening images, brief sensuality.

DATE NIGHT

(B-) On the town: When hapless New Jersey suburbanites (Steve Carell, Tina Fey) venture into Manhattan for a night out, they steal another couple's reservation at an uber-trendy restaurant and find themselves plunged into intrigue and running for their lives. This comic thriller can't quite decide whether it wants to be slapstick or satire when it grows up, but Carell and Fey's terrific chemistry (along with Mark Wahlberg's deadpan self-spoofery as a perpetually shirtless security expert) keep the chuckles coming. (88 min.) PG-13; sexual content, profanity, drug references, violence. (C.C.)

DEATH AT A FUNERAL

(B) Second life: Director Neil LaBute ("In the Company of Men") and an all-star cast (led by Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan and Danny Glover) breathe new life into the 2007 British farce about an extended family coming together for a funeral marred by elaborate hijinks. The key figure connecting both movies is Peter Dinklage, reprising his role as a diminutive mystery guest who shows up with a big secret; his return is a prime reason why "Death at a Funeral" surprisingly deserves resurrection. (92 min.) R; profanity, drug content, sexual humor.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

(B-) Get in touch with your inner wimp -- and surrender to the impish charm of this adaptation of Jeff Kinney's illustrated novel, about the misadventures of a middle-school misfit (irresistible smarty-pants Zachary Gordon) trying to survive a daunting rite of passage: sixth grade. This inventive comedy integrates Kinney's witty drawings with live-action antics, presenting some painful -- and painfully funny -- life lessons in a movie that's endearing child's play for kids of all ages. (120 min.) PG; rude humor, profanity. (C.C.)

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

(B+) Before Hollywood gets its hands on Stieg Larsson's international best-seller, here's the killer Swedish original (with English subtitles): a gripping thriller about a haunted goth computer hacker (the ferocious Noomi Rapace) who helps an investigative journalist (world-weary Michael Nykvist) solve a 40-year-old mystery. Even with subtitles, what happens is gut-punchingly clear: not pretty, but undeniably compelling. (152 min.) NR; violence and gruesome images, sexual situations, nudity, profanity. (C.C.)

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE

(C) Crazy '80s: Three middle-aged buddies (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson) who've had it with adulthood discover their own personal wayback machine when a ski resort hot tub transports them back to 1986 heyday, enabling them to settle old scores and mess with the timeline for personal profit. Alas, this dude-where's-my-youth adventure is not so excellent; fitfully amusing, it's mostly as lazy, self-involved and garish as the chintzy '80s themselves. (100 min.) R; strong crude and sexual content, nudity, drug use, pervasive profanity.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

(B) Up and away: In this sometimes exhilarating animated romp (especially in 3-D), a scrawny Viking teen wounds, then befriends a dragon he dubs Toothless, discovering that Toothless and his fellow flying terrors aren't so terrifying after all. "She's Out of My League's" Jay Baruchel (Hollywood's nerd du jour) and "Bounty Hunter's" brawny Gerard Butler lead the vocal cast of an adventure that truly soars when human and dragon take to the skies. (98 min.) PG; sequences of intense action and some scary images, brief mild language. (C.C.)

IRON MAN 2

(C+) Billionaire superhero Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) resists sharing his secrets with the military, forging new alliances -- and confronting new enemies, from renegade Russian Ivan Vanko (gleefully rabid Mickey Rourke) to rival munitions maven Justin Hammer (a spectacularly smarmy Sam Rockwell). It's always a kick watching Robert Downey Jr., but this sequel to the 2008 smash isn't nearly as entertaining as its quirky, irresistibly smirky star. It assumes that more is better, but sometimes more turns out to be a bit of a bore. (124 min.) PG-13; intense sci-fi action and violence, profanity. (C.C.)

JUST WRIGHT

(D+) No slam dunk: A physical therapist (a bland Queen Latifah) falls for the NBA superstar (hip-hop star Common) she's helping recover from a career-threatening injury in an overly familiar "Cinderella" variation overflowing with clichés, contrivances and stock characters. More's the pity, because this cast (Paula Patton, Pam Grier and Phylicia Rashad co-star) and director Sanaa Hamri ("Something New") deserve better. So do we. (111 min.) PG; suggestive material, brief profanity.

