Movie Stars

New releases

The documentary ''Man on Wire,'' focuses on Philippe Petit, a French aerialist who walked between the Twin Towers in 1974. (alan weiner/associated press)

Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – +

August 10, 2008

New releases

"Bottle Shock" A charming if cliched fictionalized drama about "the Judgment of Paris" - the 1976 blind tasting that established California wine as the equal of France. Most of the movie takes place at a dusty Napa vineyard run by Bill Pullman and his hippie son Chris Pine; Alan Rickman is the snobby little Brit who comes to test their wares. "Sideways" it's not, but the ambience and wine-talk feel just right. (110 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

"Boy A" It comes frustratingly close to succeeding as tragedy. A meek young Englishman named Jack (Andrew Garfield) who is just released and relocated to Manchester from prison after serving time for his part in murder committed as a boy. The filmmakers then introduce more string-pulling symbolism than a movie this inherently sad ever needs. (100 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

"Hell Ride" A self-amused, self-conscious, seriously limp throwback to the motorcycle movies of the 1970s. Written by, directed, and starring Larry Bishop, it's set on the arid highways of the American Southwest and revolves around some kind of revenge plot. The film should be a lot more fun than it is. It works better if you think of it as 83 minutes in a tannery. With Eric Balfour, Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, David Carradine, and, naturally, Dennis Hopper. (83 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

"In Search of a Midnight Kiss" Alex Holdridge's first movie is a romantic comedy with film noir shadows. A lovelorn Los Angeles video store clerk (Scott McNairy) whips up a Craigslist personals ad ("Misanthrope seeks misanthrope," it begins) and gets a call a bossy blonde (Sara Simmonds). The movie is actually about discovery, the way two transplants to L.A. can discover its underpopulated splendors while discovering each other. That they do most of this on foot constitutes a major leap of imagination. (97 min., Unrated) (Wesley Morris)

"Mad Detective" A stylishly funky Hong Kong thriller from cult director Johnnie To ("Triad Election") about a brilliant cop (Lau Ching Wan) who's also a raving paranoid schizophrenic. Do his visions make him a better detective or do they just strain his gifts through a veil of psychosis? The movie's not really interested in an answer, but it's a gritty, engagingly weird piece of work nevertheless. In Cantonese, with subtitles. (89 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)

"Man on Wire" Early on the morning of August 7, 1974, a French aerialist named Philippe Petit walked back and forth on a cable stretched between the towers of the recently completed World Trade Center in Manhattan. Using interviews, archival footage, and dramatic re-enactments to recreate the illegal stunt, James Marsh's documentary is a spine-tingling memorial to recklessness as art, and it reclaims the Twin Towers as a stage for dreaming. (94 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

"The Night James Brown Saved Boston" During James Brown's famous 1968 concert at the Boston Garden the night after Martin Luther King's assassination, some black teenagers and young men began to storm the stage. White policemen approached. Brown started yelling at the crowd. "Step down there. Be a gentleman," he told one boy. The crowd calmed, and violence was averted. The film, directed by David Leaf and narrated by Dennis Haysbert, is a straightforward retelling of those events, interspersing concert footage with talking heads. (74 min., unrated) (Joanna Weiss)

"Pineapple Express" Seth Rogen and James Franco play two potheads on the run from gun-waving bad guys. It'd be nice to report that this buddy-stoner-action goof from producer Judd Apatow and indie director David Gordon Green represents a new kind of fusion cinema. Disappointingly, it's less than the sum of its ingredients, even if it's still a pretty good stupid time at the movies. Costarring Danny McBride, Gary Cole, and Rosie Perez. (111 min., R) (Ty Burr)

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" You mean those faded jeans are still out there, with all the customized doodads and the magical ability to fit Ugly Betty, the former Joan of Arcadia, and two CW girls (one Gossip, one ex-Gilmore)? Aren't these ladies too old for this? They are, and in this draggy, borderline epic sequel to the 2005 hit, they're thinking about folding the pants up for good. Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, and Blake Lively reprise their roles. In the intervening years, they've become pretty good actors. But where is the filmmaker who'll give them more to do than pregnancy scares and fall off donkeys? (117 min., PG) (Wesley Morris)

