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Race to Witch Mountain / **1/2 (PG)
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"Race to Witch Mountain" (PG, 98 minutes). Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson and Carla (Silk Spectre) Gugino co-star with AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig, who play aliens masquerading as teenagers. They're pursued by hostile federal agents in a desperate chase to get to their flying saucer hidden inside Witch Mountain. Innocuous family entertainment, harmless and fun. Rating: Two and a half stars.
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The Last House on the Left / **1/2 (R)
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“The Last House on the Left” (R, 100 minutes). An expert horror film with an appalling rape scene. With Sara Paxton, Monica Potter, Tony Goldwyn, Garret Dillahunt. Rating: Two and a half stars.
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Everlasting Moments / **** (No MPAA rating)
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"Everlasting Moments" (Unrated, 131 minutes). The story, beginning in 1911, of a Swedish women who raised seven children in poverty, who has a husband who is kind when sober but frightening when drunk, and whose idea of herself is transformed when she begins to take photographs. A beautifully told story of striving, and of the varieties of love. By the great director Jan Troell. Rating: Four stars.
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Crossing Over / **1/2 (R)
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"Crossing Over" (R, 114 minutes). Harrison Ford stars as an U.S. immigration officer who is the connecting strand between stories of immigrants new and established, legal and illegal. The movie borrows its structure from "Crash," but has too many subplots, too many characters, too much implausibility. Still, if you can accept those, it's very watchable. With Ray Liotta, Cliff Curtis, Ashley Judd, Summer Bishil. Rating: Two and a half stars.
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Brothers at War / *** (R)
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"Brothers at War" (R, 110 minutes). Director Jake Rademacher felt two of his brothers growing away from him after their deployment in Iraq. So he took a camera crew and went to walk in their footsteps. Joining a U.S. Army unit commanded by his brothers Isaac and including his brother Joe, he followed them on door-to-door missions and border patrol, and often came under fire. What results is an honest, on the ground documentary about the daily tasks of his brothers. It provides a fresh. nonpolitical view of the war. Rating: Three stars
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The Cake Eaters / *** (No MPAA rating)
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“The Cake Eaters” (Unrated, 95 minutes). Kristen Stewart (“Twilight”) in a glowing performance as a teenager with a progressive muscular disease. She chooses a shy, nice boy (Aaron Stanford) to deliberately have sex with, because “I may not have much time.” A tender, good-hearted story directed by Mary Stuart Masterson, and co-starring Bruce Dern, Elizabeth Ashley, Melissa Leo and Aaron Stanford. Rating: Three stars.
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Tokyo! / **1/2 (No MPAA rating)
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"Tokyo!" (Unrated, 112 minutes). French directors Michel Gondry and Leos Carax and Korea's Bong Joon-ho contribute short films to a trilogy about the metropolis. The best is by Carax, who shows a madman emerging from a manhole and terrorizing the Ginza; dressed in green he may be a Godzilla substitute, or maybe not. All intriguing, none compelling. Rating: Two and a half stars.
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Waiting for Dublin / ** (No MPAA rating)
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"Waiting for Dublin" (Unrated, suitable for all. 83 minutes). An American pilot low on fuel lands in Ireland, falls in love, and has days to get his fifth kill before losing a deadly bet with a Chicago mobster. Perfectly sweet and harmless. The actors are pleasant, the locations (County Galway) are beautiful, but the movie is a wheeze. Rating: Two stars.
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Watchmen / **** (R)
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by Roger Ebert
After the revelation of “The Dark Knight,” here is “Watchmen,” another bold exercise in the liberation of the superhero movie. It’s a compelling visceral film — sound, images and characters combined into a decidedly odd visual experience that evokes the feel of a graphic novel. It seems charged from within by its power as a fable; we sense it’s not interested in a plot so much as with the dilemma of functioning in a world losing hope.
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Medicine for Melancholy / ***1/2 (No MPAA rating)
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"Medicine for Melancholy" is nothing more or less than the story of a man and a woman spending 24 hours together. It has no other agenda, which is part of its charm. Haven't we all spent some interesting time together with a stranger, talking a little about our lives, sharing a certain communion, with no certainty that we will ever see them again?
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The Black Balloon / *** (PG-13)
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by Roger Ebert
At the center of "The Black Balloon" is Toni Collette's performance as the mother of an autistic son. The way she meets this challenge opens a way to understand all the other characters. Her son Charlie can be sweet and lovable. He can also make life for his family all but unbearable. Collette, as his mother, Maggie, has been dealing with him for 17 years and seems to have long ago made her peace with the fact that Charlie is who he is and is not going to change. As his mother, she loves him.
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Great Movie: Exotica (1994)
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by Roger Ebert
Sex for money sometimes conceals great sadness. It can be sought to treat wounds it cannot heal. I believe that may happen less in actual prostitution than in the parody of prostitution offered in "gentleman's clubs." Whatever is going on is less about sex than psychological need, sometimes on both sides. Atom Egoyan's "Exotica" is a deep, painful film about those closed worlds of stage-managed lust.
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Movie Answer Man: Fanboys movie is idiotic, but
real fanboys not so much
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Q. After reading your "Fanboys" review, I was upset and angry. As a diehard "Star Wars" "Fanboy" who is far from "socially inept," I must say that if you think the film is a "celebration of an idiotic lifestyle," then you should go to a "Star Wars" convention and say that to every single person there, and let's see what they'll say to you. If you have a "good reason" for saying what you said, feel free to reply.
Alex D. Geslin, Greeley, Colo.
A. Well, the film is a celebration of an idiotic lifestyle. To me, that would involve driving to California to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal a print of the new "Star Wars" movie, but first making a detour to Iowa to have a rumble with some detested "Star Trek" fans. That's the film. As for real life, I now know from countless readers that "Star Wars" fans devote much of their time to raising funds for sick kids. I hadn't realized that, and I applaud it. I reserve the right to consider it idiotic to live in a tent on a sidewalk for several weeks to be first in line for the next "Star Wars" movie.
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