LITTLE ROCK — At area theaters
90 ANOTHER YEAR, PG-13 Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen play a happily married suburban couple entering their autumn years who, in the course of a year, find themselves surrounded by unhappy friends. (129 minutes)
88 BARNEY’S VERSION, R Paul Giamatti plays a man who relates the details of his extraordinary life, spanning three decades and three wives, an outrageous father and a dangerously dissolute best friend. With Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Bruce Greenwood; directed by Richard J. Lewis. (132 minutes)
68 BIG MOMMAS: LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON, PG-13 Martin Lawrence is back as the FBI agent, disguised as Big Momma, with Brandon T. Jackson as his teenage stepson, going undercover at an all-girls performing arts school after the youngster witnesses a murder. With Jessica Lucas, Faizon Love, Emily Rios, Portia Doubleday, Michelle Ang; directed by John Whitesell. (107 minutes)
84 BLACK SWAN, R Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis play feuding ballerinas — one of whom may or may not be real — in a production of Swan Lake. (108 minutes)
88 BLUE VALENTINE, R Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play a couple on the rocks. (120 minutes)
87 THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, PG Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Lucy (Georgie Henley) and their obnoxious cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) find themselves with Caspian (Ben Barnes), now king of Narnia, on a sea voyage to the eastern end of the world and, hopefully, to Aslan’s Country. (112 minutes)
86 DUE DATE, R Robert Downey Jr. plays a soon-to-be father who makes a cross-country trip with a dubious slacker (Zach Galifianakis) to make it back in time for his baby’s birth. (95 minutes)
86 THE EAGLE, PG-13 Channing Tatum plays a young Roman centurion who takes on the quest to solve the mystery of the Ninth Legion, which his father (Donald Sutherland) commanded and which went missing in the mountains of Scotland in A.D. 120. (114 minutes)
82 GNOMEO & JULIET, G Shakespeare’s tragic romance, animated, with a garden-gnome twist and music by Elton John. (84 minutes)
70 THE GREEN HORNET, PG-13 Seth Rogen plays a wealthy party boy who, inheriting a media empire after his father’s mysterious death, pairs up with one of his dad’s more industrious and inventive employees, Kato (Jay Chou), to fight crime through vigilante action. (108 minutes)
76 GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, PG Jack Black plays Jonathan Swift’s hero who, in this somewhat updated version, is a journalist shipwrecked on an island in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle where he is a giant to the tiny inhabitants. (85 minutes)
89 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 1, PG-13 Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) must try to stay out of the clutches of the dark forces while preparing to lead the ultimate battle against Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). (146 minutes)
84 I AM NUMBER FOUR, PG-13 Alex Pettyfer plays a teen with extraordinary new abilities on the run from ruthless enemies sent to destroy him and the others like him. With Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer, Dianna Agron, Kevin Durand; directed by D.J. Caruso. (104 minutes)
81 JUST GO WITH IT, PG-13 Adam Sandler plays a plastic surgeon who, trying to romance a much younger schoolteacher, gets his loyal assistant (Jennifer Aniston) to pretend to be his soon to be ex-wife and her kids to pretend to be his in this remake ofCactus Flower. (110 minutes)
80 JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER, not rated A bio-pic for the teen/’tween idol. (103 minutes)
89 THE KING’S SPEECH, R Colin Firth plays England’s King George VI, who ascends to the throne when his older brother, Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), abdicates to marry an American divorcee, and who overcomes his nervous stutter with the help of an unconventional speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush). (111 minutes)
75 MEGAMIND, PG A brilliant but down-and-out supervillain has to relearn his trade after his caped-superhero arch-nemesis retires and there’s nobody left to save the day when a new villain shows up and tries to take over Metro City. Animated. (96 minutes) 86 NO STRINGS ATTACHED, R Ashton Kutcher plays a lonely man whose friends-with-benefits relationship with a woman (Natalie Portman) may unravel because he’s falling in love with her. (96 minutes)
87 127 HOURS, R Based on the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) and how he survives after a boulder falls on his arm, trapping him for five days in an isolated canyon in Utah. (95 minutes)
70 THE ROOMMATE, PG-13 Leighton Meester plays an emotionally unstable college freshman who grows obsessed with her unsuspecting roommate. (93 minutes)
75 SANCTUM, R From executive producer James Cameron comes this supposedly-based-on-a-true-story tale of a father and son (Richard Roxburgh and Rhys Wakefield) and a team of divers striving to stay alive against all hope, trapped in an underwater cave. (109 minutes)
67 SEASON OF THE WITCH, PG-13 Nicolas Cage plays a heroic homecoming Crusader tasked by church elders with transporting an accused witch to a remote monastery where an ancient ritual is supposed to rid the land of her curse and the Black Plague. (98 minutes)
88 THE SOCIAL NETWORK, PG-13 Jesse Eisenberg plays Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, who becomes a zillionaire after creating the social networking site Facebook. (120 minutes)
82 TRON: LEGACY, PG Jeff Bridges reprises his 1982 role as the world’s former leading video-game developer, trapped for years in the digital world he created, waiting for rescue by his rebellious 27-year-old son (Garrett Hedlund) and a fearless warrior (Olivia Wilde) so they can battle a ruthless villain who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape. (125 minutes)
90 TRUE GRIT, PG-13 Filmmakers Ethan and Joel Coen take on Charles Portis’ novel about a 14-year-old Arkansas girl (Hailee Steinfeld) who recruits grizzled, drunken U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to go with her into the Oklahoma Territory after the scoundrel (Josh Brolin) who murdered her pa. (110 minutes)
83 UNKNOWN, PG-13 Liam Neeson plays a doctor who awakens from a horrific car accident in Berlin to discover that his wife (January Jones) doesn’t recognize him, another man (Aidan Quinn) has assumed his identity. With Diane Kruger, Bruno Ganz, Frank Langella; directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. (109 minutes)
86 UNSTOPPABLE, PG-13 A veteran engineer (Denzel Washington) and a rookie (Chris Pine) are in a locomotive chasing a runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals that must be brought under control before it derails and wipes out a town. (98 minutes) 88 WINTER’S BONE, R A 17-year-old (Jennifer Lawrence) challenges her outlaw kin’s code of silence and risks her life to track down her father, who has put their house in the Ozarks up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, she and her family will be turned out into the woods. (100 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 35 on 02/25/2011