Ratings based on four-star system.
'Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore'
Rated PG
1 star
"Cats & Dogs" is the latest movie to be unnecessarily converted to 3-D, which means that if mom and dad want to take the kids to see the fur fly this weekend, they're going to pay a surcharge to receive absolutely nothing of value in return. This sequel is better than the original, but so is a rabies shot. It's a send-up of James Bond spy flicks with cats and dogs joining forces to thwart hairless cat Kitty Galore (Bette Midler) and her diabolical plans to rule the world. The result is cute, but audiences are better off waiting for the DVD release.
'Despicable Me'
Rated PG
2 1/2 stars
An agreeable jumble, the animated feature "Despicable Me" sells its 3-D in ways you wouldn't call sophisticated or witty. With a heavy Slavic dialect, Steve Carell voices the "Me" of the title, a sallow-complexioned baddie named Gru, who plans to steal the moon by way of a "shrink ray." Along the way he grapples with his mother (Julie Andrews) and his nemesis, Vector (Jason Segel). The film finds its heart when Gru adopts three adorable orphan girls, and it's by taking the "heart" part just seriously enough, that this movie saves itself from itself.
'Dinner for Schmucks'
Rated PG-12
1 1/2 stars
This remake of a French farce has a lot of funny people going for it. In it, a wealthy businessman hosts a monthly soiree for which his employees must bring an idiot to dinner, and the best idiot wins. Tim (Paul Rudd) feels conflicted about this, but into his life (and off the front of his car) bounces a pluperfect dolt, played by Steve Carell. While cast members like Jemaine Clement and Zach Galifianakis play well, this schmucked-up American edition does the chortling for us and then scolds us for laughing. Or, in my case, not.
'Eat Pray Love'
Rated PG-13
2 stars
It is easy to watch "Eat Pray Love," the pretty, languid film adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling journal of self-discovery. Director and co-adapter Ryan Murphy's film will likely do the trick for a good percentage of those who loved Gilbert's memoir. The movie has the advantage of getting more fun as it goes. Manhattan travel writer Liz, played by Roberts, gets up the nerve to leave her flaky husband and travel through Italy, India and Bali in search of fulfillment, fun and food.
'The Expendables'
Rated PG-13
2 stars
The cinematic equivalent of Ribfest, Sylvester Stallone's "The Expendables" is all gristle and meat. The Expendables are mercenaries, and good ones. Most of the action takes place in the tiny, fictional South American island nation of Vilena, where the lads (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and company) have been hired by a shadowy CIA sort (Bruce Willis in a cameo featuring a cameo-within-a-cameo from Arnold Schwarzenegger) to take out a dictator. Is it fun? Sort of. But it shoulda coulda been a ton of fun.
'Flipped'
Rated PG
2 stars
Director Rob Reiner's film version of the book "Flipped" lands somewhere between synthetic nostalgia and real life. We follow the complicated relationship of two kids, Juli (Madeline Carroll) and Bryce (Callan McAuliffe), between the second and eighth grade, as they careen in and out of something like love. The kid actors certainly are up to it, having all the emotional directness to make us care. But Reiner's honey-coated atmosphere and some overacting by the supporting cast makes this film more of a good try rather than a good film.
'Inception'
Rated PG-13
3 stars
This elegant brain-bender affirms the prodigious imagination and clout of writer-director Christopher Nolan. Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Dom Cobb, works as an "extraction" expert, able to enter someone's subconscious and purloin valuable information for a fee. The plot, I suspect, will not matter much to people interested in diving into Nolan's rich, sleek series of collapsing surfaces. Oh, well. "Inception" may not be the ultimate trip, but Nolan's filmmaking intelligence places him among our most persuasive contemporary fantasists.
'The Kids Are All Right'
Rated R
4 stars
"All right" doesn't begin to describe it. "The Kids Are All Right" is wonderful. Doctor Nic (Annette Bening) and her longtime partner, Jules (Julianne Moore), have two teenagers from the same sperm donor. When the kids make contact with the donor behind the moms' backs, Mark Ruffalo's easygoing restaurateur Paul shows up to stir this family's pot a bit. Bening and Moore have never been looser on screen, and Ruffalo is the perfect foil. Writer-director Lisa Cholodenko weds simple technique to complex and satisfying comedy-drama.
'The Last Exorcism'
Rated PG-13
2 1/2 stars
This faux documentary offers up a squirmy tale of demonic possession. Director Daniel Stamm's film follows Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a charming huckster preacher who intends to show the film crew how the fake-exorcism business works by taking the case of a distraught, hyper-religious Louisiana farmer (Louis Herthum) who believes the devil has taken hold of his teenage daughter (Ashley Bell). While the wrapping-up feels obvious, for a good while "The Last Exorcism" makes for an atmospheric stab at movie fright night.
