Public Enemies
Johnny Depp in Public Enemies

Johnny Depp stars as charismatic Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, and Christian Bale plays G-man Melvin Purvis. The film is a fascinating bundle of contradictions -- authentic in a million details, deeply romanticized in others. Cool, calm and collected, this is more love story than gangster picture (Marion Cotillard plays Dillinger's lover), and it's more vivid around the edges than at its center. Yet a genuine filmmaking intelligence guides every scene

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Not bad, not good, "Ice Age 3" may be OK enough to do what it was engineered to do, i.e., baby-sit your kid for a while and rake in the dough. Lack of comic distinction and forgettable computer animation have always held back the "Ice Age" projects. "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" lays out one life-and-death scenario after another, dutifully.

Michelle Pfeiffer & Rupert Friend

Cheri
Michelle Pfeiffer & Rupert Friend in Cheri

Michelle Pfeiffer appears in her first substantial dramatic role since "White Oleander," and we are reminded of how much the world of film has lost by her recent absence.

Pfeiffer plays an aging prostitute nudged into a relationship with the 19-year-old wastrel son of a fellow courtesan (Kathy Bates).

 

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Shia LaBeouf & Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The first "Transformers" was a headache, but I sort of enjoyed it. It was a Slurpee brain-freeze of a blockbuster. This sequel is more like listening to rocks in a clothes dryer for 2.5 hours. Nobody's looking for anything other than relentless, brainless action, but director Michael Bay offers nothing but visual and aural chaos.

My Sister's Keeper
Cameron Diaz & Abigail Breslin in My Sister's Keeper

The harder this cinematic assault weapon went at my tear ducts, the more duct tape I wrapped around them as a defensive measure. Anna (Abigail Breslin), a girl who was a test-tube baby conceived to provide bone marrow to her older sister (Sofia Vassilieva), who has leukemia, sues her parents (Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric) for "medical emancipation," and while you'd think inter-family legal action would stop all the lovey-dovey montages of everybody cherishing every minute together, think again.

Whatever Works
Larry David & Evan Rachel Wood in Whatever Works

On the heels of last year's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," the freshest Woody Allen film in more than a decade, "Whatever Works" (Allen's 40th feature as director) plays like a hoary old Broadway stage comedy yanked, reluctantly, into the present. Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") plays a New York City misanthrope whose worldview is tempered by a relationship with a much younger Southern runaway (Evan Rachel Wood)

Jack Black & Michael Cera

Year One
Jack Black & Michael Cera in Year One

Hit and miss doesn't begin to describe this frequently wince-worthy comedy. Jack Black and Michael Cera play outcast members of a Paleolithic tribal village whose wanderings bring them into contact with Cain and Abel and Abraham and Isaac and Sodom and Gomorrah. Harold Ramis directs, and while this won't join his list of essential comedies, some of the dumb jokes manage to elicit a laugh.

 

Food Inc. (3 Stars)
Eric Schlosser & Michael Pollan in Food Inc.

This eye-popping documentary from filmmaker Robert Kenner should win a few hearts and minds regarding what we put in our stomachs. But the film got virtually no cooperation from representatives of the dominant players in industrial food production, and as a result, "Food, Inc." is a rangy, well-articulated essay rather than a compelling point-counterpoint.

The Proposal (2 Stars)
Sandra Bullock & Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal

In this disposable romantic comedy, Ryan Reynolds plays the beleaguered Man Friday to a fearsomely mean book editor played by Sandra Bullock. The editor, a Canadian living in New York, has visa troubles and is threatened with deportation. She strong-arms the assistant into marrying her -- quickie divorce to follow -- under the suspicious eye of Immigration Services.

Moon (2 Stars)
Sam Rockwell, a solitary astronaut, and
only a computer voiced by Kevin Spacey in Moon

This film could alternatively be titled 2009: A Space Odyssey, as it is virtually impossible not to be reminded of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece between Kevin Spacey's soothing ministrations as a computer named Gerty and Sam Rockwell's efforts to cope as the lone occupant of a lunar outpost. Rockwell plays Sam, a technician working on a strip-mining operation on the moon.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Denzel Washington & John Travolta in The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Denzel Washington's easygoing authority compensates for a lot in a sequel that fails to live up to the 1974 original, which starred Walter Matthau as a New York City transit cop locking horns with subway hijackers.

