Capsule descriptions by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss.

OPENING TODAY

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (PG, 85 min.) See review on Page 16.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Charlie St. Cloud (PG-13, 99 min.) Starring Zac Efron and Charlie Tahan. A young man grieving over the death of his younger brother can still see him, and meets with him each night to play ball. A girl comes into his life and he has to choose between the girl and his brother.

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

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (R, 120 min.) See review on Page 12.

Ridgeway Four.

Dinner for Schmucks (PG-13, 114 min.) Tim (Paul Rudd) is a rising executive who "succeeds" in finding the perfect guest, IRS employee Barry (Steve Carell), for his boss's monthly event, a so-called "dinner for idiots," which offers certain advantages to the exec who shows up with the biggest buffoon.

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.

The Kids Are All Right (R, 104 min.) Two children conceived by artificial insemination bring their birth father into their family life. Starring Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo.

Studio on the Square, Cordova Cinema.

SPECIAL MOVIES

The Alps: Runs through Nov. 12. Tickets $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children ages 3-12; children under 3 are free.

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

Dolphins and Whales: Tribes of the Ocean: A new adventure from Jean-Michel Cousteau, narrated by Daryl Hannah. IMAX film runs through March 4, 2011. Tickets $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children ages 3-12; children under 3 free.

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

Elvis: That's the Way It Is (PG, 97 min.) The famous 1970 concert/backstage documentary screens as part of "Elvis Presley Trolley Night" in the South Main district.

9 p.m. today in the lot adjacent to Harry's Detour restaurant on G.E. Patterson, just east of South Main.

The Haphazard Happenings Live Silent Film Show: Inspired by Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and especially Buster Keaton, young Tupelo writer-director Rex Curry Harsin screens three new silent films -- two shorts, and a feature -- showcasing his slapstick character, "Purdie." Harsin and cast members will introduce and discuss the films; keyboard player Donald Sosin, a master silent-film interpreter, will provide live musical accompaniment during the screenings.

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center, 3663 Appling Rd. Admission: $5. Visit haphazardhappenings.com.

Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West: IMAX film follows Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they lead the Corps of Discovery on the first overland expedition into the newly expanded territory of the United States. Through Nov. 12. Tickets: $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children ages 3-12; children under 3, free.

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

Talking Through Walls: How the Struggle to Build a Mosque United a Community (Not rated, 57 min.) The Indie Memphis "Freedom Series" continues with this documentary about the attempt to erect a mosque in a New York suburb after 9/11. With the short, "True Fictions: New Adventures in Folklore."

1 p.m., Fogelman Executive Center, University of Memphis. Suggested donation: $5. Visit indiememphis.com/freedom.

The Wizard of Oz (PG, 115 min.) Long live Miss Gulch! An Oz costume contest precedes the film.

7:15 p.m. today, the Orpheum. Tickets: $7, or $6 for 12 and under, cash only. Call 525-3000 or visit orpheum-memphis

NOW SHOWING

The A-Team (PG-13, 118 min.) "Overkill is underrated," quips Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), apparently speaking for director Joe Carnahan, but this time the A-Team's cigar-chomping genius commander is wrong: In fact, overkill is ubiquitous, at least in the modern American action movie, and it seriously damages this nevertheless pretty fun expansion of the campy 1980s TV series about ex-Army soldiers of fortune. Basically a bigger-budgeted version of "The Losers" (which arrived in theaters only seven weeks earlier), the movie is good-humored and well-staged, but the action quickly becomes too ridiculous to be exciting, as when a helicopter flies upside down or a tank falls from a plane with no real damage. Native Memphian and mixed martial arts champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson takes the Mr. T role; Sharlto Copley (last seen turning into a prawn in "District 9") is the insane pilot, Murdock; Bradley Cooper is "Faceman," the group's Romeo; and Jessica Biel is an antagonistic Defense Department investigator, added to dilute the testosterone onscreen while exciting the males in the seats.

Majestic.

