Movies

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This article was published 14/08/2011 (5260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG

 

 

Leading up to next year’s Marvel Comics hero-palooza The Avengers comes this likable retro comic book movie set during the Second World War wherein a 98-pound weakling (Chris Evans) is transformed into a super-soldier by a sympathetic scientist (Stanley Tucci) to do battle with the Nazi megalomaniac known as Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). Director Joe Johnston creates some pacing problems as usual (see also: The Wolfman), but this is nevertheless a quirky entry in the superhero sweepstakes. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

 

CARS 2

Portage Place IMAX. PG

 

 

A sequel to the 2006 Pixar feature has race car Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and the bumpkin tow-truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) enlisted into the realm of international espionage courtesy of British spy master Finn McMissile (Michael Caine). Although the Pixar flick introduces some amusing new characters, the movie lacks heart and humour. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö (Reviewed by Chris Knight)

 

THE CHANGE-UP

Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A

Jason Bateman is a family man and Ryan Reynolds is a playboy and when they magically switch bodies, sexy/awkward hijinks ensue. The scriptwriters that gave us The Hangover dip their toes in the hackneyed body-switch sub-genre and should have produced a dud, except Bateman and Reynolds earn some laughs through sheer comic ability. ‘Ö’Ö1/2

 

COWBOYS & ALIENS

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A

 

 

An amnesiac stranger (Daniel Craig) stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution, Ariz. with a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. Apparently, it has something to do with the aliens attacking from the sky. This western-sci-fi hybrid from director Jon Favreau works as well as it does because Favreau seems intent on making a western that might stand well enough on its own without the sci-fi trappings. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

 

CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE

Globe, Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital. PG

 

 

Steve Carell stars as a guy who married his high school sweetheart (Julianne Moore) and has the rug pulled out from under him when he finds out she is having an affair and wants a divorce. He soon finds himself getting pick-up advice from Ryan Gosling’s practised ladykiller, whose invincible pickup line, “You’re the perfect combination of sexy and cute” fits the movie’s delightfully contradictory qualities. It’s romantic, touching, a little risqué and screwball, yet reassuringly down-to-earth. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö (Reviewed by Colin Covert.)

 

FINAL DESTINATION 5

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, Polo Park IMAX, St. Vital, Towne. 18A

The death-comes-stalking franchise continues with the exact same plot as the four predecessors wherein a young person has a vision of a disaster and saves various souls from a gory demise. Not to be cheated, death claims the lucky survivors in various ways. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all but you could do worse starting with No. 5, which offers especially outlandish deaths and a truly impressive bridge disaster to start things rolling. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

 

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A

 

 

Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Mila Kunis) decide to try to maintain their friendship while engaging in more-than-friends activity, resulting in some inevitable complications. Director Will Gluck (Easy A) attempts to break all the rom-com rules in this enjoyable raunch, but he is too bound by those rules to deliver anything truly adventurous. Kunis is charming, however, and Timberlake acquits himself in sufficiently sturdy leading-man style. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

 

GLEE: THE 3D CONCERT MOVIE

Polo Park. G

 

 

The original cast of Glee stars in this live concert film shot during a show in New Jersey. Because the actors stay in character, the movie has a gentle campy touch that matches the overall mood of the franchise. It also celebrates the opportunity to commune with fans, whose stories make for some touching moments. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö (Reviewed by Katherine Monk)

 

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART II

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, Polo Park IMAX, St. Vital, Towne. 14A

 

 

The richly diverse Harry Potter saga comes to a close as Harry, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts School for a final apocalyptic reckoning with Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his mob of minions. This wrap-up to the franchise is big, thrilling and even moving at times as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) learns unsettling revelations about his past and his destiny. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

 

THE HELP

Globe, Grant Park, Polo Park. PG

Emma Stone stars as Skeeter, a woman who decodes to shake the foundations of Jackson Mississippi in the early ’60s by compiling a book telling the experiences of black housekeepers in southern white homes. If the premise sounds like a southern liberal’s fantasy, the cast sells it, particularly Viola Davis as a maid who has raised 17 white children, but could not save her own son. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

 

HORRIBLE BOSSES

Polo Park. 14A

 

 

Three pals (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day), each victimized in different ways by their superiors, take the hate to the next homicidal level. Director Seth Gordon orchestrates very good and pertinent farce (Raise your hands everyone who wants to quit their jobs in this economy), elevated by the offhand repartee between the three leads, who enjoy a wicked chemistry. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

 

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG

The Frankenstein story gets extra mileage when you throw accelerated Darwinism into the tank, which is why this movie may well be the most important piece of the simian puzzle we’ve seen so far. Taking us back to the very moment when intellectually enhanced apes began walking the Earth, this prequel to the 1968 movie starring Chuck Heston as a befuddled astronaut (and the resulting cheesy ’70s TV show) isolates the moment of species cleavage. Smart but suitably silly, it all works in true B-movie fashion. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2 (Reviewed by Katherine Monk)

 

THE SMURFS

Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G

The little blue creatures come to the big screen with surprising zest in a film that sends them to New York City ahead of the evil wizard Gargamel (the deliriously hammy Hank Azaria). The film is aware of the story’s shortcomings — that irritating theme song, for one thing — and cleverly blends self-criticism into an amusing slapstick adventure for kids. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2 (Reviewed by Jay Stone)

 

SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN

Globe. PG

Director Wayne Wang, who directed The Joy Luck Club, explores similar narrative turf with two parallel stories of intimate friendships between two pairs of friends, one in 19th-century China, and one in present-day Shanghai. This is a story about friendships — ostensibly female, but sensitive guys should be able to relate. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2 (Reviewed by Chris Knight)

 

SON OF THE SUNSHINE

Cinematheque. 14A

 

 

Former Winnipegger Ryan Ward wrote, directed and stars in this drama, playing a young Tourette’s syndrome sufferer who spends his savings on a procedure to cure his symptoms, only to discover that “normalcy” sparks all new problems in his life. Ward gets fine performances from his no-name cast, but like many a Canfilm drama, a lack of humour makes the proceedings alternately dire and dour. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

 

30 MINUTES OR LESS

Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A

Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a small town pizza delivery guy kidnapped by a couple of criminal lowlifes (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) who outfit him with a bomb and compel him to rob a bank. Aziz Ansari offers up a refreshing off-angle sense of humour as Nick’s best friend/co-bank robber, but Eisenberg is hopelessly miscast as a clutch-popping slacker dude. ‘Ö’Ö

 

THE TREE OF LIFE

Globe. PG

 

 

Terrence Malick wrote and directed this impressionistic, cosmic-autobiographical story of a Texas family in the 1950s, incorporating birth, death, experience… and the universe. It’s audacious: Imagine Stanley Kubrick splicing 2001: A Space Odyssey with an autobiographical drama and you’ll get something close to this. Malick can’t sustain the magic to the end, when it all starts to feel like a big-budget student art film, but the overall work is still a compelling and moving piece of cinema. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö