FIlms
Capsule reviews with star ratings are written by reviewers for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Opening today:
Amelia
Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) tries to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Running time: 1:51 Rating: PG (language, sensuality)
River Park Square: 10:55 a.m., 1:35, 4:25, 7:15, 10.
Astro Boy
A robotic child (Freddie Highmore) must use his super powers to save his city from destruction. Running time: 1:34 Rating: PG (language, some action/peril)
Hayden: 12:50, 3:05, 5:10, 7:15, 9:15. NorthTown Mall: noon, 3:10, 6:30, 9:30. Post Falls: 1:20, 3:20, 5:20, 7:20. River Park Square: 10:40 a.m., 1:10, 3:40, 6:45, 9:20. Riverstone: 1, 4, 7, 9:30. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:45, 3, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45. Village Centre: 11:10 a.m., 1:10, 3:10, 5:15, 7:20, 9:25.
The Boys Are Back
A grieving widower (Clive Owen) struggles to raise his two sons alone. Running time: 1:44 Rating: PG-13 (sexual language)
River Park Square: 11:50 a.m., 2:30, 5, 7:35, 9:55.
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
A sideshow vampire (John C. Reilly) turns a teenager into one of the undead. Running time: 1:49 Rating: PG-13 (disturbing images, supernatural violence, language)
Hayden: 1:30, 4, 6:30, 9. NorthTown Mall: 12:25, 4:05, 7, 9:50. Post Falls: 1, 3:15, 5:35, 7:50. River Park Square: 10:35 a.m., 1:15, 3:50, 6:35, 9:25. Riverstone: 1:35, 4:35, 7:35, 10:10. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:05, 2:55, 7, 9:30. Village Centre: 11:40 a.m., 2:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:45.
Lorna’s Silence
An Albanian woman (Arta Dobroshi) has second thoughts about her part in a marriage scam. Running time: 1:35 Rating: R (sexuality, language, nudity)
River Park Square: 11:45 a.m., 2:25, 5:05, 7:40, 10:10.
Saw VI
Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) emerges as the next heir to Jigsaw’s twisted legacy.
Running time: 1:31 Rating: R (language, grisly bloody torture and violence)
Hayden: 12:55, 3, 5:05, 7:10, 9:10. NorthTown Mall: 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 8, 10:20. River Park Square: 11:30 a.m., 1:55, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15. Riverstone: 2, 5, 8, 10:30. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:15, 2:35, 4:50, 7:10, 9:25. Village Centre: 11 a.m., 1, 3, 5, 7:15, 9:25.
Thirst
A priest (Song Kang-ho) is torn between faith and bloodlust when he becomes a vampire. Running time: 2:13 Rating: R (disturbing images, violence, language, nudity, strong sexual content)
Magic Lantern: 9:20.
Continuing:
Alien
A merciless horror boards a crew’s (Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt) space tanker. Running time: 1:57 Rating: R
Garland: midnight.
Amazon
Filmmaker Kieth Merrill journeys through rain forests to follow the route of the Amazon River. Running time: :39 Rating: not rated
IMAX (Riverfront Park): 1, 3, 5.
Bright Star
•••• Intimate as a whisper, immediate as a blush and universal as first love, Jane Campion’s film about the love affair between poet John Keats and his muse Fanny Brawne positively palpitates with the sensual and spiritual. Running time: 1:59 Rating: PG (language, sensuality)
Magic Lantern: 8:45.
Capitalism: A Love Story
••• Folksy muckraker Michael Moore singles out those who profit from the misery and job insecurity of American workers. In passages, his movie is eloquent. In sum, it is scattershot. Running time: 1:57 Rating: R (language)
River Park Square: 11:55 a.m., 3:15.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Townspeople become overwhelmed when an overabundance of food falls from the sky. Running time: 1:30 Rating: PG (language)
Post Falls: 1:45, 3:45, 5:45.
Cloudy With a Chance
of Meatballs 3D: NorthTown Mall: 12:20, 2:35, 4:45, 7:10, 9:35. River Park Square: 11 a.m., 1:30, 3:55, 6:25, 9:15. Riverstone: 1:10, 3:55, 6:30, 9:10. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:30, 2:45, 4:55, 7:05, 9:15. Village Centre: 11 a.m., 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.
