Movies

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This article was published 26/02/2009 (6060 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Globe, Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A
The Oscars have spoken, and for a change, they were absolutely right in celebrating director Danny Boyle’s (Trainspotting) masterfully told drama about an 18-year-old slum-dweller in Mumbai who arouses the suspicions of authorities when he is about to score a fortune on India’s version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Where other best picture nominees may have individually boasted qualities of intelligence, heart, style, or sheer story-telling bravado, Slumdog had it all.

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JONAS BROTHERS: THE 3D CONCERT EXPERIENCE
Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital. G
Jo-bros Kevin, Joe and Nick are comin’ at ya in this 3D concert film shot during their Burning Up tour, with guest stars Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift.

STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI
Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A
In this second movie adaptation of the Capcom fighting game, a cadre of noble martial artists join forces to do battle with the sinister mob overlord Bison (Neal McDonough) as he and his gang take over the slums of Bangkok in a bid for ultimate power.

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

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC
Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG
Isla Fisher is Rebecca Bloomwood, a gal who believes too strongly in the healing power of retail shopping in this ill-timed, extremely clichéd comedy based on the bestsellers by Sophie Kinsella.

CORALINE
Polo Park. PG
A lonely little girl discovers a door in her new house leads to a seemingly better alternate universe. This rapturous gothic fantasy based on the novel by Neil Gaiman is the first stop-motion animation feature to be filmed in 3D. But director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) never uses the technology to poke at the viewer, instead submerging us in a world that is alternately shabby, eccentric, gorgeous — and just a little terrifying.

FIRED UP
Kildonan Place, Polo Park. 14A
A comedy about two horny high school football players who infiltrate cheerleading camp to score women couldn’t possibly be anything but moronic and adolescent. What’s surprising, though, is that within this premise lies a streak of giddy humour that makes the whole endeavour more tolerable than it ought to be. (Reviewed by Christy Lemire)

FRIDAY THE 13TH
Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 18A
This reboot of the tawdry horror franchise offers up somewhat more skilled filmmaking and a driving pace as it revives the character of Jason Voorhees, the hockey-masked terror of horny camp counsellors everywhere.

GRAN TORINO
Kildonan Place, Grant Park. 14A
Clint Eastwood plays a crabby Korean War vet who dislodges a few of his long-held prejudices when he inadvertently becomes a protector to the Asian family next door. While this is Eastwood’s funniest film, it also feels like a bookend to Unforgiven in the way it serves as a considered renunciation of the reactionary violence of his previous movies, especially the Dirty Harry series.

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU
Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG
Despite a cast of A-list talents including Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly and Jennifer Aniston, this film is neither funny nor dramatic, as it attempts to decipher the hidden signs and omens of modern romance. (Reviewed by Katherine Monk)

HOTEL FOR DOGS
Polo Park. G
A group of plucky kids resolve to turn an abandoned hotel into a makeshift shelter for stray dogs in this comedy starring Emma Roberts. It’s as clever and cute as a brainless, playful puppy, and ultimately just as exhausting.

THE INTERNATIONAL
Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A
A single-minded Interpol agent (Clive Owen) is determined to get the goods on an international bank that employs bribery, massive corruption and even hitmen in its dirty dealings. Director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) largely forgoes jittery Bourne-like action (except for a massive action centerpiece involving the devastation of the Guggenheim Museum) and channels the spirit of Alan J. Pakula, the master of the SSRq70s paranoid thriller, with satisfying results.

PAUL BLART: MALL COP
Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG
Kevin James is a mild-mannered mall security guard who gets a chance to practise big league law enforcement when organized criminals take over his shopping centre. A conscious blend of the Die Hard-style action film with the Fatty Fall Down comedy genre, this is innocuous fun for the juvenile — and the juvenile at heart.

THE PINK PANTHER 2
Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG
Steve Martin’s version of Inspector Clouseau seeks a crafty thief with the aid of a "dream team" of international sleuths (including Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina and the gorgeous Bollywood star Rai Bachchan) but the movie’s few laughs occur when Martin is onscreen by himself. A few laughs makes this better than the last one, but not by much.

PUSH
Kildonan Place, Polo Park. 14A
Chris Evans plays a telekinetic drifter who teams with a precognitive girl (Dakota Fanning) to evade a sinister network of psychically gifted bad guys. The movie offers novelty in its grungy Hong Kong locations and its tendency to frame a superhero movie in a real-world context. But the ending is such a cop-out, one could not in good conscience predict a sequel.

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
Globe. 14A
A largely improvised drama starring Anne Hathaway as a former addict who leaves rehab to attend the Connecticut wedding of her sister (Rosemary DeWitt). It may seem occasionally overwrought, but it has the ragged edges of reality in it with director Jonathan Demme in firm command of this dizzying emotional roller coaster.

THE READER
Grant Park. 18A
In postwar Germany, a young man (David Kross) learns that the older woman Hanna (Kate Winslet) — with whom he had a youthful affair — is a war criminal. Brilliantly played by the Oscar-winning Winslet, Hanna offers none of the comfort of a caricature of Nazi evil; she is a flesh and blood character, and this is a sensitive, literate portrait of one man’s reconciliation with the past.

THE STONE OF DESTINY
Grant Park. PG
Four young Glaswegian students contrive a scheme to steal a symbolic stone from Westminster Abbey in this lightly whimsical period heist movie. A Canadian-U.K. co-production, it errs on the side of Canadian good manners in leaving out any kind of adversarial content, which tends to undercut the suspense a wee … lot.

TAKEN
Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A
When two young American women are abducted and forced into white slavery by a mob of Albanians, it’s up to a retired secret agent (played by Liam Neeson) to save his estranged daughter (Maggie Grace) from a life of prostitution. Director Pierre Morel creates enough elegant action to distract us from the inanity while Neeson does all the heavy thespian lifting without breaking a sweat. (Reviewed by Katherine Monk)

UNDER THE SEA 3D
IMAX G
It’s too bad Luther Vandross and Barry White are no longer with us. Their voices would have been more appropriate than Jim Carrey’s sincere tones in providing a sensual touch to this most sensuous of IMAX’s undersea 3D films, which include sexy jellyfish, playful sea lions and spacey under-seascapes.

THE UNINVITED
Polo Park. 14A
A remake of a Korean chiller about two sisters struggling to cope with the tragic death of their mother, and their father’s carnal relationship with her former nurse. Despite some strong moments fuelled by powerful performances, it fails to cash in on the psychological creepshow and sinks into the graveyard of visual cliché. (Reviewed by Katherine Monk)

THE WRESTLER
Grant Park. 14A
Two decades after peaking as a professional wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is struggling to sustain his career while romancing a stripper (Marisa Tomei) and reconnecting with a bitterly resentful daughter (Evan Rachel Wood). Director Darren Aronofsky achieves much with little in the way of production values, handheld cameras, and Mickey Rourke in his most honest, close-to-the-bone performance.