KICK-ASS

(B+) Kick in the pants: A geeky teen (Aaron Johnson) reinvents himself as a superhero -- despite his total lack of superpowers -- in a seriously, nastily violent adaptation of Mark Millar's comic book series, which is utterly stolen by Chloe Grace Moretz ("500 Days of Summer") as the masked, purple-wigged 11-year-old vigilante Hit Girl. She embodies the movie's satirical attitude toward the excesses of superhero flicks -- and the very real consequences of Hollywood's slavish devotion to cartoon action. (117 min.) R; strong brutal violence, pervasive profanity, sexual content, nudity and some drug use -- some involving children.

KITES

(B) This lovers-on-the-lam blast of pure pulp escapism (which filmed in Southern Nevada in 2008) harnesses English, Hindi and Hispanic talent to an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink plot following the fortunes of a pair of star-crossed lovers, one of whom (Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan) is a Vegas scam artist fighting for his life. Mexico's Barbara Mori plays his dancer soulmate; Bollywood bombshell Kangana Ranaut co-stars for director Anurag Basu, who keeps "Kites" caroming from car chase to shootout, from rain dancing to bank robbing, with unflagging energy. In English, Hindi and Spanish, with English subtitles. (130 min.) NR.

THE LAST SONG

(C) Heard the one about two photogenic kids who meet cute and fall madly in love, only to find that tragedy trumps hormones? No, it's not "Dear John" -- it's the latest from "Dear John" author Nicholas Sparks, about a rebellious teen (Miley Cyrus) stuck in a Southern beach town to reconnect with her estranged father (a too-good-for-this-movie Greg Kinnear). Cyrus, now 17, has undeniable presence -- but she needs an acting coach. Then again, not even Meryl Streep could save Sparks' latest tub o' mush. (107 min.) PG; thematic material, some violence, sensuality, mild profanity.

LETTERS TO JULIET

(C) Return to sender: In Verona, Italy, an American tourist ("Dear John's" Amanda Seyfried) finds a 50-year-old letter -- and writes a reply to the once-lovelorn correspondent (Vanessa Redgrave), who arrives, accompanied by her skeptical grandson (Christopher Egan), to search for her long-lost flame (Redgrave's real-life husband, Franco Nero). The scenery's lovely, and so is Redgrave's graceful presence, but everything else is so gooey and predictable it can't help but turn the movie's potential charm into undeniable smarm. (105 min.) PG; brief rude behavior, profanity, incidental smoking. (C.C.)

THE LOSERS

(D+) The title's definitely an accurate description of this action loser about members of a CIA black-ops squad, betrayed and left for dead during a search-and-destroy mission in the Bolivian jungle, who go after the turncoat who targeted them. Deadly only in its dullness, this is all noise, no substance, stranding such appealing performers as Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans, whose comedy flair briefly spices up the movie's vast smorgasboard of nothingness. (98 min.) PG-13; intense action and violence, sexual references, profanity.

MACGRUBER

(C+) It's "Saturday Night Live" at the movies once again with a feature version of the recurring skit about the gadget-happy, disaster-prone title agent (Will Forte), who's called back to duty when his longtime nemesis (Val Kilmer) threatens Washington, D.C., with a stolen nuke. Fellow "SNL"-ers Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph join Ryan Phillippe and Powers Boothe for a comedic romp that rarely rises above the potty-joke level. But at least Forte and Co. make lewd 'n' crude dunderheadedness laugh-out-loud funny in fits and starts -- which is more than you can say for some "SNL" movies. (99 min.) R; strong crude and sexual content, violence, profanity, nudity.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

(C) Play it again, Freddy: In a needless do-over of the long-running horror fave, teens on the title street (Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy and Rooney Mara among them) keep having the same killer nightmare -- featuring razor-fingered fiend Freddy Krueger ("Shutter Island's" Jackie Earle Haley, who inherits the role created by Robert Englund). Haley's somebody who can really act -- and be deeply creepy, as evidenced by his Oscar-nominated "Little Children" performance, but here he's smothered by the special-effects makeup, the distorted voice and the cheesy puns. And while a shred of Wes Craven's original concept remains intact, the novelty has long since worn off; what's left is cheap, generic scares. (97 min.) R; strong bloody horror violence, disturbing images, terror, profanity.

