The International ★★½
Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) along with Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) attempt to expose a world-renowned financial institution’s role in an international arms dealing ring. This action-thriller is worth the rental.
Watchmen ★★★
When one of the, now retired Watchmen is murdered, the masked crime fighters reunite to find the culprit. Set in 1985 America where Nixon is president and fears of nuclear Armageddon occupies the country’s agenda. Sex and violence are abundant in this -not your average- superhero movie.
Fast & Furious ★½
This fourth entry reunites original stars Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) -now a fugitive and ex-con- with agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker). When Toretto’s lover Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is killed, they are forced to confront and take down a shared enemy, Mexican drug lord Arturo Braga. Interesting opening scene, nothing more.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ★★★½
In this sixth installment of Potter wizardry, Dumbledore senses the Dark Lord’s ever threatening presents and prepares Harry for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Uniting with retired Hogwarts’ professor Horace Slughorn, who holds crucial information into Voldemort’s past, they set out to unravel the mystery behind the Dark Lord’s immortality. Love & romance add humor to this dark tale.
Stone of Destiny ★★★
Four Scottish university students led by Ian Hamilton (Charlie Cox), break into Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve 1950 to liberate and return Scotland’s most powerful symbol, the Stone of Scone. The young nationalists were eventually arrested for their actions and the stone returned to England, but not without reignited Scottish national pride. Based on a true story.
Knowing ★★
Astrophysics professor John Koestler’s (Nicolas Cage) son obtains a cryptic letter containing scattered numbers that was buried 50 years earlier in a grade school time capsule. Koestler’s investigation reveals the digits relate to dates, locations and number of deaths of major world disasters occurring after the capsule was buried, including the near future. A few good special effects added to a dragged out plot.
(500) Days of Summer ★★★½
This romantic comedy tells the story of the relationship staring Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) that bounces back and forth between the 500 days of their trials and tribulations. Tom is looking for his soul mate, while Summer wants her independence. An entertaining feel-good movie, depicting present-day romance.
New in Town ★★
A big city administrator from Miami named Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger), lands an opportunity to climb the executive ladder by taking on a temporary assignment in rural Minnesota to restructure a small town manufacturing plant. Very few laughs in this simple script.
Inkheart ★★½
Mortimer Folchart (Brendan Fraser) has the gift of being able to bring characters from a book to life, when read aloud. But when Mortimer reads Inkheart to his three year old daughter, his wife mysteriously vanishes. Nine years later they set out to bring her back through an excursion filled with supernatural experiences. Just interesting enough to keep kids entertained.
Crossing Over ★½
The stories of immigrants trying desperately to live the American dream, including prostitution, violence and betrayal. Max Brogan (Harrison Ford) is a Customs Enforcement Agent attempting to control the frequent chaos in the city streets of Los Angeles. This movie was a total waste of Harrison Ford’s talent.
Gran Torino ★★★
Retired auto worker/Korean war veteran Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) seeks reclusion in his home after loosing his wife and having always rejected his two sons. Kowalski’s Gran Torino unexpectedly helps find common cause between him and a pair of Hmong teenagers living next door. Eastwood plays a great crabby old man.
He’s Just Not That Into You ★★½
A canny interconnecting journey of struggling couple relationships, including a pair who live together but keep postponing their marriage. A woman who wants to have a baby, unaware that her husband is cheating on her with a yoga instructor. And a self-deceiving blunderer in need of straight talk from a good guy. Smothered with romantic comedy clichés.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ★★★½
A few years have passed since Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), Optimus Prime and the Autobots saved mankind from the invading Decepticons. Upon the National Security Advisor’s orders to terminate earth’s Top Secret military team NEST and to free our planet of Transformers, Optimus warns of the consequences facing an inevitable Decepticon invasion. Entertaining, but should have been generously edited.
Fanboys ★★½
Four childhood friends from the Midwest drive across the States to honor their dying companion’s wish, to watch -Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace-before it’s worldwide release at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in California. This movie had fan-based potential but missed the target.
Fired Up ★★
Shawn and Nick are the Ford High School football team’s elite players both on and off the field. When summer cheer camp arrives, they device a way to join their mediocre cheer club strictly for scoring purposes. It turns out, they actually give their team a chance at competing against their rivals. More an R-rated movie than PG-13.
Bride Wars ★★½
Best friends Liv (Kate Hudson) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) have been planning their weddings since childhood. When they both get proposed at the same time, the madness begins. Unfortunately a clerical error regarding wedding dates occurs and both are scheduled on the same day. Each wanting the “perfect wedding” leads to an all out war of the brides.
Defiance ★★★★
In 1941 thousands of Eastern European Jews were being methodically eliminated from their villages carried out by the Nazi army. Three brothers, Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski escape the massacres and take to the familiar forest for refuge. Soon they are united with others, forming a small community that endure years of sickness, famine and battling the enemy to stay alive. Based on a true story.
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans ★★
This sequel has young Lucian (Michael Sheen) a Lycan, leading a rally of enslaved werewolves to rise up against the vampire king Viktor (Bill Nighy) who has persecuted them for hundreds of years. The king’s daughter Sonja (Rhona Mitra) betrays her father and joins Lucian in his battle for freedom. Regrettably the action sequences get lost in an overlay of special effects.
Up ★★★★
When a retired balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen decides to fulfill his lifelong dream and venture to South America by attaching a multitude of balloons to his house setting it afloat, an unsuspected guest-8 year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell- tags along for the ride. Great comradeship between the elderly and the young. Visually remarkable.
Passengers ★★
A grief therapist, Claire (Anne Hathaway) is assigned to counsel the five remaining survivors of a plain crash. Claire is attracted to Eric (Patrick Wilson) who is mysteriously in denial of the incident. Her suspicion of a cover-up as survivors begin disappearing one by one is answered when Claire acquires an unexpected conclusion.
Frost/Nixon ★★★★
Director Ron Howard captures the four historic television interviews between former president Richard Nixon(Frank Langella) and interviewer David Frost(Michael Sheen). The fourth and most memorable dialogue between the two men featured Nixon admitting and apologizing to the American people, any wrong doing regarding the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam war. Nominated for five Oscars.
Outlander ★★½
A space craft crash lands into ancient Norway during the time of the Vikings bringing with it a soldier named Kainan and a creature Moorwen from another space and time. Both are seeking revenge from past crimes regarding elimination of one anothers existence. Kainan forms an alliance with the local primeval villagers to destroy the beast once and for all. Produced by Barrie Osborne (The Lord of the Rings).
My Bloody Valentine 3D ★½
In the peaceful town of Harmony, Tom Hanniger (Jensen Ackles) accidentally killed five men in a coal mining incident, leaving a lone survivor Harry Warden in a coma. On Valentine’s Day exactly one year later, Harry woke from his slumber and began a pickaxe killing spree. Not even the 3D effects could save this movie.
Valkyrie ★★★½
Valkyrie is based on the true story of a German Colonel, Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) and his conspirator’s failing attempt to assassin Adolf Hitler near the final stages of WWII. Solid portrayal of a historic event.
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