The Philadelphia Inquirer –
ACT OF VALOR 1 1/2 stars. This action film’s claim to fame is that it stars active-duty Navy SEALs. The problem is that these stoic warriors infect Act of Valor with more wooden acting than you’d see at a ventriloquism school. 1 hr. 51 R (violence, profanity) — David Hiltbrand
ADDICTION INCORPORATED 2 stars. A documentary that recounts the legal battles against American Big Tobacco. It’s a long, studious film. 1 hr. 42 PG-13 (adult themes) — David Hiltbrand
BATTLESHIP 3 stars. A fleet of space ships from Earth goes to battle against an alien force. 2 hrs. 13 PG-13 (profanity, violence, destruction) — Gary Thompson
BEL AMI 1 1/2 stars. Robert Pattinson forgoes his pasty “Twilight” complexion to essay the role of Georges Duroy, a shallow hustler in late 19th century Paris, in this laughably bad adaptation of a Guy de Maupassant novel. With Christina Ricci, Kristin Scott Thomas and Uma Thurman as the women under his spell. 1 hr. 42 R (sex, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea.
BERNIE 3 1/2 stars. Jack Black is a big-hearted, buoyant East Texas mortician on trial for killing an elderly widow that the whole town hated in Richard Linklater’s cheerfully twisted, true-crime comedy. With Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey and real-life Lone Star citizens with a lot to say. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL 3 stars. A group of British retirees are lured to move to India by exotic advertising. Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson star. 2 hrs. 2 PG-13 (sexual content, profanity) — Gary Thompson
BRAVE 3 stars. A feisty princess will have none of the clownish suitors her parents want her to consider for marriage — she’d rather ride her horse, shoot her arrows, wierld her sword. And when a witch puts a curse on her lovely mother, she has to do all of that and more. Pixar’s 13th animated feature isn’t up to the studio’s best, but there’s still plenty of heart in this Celtic-inspired yarn. PG (violence, scares, adult themes) — Steven Rea
BULLY 3 stars. The controversial documentary on the problem of bullying in American schools makes it to the big screen. 1 hr. 39 PG-13 (cruelty to children) — Gary Thompson
THE CABIN IN THE WOODS 3 1/2 stars. Five friends pick the wrong cabin for rest and relaxation in this excellent horror film. 1 hr. 35 R (strong, bloody horror, violence and gore, profanity, drug use, and some sexuality/nudity) — Gary Thompson
CHIMPANZEE 3 stars. Tim Allen narrates this child-friendly documentary that follows the progress of a young chimp who gets separated from his family. 1 hr. 15 G — Gary Thompson
CHRONICLE 3 1/2 stars. Smart, fun, and increasingly dark, this reality-grounded sci-fi tale finds three high school friends climbing into a hole — and emerging with telekinetic powers. But instead of using their newfound abilities to fight crime, they just do what guys in high school would do if they could levitate stuff and crush stuff and hurl stuff through the air. 1 hr. 23 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
CROOKED ARROWS 3 stars. An American Indian high school lacrosse team battles opponents from prep schools in their push to win a state tournament. 1 hr. 40 PG (suggestive references) — Gary Thompson
DAMSELS IN DISTRESS 3 stars. Whit Stillman returns from taking off the first decade of the new millennium, casting the awkwardly charming Greta Gerwig as a college coed with a peculiar worldview. She and her roommates invite a newcomer (Analeigh Tipton) into their midst, offering advice on campus life, on frat boy numskulls, on what to wear. Lots of deadpanning and declaiming, lots of fun. 1 hr. 39 PG-13 (adult themes) — Steven Rea
DARK SHADOWS 3 stars. Johnny Depp, looking fetchingly cadaverous, is Barnabas Collins, vampire, in Tim Burton’s merrily macabre adaptation of the cult ‘60s Gothic soap opera series. Although there’s a thick tanle of a tale about love and lust and vengeance, in some ways this is a movie about how totally cool and weird 1972 was. Cue the music. 2 hrs. PG-13 (sex, violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
DARLING COMPANION 2 1/2 stars. Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline are empty nesters who get a belated new family member — a stray dog. And when the beloved Freeway goes missing, all sorts of name-calling and blame-throwing ensues. A shambling, hardly deep ensemble piece, loose and improvisitory, with Diane Wiest, Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss and Richard Jenkins. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE DEEP BLUE SEA 3 1/2 stars. Shot in a gauze of melancholy, Terence Davies’ crushing adaptation of the 1952 Terrence Rattigan play is a meditation on self-destruction and desire, with Rachel Weisz as the London magistrate’s wife who tosses her life away for a lover she knows doesn’t love her back. 1 hr. 38 R (sex, nudity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE DICTATOR 3 stars. Sacha Baron Cohen goes deep — and deeply funny — into character as a North African despot who doesn’t think twice about ordering up the deaths of those who disagree with him. Leading a life of extravagant power, Aladeen meets a militant vegan from Brooklyn (Anna Faris) and experiences a disorienting change of heart. 1 hr. 23 R (sex, nudity, profanity, cartoon violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
EXIT STRATEGY 2 stars. Incompatibility becomes a relationship stumbling block after an evicted man moves in with his girlfriend of three months in this micro-budget romantic comedy from Philly native son, actor-writer Jameel Saleem. 1 hr. 16 No MPAA rating (mature themes) — Tirdad Derakhshani
THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT 3 stars. Emily Blunt and Jason Segel are happily living together and happily engaged, and then careers and commitment issues and comedic predicaments get in the way. From the folks responsible for “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” with a little bit more of a grownup sensibility, but still with plenty of sex and potty jokes. 2 hrs. 04 R (sex, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
FOOTNOTE 4 stars. The rivalry between father- and-son Talmudic scholars spins into a moral and ethical whirlwind when one is honored with a huge prize, in this brilliant tragicomedy from Israeli filmmaker Joseph Cedar. Nominated for the foreign-language Academy Award. 1hr.43 PG (adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD 3 1/2 stars. The past and the present, ancient laws and modern longings, collide in this satisfying, psychologically complex tale of a teenager caught in a blood feud in craggy modern-day Albania. From the director of “Maria Full of Grace.” 1hr.49 No MPAA rating (violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
GOD BLESS AMERICA 1 1/2 stars. When a man loses all hope for the future, he takes out his frustration on those he sees as responsible for the decline of American culture in a violent rampage. If that doesn’t sound like fun, he picks up a sidekick in the form of a bubbly teen who thinks what he is doing is “cool.” 1 hr. 30 R (profanity, strong violence, sexual sequences) — Gary Thompson
HYSTERIA 3 stars. Larky Victorian-era comedy about the invention of the vibrator, developed as a clinical instrument to treat women suffering from “hysteria” — a once-common catch-all diagnosis. Hugh Dancy is the young doc who mentors with a specialist (Jonathan Pryce), learning how to massage the pelvic areas and so on. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a feisty suffragette, Felicity Jones and Rupert Everett also star. 1 hr. 35 R (adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE INTOUCHABLES 2 1/2 stars. A feel-good buddy movie from France, about a wealthy quadraplegic and the streetwise ex-con hired to be his caregiver. Culture clashes, car chases and a meaningtful friendship ensue. 1 hr. 48 R (profanity, drugs, adult themes) — Steven Rea
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI 3 1/2 stars. This documentary portrait of Jiro Ono, proprietor of a 10-seat sushi bar in a Tokyo subway station, is a beautiful meditation on work, on life, on seeking perfection in things big and small. 1hr.22 PG — Steven Rea
THE KID WITH A BIKE 3 1/2 stars. A fiercely determined 11-year-old goes looking for the father who abandoned him — and finds a guardian angel of sorts in the form of a village hairdresser, in Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s bracing, resonant film. 1 hr. 27 No MPAA rating (violence, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN No stars. The “c” in this Big C melodrama must stand for cute, as Kate Hudson, playing “the youngest and hottest vice president in advertising,” is diagnosed with terminal cancer. She falls for her doctor — Gael Garcia Bernal — and things devolve from there into whirlpools of shameless sentiment. With Whoopi Goldberg as God. Really. 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (sex, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
LOLA VERSUS 2 1/2 stars. Greta Gerwig is charming in this mostly-charmless comedy about a Generation Y academic facing 30 and her fiance’s defection. 1 hr. 27 R (language, sexual cador, drugs) — Carrie Rickey
THE LUCKY ONE 2 1/2 stars. Zac Efron is an Iraq war veteran who finds a photo in the bombed-out rubble — a photo of a radiant woman — and decides to track her down when he returns stateside. Fate, destiny and sage cliches whorl together in this glossy, sun-dappled adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks romance. With Taylor Schilling as the girl in the photo. 1 hr. 41 PG-13 (sex, profanity, violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE MAN NOBODY KNEW 3 1/2 stars. At once a deeply personal film and an important historical document, Carl Colby’s portrait of his father, former CIA chief William Colby, offers insights into the world of old-school espionage, but also into the trickier territory of morality and truth. How does someone whose livelihood depends on deception function in the “normal” spheres of everyday life? 1 hr. 44 No MPAA rating (violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
MANSOME 2 stars. This documentary looks at what it means to be a man in the modern world, with an emphasis on trends in grooming and fashion. 1 hr. 25 PG-13 (profanity, crude material) — Gary Thompson
MARLEY 3 stars. A beautiful if sometimes jumbled documentary about the reggae superstar Bob Marley, from his childhood in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica, to his enduring influence in pop music, even 30 years after his death. 2 hrs. 25 PG-13 (drugs, violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS 2 1/2 stars. Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man and Thor team up with Black Widow and Hawkeye to do battle with a demonic, demented Norse god (Thor’s bad-seed brother) in Joss Whedon’s effects-driven Marvel superheroes smash-up. With Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannson, Mark Ruffalo, and Samuel L. Jackson as their boss, SHIELD agent Nick Fury. 2 hrs. 23 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea.
