OPENING TODAY

Crazy Heart (R, 112 min.) See review on Page 12.

Ridgeway Four.

Edge of Darkness (R, 117 min.) See review on Page 14.

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, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Preacher's Kid (PG-13, 101 min.) LeToya Luckett is the "prodigal daughter" who returns home after running away to join the cast of a touring gospel stage play in this Christian-themed film.

Majestic, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso.

When in Rome (PG-13, 91 min.) See John Beifuss' review Saturday at GoMemphis.com.

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

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.

British Television Advertising Awards (Not rated, 80 min.) The 2009 edition of the annual compilation of the UK's smartest, sexiest and most irreverent TV commercials. Recommended for ages 13-plus.

7 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Sunday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Tickets: $7, or $5 for students and Brooks members. Visit brooksmuseum.org or call 544-6208.

O'Reilly/Beck: Bold & Fresh Tour 2009: Conservative media celebrities Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, live onstage, via satellite.

7 p.m. Saturday, Paradiso. Tickets: $20. Visit malco.com.

Oxford Film Festival 7: Features, shorts, documentaries, panels,celebrities and more, at multiple venues. Thursday's opening night feature films include Mike McCarthy's Memphis-made "Cigarette Girl" (10 p.m.); Cory McAbee's spoofy space musical, "Stingray Sam" (10 p.m.); and the regional premiere of "Wonderful World" (8 p.m.), starring Matthew Broderick as a failed children's folk singer.

Thursday through Feb. 7. Visit oxfordfilmfest.com.

Pink Palace IMAX Film Festival: Saturdays & Sundays in January and February, plus Presidents Day (Feb. 15). 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. Visit online: memphismuseums.org

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

A Prairie Home Companion: From Lake Wobegon -- or at least the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota -- to you: A live performance of Garrison Keillor's famed public radio program is presented on the big screen, via satellite.

7 p.m. Thursday, Paradiso. Tickets: $20. Visit malco.com.

Summer Hours (Not rated, 103 min.) Juliette Binoche heads the ensemble cast of director Olivier Assayas' French drama about three brothers and sisters dealing with the possessions -- and the memories -- of their recently deceased mother. One of the most acclaimed films of 2009, the movie was voted the best foreign film of the year by the National Society of Film Critics.

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Tickets: $7, or $5 for museum members. Visit brooksmuseum.org or call 544-6208.

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, 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.

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

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). A paean to nature created almost entirely through state-of-the-art digital technology (most of the actors are themselves represented onscreen by "avatars," including Zoë Saldaña, transformed through the "motion capture" process into a Na'vi princess), "Avatar" works as both a socially conscious Western update and a true SF film, revealing the influences of such fine genre writers as Philip José Farmer, Larry Niven and especially Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose "John Carter of Mars" novels inspired the story's premise and the design of the multilimbed creatures.

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 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call -- New Orleans (R, 122 min.) Nicolas Cage plus Werner Herzog equals -- total insanity?

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

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). Played with quiet, hulking dignity by Quinton Aaron, Michael is presented as a passive, almost infantile figure , as well as an attractive ideal for white audiences: a kid from the 'hood who is not only not a threat to the suburbs but actually a protector of white culture, roused to anger only in defense of Leigh Anne's honor while his real mother (native Memphian Adriane Lenox) languishes in Hurt Village with her crack pipe.

Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

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"). Evil Gary Oldman covets the Good Book, because he believes its words have the power to convince others to do his bidding; the film seems to suggest the Bible really is the key to salvation but leaves enough wiggle room for those who prefer a secular interpretation. Bad casting: Mila Kunis as a post-disaster barmaid who looks like she just stepped off a fashion runway. Moment of grace: Denzel listens to a Memphis soul classic, Al Green's Willie Mitchell-produced cover of "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," on his iPod. A truly daffy movie.

Forest Hill 8, 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.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (PG, 90 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Couples Retreat (PG-13, 114 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Daybreakers (R, 98 min.) Australia-based brothers Michael and Peter Spierig follow their 2003 zombie splatterspoof "Undead" with this energetic and more ambitious film, which imagines that a plague has transformed almost every person on Earth into a vampire. The catch: With few humans remaining, the blood supply is running out. Ethan Hawke is the conflicted vampire scientist ("Life's a bitch and then you don't die," he deadpans) searching for a hemo-substitute (maybe he should jump over to HBO's "True Blood"); Sam Neill is the evil corporate bloodsucker who represents Big Pharma ("It's never been about a cure, it's about repeat business," he sneers); and Willem Dafoe is a crossbow-wielding ex-vampire named Elvis. (Coincidentally, the film opened on what would have been Presley's 75th birthday.)

