Movie Capsules: Now showing

Lorey Sebastian

Jeff Bridges makes one of his strongest performances as a has-been country singer in "Crazy Heart."

Capsule descriptions by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss.

OPENING TODAY

Cop Out (R, 107 min.) Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, in a buddy picture from director Kevin "I Can't Fit in the Plane" Smith.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Studio on the Square, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Lorey Sebastian

Jeff Bridges makes one of his strongest performances as a has-been country singer in "Crazy Heart."

The Crazies (R, 101 min.) A contaminant turns townies into killers, in this remake of George Romero's 1973 minor masterpiece.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

The Last Station (R, 112 min.) See review on Page 14.

Ridgeway Four.

Teen Patti (Not rated, 140 min.) Ben Kingsley and Indian acting legend Amitabh Bachchan are mathematicians involved in a gambling scheme in this Bollywood production.

Hollywood 20 Cinema.

SPECIAL MOVIES

The Alps: The latest IMAX film follows climber John Harlin III in his attempt to climb the Eiger in the Swiss Alps. Runs through Nov. 12. Tickets $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children ages 3-12; children under 3 are free. Call for show times. alpsfilm.com

IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 320-6362 for tickets and reservations.

Pink Palace IMAX Film Festival: Saturday & Sunday. See all your favorite IMAX films: "Dolphins" (1 p.m.); "The Alps" (2 p.m.); "Under the Sea" (3 p.m.); "Journey Into Amazing Caves" (4 p.m.); and "Mystery of the Nile" (11 a.m. Saturdays only). Tickets: $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 for children ages 3-12; children under 3 are free. memphismuseums.org

IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 320-6362 for tickets and reservations.

Under the Sea: This new IMAX adventure transports you to some of the most exotic and isolated undersea locations on Earth. Runs through March 5, 2010. Tickets: $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children ages 3-12; children under 3 are free. Call for show times.

Crew Training International IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 320-6362 for reservations and tickets.

NOW SHOWING

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (PG, 89 min.) Richard Widmark is dead, but his spirit improbably lives on in Alvin, Simon and Theodore, who send an old lady in a wheelchair down a steep flight of stairs, as if in homage to the film-noir classic "Kiss of Death." The harmonizing rodents also smash their human sponsor, Dave Seville (Jason Lee), with a piece of stage scenery, putting him in traction for most of the film; maybe what this "squeakquel" needs isn't a reviewer but an exterminator.

Stage Cinema, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Studio on the Square, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Armored (PG-13, 88 min.) Matt Dillon plans a heist.

Bartlett 10, Majestic.

Avatar (PG-13, 162 min.) Twelve years after "Titanic," writer-director James Cameron returns with the most expensive movie ever (reported budget: $240 million), a science-fiction eco-spectacle that could be described as "Dances with Wolves" or "The New World" in outer space, as a paraplegic Marine (Sam Worthington) on the distant planet Pandora in the year 2154 rejects his imperialistic, exploitative and genocidal mission after spending time in a genetically manufactured "avatar" body among the indigenous Na'vi: blue-skinned humanoids who hunt with bows and arrows, ride pterodactyl-like "banshees" and live in harmony with the planet's bioluminescent flora and fauna (including several amazing monsters).

Stage Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D).

The Blind Side (PG-13, 126 min.) Sarah Palin isn't the only gun-toting, ex-cheerleader, conservative Christian sports mom back in the news. We've also got Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, the no-nonsense, git-'r-done Memphian whose rescue of inner-city gentle giant and future football star Michael Oher provides the real-life inspiration for director John Lee Hancock's tearless tearjerker (steel magnolia Leigh Anne leaves the room whenever she's about to cry).

Stage Cinema, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Paradiso, CinePlanet 16.

Blood Done Sign My Name (PG-13, 128 min.) This sincere, modest film chronicles a relatively little-known tragedy of the late civil rights era: the 1970 Emmett Till-like murder of a young black Vietnam veteran, accused of the "crime" of flirting with a white woman. As one character points out, the victim survived the Viet Cong only to be beaten and killed in his own North Carolina hometown. Working from an autobiographical history book by Timothy B. Tyson, writer-director Jeb Stuart begins by focusing on a progressive white Methodist minister (former child star Ricky Schroder), then shifts our attention to the black community, represented by schoolteacher and future NAACP head and Million Man March-organizer Ben Chavis (Nate Parker). If this were a TV movie produced in the 1970s, it probably would have won a boatload of Emmys; arriving in 2010, it doesn't offer much new, although parents or grandparents worried that their children don't appreciate the sacrifices of decades past might want to use the movie as a teaching tool.

Majestic.

The Book of Eli (R, 118 min.) With a knife that would scare a samurai and the world's last remaining Bible as his prized possessions, butt-kicking prophet of God Denzel Washington wanders an ashy wasteland in this Mad-to-the-Max post-apocalyptic Western from director brothers Albert and Allen Hughes ("Menace II Society")..