Clash of the Titans (PG-13, 110 min.) Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson.

Bartlett 10.

Cyrus (R, 92 min.) A long-divorced suitor (John C. Reilly) in a "dark existential place," an even odder man-child (Jonah Hill) who still lives at home with his sexy mother and the mother herself (Marisa Tomei) are the points of the Oedipal triangle in this frequently funny comedy of discomfort from brother "mumblecore" auteurs Jay and Mark Duplass, whose loose improvisational staging benefits the performances while the mini-zooms and murky video photography of their faux-documentary visual style annoys the eye. The film works because it recognizes and even respects the weirdness of families -- the behaviors, secrets, humor and traditions that often are hard for outsiders to understand.

Ridgeway Four.

Date Night (PG-13, 88 min.) Tina Fey, Steve Carell.

Bartlett 10.

Death at a Funeral (R, 93 min.) Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence.

Bartlett 10.

Despicable Me (PG, 95 min.) "When we got adopted by a bald guy, I thought this would be more like 'Annie,'" wise-cracks an adorable moppet in this clever but inconsequential computer-animated 3D tale about a follically challenged super-villain whose heart (if not his patented freeze-gun) is melted by the big eyes of the three little orphan girls who stare up at him and dream, "Daddy." Steve Carell voices the title dastard, the Euro-accented Gru, a sort of Left Bank Uncle Fester (the animation was produced in France) who operates, absurdly (like the Addams Family), in a mundane suburban environment. This is the first production from Illumination Entertainment, a new company founded by Chris Meledandri, whose features for 20th Century Fox Animation ("Ice Age," "Horton Hears a Who!") also seemed motivated more by the need to manufacture product for the marketplace than by Pixarian passion.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D).

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (PG, 93 min.) The cartoon line drawings of Jeff Kinney's popular book series are fleshed out with lively results in this funny comedy in which the title shrimp (Zachary Gordon) and his chubby best friend (Robert Capron) discover the cafeteria caste system, the humiliation of shirts-vs skins gym class and other horrors of the first year of Middle School. With Chloë Grace Moretz (Hit Girl from "Kick-Ass") as a self-confident school newspaper editor. The director is Thor Freudenthal.

Bartlett 10.

Grown Ups (PG-13, 102 min.) High-school buds Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider reunite for a Fourth of July weekend.

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.

How to Train Your Dragon (PG, 98 min.) Directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders (who previously collaborated on "Lilo & Stitch") deliver DreamWorks Animation's best feature film yet, a charming and sincere revamp of "Androcles and the Lion" in which a hapless teen Viking named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) befriends an injured "Night Fury" dragon and helps his village end its ruinous, age-old battle with the flying, fire-breathing and misunderstood monsters that share the Norse seacoast. The dragon designs are wonderful, the action is exciting and the anti-warmongering message is timely and persuasive.

Bartlett 10.

I Am Love (R, 120 min.) I'm calling "I Am Love" the best movie of the year to date; a companion viewer called it "repulsive," in condemnation of the behavior of the lead character played by Tilda Swinton. Does one opinion invalidate the other? Or can we both be right? "I Am Love" is complex enough to invite such questions, and rich enough -- like many great adult works of art, of which there are too few at the movies -- to resist answers.

Ridgeway Four.

Inception (PG-13, 148 min.) This metaphysical heist film is motivated by a challenge as great as that facing its dream-burgling heroes: The movie is writer-director Christopher Nolan's attempt to crack the Great Film vault -- to produce a distinctive, grandiose artistic masterpiece and commercial blockbuster that will demonstrate the director of "The Dark Knight" doesn't need superheroes to mesmerize the mass audience with a state-of-the-art fantasy. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully realized, on a technical level, this accidental companion piece to "Shutter Island" ultimately is burdened by its need to be the thinking person's action film; it works best during its witty, William Gibsonesque first half, in which "extractor" Leonardo DiCaprio -- cast, as in "Shutter," as a guilt-ridden widower with a crumbling concept of reality -- assembles a team of crackerjack conspirators who literally can plunder the contents of a sleeping subject's subconscious.

