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Dinner for Schmucks / *** (PG-13)
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"Dinner for Schmucks" (PG-13, 114 minutes) Paul Rudd plays an ambitious young executive invited to a special dinner party by his boss: Each guest has to bring a guest of his own who is a perfect idiot. Biggest idiot wins. Rudd isn't interested until he meets Steve Carell, playing a man whose hobby is filling giant dollhouses worth elegantly dressed dead mice. It's quite a dinner party. Three stars
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Best Worst Movie / *** (Unrated)
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"Best Worst Movie" (Unrated, 91 minutes). Engaging documentary about the filming, actors and legacy of "Troll 2," widely considered to be the worst film ever made. Directed by its child actor, now grown up, it centers on Arkansas dentist George Hardy, an enormously likable man, who gets caught up in a round of revival screenings jammed by "Troll 2" fans who recite the dialog with the movie. (It was about vegetarian goblins who made their human victims sprout limbs and leaves.) Three stars
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Farewell / ***1/2 (Unrated)
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"Farewell" (Unrated; 113 minutes). The long-untold true Cold War spy story that the real Ronald Reagan called "one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th century." A KGB colonel (Emir Kusturica) and a French businessman (Guilaume Cant) smuggle Soviet secrets to the West and change the course of history. A tense thriller, an emotional drama about the cost of keeping secrets from one's family, and a fascinating piece of world political history. (JE) Three and a half stars.
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Salt / **** (PG-13)
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"Salt" (PG-13, 100 minutes). A damn fine thriller. It does all the things I can't stand in bad movies, and does them in a good one. Angelina Jolie stars as a CISA agent fighting ingle-handedly to save the world from nuclear destruction. Hardly a second is believable, but so what? Superbly crafted, it's a splendid example of a genre action picture. Directed by Philip Noyce. Four stars
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Ramona and Beezus / *** (G)
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?Ramona & Beezus? (G, 103 minutes). A sweet comedy inspired by the much-loved novels by Beverly Cleary. Joey King sparkles as the innocent-looking 9-year-old trouble-magnet Ramona, and Disney star Selena Gomez plays her teenage sister. Ramona gets into dire situations in everyday life, and James Bondian predicaments in her daydreams. A featherweight comedy of no great consequence, except undoubtedly to kids about Ramona's age. Three stars
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