'Lottery Ticket'
Rated PG-13
3 stars
It's hard out there for a kid from the projects who scores a lottery payoff, but must wait for the claim office to reopen. Suddenly everyone in the projects is after him. One foot in fantasyland, the other in the real world, the picture isn't out for anything except laughs, plus a little astute sociology. Virtually everyone on screen knows where to find those laughs, how to deliver them and how hard to push them. This effort from first-time feature filmmaking collaborators, screenwriter Abdul Williams and director Erik White, is good — it's fast, deftly paced and funny.
'Nanny McPhee Returns'
Rated PG
2 stars
This sequel is pushier and more frantic than the charming original. A fine fat hit in the U.K., this film transports us back to WWII-era rural England where the farm belonging to the beleaguered Green family is on the brink. The three Green children are forced to play host to their snooty London cousins, all watched over by the supernatural presence of Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson). Shenanigans ensue. Too much of the contrasting comedy in the movie is shrill, laden with routine computer-generated effects and pounded into dust by the score.
'The Other Guys'
Rated PG-13
2 1/2 stars
A frustrating movie, albeit one with a lot of laughs, "The Other Guys" stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as New York Police Department desk jockeys who get a chance to transform themselves into high-risk, maximum-destruction superstars, chasing down a Bernie Madoff-type scam artist and destroying half their city in the process. While the filmmakers have overloaded the narrative, stretching it 20 minutes beyond its practical use, Ferrell is enough of a real actor to sell the stupidest stuff with the straightest of faces.
'Salt'
Rated PG-13
3 stars
"Salt" isn't trying to reinvent anyone's wheel. It's quick (under 90 minutes minus credits) and, like the condiment whose name it shares, director Phillip Noyce's run-like-hell thriller starring Angelina Jolie satisfies a basic human taste — something to go with the popcorn. I liked it. It knows what it's doing. Jolie plays a supertough superspook confronted one day with a Russian defector who accuses her of being a sleeper agent in the employ of Russians dreaming of old-school world domination. Thus begin the running and the chasing.
'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World'
Rated PG-13
3 stars
This is a different kind of comic book-based movie, and not just because it's funny first and everything else second. Director and co-writer Edgar Wright understands the appeal of the original Bryan Lee O'Malley graphic novels where Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) meets a New York transplant named Ramona Flowers, a tough babe in black leather who says he can date her if he vanquishes all seven of her "evil exes." With epic battles and a successful satiric too-muchness, the film is raucous, impudent entertainment.
'Step Up 3D'
Rated PG-13
3 stars
Entering NYU, Moose finds himself torn between two worlds, one respectable and relatively dance-free, the other filled with "b-boys, tickers, tappers, voguers and poppers." The movie is like watching a musical from the early '50s but in 3-D, combining hip-hop battles with numbers paying homage to old-style classics. This movie is ridiculous. Of course. But it boasts a generous exuberance and, as entertainment products go, it's surprisingly sweet. It requires only that you set your expectations correctly and that you don't go into it with a grudge against dance on screen.
'The Switch'
Rated PG-13
2 1/2 stars
This film is all over the place. Single and ready for a kid, TV producer Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) decides on artificial insemination. Her longtime friend and long-ago lover, Wally (Bateman), does not get the nod. The title refers to a switcheroo that Wally pulls at the "insemination party," substituting his own donation for the cause. Seven years later, Kassie's son's quirks appear to have more in common with Wally than the presumptive birth father. Wally has a secret. The movie is about how long he can keep it.
'Takers'
Rated PG-13
2 1/2 stars
This frantic, entertaining heist film is noisy and unsubtle, but it gets the job done. Top-billed Matt Dillon plays a detective who's chasing a quintet of stylish hoodlums played by the likes of Idris Elba, Tip "T.I." Harris and Chris Brown. They've been persuaded by a former colleague, just out of the clink, to blow up part of a downtown LA street, boost an armored truck's worth of banknotes, and get busy with the fruits of their labor. It's an unpretentious time-waster. And I rather liked it.
'Toy Story 3'
Rated G
3 stars
If "Toy Story 3" had sprung, Slinky Dog-like, from any creative think tank besides Pixar, it might be considered a classic. As is, it's a good sequel. Young Andy is heading off to college, and the long-neglected toys are headed for the attic. After mistakenly getting thrown to the curb as trash, the gang — cowboy Woody, spaceman Buzz Lightyear, cowgirl Jessie, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and the rest of the principals — has to bust out of the day care center in which they find themselves. Make no mistake: This Disney/Pixar release represents a franchise taken seriously by its custodians.
— Tribune Media Services
