Movie Reviews

Bob Marley packed a lot of living into his 36 years. Hit records, international concert success, 11 children by seven different women, a face stenciled on more T-shirts than Che Guevara.

There are a couple of real pleasures in "Men in Black 3," the third installment of the sci-fi adventure-comedy series about cops policing a shadow world of aliens living among us

"Bernie" is a one-of-a-kind movie that establishes its own tone, walking a thin line between seriousness and absurdity.

If only "What To Expect When You're Expecting" had focused on the dads' group, we might have been onto something here.

And because it's a little cheeky and doesn't seem to take itself totally seriously, it's more enjoyable than one might expect from a movie based on a board game created in the 1960s.

The world of "Darling Companion" is easy to take and relaxing to settle into.

Is the young, beautiful blonde woman truly a time traveler from a war-torn future, promising safety and enlightenment for a chosen few?

In analyzing Sacha Baron Cohen and the array of offbeat characters he's created, it's clear that it's become a matter of diminishing returns.

In theory, seeing Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy share the screen should be a delight.

It's difficult to pay tribute to something in earnest and yet spoof it at the same time. Err too far on the side of sincerity and you have something that rings false. Take the satire too far and you have a movie that's funny for 15 minutes, then meaningless for the next hour and a half.

The strong, sexy presence of Eva Mendes and the girlish perkiness of Cierra Ramirez can only go so far to make the forced mother-daughter dramedy "Girl in Progress" tolerable.

Gianni, the 60ish hero of the gentle Italian comedy "The Salt of Life," (opening today at the Crest) has made a discovery: Women just don't look at him the way they used to.

As an assemblage of the Marvel superheroes, a few of whom already had entire movies devoted to them, "The Avengers" should be the comic-book movie to end all comic-book movies.

"Damsels in Distress," a movie sure to reward the filmmaker's most die-hard fans, while doing little to quiet critics who found his work self-conscious to the point of insufferability.

Current movies reviewed to provide parents with a guide to help decide what may be appropriate for younger viewers

The most dangerous and addictive aspect of lust is its revelatory quality, the way it makes the whole of life that went before it feel like a wasteland of sleepwalking and tepid emotion.

"Safe" is the worst Jason Statham movie since the last Jason Statham movie, carrying on the bargain- budget action star's tradition of building a body of work out of, well, dead bodies.

The image of Edgar Allan Poe passed down to us is that of a dour, pale and morbid drunkard, a poet haunted by lovers who died in his arms. But he was also a playful wordsmith, an eviscerating critic, a man fascinated by cryptography and fond of dissections.

The problem that plagues so many Judd Apatow productions – the one that keeps good comedies from being great ones – unfortunately exists in "The Five-Year Engagement," too. It's a matter of knowing when to say when, of knowing which bits should be trimmed and which should have been cut altogether.

Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness," nominated for a foreign-language Academy Award (it lost to "A Separation"), is set in the city of Lvov, then part of Poland and now Ukraine, in the midst of World War II.

The Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne never chart an easy path for their characters.

"The Lucky One" is the edgiest-ever film adaptation of the writings of Nicholas Sparks.

With a wealth of informative TV wildlife programming already in the marketplace, Disneynature faces a Darwinian dilemma.

What is essentially a shameless and overlong infomercial for Steve Harvey's dating advice book becomes tolerable and even enjoyable at times with the help of an attractive, likable cast in "Think Like a Man."

There's an inner 9-year-old in us all, dying to get out, to laugh at pratfalls, slaps, eye-pokes and fart jokes.

Stop reading this review right now.

Guy Pearce goes into low-Earth orbit to get his cool back in "Lockout," a silly sci-fi B-picture made fun by his star turn.

The documentary "Bully" is essential to see, whether you're a parent or a kid, whether you've been on the giving or receiving end of such increasingly pervasive cruelty.

The politics of working in academia are famously complicated. But the Israeli movie "Footnote" (opening today at the Crest), an Oscar nominee for best foreign film, throws an additional wrench into an already tricky scenario – contentious familial relations.

Editor's note: In "First-class voyage: Titanic embarks on a tale of romance and realism," published Dec. 19, 1997, The Bee's movie critic Joe Baltake gave the movie 3 1/2 stars.

With apologies to Don McLean, sing along here: So why, why more "American Pie"?

The Davis Film Festival lasts just 2 1/2 days but targets most ages and sensibilities in the distinctive university town it serves.

Robert De Niro and Paul Dano play a father and son who reunite after 18 years of estrangement in "Being Flynn," and they approach their roles in such polar-opposite ways, it's as if the actors themselves have been estranged, as well.

There's something gloriously sweet about "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen."

What's the old saying – "3-D fool me once, shame on you; 3-D fool me twice, shame on me?"

Dread envelops "The Hunger Games," a tightly paced, consistently chilling adaptation of Suzanne Collins' wildly popular young-adult book.

"We Need to Talk About Kevin" is about a nightmare on your street, not Elm Street.

There's something about the frozen Northern Plains, filled with folksy, trusting and righteous Dakotans, Minnesotans and Wisconsinites, that screams "insurance fraud" to screenwriters.

It's easy to assume that Victor DeNoble, the tobacco-industry whistleblower at the center of the solid and watchable documentary "Addiction Incorporated," (opening today at the Crest) has got to be the same guy who inspired the similarly themed, fact-based drama "The Insider."

It was a simpler time, when Johnny Depp was new to Tiger Beat, when hair metal still ruled the airwaves and when Fox was an infant TV network with a bare handful of series – "The Simpsons," "America's Most Wanted" and this silly cop confection called "21 Jump Street."

Mark Duplass has said that he and his brother, Jay, look to the veteran Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for artistic inspiration, with their naturalistic, documentary-style approach to telling feature stories.

It's a total goof, of course.

Jennifer Westfeldt seems interested in exploring the complications that come with pondering parenthood with a mix of candor and heart in "Friends With Kids."

There seems to be a pretty good film lurking around inside "Bullhead," which makes what we actually see on the screen all the more frustrating.

A young woman is stuck inside her house and can't escape. Intruders have bludgeoned her father, and at any second they're going to find her.

Also "The Skin I Live In" (Spain), "Senna," "Wyatt Earp's Revenge," "Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season" (HBO), "Columbus Circle," "Transformers Prime: The Complete First Season,"

At almost no time during "John Carter" will you understand what in the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs is going on.

Dr. Seuss died in 1991, saving him from the gaudy, big-screen abominations of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000) and "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat" (2003).

"Project X" is the movie equivalent of that good- looking, well-off teenage boy your gut tells you to keep away from your teenage daughter.