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Couples Retreat (PG-13, 114 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Crazy Heart (R, 112 min.) As "Bad Blake," a broke, alcoholic country singer-songwriter nicknamed "the Wrangler of Love," Best Actor nominee Jeff Bridges brings all his four decades of deceptively casual charm and unpretentious smarts to what is proving to be his signature role. Adapted by debuting director Scott Cooper from a novel by Thomas Cobb, the film is something of an anomaly on the current movie landscape: a relaxed, 1970s-style character study more interested in observing behavior than in surprising viewers with the "twists" of a story, as Blake seeks romantic refuge with a single mother (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who knows better. The film's original songs, performed by Bridges, mostly were written by T Bone Burnett and the late Stephen Bruton, but viewers may prefer Blake's explanation for the compositions. When asked, "Where did all those songs come from?" he responds: "Life, unfortunately."

Ridgeway Four, Cordova Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Dear John (PG-13, 108 min.) A soldier (Channing Tatum) falls for a college student (Amanda Seyfried) in this adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' best-seller.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Did You Hear About the Morgans? (PG-13, 104 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Edge of Darkness (R, 117 min.) As a Boston cop whose prodigal daughter is murdered on his doorstep, Mel Gibson makes a tailor-made return to tough-guy stardom in this potent murder mystery/conspiracy thriller with an aura of old-school gloom.

Forest Hill 8, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

An Education (PG-13, 95 min.) Adapted by popular British novelist Nick Hornby from Lynn Barber's coming-of-age memoir, the movie chronicles the initially flattering and exciting but inevitably troubling courtship/seduction of Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a pretty and extremely bright but naive 16-year-old virgin, by David (Peter Sarsgaard), a seemingly sophisticated charmer almost twice her age who seems to offer a shortcut to the life of existential novels, foreign films and jazz nightclubs that Jenny longs to inhabit.

Ridgeway Four.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (PG, 87 min.)

Bartlett 10.

From Paris With Love (R, 95 min.) Bald secret agent John Travolta is a "trigger-happy, wisecracking, loose cannon" in this action movie from director Pierre Morel ("Taken").

Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

It's Complicated (R, 118 min.)

Stage Cinema.

Leap Year (PG, 100 min.) Amy Adams and Matthew Goode find romance in Ireland.

Stage Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Legion (R, 101 min.) Movies don't get much more wick wick wack than this amusingly God-awful -- and yes, that's God with a capital 'G' -- horror-action spectacle that alternates between outrageous camp and sobersided sanctimony as it slouches toward immortality via some future incarnation of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." The apparent bad guy is God Almighty Himself, who has "unleashed" the "dogs of heaven" -- his angel army -- to destroy humankind because he's "lost faith" in his creations.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

The Lovely Bones (PG-13, 135 min.) Saorsie Ronan is wonderful as the 14-year-old murder victim who narrates the film and watches the effect of her death on her friends, parents (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz) and murderer (scene-stealing Stanley Tucci), but the distorting wide-angle lenses and broad staging that director Peter Jackson favors expose the sappiness of the story's comforting Family Circus notion that departed loved ones continue to hover around us and cheer us on.

Stage Cinema, Majestic, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

My Name Is Khan (Not rated, 161 min.) Another Bollywood musical comes to the Hollywood 20; this one is about a Muslim from India who faces difficulties after 9/11.

Hollywood 20 Cinema.

Old Dogs (PG, 88 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (PG, 120 min.) Director Chris Columbus first brought Harry Potter to the screen; here, he moves on to the Young Adult novels of Rick Riordan, which tell the similar story of teenaged Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), who discovers he's the son of the Greek god Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) and the heir to magical powers; he enrolls in a sort of Hellenic Hogswart, and soon learns that centaurs, minotaurs and Mt. Olympus aren't myths. Like Columbus' cheery Potter films (which were inferior to the darker sequels made by other directors), this is a fun, effects-filled, escapist adventure, with several clever notions: Medusa (Uma Thurman) sells garden statuary as a cover, and the Parthenon in Nashville is home to a hydra. With Sean Bean as Zeus, Steve Coogan as Hades and Brandon T. Jackson as Percy's best friend, a satyr.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Planet 51 (PG, 97 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Preacher's Kid (PG-13, 101 min.)

Majestic.

The Princess and the Frog (G, 97 min.)

Bartlett 10.

The Road (R, 108 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Sherlock Holmes (PG-13, 130 min.) As reimagined for the 21st-century multiplex and enacted with a semi-maniacal gleam in his eye by a mischievous Robert Downey Jr., this latest Holmes -- never seen with a deerstalker and magnifying glass but frequently stripped down to suspenders and pantaloons, the better for bare-knuckle brawling -- may displease Arthur Conan Doyle purists but should find favor with audiences eager for a fun, witty action movie (call it "Indiana Holmes").