Previously released

"American Teen" Filmmaker Nanette Burstein went to a Warsaw, Ind., high school and followed four students - a queen bee, a jock, an alt-girl, and a nobody - through their senior year. The results are glib, overly shaped into narrative arcs, and still fascinating in the way they show 21st century adolescents reinventing themselves on a day-by-day, class-by-class basis. (95 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

"Baghead" The Duplass brothers ("The Puffy Chair") apply their no-budget, improvised slacker-movie approach to the horror film, and the results are witty and even a little scary in places. Four Hollywood boneheads cook up a screenplay about a killer with a paper bag on his head only to discover that he's real. Maybe. The movie wickedly deflates the tires of the slasher genre, shrugs, and walks away. (84 min., R) (Ty Burr)

"Brideshead Revisited" This new "Brideshead" has been adapted from Evelyn Waugh's novel about an Oxford student (Matthew Goode), his relationship with a classmate (Ben Whishaw), the classmate's sister Hayley Atwell, and the siblings' vast estate. What's missing is the philosophical glue that gives all the decadence a real quake of rebellion; the movie doesn't capture a tradition worth rejecting. With Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi, and an imperious Emma Thompson. (135 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

"The Dark Knight" A grimly Wagnerian summer blockbuster with a diseased butterfly named Heath Ledger flitting through its murk. Much more serious than 2005's "Batman Begins," Christopher Nolan's sequel feels carved from an even longer film, with confusing subplots and loose ends left hanging. Yet it works as an agonized big-muscle action epic with weighty themes, and the late Ledger gives his final performance a squirrelly incandescence. Costarring Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman. (152 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

"The Edge of Heaven" A great new melodrama from Fatih Akin, the director of "Head-On," which explores the fault line of the current Turkish-German situation through familial skirmishes carried out between generations. The terrific cast, including Baki Davrak, Nurgül Yesilçay, and, best of all, Hanna Schygulla, bears out the movie's uncertain but vaguely optimistic identity politics. (122 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)

"Encounters at the End of the World" Werner Herzog heads down to Antarctica to chat with the scientists, free spirits, and lost souls who make their lives there. Since the director assumes the human race is headed for extinction anyway, the movie's not a global-warming lecture but a funny and wise foray into natural wonder and man's groping attempts to grasp it. (99 min., G) (Ty Burr)

"Get Smart" Missed it by that much. The new version of the beloved 1960s spy-spoof series surrounds likable players and a handful of solid bellylaughs with $80 million worth of formulaic summer-movie mediocrity. Steve Carell is a sympathetically hangdog Maxwell Smart, Anne Hathaway makes an elegant Agent 99, and Alan Arkin is a crisp joy as the Chief. While many things explode, the movie never detonates. (110 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

"Girls Rock!" How are girls supposed to behave in a culture that tells them they're Disney princesses for the first 12 years and sex toys after that? This documentary about the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Ore., has one answer: Strap on a guitar and rage against the machine. It's a scattershot affair, but well worth seeing, especially if you have a young female-type person knocking about the house. (91 min., PG) (Ty Burr)

"Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" An overview of Thompson's pioneering journalism and his states of mind. It's serviceably presented as a fond glance in the rearview mirror of recent American history, connecting the travesties of the Nixon years to the travesties of our current administration and banally loaded with music of the era. Thompson is always at the center, but the scope occasionally loses its focus. Directed by Alex Gibney, who won a documentary Oscar for "Taxi to the Dark Side." (119 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

