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X-Men Origins: Wolverine / ** (PG-13)
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"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (PG-13, 107 minutes). Since the modern Wolverine has amnesia, and at the end of this film he forgets everything in it, who cares about his origins? A monotonous, shallow and inarticulate character, used as a story device linking pointless action scenes. None of the charisma of the great superheroes. Two stars.
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The Merry Gentleman / ***1/2 (R)
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"The Merry Gentleman" (R, 99 minutes). In his directing debut, Michael Keaton plays a suicidal hit man, Kelly Macdonald is the woman whose scream saved his life, and Tom Bastounes is the recovering alcoholic cop on the case. But this is nothing so simple as a crime story, and the focus is on a worthwhile woman trying to relate to two difficult puppies left on her doorstep. Moving in ways that are far from expected. Three and a half stars.
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Tyson / **** (R)
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"Tyson" (R, 90 minutes). Mike Tyson does a remarkable job of explaining and justifying a life which earnest him a fearsome reputation. From a childhood beating by bullies to recent years of rehab and sobriety, he confesses, defends, denies, and reveals. Directed by James Toback. Three and a half stars.
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Battle for Terra / *** (PG-13)
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"Battle for Terra" (PG, 85 minutes). Aliens attack Terra. But the alien are humans, and Terra is a peaceful planet inhabited by cute tadpole-like creatures with features of mermaids and seahorses. An imaginative animated sci-fi fantasy, with an excellent voice cast, although must everything be resolved in a big battle scene? The 3-D adds nothing; find it in 2-D if you can. Three stars.
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Sita Sings the Blues / **** (No MPAA rating)
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"Sita Sings the Blues" (Unrated, 82 minutes). An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana, set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, with a parallel plot about a modern San Francisco woman betrayed by her husband, and an hilarious narration by three modern Indians. Enchanting and astonishingly original. Directed, written, animated by Nina Paley. One of the year's best films. Four stars
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Lymelife / ***1/2 (R)
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"Lymelife" (R, 95 minutes). A first-rate cast in a film about troubled families and confused teenagers on Long Island in the 1970s. Two neighboring families have parents who are cheating with each other, and kids falling uncertainly into love. Tender, sometimes bleakly comic. With Rory Culkin, Emma Roberts, Adam Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon, Kieran Culkin. Three and a half stars.
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Is Anybody There? / **1/2 (PG-13)
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"Is Anybody There?" (PG-123, 92 minutes). Michael Caine is superb as the Amazing Clarence, a retired magician who checks into an old folks' home and slowly makes friends with Edward (Bill Milner), the owners' 10-year-old son. The rest of the film unfortunately isn't up to their level; it's clunk and sitcomish, but Caine is almost worth the price of admission. Two and a half stars
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Ghosts of Girlfriends Past / ** (PG-13)
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"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" (PG-13, 100 minutes) Matthew McConaughey plays a famous lecher who turns up as his kid brother's wedding to discourage it and advocate a life of promiscuity. But the ghost of his late Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas) arrives as a spirit guide to take him on a tour of girlfriends past, present and future. Some funny lines and a warm performance by Jennifer Garner, but the hero is far from sympathetic. Two and a half stars.
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Fighting / *** (PG-13)
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"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.
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The Soloist / **1/2 (PG-13)
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"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.
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Anvil! The Story of Anvil / *** (No MPAA rating)
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"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
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The Informers / **1/2 (R)
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"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.
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Earth / *** (G)
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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.
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Great Movie: Chop Shop (2008)
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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.
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Movie Answer Man: "It's not the men in my life --
it's the life in my men"
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Q. I recently read an article in the paper that attributed the following quote to Jean Harlow: "Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" My sister says this is an exact quote from a movie and she thinks Mae West said it, but we couldn't find anything on the Internet. Do you know the quote, who said it for sure and what movie this comes from? (Janice Moore, Arlington Heights, IL)
A. It was indeed the very same woman who said, "Beulah, peel me a grape." Mae West first uttered the immortal pistol line in "She Done Him Wrong" (1933). Her double entendres helped inspire movie censorship, of which she said: "I believe in it. I made a fortune out of it." She got away with saying incredible things in general-audience movies. For example, "A hard man is good to find." "Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly." "The only good woman I can recall in history was Betsy Ross. And all she ever made was a flag."
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Commentary: Childhood homes of great
North American film critics
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by Roger Ebert
My home town of Urbana recently did me the honor of dedicating a plaque on the sidewalk in front of my childhood home.
At first I felt a little doubtful. Aware of my health adventures, a good friend asked: "What do you make of the timing of this?"
I thought it over. "Excellent timing," I said. "I'm still alive."
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