MOVIES
OPENING THIS WEEK
CHE: PART TWO
Guerilla hero Che Guevara's final, fatal mission in Bolivia inspires the second half of director Steven Soderbergh's two-part collaboration with "Traffic" star Benicio Del Toro in the title role; Part One's still playing, so if you're so inclined, you can catch the entire epic in one sitting. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. Part of the CineVegas screening series at the Palms. (131 min.) R; violence.
THE CROSS: THE ARTHUR BLESSIT STORY
This documentary recounts the 40-year spiritual and physical journey of the colorful title evangelist, who's listed in the Guinness Book of World Records and received CNN coverage for lugging a 12-foot cross through more than 300 countries. At Colonnade. (93 min.) PG; thematic material including violent images, drug references, mild profanity.
DESBOCADOS
Daniel (Armando Araiza) and his new bride, April (Tania Robledo), move to her small town and tangle with her ex-fiancé (Gerardo Albarran) in an action drama that debuted in Mexico in December. In Spanish with English subtitles. At multiple locations. (88 min.) R; nudity, rape, violence.
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT
Another Amityville-style horror movie inspired by actual events, this recounts a family's ordeal when they move to a home near their son's cancer clinic -- and discover it's a former mortuary with a demonic past. Virginia Madsen, Martin Donovan and Elias Koteas lead the cast. At multiple locations. (92 min.) PG-13; intense sequences of terror, disturbing images.
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS
12 ROUNDS
A New Orleans detective (WWE star John Cena) must complete 12 challenges to rescue his girlfriend ("Jericho's" Ashley Scott), who's been kidnapped by a vengeful ex-con ("The Wire's" Aidan Gillen) in this action workout from "Cliffhanger" director Renny Harlin. At multiple locations. (108 min.) PG-13; intense sequences of violence and action.
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.
BEDTIME STORIES
(C+) A typically sophomoric Adam Sandler goes the family-friendly route in this Disney romp, playing a hotel handyman whose life changes when the outlandish bedtime tales he tells his niece and nephew magically come true. Keri Russell, Courteney Cox, Guy Pearce and Russell Brand co-star in a movie that's baloney on Wonder Bread with a Kraft Single and some Miracle Whip. In other words, it's edible but not exactly nutritious -- or delicious. (99 min.) PG; mild rude humor, mild profanity.
CHE: PART ONE
(B) Two "Traffic" Oscar-winners -- director Steven Soderbergh and actor Benicio Del Toro -- reunite for an epic, two-part account Argentine physician-turned-Cuban-revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. (See Part Two description in "Opening This Week.") In the opening chapter, "The Argentine," we meet the young doctor who joins Fidel Castro on a dangerous -- and ultimately successful -- mission to overthrow the corrupt Cuban dictatorship run by Fulgencio Batista. Still, this plays more like the first chapter of an epic movie than a satisfying stand-alone experience. (129 min.) R; violence.
THE CLASS
(A) In a class by itself: The top award-winner at last year's Cannes film festival, an Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film, this docudrama (based on the book by teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau, who plays himself) charts a year in the life of a racially mixed class at a tough Parisian school. Director Laurent Cantet's adaptation has the intimacy of a documentary and the tense pacing of a drama; the combination is powerful, hypnotic and full of moments that linger long after the bell rings. In French with English subtitles. (128 min.) PG-13; profanity.
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC
(C) Worried about those bills you can't pay? Welcome to the wacky world of Rebecca Bloomwood ("Wedding Crashers' " Isla Fisher), a madcap Manhattan magazine writer who racks up $16,000 in credit-card charges, then gets hired by an editor (Hugh Dancy) who thinks she's a fiscal expert. "Shopaholic's" timing couldn't be worse, and this adaptation of Sophie Kinsella's best sellers could certainly be better, but Fisher's fizzy giddiness makes it possible to care for her character -- even when it's not possible to care for the movie. (112 min.) PG; mild profanity, thematic elements. (C.C.)
