Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: January 30-February 1, 2009

Taken tops the box office with $24.7 million

Daily Box Office: Thursday, February 5, 2009

Taken tops Thursday's box office with $2.0 million

He's Just Not That Into You / ** (PG-13)

"He's Just Not That Into You" (PG-13, 129 minutes). Why does it mean when a guy doesn't call a girl back? Maybe, just maybe, it means he's just not that into her. Based on this self-help book, connecting stories starring Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly and Ginnifer Goodwin, who should be able to figure this out for themselves. Rating: Two stars.

The Pink Panther 2 / ** (PG)

"The Pink Panther 2" (PG, 92 minutes). Inspector Jacques Clouseau joins an international Dream Team to prevent the theft of the pink diamond that is France's pride. Steve Martin and a truly gifted cast are never fully realized in a comedy that doesn't pop out the supporting characters and lacks pay-offs to sight gags, so we're not nudged to laugh. Rating: Two stars.

Push / *1/2 (PG-13)

"Push" (PG-13, 111 minutes). A gaggle of paranormals fight in Hong Kong for I'm no quite sure what purpose, although it involves a briefcase as the MacGuffin, and many examples of the Talking Killer Syndrome. Dakota Fanning has a lot of pluck to travel alone at her age and meet up with these strangeos. With Chris Evans, Camilla Belle, Cliff Curtis and Djimon Hounsou. Rating: One and a half stars.

The Class / **** (PG-13)

"The Class" (Unrated, 129 minutes). A high school classroom turns into a microcosm of French society in this brilliant film, about student-teacher dynamics. Based on a novel by a teacher, François Bégaudeau, who plays himself, it shows a teacher who wants to excel and finds it is the students who, in the end, determine that possibility. Winner of Cannes 2008, a 2009 Academy nominee for best foreign film. Rating: Four stars

Coraline / *** (PG)

"Coralline" (PG, 101 minutes). An unpleasant little girl finds a tunnel opening from behind a painted-over door in her house, and follows it into a parallel world where her parents are replaced by Peter Mother and Other Father, whose eyes are sewn-in buttons. Inspired animated images by Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"); worth seeing for its artistry and the grotesque story, but maybe too scary for younger kids. The 3-D adds nothing. Rating: Three stars.

Fanboys / *1/2 (PG-13)

"Fanboys" (PG-13, 90 minutes). A carload of "Star Wars" fans make a cross-country odyssey in hopes of breaking into Skywalker Ranch, and stealing a print of "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace" so they can see it before anyone else. Along the way they encounter many "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" stars in cameo roles, compete in trivia Q&As, and are rather admired by the movie, which might have been better if it had poked a little fun at them. Rating: One and a half stars.

The Uninvited / *** (PG-13)

"The Uninvited" (PG-13, 87 minutes). Emily Browning from "Lemony Snickett" in a very different role in a well-made horror film, about a troubled teenager whose mother died in a fire, and whose father (David Strathairn) is now living with her mother's nurse (Elizabeth Banks). Skillfully constructed, with some genuine scares. Rating: Three stars

Wendy and Lucy / ***1/2 (R)

"Wendy and Lucy" (R, 80 minutes). Michelle Williams plays a lonely and brave young woman, bound for uncertain reasons to Alaska, whose car breaks down in Oregon and who loses the dog who is her only companion. Broke, hungry, she wanders an unfamiliar town, is threatened once but is mostly befriended, in an evocation of resolve in the face of emptiness. Sad and beautiful. Directed by Kelly Reichardt. Rating: R, for language.

Taken / **1/2 (PG-13)

"Taken" (R, 91 minutes). Liam Neeson plays a semi-retired CIA man whose daughter is kidnapped in Paris by traffickers in human bodies. Turning into a preposterously versatile one-man killing machine, he determines to track her down and save her from a fate worse than death, followed by death. If you can't wait for the next Bourne thriller, you don't have to. Rating: Two and a half stars.

The Romance of Astrea and Celadon / **1/2 (No MPAA rating)

"The Romance of Astrea and Celadon" (Unrated, 209 minutes). At 88, the French New Wave pioneer Eric Rohmer says this will be his last film. It's a pastoral romance set in Fifth Century Gaul, involving shepherds, shepherdesses, druids and nymphs. Astrea and Celadon are tragically separated, reunited in a plot hinging on disguise, and spend a great deal of time debating the loopholes of romantic love. Charming, sweet, languid, too leisurely. Rating: Two and a half stars.

