‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ slick but lacks plot
‘Monsters vs. Aliens’
This super-duper, 3-D deluxe extravaganza has bells and whistles, superb technical sophistication, dazzling visual effects, sound, fury and Reese Witherspoon. What it doesn’t have is heart.
Even children appreciate a good story, and that’s precisely what’s missing in this film, which is nominally about a bunch of government-sponsored monsters that do battle with an evil alien squid craving world domination. That’s plot, not a story. And too often, it’s about things, not characters.
One exception is B.O.B., a forgetful blue gelatinous blob that, as voiced by Seth Rogen, not only elicits but earns his laughs. As for the rest of the movie, it will recede into your own B.O.B.-like memory bank, dissolve quickly and disappear forever. (1:34; PG for sci-fi action, crude humor and mildly suggestive euphemisms)
‘Management’
Traveling alone on business, an attractive single woman named Sue (Jennifer Aniston) checks into a seedy Arizona roadside motel, only to find the tongue-tied night manager, Mike (Steve Zahn), lurking outside her door with a bottle of cheap wine, “compliments of the management,” telling her: “You have a nice butt.”
Sue flies home to Maryland never to hear from him again. Until he shows up on her doorstep.
If Zahn showed up outside your seedy motel room – even if he were carrying a bloody chainsaw instead of a bottle of wine – you would probably invite him in. And he’s the single biggest reason why this works as a delightfully screwball romantic comedy and not a crazed-stalker film. (1:33; R for a a sex scene, obscenity and comic violence)
‘Away We Go’
Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) find out she’s pregnant. When they go to tell Burt’s parents (Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels), they discover that the expectant grandparents plan to move to Europe before the baby is born – which sends Burt and Verona in search of a new definition of themselves.
Written by Dave Eggers and wife Vendela Vida and directed by Sam Mendes, the film at first feels like a welcome respite from the false happily-ever-afters of most mainstream movies.
But it’s less an authentic exploration of identity than a condemnation of the very community they pretend to crave. No one, it turns out, is good enough for Burt and Verona. (1:38; R for language and sexual content)
‘The Girlfriend Experience’
Steven Soderbergh tracks several days in the life of Chelsea (Sasha Grey), a self-employed call girl who commands $2,000 an hour from clients who can drop that without losing a wink of sleep.
Buried deep beneath all that is a driven daughter of commerce who is just as ambitious as her high-rolling johns and every bit as stressed over the plunging economy.
Soderbergh taps into the nervy impulses of his earliest endeavor, “sex, lies and videotape,” as well as “Ocean’s Eleven,” with something to elevate and exasperate fans of each. (1:17; R for sexual content, nudity and language)
Also available: “Cagney & Lacey: The Menopause Years,” “How I Met Your Mother: Season Four,” “Kings: Season One,” “Life on Mars: The Complete Series,” “Shrink,” “The Patty Duke Show: Season One,” “The Wiggles: Big, Big Show!,” “The Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Special Edition.”