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Did You Hear About the Morgans? (PG-13, 104 min.) Adorable if adulterous and agnostic salad-fancying nitwit city slickers save their marriage with the help of a God-fearing, meat-eating "Sarah Palin" and her wise sheriff husband in this formula romantic comedy, which could be described as "Green Acres" in Red State drag, plus guns. Hugh Grant -- no longer an actor but a catalog of stammers, blinks, puppy-dog pouts and other tics -- and Sarah Jessica Parker are the verging-on-divorce Manhattanite Morgans, shipped off to Montana after they become witnesses in a federal murder case. Romcom auteur Marc Lawrence wrings a few laughs from the story's cityfolk-sure-are-funny-around- grizzly-bears-and-milk-cows situations, but only Sam Elliott (the sheriff) and rifle-toting Mary Steenburgen (referred to as "Sarah Palin") emerge with their dignity intact.

Stage Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Extraordinary Measures (PG, 106 min.) Doctor Harrison Ford helps father Brendan Fraser search for a cure for a childhood genetic disorder.

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

Invictus (PG-13, 133 min.) Director Clint Eastwood's new movie is as formal and deliberate as its lead character, septuagenarian South African President Nelson Mandela, as portrayed with trademark self-conscious dignity by Morgan Freeman. Based on Mandela's 1995 attempt to generate unity by urging black South Africans to support the world-championship run of the almost all-white national rugby team (a longtime symbol of apartheid), the film risks dullness and embraces preachiness to pursue an idea that is given lip service by politicians but is rarely addressed in motion pictures: "How do we inspire ourselves to greatness?"

Collierville Towne 16.

It's Complicated (R, 118 min.) Meryl Streep is a successful yet reassuringly domestic businesswoman (she owns an upscale bakery) who begins an affair with her self-centered and remarried ex-husband while being wooed by the architect designing the expansion of her already House Beautiful-ready home in the latest from writer-director Nancy Meyers, who specializes in comedies aimed at the romantic, materialistic and real estate fantasies of mature women (everyone in the film is breezily affluent).

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

Law Abiding Citizen (R, 122 min.)

Bartlett 10.

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

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, CinePlanet 16, 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. Instead of simply smiting us, however, the angels for some reason prefer to possess humans, "Exorcist"-style, turning them into Romeroesque zombies who mass on Dennis Quaid's isolated desert diner to destroy a pregnant woman whose unborn baby is the "hope" of humankind. Paul Bettany is the rogue angel Michael, who thinks humanity is worth saving. The daffy highlight: A sweet little old lady transforms into a shark-toothed, wall-crawling spider-granny.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (PG-13, 102 min.) Fisher Willow -- a great character name, suggesting both initiative and sorrow -- is a debutante in more ways than one: More than 50 years after her birth in the mind of one of the 20th century's great playwrights, Fisher has arrived, in the attractive person of Bryce Dallas Howard, in this feature directorial debut from Memphis-born actress Jodie Markell. Adapted from a 1957 screenplay by Tennessee Williams that was rediscovered after the author's death in 1983, the movie chronicles the unacknowledged courtship between the troubled Fisher, a sarcastic and reluctant debutante in 1920s Memphis, and her escort, a handsome young plantation worker (Chris Evans) with a drunk father and a mad mother. The script is problematic (no doubt Elia Kazan would have demanded a rewrite, to tighten the drama), but Howard is excellent as a pale, red-lipped, hard-yet-fragile china doll, whose artificial quality camouflages her pain.

Ridgeway Four.

The Lovely Bones (PG-13, 135 min.) Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's best-seller is set in suburban Pennsylvania, but the director of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the "King Kong" remake seems to have been reluctant to leave Middle-earth and Skull Island behind. Throughout the film, he guides us through tediously inventive computer-generated heavenly landscapes that are part nightmare, part "Teletubbies," when what we really want to see is more of the creepily mundane interior of a serial killer's orderly home. 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 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, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

The Men Who Stare at Goats (R, 93 min.)

Bartlett 10.

The Messenger (R, 112 min.) In the first Iraq War home-front drama that's a worthy companion piece to Kathryn Bigelow's occupation actioner, "The Hurt Locker," Ben Foster plays a young "model soldier" with a nervewracking mission: He's assigned to the New Jersey Casualty Notification team that informs area "NOKs" -- military nomenclature for next of kin -- that an Army husband, son, daughter or other loved one has been killed. The first part of the film is as gripping and suspenseful -- in its less-violent way -- as Bigelow's, as Foster and team leader Woody Harrelson bring their bad news to the homes of unsuspecting family members in a series of devastating vignettes, beautifully wrought by director Oren Moverman and co-scripter Alessandro Camon. The story lose some momentum, however, once Foster begins pursuing an unwise romance with war widow Samantha Morton.

Ridgeway Four.