CORALINE
(B+) Neil Gaiman's satisfyingly shivery tale of a feisty girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning) whose curiosity leads to a darkly fascinating alternate world proves an ideal vehicle for stop-motion animation wizard Henry Selick ("Nightmare Before Christmas," "James and the Giant Peach"). Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane and Keith David deliver standout vocal performances in a visually stunning movie that resembles a pop-up storybook come to life (especially in 3-D) -- and exhibits far more artistry, and humanity, than many live-action movies. (101 min.) PG; thematic elements, scary images, profanity, suggestive humor. (C.C.)
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
(C+) Brad Pitt reunites with "Se7en" director David Fincher (and "Babel" co-star Cate Blanchett) for the ambitious saga of the title character, who's born in post-World War I New Orleans with the face and ailments of an 80-year-old man -- and ages in reverse. Overlong and overdone, "Benjamin Button" (loosely based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald tale and adapted by "Forrest Gump" Oscar-winner Eric Roth) emerges as a technical marvel, but in pondering the Big Picture, the movie too often falls under the spell of its own epic sweep. Winner of three Academy Awards, including art direction and visual effects. (167 min.) PG-13; brief war violence, sexual content, profanity, smoking. (C.C.)
DEFIANCE
(B-) Reigning 007 Daniel Craig returns to his dramatic roots as the eldest of three Jewish brothers (a standout Liev Schreiber and "Billy Elliot's" Jamie Bell play his siblings) battling Nazis from a Belorussian forest camp during World War II. As he did in "The Last Samurai" and "Blood Diamond," director Edward Zwick explores a fascinating, fact-based subject, but can't resist diluting the story's stark power with action-flick clichés, dunderhead dialogue and Hollywood hokum. Even so, it's an undeniable rouser. (129 min.) R; violence, profanity. (C.C.)
DINOSAURS 3D: GIANTS OF PATAGONIA
(B) If you like dinosaurs (and who doesn't?), you'll love this 3-D documentary, which follows paleontologist Rodolfo Coria as he tramps the rugged wilds of Patagonia (southern Argentina), where remains of the largest dinosaurs in the world -- including the 120-foot Argentinosaurus -- have been discovered. The perfect blend of scholarly information and totally cool dinosaurs brought to vivid life. (40 min.) G; scary dinosaurs.
DOUBT
(B-) In 1960s New York, a strict nun who runs a Catholic school (Meryl Streep) and an innocent underling (Amy Adams) suspect their parish priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of molesting the school's lone black student. Scene-stealing Viola Davis co-stars for writer-director John Patrick Shanley, who adapts his own Tony-winning drama -- and undermines (and overplays) some great performers with ominous, overly obvious symbols and odd camera angles that make "Doubt" hopelessly stagebound. (104 min.) PG-13; sexual references, mature themes. (C.C.)
DUPLICITY
(B) To scam or not to scam -- that's hardly the question for rival corporate spies (Julia Roberts, Clive Owen), who concoct an elaborate ruse to steal lucrative secrets to bankroll their into-the-sunset retirement. "Michael Clayton" writer-director Tony Gilroy's twisty yet relatively lighthearted thriller is clever (although not quite as clever as it thinks it is), polished and flirtatiously sexy, thanks to the steam heat generated by reunited "Closer" co-stars Roberts and Owen. Still, they're not the only fun couple on the scene: Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti steal plenty of scenes as corporate bigwigs (literally) at each other's throats. (124 min.) PG-13; profanity, sexual references. (C.C.)
FIRED UP
(C-) It's "Wedding Crashers" at cheerleader camp as two eager-to-score high school studs ("Dumb and Dumberer's" Eric Christian Olsen, "Heroes' " Nicholas D'Agosto) infiltrate the cheerleading squad. Brain-dead at worst, sophomoric at best, "Fired Up" does have its moments, but not enough of them to make it worthwhile for anybody who doesn't think the movie's initials ("F.U." -- in case you hadn't noticed) qualify as a laff riot. (94 min.) PG-13; crude and sexual content, partial nudity, profanity, teen partying. (C.C.)