OUR FAMILY WEDDING

(C) Feuding fathers (Carlos Mencia, Forest Whitaker) reluctantly come together when their children ("Ugly Betty's" America Ferrera, Bonanza High School graduate Lance Gross) become engaged in this culture-clash comedy featuring Taye Diggs, Diana-Maria Riva and Regina King. Despite the inherent cheesiness of the wedding genre -- and the equally checkered history of stridently ethnic movies -- this one manages to find the charm within the clichés. (90 min.) PG-13; sexual content, brief profanity.

PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF

(C) No spark: This latest attempt to find a new "Harry Potter" (from Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Potter movies) adapts the first installment of Rick Riordan's five-book series about a teen (Logan Lerman) who discovers he's the descendant of a Greek god -- and must undertake an odyssey to Mount Olympus. (Via Las Vegas, which is seen in second-unit footage filmed here.) Uma Thurman's snake-haired Medusa and Pierce Brosnan's studly centaur almost make this worth seeing, but despite the starry supporting cast (Rosario Dawson, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd and Catherine Keener), this is more a list of ingredients than a magic movie. (119 min.) PG; action violence and peril, scary images, suggestive material, mild profanity.

PRINCESS KAIULANI

(C+) The title Hawaiian ("The Lost World's" gifted Q'orianka Kilcher) returns from exile in Victorian England to fight for her homeland's future in this 19th-century historical drama, which tries to make sense of the politics of the period (Barry Pepper and Will Patton play the U.S. boosters) despite the fact that the filmmakers are clearly more interested in dramatizing a doomed love story between the princess and her English beau (Shaun Evans). As a result, this all too often plays like a condensation of a miniseries -- which it is, in a way, considering 30 minutes have been cut from its original running time. (100 min.) PG; some violence and thematic material, brief profanity, sexual references, smoking.

REACH FOR ME

(C) An embittered, potty-mouthed hospice patient (Seymour Cassel) learns the meaning of compassion while at death's door, thanks to his young, cancer-stricken roommate (Johnny Whitworth). This well-intentioned tearjerker earned director (and co-star) LeVar Burton a "Breakthrough Accomplishment" citation from AARP managzine's "Movies For Grownups" awards; it's competently handled, with a solid cast of small-screen names (Alfre Woodard, Adrienne Barbeau and Lacey Chabert among them), but utterly formulaic. (98 min.) NR; recommended for audiences 17 and over.

ROBIN HOOD

(B-) Not so very merry: Russell Crowe reunites with his "Gladiator" (and "American Gangster") director, Ridley Scott, for a sweeping, yet not quite stirring origin tale -- one that doesn't completely scale the heights to which it (and they) aspire. Despite a top-chop cast (including Cate Blanchett as a forceful Marian, William Hurt and Max Von Sydow as noble nobles and Mark Strong and Oscar Isaac as venal villains), Crowe's straight-arrow "Robin Hood" is more like Gladiator (in the) Hood -- a far cry from the impudent, irreverent, irrepressible (and utterly irresistible) rogue of Sherwood Forest we've come to know and love through a century of cinematic derring-do. (140 min.) PG-13; violence, including intense combat sequences, and sexual situations. (C.C.)

SHREK FOREVER AFTER

(C) It's not easy being green: The fourth (and, we hope, final) chapter of the fractured fairy-tale cartoon saga strands the restless title ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) in a twisted version of Far Far Away ruled by the unruly Rumplestiltskin (voiced, with frustrating flatness, by story editor Walt Dohrn). Not the worst "Shrek" sequel (that would be 2007's "Shrek the Third"), this nevertheless confirms that the franchise is long past its sell-by date; even the 3-D effects and the hilarious vocal stylings of Eddie Murphy's Donkey and Antonio Banderas' Puss in Boots aren't bright enough to lighten the prevailing been-there, seen-that mood. (93 min.) PG; mild action, rude humor, brief profanity. (C.C.)

WHY DID I GET I MARRIED TOO

(C-) Writer-director Tyler Perry returns with this sequel to the 2007 hit "Why Did I Get Married," as four couples reunite to vacation and analyze their problems: neglect (Perry, Sharon Leal), joblessness (Jill Scott, Lamman Rucker), adultery (Tasha Smith, Michael Jai White) and a dead child (Janet Jackson, Malik Yoba). Once again, storylines ramble, scenes fizzle, actors shout and weep embarrassingly and nuance is obliterated by sermonizing. (121 min.) PG-13 ; thematic material including sexuality, profanity, drug references, domestic violence.