MEN IN BLACK 3 2 1/2 stars. J (Will Smith) travels back in time to prevent agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) from being killed. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (violence, suggestive content) — Gary Thompson
MISS BALA 3 stars. Taut, terrifying crime thriller about a young beauty pageant contestant inadvertently caught up in the chaos and carnage of the Mexican drug wars. 1 hr. 53 R (violence, sex, nudity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
MOONRISE KINGDOM 4 stars. Wes Anderson returns to live-action after his stop-motion experiment “Fantastic Mr. Fox, but there are more similarities than differences in this wonderful, wistful tale of twelve-year-old lovers on the run. With Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the kids, and Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Tilda Swinton as the grownups. You figure out who’s more mature. 1 hr. 34 PG-13 (adult themes) — Steven Rea
PEACE, LOVE & MISUNDERSTANDING 2 1/2 stars. Slight, if pleasurable, intergenerational family comedy starring Jane Fonda as a hippie grandmother long estranged from her conservative daughter (Catherine Keener) and grandchildren (Elizabeth Olsen, Nat Wolff). 1 hr. 36 R (marijuana, sexual candor) — Carrie Rickey
PINA 4 stars. A shockingly beautiful and moving tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, by her friend, the filmmaker Wim Wenders. The Oscar-nominated doc is in 3-D, and it’s easily the 3-D experience of the year. 1 hr. 46 PG (adult themes) — Steven Rea
POLISSE 3 1/2 stars. Story of the Children’s Protection Unit of the Paris police distills the drama of an entire season of a TV series like “The Wire.” Winner of the 2011 Cannes Jury Prize. 2 hrs. 07 NOMPAA rating (candid discussions of pedophilia, graphic hospital sequence) — Carrie Rickey
PROMETHEUS 2 1/2 stars. An extraordinary visualist, if not visionary, Ridley Scott revisits “Alien” territory in his late-21st century space thriller, in which an exploratory mission to a far-off world uncovers things profound and profoundly icky. Lots of phallic symbolism, lots of tentacles, and weighty ruminations about evolution, religion, artificial intelligence. Weighty, but maddeningly weightless, too. With Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron. 2 hrs.04 R (violence, intergalactic ick, adult themes) — “S.R.