FRIDAY THE 13TH
(D-) It may be set in a world of iPods, cell phones and "Girls Gone Wild," but this "reimagining" of the venerable horror franchise's 1980 introduction is the same old same old, as a group of hapless young TV stars (led by "Supernatural's" Jared Padalecki, "Shark's" Danielle Panabaker and "The Mentalist's" Amanda Righetti) foolishly check out Camp Crystal Lake -- and encounter the malevolent, hockey-masked Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears). If all you're looking for is the latest in impaling, beheading and butchering, welcome back. (97 min.) R; strong bloody violence, graphic sexual content, profanity, drug material.
GRAN TORINO
(C+) A widowed Korean War vet (growling, glowering Clint Eastwood) in a deteriorating Detroit neighborhood finds his prejudices challenged when he becomes an unlikely neighborhood hero to the fatherless Hmong teens (Bee Vang, Ahney Her) next door. Eastwood says this vigilante melodrama will be his on-screen swan song, and it's a trip to watch Clint the Squint channel the ghosts of Eastwood past, but this underpowered star vehicle stalls and backfires at least as often as it shifts into high gear. (116 min.) R; pervasive profanity and racial epithets, violence. (C.C.)
HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU
(C+) And we're just not that into this all-star adaptation of the non-fiction best seller, which focuses on a bunch of Baltimore 20- and 30-somethings (led by Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson and Justin Long) trying to figure out the mysteries of love, sex and everything in between. Despite the considerable charisma and banter of its cast, the result is Woody Allen lite, with some deft observations about how the social media designed to bring singles together actually come between them. (129 min.) PG-13; sexual content, brief profanity.
HOTEL FOR DOGS
(C) Two melancholy foster kids ("Nancy Drew's" Emma Roberts, Disney Channel's Jake T. Austin) secretly take in strays at an abandoned house. Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon round out the starring cast of a circusy romp that departs from its source material (Lois Duncan's charming novel) in so many ways that it leaves you wondering what Animal Planet we're on. But there's no denying the appeal of the purebreds and pound puppies assembled for our awe -- and awws. (100 min.) PG; brief mild thematic elements, profanity, crude humor.
I LOVE YOU, MAN
(B-) A fine bromance: A newly engaged yet curiously friendless guy (Paul Rudd) launches a search for a best man that bears unexpected fruit when his instant bond with a fun-loving lug (Jason Segal) threatens his relationship with his understanding fiancée (Rashida Jones). At long last stepping into the leading-man spotlight (at least in a better movie than last year's dreadful "Over Her Dead Body"), Rudd's wry warmth balances Segal's fearlessly funny portrait of permanently arrested adolescence. And writer-director John Hamburg ("Along Came Polly") proves that he's got more on his mind than a snickering celebration of testosterone gone wild -- despite the inevitable jokes involving masturbation, projectile vomiting and flatulence. (104 min.) R; pervasive profanity, including crude and sexual references. (C.C.)
THE INTERNATIONAL
(C+) Low interest: An obsessive Interpol agent (Clive Owen) and a Manhattan assistant district attorney (Naomi Watts) team up to blow the whistle on a sinister international bank involved in everything from money laundering to murder. Watts' "Eastern Promises" castmate, Armin Mueller-Stahl, co-stars for "Run Lola Run" director Tom Tykwer, whose directing style this time around is more stop-in-your-tracks than perpetual motion, fatally slowing this topical, but hardly brainy, thriller. (118 min.) R; violence, profanity.
