Film clips

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Posted: March 12, 2010 at 3:16 a.m.

• Print item
• E-mail
• Share
• Tweet

LITTLE ROCK — At area theaters 81 ALICE IN WONDERLAND, PG Tim Burton’s twist on the Lewis Carroll classic, with Mia Wasikowska in the role of a now-19-year-old Alice, returning to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl. With Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee; directed by Burton. (109 minutes) 75 ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL, PG David Seville’s chipmunk wards Alvin, Simon and Theodore return in the sequel to sing in three-part harmony, along with the Chipmunks’ female counterparts, the Chipettes. With Jason Lee, Justin Long, Anna Faris, Christina Applegate, Amy Poehler; directed by Betty Thomas. (88 minutes) 85 AVATAR, PG-13 A former Marine confined to a wheelchair becomes a half-human, half Na’vi “avatar” and tries to help save a civilization on a distant world against corporate interests who want to strip-mine the place for valuable ore. (160 minutes) 86 THE BLIND SIDE, PG-13 Sandra Bullock plays a well-to-do white woman who takes in a homeless black teenager (Quinton Aaron) from a broken home and helps him fulfill his potential on and off the football field. Based on a true story. (126 minutes)77 BROOKLYN’S FINEST, R Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle play the title New York Police Department officers, each with his own conflicts, who face hard choices in the midst of a massive drug operation. With Jesse Williams, Ellen Barkin, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, Vincent D’Onofrio; directed by Antoine Fuqua. (140 minutes) 78 COP OUT, R Two longtime NYPD partners (Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan), on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint-condition baseball card, find themselves up against a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed gangster. (100 minutes) 85 THE CRAZIES, R In this remake of an early George A. Romero film, residents of a town accidentally exposed to a biological weapon become dangerously insane. (101 minutes) 89 CRAZY HEART, R Jeff Bridges plays a worn-down country singer, his spirit broken by multiple failed marriages, too much time on the road and too many nights with the bottle, who forms an unusual bond with a burgeoning journalist. (112 minutes)72 DAYBREAKERS, R It’s 2019 and an unknown plague has transformed the world’s population into vampires who must find a blood substitute before they completely wipe out the human race.

(98 minutes) 77 DEAR JOHN, PG-13 A young soldier (Channing Tatum) and the idealistic college student he falls in love with (Amanda Seyfried) spend the next seven years separated by his increasingly dangerous deployments. (108 minutes) 86 AN EDUCATION, PG-13 In a London suburb, post-war and pre-Beatles, a bright schoolgirl is torn between studying for a place at Oxford and the more exciting alternative offered to her by a charismatic older man. (99 minutes) 90 THE HURT LOCKER, R Three members of the Army’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal squad battle insurgents and each other as they search for and disarm a wave of roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad. (131 minutes) 82 THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, PG-13 Christopher Plummer plays the title character, a mysterious traveling showman who possesses the unique ability to guide the imagination of others, now desperate to save his teenage daughter from the consequences of a deal he made with the devil. (122 minutes) 86 THE LAST STATION, R Christopher Plummer plays Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in the final year of his life. (112 minutes) 78 LEAP YEAR, PG Amy Adams plays a woman determined to get married to the perfect guy, whose plan to follow her boyfriend to Dublin so she can propose to him on Feb. 29 goes predictably awry. (97 minutes) 67 LEGION, R An out-of-the-way diner becomes the unlikely battleground for the survival of the human race when God sends his legion of angels to bring on the Apocalypse. (100 minutes) 83 THE LOVELY BONES, PG-13 A murdered girl watches over her family - and her killer - from heaven, weighing her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

(135 minutes)89 THE MESSENGER, R An Iraq war veteran (Ben Foster) who has narrowly escaped death in combat struggles with his new post at the Casualty Notification Office under the mentorship of a senior officer (Woody Harrelson). (105 minutes) 69 OLD DOGS, PG Best friends - one unlucky-in-love divorced man (Robin Williams) and the other a fun-loving bachelor (John Travolta) - are unexpectedly forced to take care of 7-year-old twins while on the brink of the biggest business deal of their lives.

(88 minutes) 87 PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF, PG Percy, immediately upon discovering that he’s a demi-god (the son of Poseidon), finds himself caught between battling Greek gods and monsters as he tries to save his kidnapped mother and track down whoever really stole Zeus’ thunderbolt.

(120 minutes)79 PLANET 51, PG In this animated comedy, an American astronaut finds the planet he’s just landed on is inhabited, with the residents happily living in a little-green-people, white-picketfence existence, not unlike America in the 1950s. (91 minutes) 87 THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, G A beautiful New Orleans girl agrees to kiss a frog who desperately wants to be human again, but their road to a happy ending first takes an adventurous twist through the Louisiana bayous.

Animated. (95 minutes) 82 SHUTTER ISLAND, R Two U.S. marshals (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderer from a fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane on a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts. (138 minutes) 89 A SINGLE MAN, R A single day in the life of a British college professor (Colin Firth) struggling to find meaning to his life after the death of his longtime domestic partner in 1962 Los Angeles, atthe height of the Cuban missile crisis.

(99 minutes) 75 TO SAVE A LIFE, PG-13 Randy Wayne plays a well-rounded, middle-American teen who starts questioning everything he has taken for granted after the death of a childhood friend.

(120 minutes) 71 TOOTH FAIRY, PG Dwayne Johnson plays a hard-charging minor league hockey player whose nickname “The Tooth Fairy” comes from his smashmouth style of play and who, for discouraging a youngster’s hopes, is sentenced to a week as a real tooth fairy.

(102 minutes) 77 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, PG-13 The second installment of the Twilight series continues the romance between vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) and mortal Bella (Kristen Stewart), whose childhood friend has a supernatural secret of his own. (130 minutes)90 UP IN THE AIR, R George Clooney plays a corporate hatchet man forced to fight for his job when his company downsizes its travel budget, just as he is on the cusp of his goal of reaching 10 million frequent-flier miles and just after he meets the frequent-flier woman of his dreams. (109 minutes) 77 VALENTINE’S DAY, PG-13 An all-star cast playing various Los Angelenos find romance on ... well, you know when.

(117 minutes) 79 THE WOLFMAN, R Benicio Del Toro plays a haunted nobleman who is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes then discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. (102 minutes) 86 THE YOUNG VICTORIA, PG Emily Blunt plays Queen Victoria in the turbulent first years of her reign. (100 minutes) 80 YOUTH IN REVOLT, R Michael Cera plays an affable teen with a taste for the finer things in life like Sinatra and Fellini who creates a rebellious alter ego so he can pursue the free spirit he has fallen in love with on a family vacation. (90 minutes)

Movie-rating

point system

Movies are rated on

a scale from 50 to

100. Guidelines for

moviegoers:

96-100 Transcendent

90-95 Exceptional

80-89 Better than most to remarkable

70-79 Average

60-69 Awful to mediocre

50-59 Irredeemable

MovieStyle, Pages 39 on 03/12/2010

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.