Ninja Assassin (R, 99 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Planet 51 (PG, 97 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (R, 110 min.) Thrust into the mainstream by the endorsements of Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, the film creates remarkable sympathy and understanding for its title character (played by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe), who is one of the more unique heroines in movie history: an obese, basically illiterate, welfare-dependent, sexually abused 16-year-old junior high student.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

The Princess and the Frog (G, 97 min.) Disney's ballyhooed return to hand-drawn animation is the company's first film to feature an African-American "princess," but hold your applause: The heroine, a Jazz Age New Orleans working-class girl named Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose), spends most of the movie inside the emerald skin of a bayou amphibian. Say it loud, I'm green and I'm proud: "It's not slime, it's mucus," Tiana asserts during the film's final act, by which time she's become resentful of those who shun her batrachian tackiness; she's also fallen for the similarly hoodooed Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos).

Stage Cinema, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

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"). Adopting a somewhat toned-down version of the hyperkinetic style he brings to his British gangster yarns, director Guy Ritchie finds ways to justify Holmes' almost Supersherlock fighting prowess (the detective uses his big brain to deduce an opponent's weaknesses); also throwing punches in the battle against a secret society that wants to "remake the world" is Jude Law as an efficient Dr. Watson who bears little resemblance to the portly fuddy-duddy played by Nigel Bruce in the famous Basil Rathbone films.

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

A Single Man (R, 101 min.) With its artfully desaturated color scheme and its impeccably costumed actors, the directorial debut of fashion designer Tom Ford resembles a tasteful magazine layout with a 1962 Southern California theme. But the stiffness and joylessness (who ever imagined watching Julianne Moore twist to "Green Onions" could be so grim?) is appropriate. 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. Unwanted and unacknowledged by his lover's family, the professor is unable to mourn publicly; the film is a sensitive portrait of a man who feels wiped away by a society that forces his true self to be, in his word, "invisible."

Studio on the Square.

The Spy Next Door (PG, 92 min.) A CIA agent faces his toughest assignment: Babysitting three kids! In other words: "The Pacifier," but with Jackie Chan.

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

The Stepfather (PG-13, 102 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Surrogates (PG-13, 89 min.) Science-fiction chillers of the past that warned about dehumanization -- "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," for example, or "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" -- posited an outside threat; now, in a 21st-century world of plastic surgery and online avatars, the danger comes from within: The dehumanization is voluntary, as seen in "Gamers" and this graphic-novel adaptation from efficient director Jonathan Mostow ("Terminator 3"). Bruce Willis stars as a police detective in the near future, when most people "live" through attractive robotic "surrogates" that enable them to experience virtual sex and violence from the safety of their homes; the premise is utterly implausible, but the movie is surprisingly sober.

Bartlett 10.

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, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

To Save a Life (PG-13, 130 min.) A faith-based film about a high-school star athlete.

Cordova Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

2012 (PG-13, 158 min.) The bad news: The world as we know it has come to an end. The good news: Mommy's new boyfriend was squashed in the gears of a giant high-tech ark, so Daddy's back in the picture! These events are presented as being of more or less equal significance in the latest preposterous, overlong exercise in gleeful world-smashing spectacle from post-Irwin Allen master of disaster Roland Emmerich. Inspired by pseudoscientific claims that the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, the film is a sort of disaster-genre greatest hits collection.

Bartlett 10, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (PG-13, 130 min.) Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan (her name is still the best thing in the series) is torn between her love for self-exiled pretty-boy bloodsucker Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and her attraction to Native American werehunk Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) in this wheel-spinning sequel, in which the virginal Bella's tedious moping (she longs to be "bitten," get it?) takes center stage, until a poorly delivered telephone message (what a lame dramatic device!) implausibly sends everyone to Italy to confront the vampire lawmaking coven, the Vulturi.

Majestic, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

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 confident and talented enough not to be humiliated by the comparison. George Clooney stars as a proudly independent corporate "downsizer," who claims to love the relationship-free life of airports and hotels mandated by his career; he's matched by Vera Farmiga -- acting without a shred of insecurity or audience-pandering cuteness -- as a sympathetic and sexy frequent flier, and Anna Kendrick as the upstart colleague who wants to revolutionize the "firing" industry and make Clooney's job obsolete.

Ridgeway Four, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Collierville Towne 16, Studio on the Square.

Where the Wild Things Are (PG, 94 min.)

Bartlett 10.

The Young Victoria (PG, 100 min.) This adroit mixture of romantic courtship and royal-court intrigue is both entertaining and illuminating, especially for those of us who think of Queen Victoria as the monumental, forbidding widow seen in photographs near the end of her record reign, which lasted from 1837 until her death in 1901. Charming Emily Blunt is the teen and then twentysomething Victoria; Rupert Friend is her equally youthful suitor, Prince Albert. As expected, the supporting cast (Jim Broadbent, Miranda Richardson, Mark Strong) is first-rate, and the costume and production design ensure that every frame is a feast for the eyes; but what especially elevates the film is the cinematography of Germany's Hagen Bogdanski, whose sometimes expressionistic shadowplay never calls attention to itself or obscures the color and detail of the sets and locations. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, from a screenplay by Julian Fellowes ("Gosford Park").

Studio on the Square, Hollywood 20 Cinema.