"Hancock" The idea of a misanthropic superhero is a good one. The idea of putting him in a comedy is even better. Having Will Smith play the hero? Genius. And maybe some future blockbuster will find a way to bundle it all into a thrilling work. In the meantime, there's this lousy vehicle. The movie does suggest a racial odyssey that culminates with an intriguing metaphor for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's tussle for the Democratic nomination. But it has a depressing lack of imagination. With Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron, directed by Peter Berg ("The Kingdom").(92 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" The most unapologetically comic book-y of the summer's comic-book movies, and thank goodness for that. Since the first "Hellboy" movie, director Guillermo del Toro has hit the big time with "Pan's Labyrinth," and here he seamlessly blends his art-house and gonzo genre sides. Ron Perlman again plays the big red fella, a demon working for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. (110 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" The umpteenth screen version of the 1864 Jules Verne novel is also the latest to attempt to take 3-D technology mainstream. The movie's perfectly engaging in a low-rent Saturday-matinee way, but when Brendan Fraser, as a goofball adventurer, spits toothpaste at the camera, you know the spirit of 1981's "Comin' At Ya!" lives on. Costarring Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem, and a hungry T. Rex. (92 min., PG) (Ty Burr)

"Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" The first "American Girls" movie is so warmly old-fashioned that it feels brand new. Abigail Breslin smacks of gingham and Ovaltine as the title character, a 1934 kid weathering the Depression with friends and family. Aside from a brief, silly mystery subplot, the movie has the nerve and the grace to show people pulling together to save each other from disaster. (101 min., G) (Ty Burr)

"The Last Mistress" The aging Spanish mistress (Asia Argento) of a 19th-century French rake (Fu'ad Ait Aattou) fights losing him to a young bride. Cool, carnal, and lethal, Catherine Breillat's film is a dissection of gender roles and power games disguised as a sumptuous period drama. It's slow and overly studied, but Argento breathes capricious warmth into her every scene. In French, with subtitles. (104 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)

"Mamma Mia!" Unexpected bliss. The movie takes the jukebox musical that ate London and is still eating Broadway (20 ABBA songs whose hooks are the pop equivalent of gum on your shoe) and turns it into an alarmingly sensual experience. A jolly Meryl Streep plays a hotel proprietress on a remote Greek isle who, in time for her daughter's wedding, is reunited with three exes (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard) and her two best friends (Julie Walters and Christine Baranski). After more than 30 years of movie acting, Streep is still finding fresh approaches to roles. This time she's a movie star. Finally. The rest of the cast, including Amanda Seyfried as her daughter, is almost just as good. (108 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

"Mongol" This foreign-language Oscar nominee is Sergei Bodrov's grand rendering of Genghis Khan before all the conquering and slaughter, when he was just a young warrior in love. Bodrov's restraint is the movie's most interesting virtue. It's as if he's surveyed Genghis's grisly resumé and distilled the tempestuousness to a contemplative calm. The Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano plays pre-khan Genghis - his name was Temujin. In Mongolian, with subtitles. (126 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" Nine years after the first big-budget action "Mummy" and seven years after its follow-up comes this jokey, frenetic, overproduced three-quel. Despite plenty of post-"Pirates of the Caribbean" zombie mayhem, it's strictly for kids and Brendan Fraser's bank account. Jet Li is wasted as the title villain and Maria Bello packs her most teddible British accent to replace Rachel Weisz. (113 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

"Space Chimps" A rambunctious circus chimp (voiced by Andy Samberg of "SNL") is drafted for an interstellar mission and learns about love, responsibility, and honor. This computer-animated family film is short, cheap, weird, and diverting enough for the toddler set; others beware. Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Patrick Warburton, and Kristin Chenoweth provide additional voices. (81 min., G) (Ty Burr)

"Step Brothers" The new Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly comedy has one good joke that it beats into the ground: grown men acting like crybaby 9-year-olds. The stars play layabouts forced to share a bedroom when parents Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins marry. It's an "Oh, no, they didn't" comedy: For every gross-out joke that works there are three that just lie there. Not for kids, no matter what the ads imply. (93 min., R) (Ty Burr)