Director Tony Scott's modern version is slick, predictable and, thanks mainly to Washington's canny underplaying, fairly diverting. John Travolta plays the lead baddie.

 

Imagine That
Eddie Murphy & Yara Shahidi in Imagine That

This family-friendly trifle proves funny and charming, at least until the is-that-all-there-is of it kicks in. Fortunately, the picture's not-so-secret weapon, star Eddie Murphy, gives this uneven effort a reason for being. As a divorced workaholic who bonds with his 7-year-old daughter (Yara Shahidi) when her imaginary friends become his invisible business advisers, Murphy is his usual creative self.

Away We Go
Maya Rudolph & John Krasinski in Away We Go

Glib and charming in roughly equal measure, the road-tripping movie Away We Go is worth seeing for Maya Rudolph (best known for being underutilized on Saturday Night Live), who plays a mother-to-be living in Colorado with an insurance salesman (John Krasinski of The Office).

Land of the Lost
Will Ferrell & Danny McBride in Land of the Lost

Like him or not, Will Ferrell remains at the mercy of his material, and he may well shoulder the blame for this coarse, sloppy version of the old Saturday-morning time-warp adventure, even if he doesn't deserve it. Ferrell's professor is on an expedition when an earthquake plunges him, his tour guide (Danny McBride) and comely fellow researcher (Anna Friel) into a universe populated by dinos and Sleestaks.

The Hangover
Bradley Cooper & Ed Helms in The Hangover

This film belongs to the what-happened-last-night? genre typified by "Dude, Where's My Car?" Groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha) is whisked to Vegas from L.A. by his pals (Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms), with Doug's eerie future brother-in-law (Zach Galifianakis) in tow. Chaos ensues

My Life in Ruins
Nia Vardalos & Richard Dreyfuss in My Life in Ruins

Nia Vardalos of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" once again plays an insecure but charming rooting interest, surrounded by ethnic caricatures. This pushy romantic comedy casts her as an American wannabe-academic languishing in Greece, loveless and alone, working for a tour service

Up
Ed Asner & Christopher Plummer in the Pixar Animated Feature Up

Balloon salesman Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) shared a dream with his wife to visit South America. After his wife dies, Carl's yearning for adventure dies as well. Yet it rises again, and "Up" becomes a chronicle of an unlikely friendship between Carl and an 8-year-old (Jordan Nagai). This Disney-Pixar film feels nervy and adventurous and a little messy, the result of formidable creators working on an enormous budget, enormously well-spent.

 

Drag Me to Hell
Alison Lohman & Justin Long in Drag Me to Hell

Director Sam Raimi gets back to his disreputable roots with this hellaciously effective B-movie that comes with a handy moral tucked inside its scares, laughs and scare/laugh hybrids. Moral: Be nice to people. More specifically: Do not foreclose on the old Gypsy woman. Horror fans shouldn't worry about an excess of subtlety; the ook flows freely here.

Easy Virtue
Jessica Biel & Colin Firth in Easy Virtue

Australian director Stephan Elliott ("The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert") puts an odd spin on Noel Coward's 1924 play, going for camp and slapstick and bizarre musical interpolations.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
Ben Stiller & Amy Adams in Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

Ben Stiller reprises the role of the Museum of Natural History security guard who saved the day in the 2006 original, making peace among the warring tribes and beasts and magically energized figurines.

Here, the old gang, including the mammoth Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), mini-cowboy Jed (Owen Wilson) and micro-Roman Octavius (Steve Coogan), are being shipped off for storage in the bowels of the Smithsonian Institution.

 

Terminator Salvation
Christian Bale & Sam Worthington in Terminator Salvation

This fourth edition of the "Terminator" franchise stars Christian Bale as John Connor, living out his destiny to save the world from the killing machines introduced in 1984. In director McG's new world order, the machines rule with enforcers of every shape roaming the land. If you're a "Terminator" fan, "Salvation" is mostly worth it. There are plenty of pyrotechnics and artillery. And when the story starts to crumble around Bale, Sam Worthington, playing a gunslinging warrior, is usually there to pick up the pieces.

Dance Flick
Damon Wayans Jr. & Craig Wayans in Dance Flick

"Dance Flick" possesses a more nimble comic footing. It's a buzz-saw parody that grinds its way through formulas found in recent dance movies such as "Step Up" and "You Got Served," not to mention the "classics" such as "Flashdance" and "Fame."