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.

Iron Man 2 (PG-13, 125 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Just Wright (PG, 101 min.) Queen Latifah, Common.

Majestic.

The Karate Kid (PG, 140 min.) Devotees of the 1984 film with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita have cried foul over this remake's digressions from its source (for one thing, the kids here are significantly younger); but taken on its own terms, this is an entertaining button-pusher that is certain to engross viewers near the age of the title character. Jaden Smith (son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith) stars as 12-year-old Dre, who moves with his single mom (the always welcome Taraji P. Henson) from Detroit to Beijing, where he is frustrated by chopsticks and beaten by bullies (including Wang Zhenwei, a charismatic mini-Jet Li) until getting lessons in kung-fu atop the Great Wall from the shabby local handyman (Jackie Chan, who is excellent in the first serious role of his extra-Hong Kong career). Director Harold Zwart's film benefits from Chan's presence and from the novelty of its locations, but Chinese audiences may object to the idea that a skinny U.S. kid can master in a few weeks the skills that the story's homegrown martial artists spent years acquiring.

Stage Cinema, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Killers (PG-13, 100 min.) Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher.

Bartlett 10, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Knight and Day (PG-13, 110 min.) Tom Cruise is top-billed, but this spy spoof's point of view belongs to Cameron Diaz: The latest from director James Mangold (whose "Walk the Line" was as much about June Carter as Johnny Cash) is not really a male-oriented action thriller but a romantic fantasy for a plugged-in generation of green screen-savvy girls sympathetic to the idea of courtship as a hyperadrenalized series of deliriums and fugue states, with Cruise -- the "Cocktail" star now a self-caricature of cockiness -- the dubious modern knight who rides to the rescue on a motorcycle steed.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Collierville Towne 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

The Last Airbender (PG, 103 min.) The title has the ring of prophecy: Although the movie frustrates viewers with a cliffhanger ending that includes the literal last-minute introduction of a new villain, it's hard to believe viewers of this wan, anime-inspired hand-me-down will demand a second "Airbender." Working from the Nickelodeon animated series, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan -- hoping to revive his floundering commercial and critical reputations -- has fashioned a sometimes cool-looking but confusing and deadly dull fantasy saga in which a messianic 12-year-old boy (Noah Ringer) leads freedom-loving "waterbenders" and "earthbenders" against the warmongering invaders of the Fire Nation. The wooden acting matches the platitudinous dialogue: "Nothing is ever truly lost," "It is in the heart that all wars are won," and so on. The 3D, added in postproduction, is lousy.

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

Letters to Juliet (PG, 93 min.) Amanda Seyfried, Gael García Bernal.

Bartlett 10.

Marmaduke (PG, 88 min.) Owen Wilson, a Great Dane.

Bartlett 10.

Predators (R, 107 min.) Mercenary Adrien Brody, special-ops soldier Alice Braga, death row inmate Walton Goggins and mystery man Topher Grace are among the "prey" transported to a jungle planet that functions as a game preserve for the title crab-faced aliens in this fourth and probably best followup to 1987's "Predator." Nimbly directed by Nimród Antal ("Armored"), this is something of a throwback to 1980s action-exploitation: The emphasis is on special makeup effects and brawny physicality rather than computer-generated imagery.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Ramona and Beezus (G, 104 min.) Joey King is third-grade scamp Ramona Quimby and Selena Gomez is her long-suffering older sister, Beezus, in this adaptation of a novel in the classic children's series by Beverly Cleary.

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

Robin Hood (PG-13, 131 min.) Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett. I

Bartlett 10.