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Shutter Island (R, 138 min.) In his fourth collaboration with director Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio is an ex-G.I. federal marshal in 1954 whose investigation of an impossible disappearance from an asylum for the "criminally insane" drives him -- like "a rat in a maze" -- into the dark corners of his overtaxed brain, as well as into the natural caves and equally dank manmade warrens of this particular island of lost souls. "Pull yourself together," are the marshal's first words, to his distraught mirror image, and no wonder: He's burdened by visions of his dead wife (Michelle Williams), memories of the liberation of Dachau, and his alcoholic past. Scorsese employs all his expert resources, but this adaptation of Dennis Lehane's things-are-not-what-they-seem novel proves more pedantic than scary, even when the low camera angles, the dark skies, the menacing character actors (you know a place is bad when the wardens are played by serial killers Ted "Silence of the Lambs" Levine and John "Zodiac" Carroll Lynch) and the jarring piano notes of Krzysztof Penderecki work overtime to strap you into a strait-jacket of foreboding. Unfortunately, narrative rug-pulling is now so commonplace that the revelations here are more old-hat than snap-brim, as if master filmmaker Scorsese, the dedicated champion of America's movie heritage, is so enamored of the past that he doesn't realize his homage to such slippery 1940s mind-tease noirs as "Whirpool" and "The Chase" is unlikely to startle the contemporary moviegoer.

Forest Hill 8, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Studio on the Square, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

A Single Man (R, 101 min.) Adapted from a 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood, this is the story of the possible last day in the life of a middle-aged college professor (a superb Colin Firth) who is not just in mourning for the death of his longtime lover (Matthew Goode) but is preparing his suicide.

Ridgeway Four.

The Spy Next Door (PG, 92 min.)

Majestic.

Tooth Fairy (PG, 102 min.) Hockey player Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson must atone for a bad deed by spending one week as the magical tooth fairy.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

2012 (PG-13, 158 min.)

Bartlett 10.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (PG-13, 130 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Up in the Air (R, 109 min.) Adapted from a novel by Walter Kirn, the third feature from director Jason Reitman ("Thank You for Smoking," "Juno") is a solid adult comedy-drama, with lead characters sturdy enough to have been played by Cary Grant and Lauren Bacall in another era, and actors (George Clooney and Vera Farmiga) confident and talented enough not to be humiliated by the comparison. .

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Collierville Towne 16.

Valentine's Day (PG-13, 125 min.) When "sports journalist" Jamie Foxx asserts that Valentine's Day gives him acid reflux, you'll wonder if he's talking about the holiday or this sub-sitcom hodgepodge of inteconnected romantic mini-dramas, primed to make susceptible female viewers sigh (isn't Ashton Kutcher puppy-dog cute?) and hiss (Patrick Dempsey is cheating on his wife!) on cue. Incapable of staging even a single interesting shot, nice guy-but-hopeless hack director Garry Marshall has assembled a glittery all-ages ensemble that includes Julia Roberts, Jessica Biel, Shirley MacLaine, Bradley Cooper, two Taylors (Lautner and Swift), Emma Roberts (a virgin who decides not to go all the way before college) and Kathy Bates and Queen Latifah. (The latter two are the only names unrewarded with a romantic subplot -- what, plus-sized ladies don't deserve no love??) For the most part, the stars know they're in a piece of junk. You can see it in their eyes, except for Jessica Alba's -- you can't see anything in there.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Studio on the Square, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

When in Rome (PG-13, 91 min.) A better fit for one of the Eternal City's apocryphal vomitoriums than for a movie theater, this embarrassment casts Kristen Bell as a stubbornly single Guggenheim curator (!) pursued by a series of wacky suitors (illusionist Jon Heder, sausage mogul Danny DeVito, etc.) after she liberates their wishing coins from a magic fountain of love in Rome. Bell's conundrum: Is hunky sportswriter Josh Duhamel sincere in his sudden courtship, or also bewitched? Charmless and unbelievable, from a director who specializes in the stupefying, Mark Steven Johnson ("Daredevil," "Ghost Rider").

Stage Cinema, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

The Wolfman (R, 91 min.) Arriving late to a troubled production, journeyman director Joe Johnston ("The Rocketeer," "Jurassic Park III") has crafted a generally effective if inconsequential monster movie, highlighted by Rick Baker's beautifully rendered makeup effects and designs. Channeling brooding Oliver Reed in "The Curse of the Werewolf" as well as Lon Chaney Jr. in the 1940s Universal "Wolf Man" series, genuine wolf-fan Benicio Del Toro (he's one of the film's producers) stars as Shakespearean actor Lawrence Talbot (to be or not to be, indeed), tortured by Freudian as well as lycanthropic impulses: His father (Anthony Hopkins) is unsympathetic, and his love interest (Emily Blunt) resembles his dead mother. No wonder a key transformation takes place in an asylum, where the Wolfman gleefully shreds apart a know-it-all doctor with a Viennese accent.

Forest Hill 8, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Studio on the Square, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

The Young Victoria (PG, 100 min.) Charming Emily Blunt is the teen queen; Rupert Friend is Prince Albert.

Forest Hill 8, Studio on the Square.

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