THE RAVEN 2 stars. Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) matches wits against a serial killer who takes care of his victims using methods from Poe’s stories. 1 hr. 51 R (profanity, violence, grisly images) — Gary Thompson
ROCK OF AGES 2 1/2 stars. Notable for one of the odder turns in Tom Cruise’s career (he’s a heavy metal rock god), this from-stage-to-screen jukebox musical uses an arsenal of ‘80s anthems and the hairdos to go with it, following a dreamy-eyed Oklahoman (Julianne Hough) and a wannabe star (Diego Boneta) struggling to make it in Hollywood, where all the world is ready to break into a production number. Ironic? Earnest? Who knows? 2 hrs. 03 PG-13 (adult themes) — Steven Rea
SAFE 2 1/2 stars. Jason Statham stars as a homeless man with good fighting skills who signs on to protect an orphaned girls sought by various mob factions for a secret code she holds. 1 hr. 35 R (violence) — Gary Thompson
SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED 3 stars. Aubrey Plaza stars as a deadpan (of course) unpaid intern who tags along with a reporter looking for a guy who claims he can time travel. Sleuthing and slacker-ing — and some falling in love — ensues. 1 hr. 34 R (profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY 4 stars. This captivating animation from Japan’s Studio Ghibli is based on “The Borrowers,” Mary Norton’s children’s fantasy about micro-beings who live beneath the floorboards. As lovingly written as it is beautifully rendered. 1 hr. 35 G — Carrie Rickey
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN 3 stars. Kristen Stewart is the Grimms’ heroine, but she’s borrowed Joan of Arc’s armor, and Frodo’s and Odysseus’ story arcs, in this dark, fantastic, surprisingly entertaining rethink of the fairy tale classic. With Charlize Theron enjoyably sinister and sexy as the evil queen, and Chris Hemsworth as the titular dude. 2 hrs. 07 PG-13 (violence, sorcery, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THAT’S MY BOY 1 1/2 stars. Comedy with Adam Sandler as a failed father who shows up unwanted on the eve of his son’s wedding and tries to reconnect with him. 1 hr. 54 R (sex, drugs, profanity) — Gary Thompson
THIN ICE 3 stars. Greg Kinnear stars as a sleazeball insurance agent trying to scam an absent-minded old farmer (Alan Arkin) out of a prized violin. Larceny and murder ensue in this nicely turned, increasingly dark morality tale. With Billy Crudup, Lea Thompson. 1 hr. 33 R (profanity, violence, sex, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THINK LIKE A MAN 3 stars. In this disarming and entertaining comedy inspired by Steve Harvey’s self-help book, marriage-minded women and relationship-phobic men both win. The sparkling ensemble cast includes Taraji P. Henson, Michael Ealy, Meagan Good and Romany Malco. Directed by Tim Story. 2 hrs. 02 PG-13 (sexual situations, profanity, drug use) — Carrie Rickey
TOMBOY 3 stars. Written and directed by Celine Sciamma. With Zoe Heran, Jeanne Disson and Mathieu Demy. Sun-dappled account of a young French girl who moves to a new suburb and pretends to be a boy. 1 hr. 24 PG-13 (brief nonerotic adolescent nudity) — Carrie Rickey
TURN ME ON, DAMMIT! 3 stars. At the center of this disarming and droll Norwegian comedy about teenagers awash in hormones is a girl who refuses to accept the double standard that a horny boy is red-blooded and a horny girl is a scarlet-lettered slut. 1 hr. 16 No MPAA rating (profanity, brief nudity, masturbation, sexual candor, suitable for those 15 and older) — Carrie Rickey
21 JUMP STREET 3 stars. This potty-mouthed and drug-laced reimagining of the 1980s TV show has one of the highest laughs-per-minute ratios since the Naked Gun films. Co-stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill play the baby-faced undercover cops assigned to bust a High-school drug ring and despite the raunch and noise they are endearingly funny. 1 hr. 49 R (pervasive drugs, extreme profanity, violence, sexual situations) — Carrie Rickey
UNDEFEATED 3 stars. Inspiring — and Oscar-winning — documentary about the struggle to turnaround a historically awful high school football team. And about the tireless volunteer coach who sees it as his mission to inspire a band of underpriveleged kids from the desolate precincts of North Memphis, Tenn. PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
WANDERLUST 3 stars. Riotous, raunchy and raggedy, David Wain’s “Lost in America” update stars Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston as disillusioned New Yorkers looking for the American dream. With Justin Theroux. 1 hr. 38 R (nudity, sexual candor, drug use) — Carrie Rickey
WE HAVE A POPE 3 1/2 stars. The Pope dies, and the College of Cardinals convene to select a new leader — with gently comic and empathetic results — in Nanni Moretti’s beautiful, beautifully observed dramedy. French veteran Micel Piccoli stars as the man selected to be the “incarnation of God on Earth,” and he’s not sure he’s up for the job. 1 hr. 45 No MPAA rating (adult themes) — Steven Rea
WHAT TO EXPECT WHILE YOU’RE EXPECTING 2 stars. Kirk Jones’ adaptation of the self-help book takes place in a parallel universe where everyone has his own reality TV show and is anxious until parenthood transforms him momentarily into a new man — and then into a grumpus like Chris Rock. With Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks and Rock. 1 hr. 50 PG-13 (sexual candor, crude language) — Carrie Rickey
WHERE DO WE GO NOW? 2 1/2 stars. Nadine Labaki follows her lovely Lebanese debut, “Caramel,” with a more ambitious, but tonally less successful give-peace-a-chance plea. Set in a nameless Middle Eastern village, the women have grown weary of losing their men to war, and plot strategies — comic and otherwise — to bring Christians and Muslims together. 1 hr. 40 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
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RATINGS:
4 stars: Excellent; 3 stars: Good; 2 stars: Fair; 1 star: Poor
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