KNOWING
(C) A widowed MIT professor (Nicolas Cage) who opens a time capsule at his son's school discovers that some of its chilling predictions already have come true -- and his family may be implicated in future events -- in this weird, gloomy existential thriller from "Dark City" and "I, Robot" director Alex Proyas, who can't seem to keep Cage from lapsing into hysteria. You expect wild-and-crazy from a Nicolas Cage movie, but this is ridiculous. So is "Knowing's" ending, which borrows from L. Ron Hubbard, the Rapture Index, and a mess of apocalyptic sci-fi movies -- most of them vastly more entertaining than this one. (122 min.) PG-13; disaster sequences, disturbing images, brief profanity.
LAST CHANCE HARVEY
(B) Like at first sight: After striking sparks as supporting players in "Stranger Than Fiction," Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson team up for this charmer about the hapless title character, whose trip to London for his daughter's wedding turns disastrous -- until he meets a quiet loner who just might be his perfect match. Movies about perfectly nice people being perfectly nice often can be perfectly boring, but Hoffman and Thompson are clearly having such a delightful time, we do too. (C.C.)
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
(D) A grisly, sadistic update of the 1972 horror fave about a terrorized couple (Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter) getting revenge on the prison escapee ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' " Garrett Dillahunt) who's kidnapped and assaulted their daughter. Plodding and completely predictable, the carnage is depicted in slow, quasi-reverential fashion, giving the entire experience a torture-porn veneer. (100 min.) R; sadistic brutal violence including a rape, disturbing images, profanity, nudity, drug use.
MADEA GOES TO JAIL
(C) America's favorite pistol'-packin' granny returns, with writer-director Tyler Perry reprising the irrepressible title character, who lands in the slammer following a freeway chase -- and will make her confused, disrespectful young cellmates see sense if she has to slap it into them. King of all media Perry gives fans what they want: daytime-TV pacing and standard adventures in self-help tedium, with the emphasis on dramatizing as many aspects of the black experience as possible, with the help of Derek Luke, all-grown-up "Cosby Show" kid Keshia Knight Pulliam and "Doubt" Oscar nominee Viola Davis. (103 min.) PG-13; mature themes, drug content, violence, sexual situations.
RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN
(B-) Southern Nevada proves more than ready for its latest cinematic close-up in this revamp of the 1975 Disney favorite "Escape to Witch Mountain," about a hard-luck Vegas taxi driver (Dwayne Johnson, the artist formerly known as The Rock) whose latest fares (AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig) prove to be aliens on the run from government agents and inter-galactic killing machines alike. True to its title, the action-packed "Race" hardly stops to catch its breath, but it does capture a bit of the original's hokey-smokes vibe. Still, bigger's not always better -- which means that, unlike its inspiration, nobody's going to want to revisit this three decades from now. (99 min.) PG; sequences of action and violence, frightening and dangerous situations, thematic elements. (C.C.)
THE READER
(B) In post-World War II Germany, the passionate affair between a student (David Kross) and an older tram conductor (Oscar-winner Kate Winslet) reverberates through both lives -- especially when the grown student (Ralph Fiennes) ponders the impact of their life-changing liaison. "The Hours" team of director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter David Hare reunites for a thoughtful, restrained, adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's semi-autobiographical best-seller, which provides a stunning showcase for Winslet's uncanny ability to get under the skin of her contradictory character. (123 min.) R; sexual situations, nudity. (C.C.)
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
(B) "Titanic" sweethearts Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, both in top form, reunite as a '50s suburban couple wondering whatever happened to the extraordinary life they planned. "American Beauty's" Sam Mendes (Winslet's husband) directs this wrenching yet flawed adaptation of Richard Yates' novel, transforming wrenching emotional drama into a series of theatrical tableaux that aren't quite as haunting as they should be, but haunt nevertheless. (119 min.) R; profanity, sexual situations, nudity. (C.C.)
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
(B+) A beguiling Bollywood fairy tale (complete with plucky hero, damsel in distress, powerful villain and daunting trials for our hero), as an orphaned Mumbai teen (Dev Patel) becomes an unlikely contestant on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" -- not for money, but for love. Director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days Later") scores with yet another trademark combination of humor, hope and horror that soars on the strength of its winning characters and exotic setting Winner of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay. (120 min.) R; violence, disturbing images, profanity. (C.C.)
STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN LI
(C-) Another video game gets a live-action adaptation, with "Smallville's" Kristin Kreuk as the title character, who embarks on -- what else? -- a quest for justice, seeking the man who killed her father. The casting (including Chris Klein. Neal McDonough and Michael Clarke Duncan) works, the settings (Bangkok and Hong Kong) are exotic and the martial arts brawls professionally mounted. Which makes it 20 times better than the godawful 1994 Jean Claude Van Damme/Raul Julia version, but that's not saying much. (100 min.) PG-13; violence and martial arts action, sexual references.
TAKEN
(B-) Liam Neeson kicks major butt as a former CIA agent out to rescue his kidnapped daughter (Maggie Grace) from human traffickers in a fleet, no-nonsense rescue thriller from crackerjack French director Pierre Morel. Satisfying for the Gaelic gravitas of its star, slam-bang chase scenes, bone-snapping martial arts -- and, of course, the scenic Paris setting. (94 min.) PG-13; intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, drug references, profanity.
THE UNBORN
(C) "Dark Knight" screenwriter David S. Goyer writes and directs this horror tale about a young woman ("Cloverfield's" Odette Yustman) battling a spirit -- which could be her twin, who died at birth -- trying to possess her. Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, James Remar and "Twilight" baddie Cam Gigandet also turn up in a mostly dumb but generally passable horror flick. (88 min.) PG-13; intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images, mature themes, sexual references, profanity.
UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS
(C) In this third "Underworld" tale, Kate Beckinsale's out -- and Rhona Mitra's in as the kick-butt heroine of an action workout that explores the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between aristocratic vampires and their onetime slaves. "Frost/Nixon's" Michael Sheen plays a young Lycan who rallies his werewolf brethren against Bill Nighy's cruel vampire king in a silly, convoluted prequel only partially redeemed by Goth style and lead actors who expertly devour scenery with their pointy teeth. (92 min.) R; bloody violence, sexuality.
THE UNINVITED
(B-) After a stint in a mental hospital, a girl ("Lemony Snicket's" Emily Browning) returns to find her aloof father (David Strathairn) engaged to her late mother's nurse (Elizabeth Banks) -- and her mother's ghost warning of danger. This translation of the excellent South Korean chiller "A Tale of Two Sisters" becomes a less complex but passable scarefest, with the benefit of a better-than-expected cast and a streamlined structure best described as "Scare, Plot Twist, Repeat." (87 min.) PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic material, sexual content, language and teen drinking.
WATCHMEN
(C-) The landmark graphic novel hits the screen, with a vengeance, in an alternate-universe 1985, as a masked vigilante rounds up some ex-colleagues to battle conspirators out to discredit -- or kill -- past and present superheroes. Malin Akerman (as Silk Spectre II), Billy Crudup (alias Dr. Manhattan), Matthew Goode (Ozymandias), Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) star for "300" director Zack Snyder, who knows how to depict bloody destruction -- but, like Dr. Manhattan, lacks the humanity to understand why it should not be taken lightly. (163 min.) R; strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity, profanity.
THE WRESTLER
(B+) Mickey Rourke makes an award-winning comeback in this gritty, moving character study of a broken-down professional wrestler struggling to make a comeback. Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei co-stars (as Randy's stripper girlfriend) for "Requiem for a Dream" director Darren Aronofsky, who downplays his customary visual flamboyance to keep the spotlight on his actors. (115 min.) R; violence, sexual situations, nudity, profanity, drug use. (C.C.)
YES MAN
(B-) Jim Carrey makes a welcome return to comedy as a chronically depressed loan officer who accentuates the positive -- by becoming a guy who can't say no for an entire year. A formulaic yet diverting comedy that boasts welcome charm and a worthwhile message. (104 min.) PG-13; crude sexual humor, profanity, brief nudity.