The Brothers Bloom
Mark Ruffalo & Adrien Brody in The Brothers Bloom

Two con-man brothers (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody) travel the world in search of great marks. One day they meet Penelope (Rachel Weisz), and from the carefully orchestrated moment she drives her canary-yellow Lamborghini into their lives, their cons take on new meaning.

Angels & Demons
Tom Hanks & Ewan McGregor in Angels & Demons

On the heels of the 2006 adaptation of Dan Brown's best-seller "The Da Vinci Code," Tom Hanks returns to the dullest role of his career, once again under the direction of Ron Howard, who takes the material as seriously as a kidney stone on the way out.

 

Management
Jennifer Aniston & Steve Zahn in Management

This adaptation of Stephen Belber's one-act play is laid out as a series of trysts between a tightly controlled lost soul who sells corporate motel-room art (Jennifer Aniston) and the foggy-headed manager (Steve Zahn) of a roadside motel in Arizona.

Every Little Step (3 1/2 Stars)
Bob Avian & Baayork Lee in Every Little Step

"A Chorus Line" celebrates the itch to perform and the exquisite, control-freaky showmanship that is the Broadway musical at its greatest. You can assess the stage original's influence through this wonderful new documentary, which intercuts the story of how the original 1975 show came together with a step-by-step, fly-on-the-wall account of how the custodians of the recent 2006 Broadway revival came to cast whom they cast and why

Star Trek
Chris Pine & Zachary Quinto in Star Trek

The new "Star Trek" seeks to extend a lucrative brand with a young demographic. But it's a real movie -- breathlessly paced bordering on manic, but propulsively entertaining.

The script ping-pongs early on between Iowa and Vulcan, as the destinies of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) entwine.

 

Next Day Air
Donald Faison & Mike Epps in Next Day Air

Donald Faison of TV's "Scrubs" plays a marijuana-addled Philadelphia courier who drops a box of cocaine at the wrong apartment. The intended recipient (Cisco Reyes) realizes he's a dead man unless he retrieves the shipment, now in the hands of two astonished dealers (Mike Epps, Wood Harris). "Next Day Air" is sort of bracing, though it isn't very good.

Little Ashes
Javier Beltran & Robert Pattinson in Little Ashes

This trifling historical fantasy is beautiful to watch, but it takes only a light wind to leave the story in tatters. The setting is an imaginary Madrid, circa 1922. At the university, ideas and emotions are roiling the lives of three friends who will grow into important creative forces: painter Salvador Dali, poet Federico Garcia Lorca and filmmaker Luis Bunuel.

 

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Hugh Jackman & Liev Schreiber in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Here and there you get what you want from an "X-Men" prequel, thanks to the irrepressible Hugh Jackman and several other members of the cast, including Liev Schreiber as Wolverine's nemesis, Sabretooth. But there's a rote quality to the proceedings ...

 

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Matthew McConaughey & Jennifer Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past the Movie

If you look up the word "typecasting" in the dictionary, you'll find Matthew McConaughey's smirk affixed to this film's title. Nonetheless, this Lothario-learns-a-lesson comedy offers a few guilty chuckles. Riffing on "A Christmas Carol," the script concerns a caddish fashion photographer (McConaughey) who spends his days lining up femmes ...

Battle for Terra
Evan Rachel Wood & Luke Wilson in Battle for Terra

The premise of "The War of the Worlds" is twisted in this animated sci-fi film so that the invading aliens are humans desperate to find a new home. The invaded are tadpole-like creatures heretofore living a peaceful life devoted to the liberal arts and hang-gliding. Evan Rachel Wood provides the voice of the story's principal female tadpole, who enlists the help of a downed U.S. military pilot (Luke Wilson) to rescue her abducted father. ...

Is Anybody There?
Michael Caine & Bill Milner in "Is Anybody There?" the Movie

This finely drawn British drama is propelled by another of Michael Caine's unforgettable screen portraits. Caine plays an aging magician struggling to keep hold of his dignity and his mind in the face of old age. He has been packed off to an old-age home in a small seaside town, where he discovers an unexpected friendship with an inquisitive but pensive 10-year-old ...

Tyson
Mike Tyson Movie Review by Kenneth Turan

"Tyson" is not a conventional film biography. There is no variety of viewpoints, no back and forth about episodes in his life, and, except for interview footage from the past, no other voices heard. What you get is Mike Tyson, former heavyweight champion, former substance abuser, former prison inmate, talking ...

