LITTLE ROCK — At area theaters
70
AMERICAN REUNION, R Those madcap American Pie characters return to East Great Falls for their 10-year high-school reunion to reminisce and get reinspired. (113 minutes)
89
THE AVENGERS, PG-13 The title superheroes of all those preceding Marvel-based, big-screen comic book adventures, including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America: The First Avenger (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in a major-movie mash-up. Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency SHIELD, pulls together a team to battle the unexpected enemy threatening global safety and security. (142 minutes)
65
BATTLESHIP, PG-13 Based, believe it or not, on Hasbro’s classic naval combat game, our heroes sail aboard the USS John Paul Jones as the planet fights for survival against a superior force of what the trailers suggest are big, nasty aliens and/or robots. (131 minutes)
90
BERNIE, PG-13 A black comedy from director Richard Linklater, based on the true-crime story of East Texas mortician Bernie Tiede (Jack Black). (104 minutes)
86 THE
BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
, PG-13
A group of British retirees is lured to move to India by exotic advertising. (120 minutes)
86
THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, R Five friends go to a remote you know what, you know where. Bad things happen, but, with Joss Whedon doing the screenplay, they happen with a twist. (95 minutes)
71
CHERNOBYL DIARIES, R Six young tourists looking to go off the beaten path find themselves stranded in a town near the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, supposedly totally abandoned for 25 years - where, of course, they discover they’re not alone. (90 minutes)
74
DARK SHADOWS, PG-13 Director Tim Burton brings to the big screen TV’s campy bloodsucker Barnabas Collins (via favorite actor/collaborator Johnny Depp), turned by a witch’s curse into a vampire in the late 18th century and discovering, after being freed from a tomb in 1972, that the world has become a very different place. (113 minutes)
78
THE DICTATOR, R Sacha Baron Cohen plays the title role, a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy will never come to the country he has so lovingly oppressed. With Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, Megan Fox, John C. Reilly, J.B. Smoove; directed by Larry Charles. (83 minutes)
75
THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT,
R
Engaged couple Jason Segel and Emily Blunt keep tripping while on the long walk down the aisle. (124 minutes)
83
HYSTERIA, R A young, modern-thinking physician in Victorian London (Hugh Dancy) takes a job with a doctor (Jonathan Pryce) who specializes in treating women who suffer from “hysteria” and becomes enamored of his boss’s strong-willed, feministminded daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal). With Rupert Everett, Felicity Jones; directed by Tanya Wexler.(100 minutes)
80
JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
, PG
In this follow-up to 2008’s remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth, Dwayne Johnson (playing the new stepfather of a 17-year-old portrayed by Josh Hutcherson) and a helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman) and his “beautiful, strong-willed daughter” (Vanessa Hudgens) set out to find the title island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before it sinks into the sea. (94 minutes)
89
MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’SMOST WANTED
, PG
Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo and Melman the Giraffe, still fighting to get home to their beloved Big Apple, find the perfect cover for a transit of Europe: a traveling circus. Animated. (93 minutes)
86
MEN IN BLACK 3, PG-13 Agent J (Will Smith) goes back in time to put things right, with partner K’s (Tommy Lee Jones, with Josh Brolin as his younger self) life and the fate of the planet in the balance. (106 minutes)
82
MIRROR MIRROR, PG A “fresh and funny” retelling of the Snow White story, with Julia Roberts as the evil queen and Lily Collins as a princess in exile whom seven “courageous rebel” dwarfs help fight to reclaim her birthright and win her prince (Armie Hammer). (106 minutes)
77
PEACE, LOVE & MISUNDERSTANDING
, R
Catherine Keener plays a conservative New York lawyer, in desperate need of an escape after her husband asks for a divorce, who finds herself and her two children exposed to amotley crew of freethinkers while taking refuge at the farmhouse of her estranged hippie mother (Jane Fonda). With Chace Crawford, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Nat Wolff, Marissa O’Donnell, Elizabeth Olsen; directed by Bruce Beresford. (96 minutes)
88
PROMETHEUS, R A team of scientists and explorers find their physical and mental limits put to the test when they’re stranded on a distant world, where they will uncover life’s ultimate mystery. (124 minutes)
87
THE RAVEN, R Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) to stop a madman who has been committing horrific murders - inspired by Poe’s darkest works - before Poe’s lady-love becomes the next target. (111 minutes)
89
ROCK OF AGES, PG-13 Screen version of the stage musical abouta small-town girl (Julianne Hough) and a big-city boy (Diego Boneta) who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams amid the headbanging rock of the late ’80s. With Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary J. Blige, Alec Baldwin, Tom Cruise and the music of, among others, Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison and Whitesnake; directed by Adam Shankman. (125 minutes)
78
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
, PG-13
Definitely not a kiddie version of the classic Snow White story. Kristen Stewart is not the only one in the land fairer than the evil queen (Charlize Theron), but she has been training in the art of war with the huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) dispatched to kill her. (127 minutes)
82
THAT’S MY BOY, R Adam Sandler plays a guy who, as a teenager, fathered a son (Andy Samberg), raised him as a single parent up until the kid’s 18th birthday, then shows up uninvited after several years of separation to (probably) ruin the son’s wedding.With Leighton Meester, James Caan, Eva Amurri, Susan Sarandon, Milo Ventimiglia, Will Forte, Colin Quinn, Todd Bridges, Vanilla Ice, Ian Ziering; directed by Sean Anders. (116 minutes)
87
THINK LIKE A MAN, PG-13 Four guys, whose love lives are shaken up after the women they are pursuing buy comedian Steve Harvey’s best-selling book of that title and start taking his advice to heart, conspire to turn the tables by using the book’s insider information. (122 minutes)
67
A THOUSAND WORDS, PG-13 Eddie Murphy plays a fast-talking literary agent hoisted with his own petard when his target, a New Age guru, fixes it so he must find some other way of communicating besides speech to save his life. (91 minutes)
85
TITANIC 3D, PG-13 Steerage passenger Leonardo DiCaprio and socialite Kate Winslet, “on top of the world” as the prow of the mega-liner heads toward the iceberg, will now come right out of the screen at you in 3-D. (194minutes)
70
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING
, PG-13
Five couples’ intertwined lives are turned upside down by the challenges of impending parenthood, including the question of what to do when your first child precedes your first date. (110 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 33 on 06/22/2012