Carla Meyer

Derivative in most ways, "The Proposal" marks itself as original in one regard: It presents a 44-year-old woman as a potential romantic option for a 32-year-old man without branding her A) a cougar, B) a sugar mama or C) that acronym applied to friends' mothers who inspire slow-mo fantasies of summer wear, soap buckets and dirty Toyota Camrys.

With last year's record attendance cementing its status as the area's premier film event, the Sacramento French Film Festival probably shouldn't have stirred things up this year.

Denzel Washington and John Travolta always have shown exorbitant amounts of charisma, even as movie stars go.

"The Hangover," a blackout comedy about a derailed bachelor party, hits and misses with its gags. But it distinguishes itself from other what-happens-in-Vegas comedies (practically a subgenre at this point) by setting an especially vivid scene and telling an actual story instead of pasting together random shenanigans the way many modern comedies do.

"The Girlfriend Experience," Steven Soderbergh's study of a high-priced Manhattan call girl through the prism of the economic crisis, is meta enough to intrigue yet too removed to truly engage.

With "Ratatouille," "WALL-E" and now "Up," Pixar Animation Studios has graduated from moviedom's finest animation house to its most consistent producer of great cinematic art, period.

Rarely allowing substance to interfere with style, filmmaker Rian Johnson occasionally amuses but mostly frustrates with his con-job fantasia "The Brothers Bloom."

"Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" throws everything – history, high jinks, lots of famous faces in supporting roles – at the museum walls to see what sticks. Happily, much of it does.

Christian Bale should have taken a vacation instead.

When a group of folks from a local church decided to put on a Japanese film festival in 2005, they chose well-known titles: Akira Kurosawa's 1985 action epic "Ran" and the 1996 crowd-pleaser "Shall We Dance?" which just had been remade into a Hollywood film.

"Angels & Demons" might cause controversy among viewers who like their Tom Hanks films to be of some substance.

There's something very special about the pairing of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, who starred together in the wonderful "Y Tu Mamá También" and reunite in "Rudo y Cursi."

Paul Haggis' appearance Monday evening at the Mondavi Center no doubt will draw plenty of aspiring filmmakers from UC Davis.

For Eric Bana, playing the bald, tattoo-faced villain Nero in "Star Trek" meant shedding concerns about his leading-man looks.

Director JJ Abrams, in exploring the beginnings of the Starship Enterprise, blasts the "Star Trek" franchise back into relevance.

Blending an old-school look with a well-told story, the new "Star Trek" restores youth to the beloved franchise.

Hugh Jackman gets so fully into character in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" that he risks bursting blood vessels when Wolverine shows the full force of his rage.

Each summer movie season brings its own go-to descriptive term. A few years ago, it was "re-imagining." Then it was "threequel." In 2009, it's "reboot."

Keri Carr's voice, clear and ebullient, matches her demeanor as Rowdy Kate tears into "Honky Tonk Sin," a band original that examines the eternal struggle between piety and "whiskey drinkin'."

Combining mental illness, homelessness, journalism, cello music and a directing style that veers toward the epic, "The Soloist" encounters some trouble in maintaining a tone.

While Robert McKeown is being interviewed about the film series that he and his wife, DeeAnn Little, present in West Sacramento, a first-time patron walks in and tells McKeown he just read about tonight's showing of the 1985 science-fiction film "The Quiet Earth" on MySpace.

A very southern modern Western, the Spanish-language "Sin Nombre" offers a treacherous frontier, a conflicted outlaw and fine performances by actors with whom the camera clearly is besotted.

Remember when every Russell Crowe movie was an event?

A familiar figure stood in front of the Park Ultra Lounge on 15th Street Wednesday night, waiting for transportation to arrive. Indeed, the figure was so familiar that even limo drivers who weren't his limo driver couldn't resist a shout-out.

"The Soloist," opening April 24, tells the story of Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez's relationship to Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless, schizophrenic classical musician.

A sophisticated comedy about an unhinged doofus, "Observe and Report" falters under the weight of its ambitions.

"Fast & Furious" opens with a heist involving fast-moving vehicles and a character hanging perilously off the back of a big rig.

Filled with likable actors and 1980s pop songs, "Adventureland" ambles, entertains and … ends … without ever trying to be more than a tribute to odd jobs, unlikely friends and hanging out.

After the fourth grade, concentrated lessons in California history can be hard to come by.

"Sunshine Cleaning" is a small film with small storytelling problems that eventually add up.

With "Monsters vs. Aliens," DreamWorks Animation's visuals graduate from impressive to spectacular.

"Twilight," the box office sensation based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer, turns out to be better suited to the small screen than the big one.

The term "3-D movie" used to carry certain connotations. There were thrills, sure, but also headaches, dizziness and a whiff of gimmicky desperation ("Amityville 3-D").

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen bring true movie-star sizzle to their roles as corporate spies in "Duplicity," a film that shows the limits of such sizzle.

There comes a time in a man's life when he wants to settle down. And there comes a time in a Judd Apatow or Apatow-esque comedy when momentum fizzles and scenes become unstructured and self-indulgent.

When Deon Taylor isn't shooting a film, he's thinking of how to integrate products into his shots or how to expand his "Nite Tales" brand to encompass more films and TV shows.

"Race to Witch Mountain" seems like it might have it all before it seems like it has too much.

Winner of two Academy Awards (original screenplay and best actor), the superb Harvey Milk biography "Milk" (rated R, $29.95) is out on disc even though it's still playing in some theaters.

Richard Price will visit Sacramento for the first time Thursday to speak at the Crest Theatre as part of the California Lectures series.

"Wendy and Lucy" offers an acute example of the outside world affecting the moviegoing experience.

"Watchmen" takes us into dark, gruesome, complicated places without properly illuminating its characters.

In "Un Secret," French filmmaker Claude Miller expertly weaves together a family history, merging the personal and political, the celebratory and the tragic, while incorporating three distinct time periods.

So many Oscar winners and nominees, so little time. And so few theaters near you.

When "I've Loved You So Long" begins, Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) has just been released from prison. But as Scott Thomas' performance makes clear, she's still serving a sentence in her own mind and heart.

"Slumdog Millionaire" looks unstoppable.

The title of "The International" evokes "The Continental," that recurring "Saturday Night Live" sketch in which Christopher Walken plays a thin- mustached, would-be ladies' man who's always offending women.

Slumdog Millionaire," embraced by critics and audiences, and a clear favorite for the best picture Oscar, elicits fainter praise from some area residents with roots in India.

2 1/2 stars

At 10 p.m. Saturday, the Sacramento Jewish Film Festival will offer a comedic program anchored by "Circumcise Me," a very funny documentary spotlighting Yisrael Campbell, an American-born stand-up comic living in Israel.