Salt (PG-13, 100 min.) Plausibility, obviously, is not particularly relevant to "Salt." Borrowing from "The Manchurian Candidate," "Telefon" and decades of political paranoia, from JFK conspiracies to the "birther" obsession, the movie -- like most recent James Bond adventures -- is an overadrenalized throwback to the now oddly comforting conventions of the Cold War thriller, when the masterminds threatening to destroy the world weren't motivated by religious fanaticism. (One Russian nogoodnik even fights with a switchblade shoe knife, like Rosa Klebb in "From Russia with Love.").

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.

Shrek Forever After (PG, 93 min.) The voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy.

Bartlett 10, Majestic.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (PG, 109 min) The latest built-to-please product from the Disney/Bruckheimer assembly line was nominally inspired by the famous Mickey Mouse episode in Disney's "Fantasia" (1940), but its true incentive is the blockbuster saga of Harry Potter, which finds its dumbed-down equivalent in this special-effects showcase about a New York physics-geek college student (Jay Baruchel) who is tutored by a master "777th-degree" sorcerer (Nicolas Cage) so he can fulfill his destiny as "the Prime Merlinian" and defeat the evil Horvath (Alfred Molina). The film is obvious, oblivious to logic and overblown, but fun in its mindless escapist fashion -- and less insulting than director Jon Turtletaub's "American Treasure" films.

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

Standing Ovation (PG, 108 min.) A comedy-drama about tweens competing in a music video contest.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Toy Story 3 (G, 109 min.) Among many other wonderful things, the latest Pixar triumph is a very witty spoof of the classic Hollywood jailbreak drama; from now on, any list of the best prison movies will have to include this Disney release alongside "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" and "Cool Hand Luke." In director Lee Unkrich's marvel, however, there is no failure to communicate: The themes of loyalty, abandonment, the inevitability of age and, yes, love, come through loud and clear -- even the stoniest viewers may have to clench their face like a fist to keep from bawling like a baby before the movie's over. (And I don't mean Big Baby, the movie's scary plastic infant with the lazy marble eye and the Crayola tattoos.) In this installment, the boy Andy (who has grown up parallel to the real-life kids enraptured by the first "Toy Story" in 1995) is bound for college, causing a crisis in the toy box: What will happen to Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen) and the rest when Andy's gone? Viewers will think of the plight of pets and even of old folks and orphaned or unwanted children during these debates. If these notions are tough on adults, younger viewers may be more disturbed by a frenzied finale in which the toys face destruction on a junkyard conveyor belt: The "G" rating doesn't take into account the strong sense of deadly peril conveyed during the brilliantly animated action scenes.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Summer Quartet Drive-In.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (PG-13, 124 min.) "Well, I am hotter than you." This supposed reference to body temperature, uttered by werehunk Jacob (Taylor Lautner) to sparkly teen vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), is not just the funniest and most self-aware line in the third "Twilight" film but a nice distillation of the tension that now drives the series, as the tiresomely humorless Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) tries to stay true to her Byronic bloodsucking beau while resisting the literal animal magnetism of Forks, Washington's most frequently shirtless lycanthrope. Director David Slade ("30 Days of Night") is a more robust storyteller than his predecessors, but the clunky narrative mandates of author Stephanie Meyer's source novel inhibit any real invention.

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

Winter's Bone (R, 100 min.) Part murder mystery, part coming-of-age drama, director Debra Granik's shot-on-location adapation of Daniel Woodrell's novel transports moviegoers to a real place most of us haven't seen before: the darkling woods of the Missouri Ozarks, where clannish mountainfolk stew squirrels and cook methamphetamine with apparently equal gusto. Jennifer Lawrence stars as the story's resourceful amateur sleuth, 17-year-old Ree, whose search for her missing father is met with hostility and suspicion by her raw-boned, off-the-grid neighbors. Winner of the Grand Jury prize for drama at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, the movie to some extent mistakes authenticity -- the documentary-like visual detail is astonishing -- for profundity. Still, it shouldn't be missed. "Wish I was a little sparrow," folklorist Marideth Sisco warbles on the soundtrack, and the desperate Ree's desire for flight -- for transformation -- is palpable.

Ridgeway Four.