Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: April 17-19, 2009

17 Again tops the box office with $23.7 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth (2009) tops Wednesday's box office with $4.0 million

"Fighting" (PG-13, 105 minute). What's advertised as a genre picture about New York professional street fighters turns out to be a lot more: The characters and actors bring uncommon interest to the story. Terrence Howard plays a mild-mannered boxing promoter who sidesteps all the clichés of such roles; Channing Tatum is a small-town Alabama kid in the big city; Zulay Henao is a sweetheart as a waitress in a rough club, and Altagracia Guzman steals her scene as her protective older relative. Three stars.

The Soloist / **1/2 (PG-13)

"The Soloist" (PG-13, 117 minutes). Jamie Foxx stars as a homeless street musician who is written about by a Los Angeles Times columnist (Robert Downey Jr) and becomes an overnight celebrity. He was a child prodigy, studied at Julliard, plays violin and cello, but is haunted by the demons of mental illness. All the pieces are in place and the actors are convincing, but the film never really delivers on the promise of the story. Two and a half stars.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil / *** (No MPAA rating)

"Anvil! The Story of Anvil" (Unrated, 90 minutes). Two Toronto kids make a pledge to perform rock n' roll until they're old, and they're still keeping it after their once-influential heavy metal band is all but forgotten. A documentary about the most recent of their comeback hopes, centering on guitarist Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner, who have a love-hate relationship, but cling doggedly to their dream. Surprisingly touching. Three stars

The Informers / **1/2 (R)

"The Informers" (R, 98 minutes). About dread, despair and doom, and the eerie ways that music and movies connect people from vastly different lives in a subterranean way where drugs, fame and sex are the common currency. A screenplay by Bret Easton Ellis occupies a bleak world of empty Hollywood types and would-bes, empty souls in hollow lives. Like a soap opera from Hell. With Billy Bob Thornton, Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Chris Isaac, Amber Heard, Brad Renfro. Two and a half stars.

Earth / *** (G)

by Roger Ebert Made between 1948 and 1960, Walt Disney’s “True Life Adventures” won three Oscars for best documentary feature, and several other titles won in the since-discontinued category of tworeel short features. Now the studio has returned to this admirable tradition with “earth,” opening today, on Earth Day. It’s a film that younger audiences in particular will enjoy.

17 Again / *** (PG-13)

"17 Again" (PG-13, 98 minutes). An unhappy man in his late 30s is transported back to his body at 17, and gets a chance to fix things with his alienated family. Zac Efron is a charmer as the teenager, and there is a completely unanticipated fanboy-fangirl romance that is comic genius. Pleasant, harmless. Three stars.

State of Play / *** (PG-13)

"State of Play" (PG-13, 127 minutes). Russell Crowe is a seasoned newspaper reporter and Rachel McAdams is the paper's plucky young blogger; together, they uncover an unholy political and corporate alliance. Smart, well made, good work by Crowe, McAdams, Robin Wright Penn and Helen Mirren as the editor. Mysteries are resolve a little too quickly at the end. Directed by Kevin Macdonald ("The Last King of Scotland"). Three stars

Sugar / ***1/2 (R)

"Sugar" (R, 118 minutes). Intensely human story of a young baseball player from the Dominican Republic who is recruited to an Iowa farm team and find himself alone and very, very far from home. Not a sports movie but a tender character-driven drama, as his poor family nourishes his dreams. Even a farm league salary is wealth to them all. Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck ("Half Nelson"), starring Algenis Perez Soto in a persuasive, natural performance. Three and a half stars.

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

"Hunger" (Unrated, 92 minutes). A stark depiction of the imprisonment and starvation of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981. Deals not with politics but with relentless reality, including an absorbing conversation between Sands and a priest about the utility of his protest. An harrowing lead performance by Michael Fassbender. Directed by the British artist Steve McQueen. Rating: Three and a half stars

American Violet / *** (PG-13)

"American Violet" (PG-13, 103 minutes). In a small Texas town, a young mother of four is arrested on drug charges in a police sweep even though no drugs were found and her record is clean. Offered a plea bargain, she refuses because she doesn't want a felony on her record, and two lawyers enlist to defend her. Based on a true story; direct and righteous. A winning debut performance by Nicole Beharie, with strong support by Alfre Woodard, Tim Blake Nelson, Michael O'Keefe and Will Patton. Rating: Three stars.

The Audition / *** (No MPAA rating)

"The Audition" (Unrated, 107 minutes). At the end of a long series of semi-final auditions, a new generation of American opera singers is chosen at the Metropolitan Opera's annual National Council Auditions. We go backstage, learn something about each one, and most of all listen to them sing. Showing at 2 p.m. Sunday on Hi-Def closed-circuit video at showcase theaters. Three stars.

Great Movie: Chop Shop ()

by Roger Ebert "Chop Shop" has such an immediate sense of time and space that it comes as a slight shock to understand that the time is now and the place is in the shadow of the late Shea Stadium -- or, more accurately, next to the right-field parking lot. This area is known as the Iron Triangle, a crowded, ramshackle bazaar of auto-parts shops. We see it through the eyes of Alejandro, universally known as Ale, a 12-year-old who lives and works there. If you squint a little to turn the automobiles into carriages, this would be a story by Dickens.

Great Movie: La Belle Noiseuse (1991)

by Roger Ebert Frenhofer, the great artist, has painted nothing for ten years. He threw down his brush in the middle of painting what was intended as his masterpiece, to be titled "Le Belle Noiseuse," or "the beautiful nuisance." His model was his wife, Elizabeth, who inspired the great period of his career. "At first he painted me because I loved him," she tells a friend. "Then he painted me because he loved me." And then he stopped, perhaps because he feared that to achieve his painting would be to destroy their love. Frenhofer does not see the outsides of his models, but the insides -- bones, sinew, soul.

Movie Answer Man: I know I'm right about 'Knowing'
and its critics were unknowing

Q. I went to see "Knowing" only because of your review. I really enjoyed it. When I saw all the negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (only 15 percent on the Tomatometer), I was surprised. I felt like they weren't reviewing the movie as much as the premise behind it. I don't agree with the premise, but I thought it was a really good movie. I even paid the way for many of the students in my ethics class to see it. They LOVED it. Critics are still free to write whatever they want; however, I feel that they should review the movie and not judge it on its theological/philosophical premise. Would you agree? Do you feel frustrated or intimidated when you are out there by yourself? Cal Ford, Corsicana, Texas A. Not when I'm right. I am heartened that a lot of moviegoers seem to agree with me. "Knowing" has passed $70 million at the box office and is holding up well. I wrote a blog entry about it that so far has attracted 812 comments, all of them literate and intelligent (a rarity on a blog) and a large majority of them are favorable. The premise is of course preposterous, but that's hardly a first for a sci-fi thriller. The Tomatometer, by the way, has doubled to 34.