Couples Retreat
•• A tropical vacation turns out to be a relationship workshop for four couples. Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell and Faizon Love are part of a large cast in a skimpy comedy that is more adult than its rating indicates. Running time: 1:54 Rating: PG-13 (language, sexual content)
Hayden: 1:15, 3:45, 6:15, 8:35. NorthTown Mall: 1:10, 4:20, 6:55, 10:25. Post Falls: 1:15, 3:25, 5:40, 7:55. River Park Square: 10:45 a.m., 3:30, 6:20, 9:25. Riverstone: 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, 10:05. Spokane Valley Mall: 11:55 a.m., 2:20, 4:45, 7:15, 9:50. Village Centre: 11:45 a.m., 2:15, 4:45, 7:15, 9:40.
Fame
•• The talented students at the New York High School for Performing Arts are the focus of this remake. Running time: 1:47 Rating: PG (language, sexual situations, teen drinking)
Riverstone: 1:05. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:10.
Forces of Nature
Natural disasters are the focus of this IMAX film, namely volcanoes, earthquakes and tornadoes. Never has the power of a volcanic eruption seemed more in-your-face awesome. Running time: :40 Rating: not rated
IMAX (Riverfront Park): noon, 2, 4.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
••1/2 Channing Tatum stars in this loud, long, crowd-pleasing action film. The battles are so fast and furious, you’ll hardly notice how thin and cartoonish the plot is. Running time: 1:58 Rating: PG-13 (mayhem throughout, violence)
Garland: 8.
The Hangover
••• Four guys go to Vegas for a bachelor party, and mayhem and memory-loss ensue. A loopy farce from the warped mind that brought you “Old School,” with a scene-stealing performance from indie comedy dude Zach Galifianakis. Running time: 1:39 Rating: R (nudity, language, sexual content, drug material)
Garland: 10:20.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
••• Slower and talkier than its predecessors, but not in a bad way, “HP6” is a bubbling cauldron of hormonal angst, as Harry, Hermione and Ron contend with Draco, the Death Eaters and the evil Professor Snape and with their respective amorous urges. Running time: 2:33 Rating: PG (language, sensuality, scary images, violence)
Garland: 5:05.
The Informant!
••• Steven Soderbergh’s truth-based film about a compulsive liar wavers uneasily between corporate thriller and screwball comedy, with Matt Damon as an agribusiness exec who blows a whistle and his own horn at the same time. Running time: 1:48 Rating: R (language)
River Park Square: 2:20, 7:30. Riverstone: 3:50, 6:35, 9:25.
Inglourious Basterds
•• Quentin Tarantino’s tonally schizoid Jewish revenge fantasy rewrites World War II history to give Brad Pitt and company a chance to do a lot of jive riffing, while the movie mashes up the combat exploits of the “Dirty Dozen,” the madcap slapstick of “Duck Soup” and “Hostel” gore. Running time: 2:32 Rating: R (sexuality, language, violence)
River Park Square: 9. Riverstone: 9:05.
The Invention of Lying
••1/2 Ricky Gervais stars in this comedy as the lone fibber in a world where everyone else has no choice but to tell the truth. The cameo-studded satire has its moments until it turns sappy. Running time: 1:39 Rating: PG-13 (drug reference, language, sexual material)
River Park Square: 11:25 a.m., 5, 10:15. Riverstone: 1:55, 4:25, 6:55, 9:35. Spokane Valley Mall: 2:40, 5:05, 7:35, 10:05. Village Centre: noon, 2:15, 4:30, 6:45, 9:10.
Julie & Julia
•••1/2 In Nora Ephron’s captivating film about Julia Child and her influence, Meryl Streep’s performance as Child is cuisine disguised as comfort food, a complex preparation yielding effects both broadly entertaining and subtly moving. Running time: 2:04 Rating: PG-13 (language, sensuality)
Village Centre: 2:15, 6:45.
Law Abiding Citizen
••1/2 Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler go toe-to-toe in this over-the-top, grisly criminal justice revenge thriller. A mashup of “Death Wish” vigilante vengeance with “Silence of the Lambs” mad-genius-behind-bars puppet-mastery. Running time: 1:48 Rating: R (language, rape, bloody brutal violence, torture)
Hayden: 1:10, 3:30, 6:20, 8:40. NorthTown Mall: 12:45, 4:40, 7:45, 10:30. Post Falls: 1:30, 3:40, 5:50, 8. River Park Square: 10:30 a.m., 1:10, 2, 3:45, 4:35, 6:15, 7:10, 9:10, 10:05. Riverstone: 1:05, 4:10, 7:05, 9:55. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:25, 3:15, 6:40, 9:35. Village Centre: 11 a.m., 1:40, 4:20, 7:10, 9:40.
