Roger Ebert Movie Review - 01/22/10, 10:41

Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: January 15-18, 2010

Avatar tops the box office with $54.4 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Avatar tops Wednesday's box office with $3.8 million

"35 Shots of Rum" (Unrated, 99 minutes). About four people who have known each other in way or another for a long time, and how their relationships shift in a way that was slow in the preparation. They live across the hall from one another in a Paris apartment building--a train engineer, a clerk in music store, a taxi driver, a rootless young man. Their likes are contended but not complete. Director Clair Denis has long been interested in the people of France's former colonies in East Africa, and now considers those who are Parisians. A delicate study of human affection. Four stars

The Tooth Fairy / ** (PG)

"The Tooth Fairy" (PG, 101 minutes). Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson stars as a pro hockey played nicknamed the Tooth Fairy because of the dental damage he wreaks. But when he nearly destroys a young girls' faith in the Tooth Fairy, he's sentenced to a term in Fairy Land where he meets the Head Fairy (Julie Andrews), the armorer (Billy Crystal) and a social worker (Stephen Merchant), who towers over The Rock, and he ain't short. With Ashley Judd as the hero's g.f. Good cast, limp screenplay, direction by the numbers. Two stars

Extraordinary Measures / ** (PG)

"Extraordinary Measures" (PG, 105 minutes). An efficient formula picture, lacking characters with depth, content to hit all the usual marks. Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell play the parents of two children with Pompe disease, given less than a year to live. He seeks out an eccentric Nebraska scientist (Harrison Ford) who is working on a controversial cure. He turns out to be an irascible eccentric. Together, they try to fund a biotech startup before time runs out for the kids. In real life, the colorful Nebraskan was from Taiwan, and the $300,000 annual cost for life isn't covered by most U.S insurance companies. The film lacks the bravery of the parents. Two stars

Gigante / *** (No MPAA rating)

"Gigante" (Unrated, 88 minutes). A very tall, large, strong, lonely security guard in a huge supermarket becomes fascinated with a cleaning woman he follows on his video monitors. Soon he follows her in life, everywhere. He is too shy to speak, but he is certainly resourceful. Newcomer Horacio Camandulle is the shy giant, Leonor Svarcas plays the object of his desire. An exercise in voyeurism; we want him to ask her out almost more than he does. From Uruguay, in Spanish with English subtitles. Three stars

The White Ribbon / **** (R)

"The White Ribbon" (R, 145 minutes). In a rural German village on the eve of World War One, bad things begin to happen. A murder, a barn fire, a cruel trick. Suspicion turns this way and that, but the facts don't seem to point to a single malefactor. The movie relates what happens but isn't a whodunit, and its message is that evil cannot be completely prevented and sometimes it takes place without a rational reason. The film has been described as about the rise of German fascism, but I think that's to simple. It's about how the rise of fear leads to the loss of freedom. Top winner at Cannes 2009. Four stars

The Book of Eli / *** (R)

"The Book of Eli" (R, 118 minutes). Denzel Washington strides west across an apocalyptic post-war America, in possession of a precious book that Gary Oldman, boss of a small town, will kill to possess. Denzel, a dab hand with knife and firearm, is poised somewhere between invulnerable and mystical, and Mila Kunis plays a victim of Oldman who walks along to escape. To call the conclusion implausible would be an insult to the world, but the film is very watchable. Three stars

A Town Called Panic / ***1/2 (No MPAA rating)

"A Town Called Panic" (G, 75 minutes). Know how kids play with little plastic action figures that balance their feet on their own little platforms? And how kids move them around while doing their voices and making up adventures for them? Then you have a notion of the goofy charm generated by this new animated comedy from France. Horse, Cowboy and Indian live with Farmer and Policeman in a tiny village?and Horse's birthday inspires strange adventures. So simple it's sophisticated. Three and a half stars

The Lovely Bones / *1/2 (PG-13)

"The Lovely Bones" (PG-13). A deplorable film with this message: If you're a 14-year-old girl who has been brutally raped and murdered by a serial killer, you have a lot to look forward to. You can get together in heaven with the other teenage victims of the same killer, and gaze down in benevolence upon your family members as they realize what a wonderful person you were. Peter Jackson ("Lord of the Rings") believes special effects can replace genuine emotion, and tricks up Alive Sebold's well-regarded novel with gimcrack New Age fantasies. With, however, affective performances by Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Saoirse Ronan as the victim. One star

The Spy Next Door / *1/2 (PG)

?The Spy Next Door? (PG, 92 minutes). Jackie Chan is a Chinese-CIA double agent babysitting girl friend's three kids as Russian mobsters attack. Uh, huh. Precisely what you'd expect from a PG-rated Jackie Chan comedy. If that's what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed. It's not what I was looking for. One and a half stars.

Araya / ***1/2 (No MPAA rating)

"Araya" (Unrated, 90 minutes). This 1959 documentary won the critics' Price at Cannes1959, but was almost forgotten. Restored to pristine beauty 50 years later, it shows the hard way of life of the salt workers on a remote Venezuelan peninsula. Stark, visually poetic, memory of a world that must have been hell to be born into. Three and a half stars