Earth
Alastair Fothergill & Mark Linfield

It would be Pollyannish to pretend that this documentary is without its problems, but the bottom line is, it shouldn't be missed.

What it does well is so remarkable that by the time the credits roll you likely won't want it to end. ...

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

This documentary succeeds every which way: as '80s heavy metal nostalgia, as a twisted sort of reality-show attempt at a comeback, as an unexpectedly touching portrait of a friendship. Director Sacha Gervasi hung out with the band Anvil in London in the early '80s during a tour. Then, a generation later, he hunted them down to find out what happened in the interim. ...

The Soloist
Jamie Foxx & Robert Downey Jr in The Soloist the Movie

In this film based on a true-life story, Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.) discovers street musician Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a former Juilliard student plagued by undiagnosed schizophrenia, leading to a series of influential columns and an eventful relationship between the two men. You couldn't ask for better actors ...

Fighting
Channing Tatum & Terrence Howard in Fighting the Movie

It's called "Fighting," and its unpolished fracases are among the film's highlights. But there's much more to it than that. Channing Tatum plays a drifter who's drawn by a two-bit hustler (Terrence Howard) into New York's underground fighting scene. ...

The Informers
Billy Bob Thornton & Kim Basinger in The Informers

Set in 1983 Los Angeles, where the bored, callous progeny of the very wealthy pleasure themselves with cocaine binges, casual sex and parties that turn fatal. ...

State of Play
Russell Crowe & Ben Affleck in State of Play

Like Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic," "State of Play" compresses a British television miniseries into a stand-alone American thriller and does a pretty good job of it. Russell Crowe plays a star newspaper journalist pursuing strands of a conspiracy involving a shadowy private defense firm.

The cast also includes Helen Mirren, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Robin Wright Penn. ...

 

Sugar
Algenis Perez Soto & Rayniel Rufino in Sugar

This rich and moving baseball movie follows a 19-year-old from the Dominican Republic, making his way to Arizona, then Iowa, in the employ of the (fictional) Kansas City Knights farm system. What happens to this kid, Miguel "Sugar" Santos (Algenis Perez Soto), feels like the stuff of life. In America we tend to like our baseball stories the way we like our immigration stories: triumphant, reassuringly lucky. ...

Hunger
Michael Fassbender & Liam Cunningham in Hunger the Movie

Michael Fassbender stars as Bobby Sands, the Irish Republican Army martyr who starved himself to death in 1981 to bring attention to the harsh conditions in which he and his fellow prisoners of the infamous H-Block of the Maze Prison, near Belfast, lived under British authority. It's a strength of this carefully composed picture that it has no interest in the conventional biographical focus. ...

17 Again
Zac Efron & Leslie Mann in 17 Again the Movie

This halfhearted fantasy is about a former high school basketball star given the chance to return to high school and infiltrate his kids' classes under a transfer-student guise. Matthew Perry plays the older version of the ex-jock, with tween idol Zac Efron starring as the younger version. ...

American Violet
Nicole Beharie & Alfre Woodard in American Violet the Movie

Newcomer Nicole Beharie stars in this disquieting drama based on the true story of a young single mother victimized by what turned out to be a tainted, race-based drug arrest and the crusade of a conviction-hungry district attorney in a small Texas town. ...

 

Hannah Montana the Movie

Miley Cyrus, 16, stars in a big-screen expansion of the Disney Channel TV series in which Ms. Cyrus splits herself in two, trying to be both down-home Miley Stewart from Tennessee and, in disguise, Hannah Montana, L.A. rock star adored by millions, with only a dirty-blond wig to conceal her identity.

 

Observe and Report

Seth Rogen is likely to get blamed for everything wrong with "Observe and Report," because he's overexposed at the moment and the film doesn't really work, even with its flashes of rude invention. But the fault lies with writer-director Jody Hill.

Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Based on novelist Michael Chabon's 1988 debut effort, this film is a coming-of-ager that nearly slaughters you with the relentlessness of its protagonist's voiceovers. Jon Foster plays the son of a mobster money launderer (Nick Nolte) who falls in with a willowy blonde (Sienna Miller) and her reckless lover (Peter Sarsgaard).

The Fast and the Furious

If you're in the mood for a lot of vroom, vroom, thump, thump, the fourth installment in the metal-twisting series that began with "The Fast and the Furious" (2001) should leave you satiated for a long time.