New in Town / ** (PG-13)

"New in Town" (PG, 96 minutes). Renee Zellweger is a high-powered exec from Miami who flies into tiny New Ulm, Minn., to downsize the food plant. There she meets Blanche Gunderson (Siobhan Fallon Hogan), who talks just like Marge Gunderson's sister, and the plant's union rep, Harry Connick Jr., the only eligible man in town, so do the math. An awfully nice movie about very nice people in a very awfully predictable formula. Rating: Two stars.

Great Movie: Secrets & Lies (1996)

by Roger Ebert Too much attention is paid to Mike Leigh's famous method for "devising" his screenplays. It is well known that he imagines characters and a situation, casts actors to play the characters, joins with them in workshops where the dialogue and the plot take shape, and only then writes the screenplay. Quite true, but that doesn't mean he's winging it; his "Secrets & Lies" (1996) reveals a filmmaker who works with the most delicate precision to achieve exactly what he desires. The payoff for his method comes in scenes like the film's two very long and unbroken takes, when he calls on his actors to use the disciplines of the stage as well as the screen.

Movie Answer Man: Does IMDb's top 250 films list
Have a long-term memory gap?

Q. Am I alone in thinking that in recent years the Internet Movie Database voting system has been skewing its Top 250 list to the relative detriment of the world's great classic films? Specifically, and to be blunt, I'm talking about what seems to be ballot stuffing on the part of a predominantly buzz-motivated teen population for certain fashionable fanboy films. Short of scrapping the voting system altogether, I wonder if it wouldn't be more fair for the IMDb to begin an entirely new count and then put a moratorium on the polling of any new film for, say, at least one year from its release date. By keeping any candidate beyond the Academy Awards' marketeering season would mitigate the temporal zeal and level the playing field somewhat. "Casablanca" had to wait and work to build its reputation. Why shouldn't "WALL-E"? I have doubt the IMDb will act on this as the all-American obsession with "the best of tops" is firmly part of their bread and butter, but perhaps with a petition, we could move the gods. Soren Rasmussen, Paris A. Keith Simanton, IMDb's managing editor, replies: "Our Top 250, as voted by users, is just that, a list of the Top 250 films as voted on by our users. It's not a classic (ah, there's a subjective term!) list by any measure, nor is it a critic's list. We leave that to the professionals. "We do get bouts of irrational exuberance for some titles. I rather like it and find it analogous to my own experience. I've often felt more fondly about a film upon leaving the theater than my tempered opinion of it as the weeks and months pass. Our "this too shall pass" approach has proved itself out as this inflation value of the new is not a recent phenomenon. In 1991, "Beauty and the Beast" was the No. 1 title on the Top 250 and now it's not even in the chart; great movie though it is, things do tend to balance out over time. "At any moment there are always some recent titles in the list but they do find their level eventually. Some of them even continue to maintain a high level, one I personally would not have accorded them. We do appreciate the suggestion, however, as we're always looking for ways to improve the service, and this kicked off a great internal debate."

People: Paul Galloway: A beloved legend
"Sheep, Galloway, sheep!"

You can post comments about Paul; link at end of story. by Roger Ebert We will never hear his Sheep Story again. Nor will we enjoy his presence in a room, which was an invitation to good cheer. Paul Galloway, the most incomparable raconteur I ever met in a newsroom, is dead. Everyone who knew him will know what a silence that creates.

Commentary: Hey, Dude: Jeff Dowd downloads
on the Sparo-at-the Yarrow

In discussing his famous confrontation with a film critic at Sundance, Jeff (The Dude) Dowd sent me the following explanation, justification, context, autobiography, exhortation, news linkage and playlist. I reprint it for your convenience. RE By Jeff Dowd, Guest Commentary Okay. Let’s get down and dirty in the realm of ideas at the deep and of the pool and try to move past The Sparo-at-the-Yarrow and towards better films and a better future for us all. (Need I say: before it is too late?)

Commentary: DGA hails "Slumdog Millionaire," Ebert made a lifetime member

LOS ANGELES--Roger Ebert, film critic of the Sun-Times, was granted an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the Directors' Guild of America here Saturday night, receiving two standing ovations.