'Me and Orson Welles'
Rated PG-13
1/2
In Richard Linklater's adaptation of the historical fiction novel by Robert Kaplow, our view of the great, charismatic director and thespian isn't straight on, but sideways. We see Welles (Christian McKay) from the perspective of an aspiring teenager, Richard Samuels (Zac Efron), who lands a bit part in Welles' 1937 production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" at the Mercury Theatre in New York. Fame is imminent for Welles, and he knows it. Richard passionately wants to be around theater, movies and music: It's a picture of the artist as a young heartthrob. Though Efron's fly on-the-wall performance is effortless and confident, it also lacks heft. McKay, a previously unknown British theater actor, has Welles down pat: the ever-shifting eyebrows, the sonorous, arch baritone, the "old man." Though this brisk, amiable film revels in the backstage banter and ramshackle rehearsals of a theater company coming to life, it fails to heed Welles' own advice: "Make 'em sweat."
'Ninja Assassin'
Rated R
1/2
When considering the meager merits of this blood-splattered bone-snapper, it's best to remember the words of John Goodman's PC-challenged character in "The Big Lebowski": "The man in the black pajamas, Dude. Worthy ... adversary." The makers of "Ninja Assassin" want to make those words real and rescue the ninja from the province of turtles. They have a funny way of paying respect to the sword-wielding saboteurs, though. Director James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta") is clearly more interested in spraying geysers of digital blood than in establishing the ninja as a foe to be taken seriously. Another problem: Since the movie's ninjas only come out in the dark, the fight scenes are murky and almost impossible to follow. No worthy adversaries here. Korean pop star Rain and Naomie Harris lead the cast of the movie, which centers on a rogue hit man who betrays his clan of assassins.
'The Princess and the Frog'
Rated G

The spirit of Walt Disney lives on in this return to hand-drawn animation by the studio that pioneered the art form. Disney has gone back to its roots with a fresh, funny retelling of a classic fairy tale. This isn't the second coming of "Beauty and the Beast" or "The Lion King." It's just plain pleasant, an old-fashioned charmer that's not straining to be the next glib animated compendium of pop-culture flotsam. Updating the Brothers Grimm tale "The Frog Prince" to the Louisiana bayou in the 1920s, the film centers on a waitress (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) whose dream of opening her own restaurant is sidetracked when she encounters a smooth-talking prince (Bruno Campos) transformed into a frog. Directors Ron Clements and John Musker ("The Little Mermaid") deliver a satisfying gumbo of snappy dialogue, lovable characters, bright-hued images and toe-tapping tunes by Randy Newman, all of it spiced up with just the right touch of voodoo peril.
'The Road'
Rated R

Director John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel strives to stay close to the book, but it fails to translate its essence and somehow feels more dreary than it should — which is saying something for a story about the apocalypse. Despite its end-of-the-world setting — an ashen wasteland dotted by marauding cannibals — McCarthy's book is, at heart, a father-son parable. We know them only as The Man (Viggo Mortenson) and The Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Hillcoat's film feels altogether uncertain, unable to find the scene-to-scene drama of their tenuous survival. Our dominant impression of the Man is his morbidity; Mortensen, a fine actor, doesn't evoke the weighty, terse steadfastness of the Man. Adapting a masterpiece such as "The Road" is a thankless task, but the film doesn't work on its own merits. "The Road" should reverberate with the most central questions of life and death, hope and despair.
'Planet 51'
Rated PG
1/2
This sci-fi family tale offers passable computer imagery but is an aborted liftoff when it comes to the lame story of a human astronaut among little green aliens who, for some uninspired reason, are living the serene "Ozzie and Harriet" life of 1950s America. Video-game veteran Jorge Blanco shifts to the big screen with an adventure as bland as the sitcommy decade that fostered it. Likewise, voice stars Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel and Justin Long seem to take their cue from the Ward Cleaver school of parental droning. Even vocal gymnast John Cleese sounds neutered as a partly mad alien scientist, while only Gary Oldman adds some bark as an alien general. Johnson provides vocals for the astronaut hero, who is befriended by a few young aliens while the rest of their planet wants to hunt him down as a monster. Though set on another world, the jokes are as derivative as they come, the filmmakers endlessly mining human pop culture in a vain search for laughs.
— Associated Press
'The Twilight Saga: New Moon'
Rated PG-13
1 1/2 stars
As every Stephenie Meyer fan knows, this is the one where studly vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) dumps human girlfriend Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) for her own safety, and she turns to old chum Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) for solace, unaware that he's a werewolf, and therefore Edward's sworn enemy. Fans will turn out in blockbuster legions, but here are a few of the many things wrong with director Chris Weitz's adaptation: It's really two half moons, or two halves of a movie that don't quite fit. Mopey teenager Bella has all the luster of, well, a mopey teenager. The real rivalry is whether werewolves or vampires can behave with greater preposterousness and pretension. Finally, "New Moon" is boring, eternally so. The soap-opera melodrama of Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner's performances provides some unintentional laughs. Yet Stewart is on screen almost all the time, and her Bella is just a drag to be around. With her flat speech and listless presence, it's unfathomable how two different sets of monsters could fixate so completely on her.
'Broken Embraces'
Rated R
2 1/2 stars
Pedro Almodovar weaves his spell just as assuredly as he does in his finest films — "Bad Education," "Talk to Her" — but the payoff comes a little too tidily and with a little too much self-reference. The Spanish director's beloved, vivid melodramas often suck you in and slyly lead you somewhere darker, but "Broken Embraces" feels like it leads you only back to Almodovar, himself. Mateo Blanco (Lluis Homar) is a blind screenwriter, forced to recall his past after a visitor jars him. That past centers on Lena (Penelope Cruz), whom he casts in a comedy very much like Almodovar's own "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." They promptly begin a doomed love affair. Cruz gives her most glamorous, movie star performance yet — fitting because "Broken Embraces" is in many ways a movie about movies — with beautiful camera work from Rodrigo Prieto and a sensuous score by Alberto Iglesias.
'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans'
Rated R
3 stars
It's post-Katrina New Orleans and there are snakes in the water — none bigger than Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage), an exceptionally corrupt detective, who slinks through town snorting coke, smoking heroin, harassing women and brandishing a .44 Magnum stuffed in the front of his pants. "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" is a kind of remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 cult classic "Bad Lieutenant," which was set in New York and starred Harvey Keitel in a similar role. Director Werner Herzog has summoned the sensational spirit of the original while making something fresh and gloriously insane. Cage dives headlong into the madness, and it's plain fun to see the actor give himself so fully to a character after several years of mostly forgettable action movies. The film keeps closer to the original's plot than one might want of a movie by a highly skilled director. And the ending feels like a forced, extra dose of Herzog mania. But it has a pulse, and it's a marvel to watch.
'The Blind Side'
Rated PG-13
2 1/2 stars
This redemption-minded sports flick serves its inspiration straight-up with no twist. Writer-director John Lee Hancock wisely lets the true story of Michael Oher — the African-American teen who found a home and, eventually, football stardom, after being adopted by a wealthy Memphis family — speak for itself. That direct focus delivers a feel-good crowd-pleaser, but it also drains the film of the kind of subtle nuances that might have separated it from other Hollywood Hallmark-like efforts, including Hancock's own "The Rookie." The movie dutifully chronicles the transformation of Oher (newcomer Quinton Aaron) from blank slate to a fully formed young man, emphasizing the involvement of Leigh Ann Tuohy (Sandra Bullock). Bullock brings her trademark spunkiness to the mother hen role, delivering an iron-willed woman who looks past appearances to do the right thing.
— Associated Press