Love Happens
•• Aaron Eckhardt as a self-help guru who belatedly swallows the advice he gives to others and Jennifer Aniston as the florist he’d like to help himself to. A melancholy character study that announces itself as a romantic comedy. Running time: 1:49 Rating: PG-13 (language, sexual references)
Village Centre: 11:15 a.m., 1:45, 4:15, 6:45, 9:15.
Paranormal Activity
A couple sets up video cameras throughout their home to capture evidence of a haunting. Running time: 1:26 Rating: R (language)
NorthTown Mall: 12:55, 3, 5:10, 7:20, 10:05. River Park Square: 11:35 a.m., 2:15, 4:40, 6:55, 9:20. Riverstone: 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10.
The September Issue
••• R.J. Cutler’s compulsively entertaining documentary about how the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine came together, the product of collaborative combatants Anna Wintour, the magazine’s editor, and Grace Coddington, creative director. Running time: 1:30 Rating: PG-13 (language)
Magic Lantern: 7.
The Stepfather
A young man (Penn Badgley) suspects that his mother’s new lover (Dylan Walsh) is up to no good. Running time: 1:45 Rating: PG-13 (sensuality, disturbing images, violence)
NorthTown Mall: 12:05, 3:45, 6:40, 9:55. River Park Square: 11:40 a.m., 2:10, 4:50, 6:10, 7:25, 9:05, 9:50. Riverstone: 1:50, 4:50, 7:50, 10:20. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:20, 2:50, 6:45, 9:10. Village Centre: 12:45, 3, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45.
Surrogates
Murder jolts a utopian society in which people live vicariously through robots. Running time: 1:28 Rating: PG-13 (drug-related scene, disturbing images, violence, language, sexuality)
NorthTown Mall: 12:30, 2:45, 4:55, 7:35, 10:10. Riverstone: 1:25, 3:45, 6:40. Village Centre: 12:15, 4:45, 9:15.
Toy Story 2 in Disney Digital 3-D
Running time: 1:32
Rating: G Village Centre: 12:40, 4:20, 8:20.
Toy Story in Disney Digital 3-D
Running time: 1:20
Rating: G Village Centre: 11 a.m., 2:40, 6:30.
Where the Wild Things Are
••• Spike Jonze dares to adapt Maurice Sendak’s sublime and scary children’s book classic, and conjures up a satisfyingly moody, melancholy, madcap live-action romp. No masterpiece, but it’s a brave undertaking, and an oft-times transcendent one. Running time: 1:41 Rating: PG (language)
Hayden: 1, 3:10, 6:10, 8:30. NorthTown Mall: 12:10, 3:35, 4:15, 6:45, 7:30, 9:40, 10, 12:40. Post Falls: 1:25, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30. River Park Square: 10:30 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 1:15, 1:50, 3:50, 4:20, 6:30, 7, 9, 9:30. Riverstone: 1:15, 1:40, 4:05, 4:15, 6:45, 7:15, 9:15, 9:45. Spokane Valley Mall: noon, 1, 2:30, 3:30, 5, 6:30, 7:25, 9, 9:55. Village Centre: 11:30 a.m., 12:15, 1:45, 2:30, 4, 4:45, 6:15, 7, 8:30, 9:15.
Whip It
••• Drew Barrymore’s delightful rookie feature about a Texas beauty-pageant princess (Ellen Page) who finds herself as a combative, competitive roller-derby queen. Wonderful performances from Page, Marcia Gay Harden and Kristen Wiig. Running time: 1:51 Rating: PG-13 (crude dialogue, drug material, language, sexual content)
River Park Square: 10:50 a.m., 1:20, 4:10, 7:05, 9:40.
Zombieland
••• Inspired zom-com road pic, with nervous ninny Jesse Eisenberg and cool cowboy Woody Harrelson teaming up to battle blood-spewing flesh-eaters across a wasteland U.S.A. With Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and a truly great surprise cameo. Running time: 1:27 Rating: R (language, zombie horror violence/gore)
NorthTown Mall: 1:15, 3:25, 5:35, 7:55, 10:35. Post Falls: 7:45. River Park Square: 10:35 a.m., 11:35 a.m., 12:50, 2:05, 3:05, 4:15, 5:15, 6:40, 7:45, 9:45. Riverstone: 1:45, 4:45, 7:45, 10:15. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:55, 3:10, 5:30, 7:50, 10:10. Village Centre: 11:30 a.m., 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30.