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The Wolfman / **1/2 (R)
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"The Wolfman" (R, 125 minutes). Suitably gloomy, Gothic and violent retelling of the classic 1941 story, with dark and atmospheric settings of foggy moorlands and a decaying mansion. Benecio Del Toro stars as a long-estranged son who returns to the family home after the death of his brother, to encounter his grieving sister in law (Emily Blunt) and his sinister father (Anthony Hopkins), who doesn't seem as grief-stricken as he should. Two and a half stars.
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Valentine's Day / ** (PG-13)
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"Valentine's Day" (PG-13, 124 minutes). A traffic jam of 21 stars leads to a gridlocked plot. From dawn to midnight, a group of incredibly attractive people inhabit incredibly routine plots. No time to develop realistic characters as the movie juggles its stories. With Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway and lots more. Rating: Two stars
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Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief / *** (PG-13)
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"Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief? (PG-13, 119 minutes). A teenage New Yorker ( Logan Lerman) discovers he is a demigod: The son of the Greek god Poseidon Kevin McKidd and a human mother (Catherine Keener). Accused by an angry Zeus (Sean Bean) of having stolen his lightning bolt, he finds himself in the middle of an Olympian feud also involving Hades Steve Coogan), Medusa (Uma Thurman), Persephone (Rosario Dawson) and Pierce Brosnan as the centaur Chiron. Directed as goofy fun by Chris Columbus. Three stars
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Still Bill / ***1/2 (No MPAA rating)
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"Still Bill" (Unrated, 85 minutes). A gentle, wise and moving documentary about the musician Bill Withers, who between 1971 and 1985 had a string of big hits like "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Lean On Me," and then one day stopped performing. No tragic reason: He felt satisfied, and wanted to spend time with the wife and two children he loved. Here is a gifted and thoughtful man, who avoided the usual demons of show business and lives what seems manifestly to be a happy life. Warm. And with a lot of his music. Three and a half stars
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Saint John of Las Vegas / ** (R)
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"Saint John of Las Vegas" (R, 85 minutes). Steve Buscemi is a claims adjuster and compulsive gambler who unwise returns to Las Vegas to look into a possible fraud. His partner on the trip is Romany Malco, Sarah Silverman plays his sexy cubicle neighbor, Peter Dinklage is the boss, and Emmanuelle Chriqui is Tasty D Lite, a lap dancer who doesn't let a neck injury slow her down. Sounds better than it is. All elbows. Inspired by Dante's Inferno," but you won't need to take your copy. Two stars.
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Dear John / ** (PG-13)
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"Dear John" (PG-13,105 minutes). A Special Forces soldier and a sweet South Carolina rich girl Meet Cute, fall in love, and pledge to meet and marry when his tour ends in a year. But it s not to be. Another one of those bittersweet Nicholas Sparks stories that laboriously endeavor to wring from us a sad smile. I was sadly smiling not at their loss, but of mine. Although Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried are attractive and well-matched as the would-be lovers, and Richard Jenkins makes autism seem kinda sweet (if it's a mild case), this movie is so doomed to end exactly the way it does that we wonder why the characters don't prevent it, if they want to. Two stars
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Fish Tank / **** (No MPAA rating)
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"Fish Tank" (Unrated, adults, 123 minutes). The harrowing portrait of a 15-year-old girl on a reckless path toward self-destruction. Her mother, only about 30, is a drunken slut and she seems on the same path. Covers a few days of fraught experiences with sex and anger. Superbly acted by newcomer Katie Jarvis. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes 2009. Directed by Andrea Arnold. Four stars.
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From Paris With Love / ** (R)
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"From Paris with Love" (R, 92 minutes). John Travolta as an American Mr. Fix It who takes a cocky attitude to Paris and backs it up in a messy plot heavy on action scenes concocted from CGI and quick cutting. Nothing original, convincing or involving, although Travolta succeeds almost by being in a movie of his own. Directed by Pierre Morel, whose previous film, "Taken," was much better. Two stars.
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The Last Station / *** (R)
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"The Last Station" (R, 110 minutes). On his country estate, in his last year, Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) rules over a household of intrigues. His wife Sofya (Helen Mirren) is in fierce battle with his disciple Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), who thinks the Count should leave his estate to the Russian people, and not to Sofya and their 13 children. Cherkov hires young Valentin (James McAvoy) to act as Tolstoy's private secretary and a spy, but Valentin is seduced by a nubile Tolstoyian (Kerry Condon) and broadens his views about the great man. Sort of a Merchant-Ivory picture with loud instead of quiet lust. Three stars.
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Great Movie: Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
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When I was still living in Urbana, I would often take my mother for a drive. If our way took us past the Champaign County Nursing Home, she'd invariably say, "There's where I'm going to end up." She saw herself old and lonely, abandoned by her only son. This was when she was only in her 50s. She said she'd been shaped by the Depression, when old people for the first time had to "live on the county."
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