Movies

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This article was published 06/09/2012 (5115 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STARTING TOMORROW

 

KILLER JOE

Check listings for theatres. 18A

A desperate drug dealer (Emile Hirsch) puts a hit on his own mom after she steals his stash, but his contract with the hitman (Matthew McConaughey) jeopardizes his sister Dottie (Juno Temple).

 

TURN ME ON, DAMMIT

Cinematheque. Subject to classification.

A 15-year-old girl is obsessed with matters erotic in this coming-ofage story from Norway.

 

THE WORDS

Check listings for theatres. PG

Writer Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) achieves literary success after publishing a novel he didn’t write, forcing him into a reckoning for stealing another man’s work.

 

NOW PLAYING

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

 

THE APPARITION

Polo Park. PG

This Paranormal Activity knockoff stars Ashley Greene and Sebastian Stan as a young couple who find themselves living in a haunted house in a mostly foreclosed desert subdivision. Writerdirector Todd Lincoln could be forgiven for borrowing from Paranormal and its clones, if he had a clue about how to generate frights. He doesn’t. ★ ½ ( Reviewed by Roger Moore)

 

THE BOURNE LEGACY

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

A Bourne movie without Jason Bourne feels like a squeeze at the franchise cash cow: The Bourne Lactation. But this fourth entry adds something fresh into the mix with a new tormented hero, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), and a different dynamic: it is largely an oft-riveting old-school damselin- distress story, courtesy of an endangered scientist played by Rachel Weisz. ★★★ ½

 

THE CAMPAIGN

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

Will Ferrell plays a slothful incumbent Democrat congressman in the fight for his life when he is challenged by a nebbishy Republican (Zach Galifianakis).

It’s a rude and crude farce but movies that step on that third rail of filmgoer appeal — politics — always pull their punches. ★★★ ( Reviewed by Roger Moore)

 

COLLABORATOR

Globe. 14A

Actor Martin Donovan also wrote and directed this stagey hostage drama about a playwright whose troubled world is rocked during an encounter with a former neighbour (David Morse) coming from a heist. Mostly taking place on a single set, this might have more intensity as live theatre, given the unwillingness to fully utilize the film medium, but Morse’s work is worth seeing. ★★★

 

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, Polo Park IMAX, Portage Place IMAX, St. Vital. 14A Christopher Nolan completes his Batman trilogy in style with this apocalyptic tale of class warfare in Gotham City, as Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is forced out of exile by a mysterious terrorist known as Bane (Tom Hardy).

Even at its most outrageous, there is a recurrent ping of realpolitik plausibility here. ★★★★

 

THE EXPENDABLES 2

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

A group of over-the-hill action heroes — Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren et al. — and their more modern confreres (Jason Statham, Liam Hemsworth) return for another impossible, high-velocity mission.

It’s explosive and absurd, but it has a certain nostalgia value. ★★ ½ ( Reviewed by Jay Stone)

 

HIT AND RUN

Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A

A former getaway driver (Dax Shepard) abandons the Witness Protection Program to drive his girlfriend (Kristen Bell) to L.A. so she can land her dream job, resulting in violent comic hijinks.

Actor-writer-co-director Shepard tries to splice Tarantino-esque dialogue with Smokey and the Bandit action, so it shouldn’t be a surprise the movie, while occasionally amusing, never really gels. ★★ ½

 

HOPE SPRINGS

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

Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones are a 31-years-married couple whose relationship is in need of a shakeup. You don’t have to be married for 31 years to feel inspired by the film’s message about the importance of keeping your relationship alive. ★★★ ½ ( Reviewed by Christy Lemire)

 

ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Polo Park, St. Vital. G

Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo) are back for another round of extinction-themed hijinks.

The script is the weakest in the franchise, but there’s something darkly compelling about watching evolutionary Armageddon dressed as family fluff. ★★★ (Reviewed by Katherine Monk)

 

LAWLESS

Grant Park, Polo Park, Towne. 14A

This tale of a moonshine war in Franklin County, Virginia between crafty hicks and vicious city-slickers is partly undone by its mismatched cast, including Shia Labeouf as the youngest brother of a moonshining family, Tom Hardy as the clan’s taciturn leader, and Guy Pearce offering an unwelcome revival the ’70s staple character, the homosexual psycho villain. ★★

 

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN

Globe, Polo Park, St. Vital. G

An achingly sweet but oddly emotion-free tearjerker about a small-town couple (Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Garner) who long to have a child of their own. It strains to find the magic, joy and heartbreak in a story manufactured with those traits in mind. ★★★ ½ ( Reviewed by Roger Moore)

 

THE OOGIELOVES IN THE BIG BALLOON ADVENTURE

Polo Park, Towne. G

From the makers of TeleTubbies comes the Oogieloves, three brightly coloured whatsits named Goobie, Zoozie and Toofie on a mission to find five magical balloons for an extra-special surprise birthday party. Should we care about these prefab kiddie fuzzballs? The answer, in every way imaginable, is no. ★

 

PARANORMAN

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

A lavish stop-motion adventure about an outcast young boy who sees dead people, and comes to the realization he may be the only one who can save his town from marauding Puritan zombies and a vengeful witch. It’s darker than the usual kiddie fare, but also more rewarding in its elegant dissection of how fear is the most destructive monster of all. ★★★ ½

 

THE POSSESSION

Kildonan Place, Polo Park, Towne. 14A

A divorced couple (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick) are alarmed when their young daughter (Natasha Calis) starts to behave strangely after acquiring a mysterious locked box at a yard sale. One of the film’s more disturbing visual effects is how the demon pushes a victim’s eyeballs around during possession. That aside, this movie’s box of tricks is mostly filled with genre clichés and the only rolling eyes you’ll encounter are your own. ★★

 

PREMIUM RUSH

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

A reckless bicycle courier (Joseph Gordon Levitt) accustomed to risking his neck actually finds his life on the line when he is given an envelope for which some shady individuals are willing to kill to acquire. It’s silly yet satisfying B-movie entertainment that moves with the swiftness of a Schwinn.

★★★ ½ ( Reviewed by Jake Coyle)

 

ROBOT & FRANK

Grant Park. PG

Frank Langella plays a crusty senior and ex-jewel thief who returns to his old larcenous ways when he is given a helper robot whom he programs for illicit activities. Cute robot notwithstanding, the film’s most special effect is Langella, who brings his intense focus to being truthful to Frank’s fundamentally selfish nature. ★★★ ½

 

TOTAL RECALL

Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A

Colin Farrell stars as a man who visits a futuristic memory implant boutique and discovers his whole identity may be a lie. This remake of the 1990 Paul Verhoeven film offers one improvement over the original: Farrell, unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, can act. But like the middle mammary of a triplebreasted mutant Mars dweller, Total Recall 2012 ultimately feels extraneous. ★★ ½