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Who wears short shorts? Sacha Baron Cohen as Brüno.

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UP
Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G
Square-headed senior widower Karl Frederickson (voiced by Ed Asner) decides to finally see the world by attaching hundreds of helium balloons to his roof and floating to Venezuela. Pixar pulls off an awesome feat of juggling the movie’s verbal comedy, its action sequences, and its bittersweet soul, and keeping it all as gravity-defying as those balloons. Catch it while you can, as the balloons might pop to make way for lesser summer movies shouldering their way into those precious few 3-D venues. 4 stars

Starting Friday:

BRUNO
Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 18A
Assuming the guise of a gay Austrian fashion designer attempting to go straight, comedic agent provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen tests the limits of American tolerance once more in Cohen’s second collaboration with director Larry Charles (Borat).

I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER
Polo Park. 14A
A geeky high-school graduate (Paul Rust) declares his devotion to the titular cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere) during his valedictorian speech, with predictably chaotic results, in this coming-of-age comedy.

MOON
Globe. 14A
Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is a solitary worker about to finish a three-year contract on the moon when he discovers his existence isn’t what hew thinks it is. Directed by Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie (who incidentally gave us the equally enigmatic sci-fi solitude opus Space Oddity).

TOKYO
Cinematheque. 14A
Three filmmakers — Michel Gondry, Bong Joon-Ho and Leos Carax — let their imaginations go on the subject of the giant Japanese metropolis.
 

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The following movies have been previously reviewed by Free Press movie critic Randall King, unless otherwise noted.

THE HANGOVER
Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 18A
A bachelor party in Las Vegas goes seriously awry, and when the groom goes missing, his three friends (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis) must retrace their drunken steps to discover his whereabouts, and also why there’s a baby boy and a full-grown tiger in their hotel room. Great premise, but director Todd Phillips (Old School) is too quick to waste it on sophomoric humour. 2-1/2 stars

ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS
Garden City, Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G
Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano) and his primitive pals discover a subterranean sanctuary where dinosaurs still roam in this third entry in the franchise. Kids will have no problem warming up to the new Ice Age, but enlightened grown-ups might get a chill from the gratuitous time-warping, dated female representations and quiet realization that for all the evolutionary water under the bridge, we’re still a surprisingly primitive species. In 3-D at all theatres except the Towne. 3 stars (Reviewed by Katherine Monk.)

MY SISTER’S KEEPER
Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A
An 11-year-old girl (Abigail Breslin) conceived to provide life-saving genetic materials to her cancer-afflicted sister (Sofia Vassilieva), hires a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) to sue her parents for "medical emancipation" in this smart, emotion-charged drama from director Nick Cassevetes also starring Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric. Forget the Kleenex; bring sponges. 3 stars

THE PROPOSAL
Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG
A bitchy Canadian book editor (Sandra Bullock) facing deportation contrives to marry her much-abused assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to stay in the country. Just when it seemed Hollywood had forgotten how to make the kind of rom-com that doesn’t insult or pander or flat-out infuriate, The Proposal fires on all cylinders (pardon the masculine metaphor) in satisfying the requirements of the genre. 3 stars

PUBLIC ENEMIES
Globe, Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A
Though obscured beneath layers of flabby man-drama and one too many moments rendered by machine-gun fire, there’s a great movie somewhere in here thanks to strong performances from stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. The big problem is overkill. Director Michael Mann stretches out every scene for effect, but the result is frequent dramatic tedium. 3 stars (Reviewed by Katherine Monk)

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123
Polo Park. 14A
Denzel Washington plays a subway dispatcher forced into the role of hostage negotiator when criminals led by a psychopathic mastermind (John Travolta) take over a subway car and threaten to kill the passengers. In an age when big summer movies tend to be filled with digital trickery, Tony Scott’s visually busy interpretation of the 1974 action thriller almost seems old school. HHH1/2

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
Garden City, Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG
Michael Bay’s follow-up to the monster hit of 2007 offers more big empty thrills: gigantic robots, massive destruction, and poor Shia LaBeouf desperately trying to contribute a human dimension to the noisy spectacle. 2 stars

WHATEVER WORKS
Globe. PG
Cranky Larry David stars as a cranky genius who condescends to take an aimless young woman (Evan Rachel Wood) under his wing in this improbable Woody Allen-created fantasy apparently created for old Jewish nihilists. It’s hard to imagine others summoning the gumption to remain in their seats until its preposterous end, let alone swallow its tedious and often intolerant assumptions. 1 star (Reviewed by Morley Walker)

YEAR ONE
Polo Park, Towne. 14A
Jack Black and Michael Cera play a couple of primitive screwheads evicted from their village to seek their fortunes in this oft-clever comedy conjoining the caveman movie and the biblical epic. It aspires to the comic subversion of Life of Brian, wherein the atheistic Monty Python troupe aimed darts at Christian religious dogma, but doesn’t quite have the courage of Monty Python’s convictions. 3-1/2 stars

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 9, 2009 E21