Roger Ebert Movie Review - 02/19/10, 09:34

Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: February 12-15, 2010

Valentine's Day tops the box office with $63.1 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Valentine's Day tops Wednesday's box office with $2.2 million

"Shutter Island" (R, 135 minutes). Leonardo Di Caprio and Mark Ruffalo are U.S. Marshals called to a forbidding island in Boston bay, the home of an old Civil War fort now used as a prison for the criminally insane. A child murderer has escaped her cell. Martin Scorsese relentlessly blends music, visuals, special effects and all of film noir tradition into an elegant horror film as fragmented as a nightmare. If you're blind-sided by the ending, ask yourself: How should it have ended? How could it have? Three and a half stars

Ajami / *** (No MPAA rating)

"Ajami" (Unrated, 120 minutes). On the mean streets of Jaffa, interconnect vendettas lead to a chain or murder. Complicating them is a system of loyalties to religions, ethnic groups, families and criminal competitors. The first murder was perhaps deserved, the second took place in error, and then others follow in a sort of domino effect. The point perhaps is that this story is the Middle East in miniature, and that hatreds move beyond obscure beginnings and take on an energy of their own. Co-written and directed by an Israeli and a Palestinian. A 2010 Oscar nominee in the foreign category. Three stars

Creation / *** (PG-13)

Darwin, it is generally agreed, had the most important idea in the history of science. Thinkers had been feeling their way toward it for decades, but it took Darwin to begin with an evident truth and arrive at its evident conclusion: Over the passage of many years, more successful organisms survive better than the less successful. The result is the improvement of future generations. This process he called "natural selection."

Blood Done Sign My Name / *** (PG-13)

"Blood Done Sign My Name" (R, 128 minutes). Dramatization of the changes that took place in Oxford. N.C., after the beating and murder of a young black Viet veteran by three white racists, and their acquittal by an all-white jury. Based on fact; one of the characters is Ben Chavis, later head of the NAACP. Straightforward. No fancy footwork, but involving and moving. Three stars

Happy Tears / *** (R)

"Happy Tears" (R, 95 minutes). Steady sister Laura (Demi Moore) and ditzy sister Jayne (Parker Posey) have to make a decision about their father Joe (Rip Torn), who is approaching senility under the care of his "nurse" Shelly (Ellen Barkin). She looks to us as if she practices a far older profession than nursing. Jayne is a compulsive shopper, dedicated to spending he money of her rich husband, and Laura is a scientist. They're opposites, except for family bonds that run more deeply than lifestyles. Torn is cantankerous, angry and stubborn as a mule. The movie is done with a nice screwy, sometimes stoned humor. Three stars

The Wolfman / **1/2 (R)

"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.

Valentine's Day / ** (PG-13)

"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

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
/ *** (PG-13)

"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

Still Bill / ***1/2 (No MPAA rating)

"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

Saint John of Las Vegas / ** (R)

"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.