"Swing Vote" A toothless, visionless comedy about a 10-year-old (Madeline Carroll) who winds up voting for president because her father (Kevin Costner) was too drunk to do it himself. The whole fictitious election comes down to her fraudulent vote, which, because of a momentary power outage at the polling station, didn't count. So both presidential campaigns and a frenzied news media descend on dusty, basic Texico, New Mexico, where nothing but platitudes are dispensed. With Paula Patton as a local reporter; Dennis Hopper and Kelsey Grammer as the candidates, and Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci as the men running their respective campaigns. (119 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

"Tell No One" Murder! Sex! Utter confusion! Guillaume Canet's thriller gives us a doctor (Francois Cluzet) re-accused of his wife's murder eight years after the first trial. Conveniently, he's also been getting e-mails that lead him to think she's not dead. Taken from one of Harlan Coben's American crime novels, the movie is less "Caché" than a highbrow Jason Statham picture. The all-star cast includes Kristen Scott-Thomas, François Berléand, Jean Rochefort, Marie-Josée Croze, Nathalie Baye, and André Dussollier, all put to the trashiest ends. In French, with subtitles. (125 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)

"The Wackness" 1994 Manhattan: Josh Peck plays a high school grad who sells pot to his psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley, delightful) while falling for the doctor's step-daughter (Olivia Thirlby of "Juno"). A coming-of-age drama from writer-director Jonathan Levine, it's a smart, sentimental, period-specific labor of love. It also runs along the track of earlier coming-of-age dramas, with appointed station stops at Cynicism, Puppy Love, Puppy Sex, Puppy Heartbreak, and Greater Wisdom. (95 min., R) (Ty Burr)

"WALL-E" Pixar takes the long-awaited great leap forward. A major visionary work, the film follows the last robot on a trash-ravaged Earth as he reconnects with the remnants of human civilization on an interstellar cruiseship. Funny and family-friendly? Yes, but also a sci-fi parable of astonishing scope and depth, anchored by an adorable bucket of bolts and yoked to a sensibility that is - there's no other word for it - furious. (97 min., G) (Ty Burr)

"Wanted" A preposterous, luridly entertaining entry in the angry-young-man-power-fantasy genre, about a cubicle weenie (James McAvoy) who learns he's descended from a medieval league of super-assassins (they take orders from a loom). Angelina Jolie, sleek and bulletproof, plays Beatrice to his Dante (or something); Morgan Freeman is their boss. Russian whizkid Timur Bekmambetov galvanizes the action but loses the subversive tone after an hour, and the film gets dumb fast. (110 min., R) (Ty Burr)

"Water Lilies" Céline Sciamma's first movie brings us two teenage best friends, played by Pauline Acquart and Louise Blachère, and their very important discovery: Sex. Sciamma doesn't do enough with that or the film's background sport (synchronized swimming). She's a smart, instinctive director, but too much of her movie is content to float when it ought to swim. In French, with subtitles. (85 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)

"The X-Files: I Want to Believe" But how can you? David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reunite for this lousy atonement for the previous movie of TV's sci-fi cult classic. This isn't so much for the fans, who will always have reruns, or the actors, who will always have residuals, but for the show's creator, Chris Carter, who like George Lucas, seems pathologically obsessed with his signature franchise well past its value. The truth is, indeed, still out there. And when Carter finds it, may he heed its wisdom: Let go. (100 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

"You Don't Mess With the Zohan" If this isn't the bravest movie ever made about current Arab-Israeli relations, it's at least the bravest movie ever made about current Arab-Israeli relations featuring a former Mossad agent who shags Lainie Kazan. Adam Sandler is said agent, who comes to America to style hair and winds up fighting old enemies. The film is a mess but a funny, ethnically roiled one that shows Sandler in an encouraging new mode: political farceur. (113 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)

An archive of movie reviews may be found at www.boston.com, the Globe's online service. Use the key words "movie reviews."

Globe critics rate films: excellent, good, fair, poor.