Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: January 16-18, 2009

Paul Blart: Mall Cop tops the box office with an estimated $33.8 million

Daily Box Office: Sunday, January 18, 2009

Paul Blart: Mall Cop tops Sunday's box office with an estimated $10.8 million

"Notorious" (R, 123 minutes). The life and early death of Christopher Wallace, known as the rapper Notorious B.I.G. Another rapper, Jamal (Gravy) Woolard, looks and sound uncannily like B.I.G. in the title role, as do Antonique Smith as his wife Faith Evans, and Angela Bassett as his mother, Violetta. Derek Luke is B .I.G.'s manager, Sean (Puffy) Combs. Good music, strong story, subtle message. Rating: Three and a half stars.

Che / ***1/2 (R)

"Che" (R, 258 minutes). Benecio Del Toro gives a heroic performance as the revolutionary Che Guevara, who fought with Castro to victory in Cuba and then by himself to eventual defeat in Bolivia. The movie is neither a conventional biopic or war movie; it is more about Guevera's will, or obsession, to carry on. Steven Soderbergh's approach avoid the usual hero-outlined-by-sunrise conventions and shows the almost unendurable physical and mental conditions under which Che lived for years in the countryside. Rating; Three and a half stars

Paul Blart: Mall Cop / *** (PG)

"Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (PG, 87 minutes). Kevin James stars as a fat schlub who transforms himself into an action hero during a vintage critic at a New Jersey mall. Slam-bam slapstick, preposterous, funny, using a Segeway like a NASCAR winner. Rating: Three stars

Last Chance Harvey / *** (PG-13)

"Last Chance Harvey" (PG-13, 92 minutes). A tremendously appealing love story in a movie that doesn't do it justice. Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are pitch-perfect as two depressed strangers in London who may have found refuge in one another. A touching scene at a wedding. But their story is diluted by a gratuitous subplot about her mother, and too many montages substituting for dialogue. Three stars.

Hotel for Dogs / **1/2 (PG)

"Hotel for Dogs" (PG, 100 minutes). a sweet, innocent family movie about stray dogs that seem as well-trained as Olympic champions. Emma Roberts) and Jake T. Austin play a brother and sister in foster care, who turn an abandoned hotel into a foster hotel of their own for stray dogs--eventually dozens of them, who all seem trained to within an inch of their lives. Fun for the Nickelodeon crowd. Rating: Two and a half stars.

Defiance / **1/2 (R)

"Defiance" (R, 136 minutes). Based on the true story of a group of Jews in Belarus who defied the Nazis, hid in the forest, and maintained a self-contained society while losing only about 50 of their some 1,200 members. Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell play three of the Bielski brothers, whose defiance was the most successful Jewish resistance. Well mounted and acted, but losing focus with romantic and personality conflicts. Rating: Two and a half stars.

El Camino / *** (No MPAA rating)

"El Camino" (Unrated, 87 minutes). A quiet, pure American road movie, freed of the requirements of plot, requiring only a purpose and a destination. Leo Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Moss and Christopher Denham meet at the funeral of a friend, and end up driving together to Mexico to scatter his ashes, and also perhaps the ashes of their own false starts in life. Elegantly filmed in widescreen, elegaic, contemplative. Directed by Erik S. Weigel. Rating: Three stars.

Chandni Chowk to China / ** (No MPAA rating)

"Chandni Chowk To China" (unrated, 168 minutes). Indian superstars Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone in the first Bollywood production to win a major studio release in North America. The story of a lowly potato chopper in Delhi who is declared the reincarnation of a Chinese kung fu hero, and imported to a village to battle the hoodlum who enslaves them. Martial arts, romance, double identities, song, dance, slapstick and special effects, all in double helpings. Not the best example of Bollywood tehy could have chosen. Rating: Two stars

Gran Torino / ***1/2 (R)

by Roger Ebert I would like to grow up to be like Clint Eastwood. Eastwood the director, Eastwood the actor, Eastwood the invincible, Eastwood the old man. What other figure in the history of the cinema has been an actor for 53 years, a director for 37, won two Oscars for direction, two more for best picture, plus the Thalberg Award, and at 78 can direct himself in his own film and look meaner than hell? None, that's how many.

Revolutionary Road / **** (R)

by Roger Ebert Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. -- John Lennon "Revolutionary Road" shows the American Dream awakened by a nightmare. It takes place in the 1950s, the decade not only of Elvis but of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. It shows a young couple who meet at a party, get married and create a suburban life with a nice house, a manicured lawn, "modern" furniture, two kids, a job in the city for him, housework for her, and martinis, cigarettes, boredom and desperation for both of them.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / **1/2 (PG-13)

by Roger Ebert "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a splendidly made film based on a profoundly mistaken premise. It tells the story of a man who is old when he is born and an infant when he dies. All those around him, everyone he knows and loves, grow older in the usual way, and he passes them on the way down. As I watched the film, I became consumed by a conviction that this was simply wrong.

The Reader / ***1/2 (R)

by Roger Ebert The crucial decision in "The Reader" is made by a 24-year-old youth, who has information that might help a woman about to be sentenced to life in prison, but withholds it. He is ashamed to reveal his affair with this woman. By making this decision, he shifts the film's focus from the subject of German guilt about the Holocaust and turns it on the human race in general. The film intends his decision as the key to its meaning, but most viewers may conclude that "The Reader" is only about the Nazis' crimes and the response to them by post-war German generations.

Great Movie: After Hours (1985)

by Roger Ebert "After Hours" approaches the notion of pure filmmaking; it's a nearly flawless example of -- itself. It lacks, as nearly as I can determine, a lesson or message, and is content to show the hero facing a series of interlocking challenges to his safety and sanity. It is "The Perils of Pauline" told boldly and well.