The return of Vin Diesel restores energy to the franchise, and director Justin Lin infuses the necessary full-throttle bits with a dynamic lyricism.

The plot isn't really important as long as you know there are plenty of extreme and extended demolition derbies -- countless cars gave their lives to make this movie possible.

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80th Academy Awards Nominations and Oscar Winners 2008

80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Winners and Stories
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Winners

"No Country" wins Best Picture, Best Director. Daniel Day-Lewis wins best actor for his role in "There Will Be Blood". Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton Win Supporting Role Academy Awards, "Ratatouille" awarded Oscar for Best Animation Feature

Best Picture Academy Award Nominees

Atonement
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Nomination

Filmed on location in the United Kingdowm, the films story spans several decades.

In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Brionys vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (Mr. McAvoy), the educated son of the familys housekeeper, carries a torch for Brionys headstrong older sister Cecilia (Ms. Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust.

Juno
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Nomination

Meet Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) – a confidently frank teenage girl who calls the shots with a nonchalant cool and an effortless attitude as she journeys through an emotional nine-month adventure into adulthood. Quick witted and distinctively unique, Juno walks Dancing Elk High's halls to her own tune - preferably anything by The Stooges - but underneath her tough no nonsense exterior is just a teenage girl trying to figure it all out.

Michael Clayton
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Nomination

George Clooney stars in the title role of Michael Clayton, a "fixer" at Kenner, Bach & Ledeen, a top Manhattan law firm. A former criminal prosecutor from a working-class neighborhood, Clayton is an anomaly at the white-shoe firm; in spite of his 15-year tenure, he has not been promoted to partner and probably never will be. His boss, Marty Bach, sees Clayton as an invaluable asset to the firm, but only in his "niche," one that is relegated to cleaning up the firm’s sticky situations quickly and quietly.

No Country For Old Men
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Picture

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a mesmerizing new thriller from Academy Award winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the acclaimed novel by Pulitzer Prizewinning American master, Cormac McCarthy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones. Featuring a cast that includes Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones ("The Fugitive," "Men in Black"), Josh Brolin ("Grindhouse"), Academy Award®-nominee Javier Bardem ("The Sea Inside"), Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson ("The People Vs. Larry Flynt") and Kelly Macdonald ("Trainspotting")

There Will Be Blood
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Picture

A sprawling epic about family, faith, power and oil, THERE WILL BE BLOOD is set on the radical frontier of California’s turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The story chronicles the rise of one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon.

Best Actress Academy Award Noinations

Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: The Golden Age
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Nomination

Cate Blanchett's fifth nomination and the second in this category. Cate was also nominated for her leading role in Elizabeth (1998). Her supporting role nominations were for The Aviator (2004), for which she won the Oscar, and Notes on a Scandal (2006). She is also nominated this year in the supporting category for I’m Not There.

Julie Christie as "Fiona Anderson" in Away from Her
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Nomination

Julie Christie's fourth nomination in this category. Her other nominations were for Darling (1965), for which she won an Oscar, McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Afterglow (1997).

Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Winner

Marion Cotillard's first Oscar nomination.

Laura Linney as Wendy Savage in The Savages
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Nomination

Laura Linney's third nomination and the second in this category. Laura was nominated for her leading role in You Can Count on Me (2000) and her supporting role in Kinsey (2004).

Ellen Page as Juno MacGuff in Juno
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actress Nomination

Ellen Page's first Academy Award nomination.

Best Actor Academy Awards

George Clooney as Michael Clayton in Michael Clayton
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Nomination

George Clooney's fourth nomination and the first in this category. In 2005, he won an Oscar for his supporting role in Syriana, and was also nominated for writing and directing Good Night, and Good Luck.

Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Winner

This is his fourth nomination in this category. He won an Oscar for his performance in My Left Foot (1989) and was nominated for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Gangs of New York (2002).

Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Nomination

This is Johnny Depp's third nomination in this category. His other nominations were for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and Finding Neverland (2004).

Tommy Lee Jones as Hank Deerfield in In the Valley of Elah
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Nomination

Tommy Lee Jones' third nomination and the first in this category. He was nominated for his supporting roles in JFK (1991) and The Fugitive (1993), for which he won the Oscar.

Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai in Eastern Promises
80th Academy Awards - 2008 Oscar Best Actor Nomination

This is Viggo Mortensen's first Academy Award Oscar nomination.

Best Animated Feature

Persepolis, Ratatouille, Surf's Up

 

 

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