Movie Capsules: Now showing

OPENING TODAY

Alice in Wonderland (PG, 109 min.) See review.

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

Brooklyn's Finest (R, 133 min.) A violent police drama with Richard Gere and Don Cheadle. See review.

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

The White Ribbon (R, 144 min.) See review.

Ridgeway Four.

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.

I'm from Hollywood (Not rated, 61 min.) The "Reel to Real" series continues with guest curator Adam Hohenberg (a producer of "Forty Shades of Blue"), who will screen this 1989 documentary about comedian Andy Kaufman's entrance into the world of Memphis professional wrestling and his feud with Jerry Lawler.

Photo by Thomas Busler, Thomas Busler/The Commercial Appeal

Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler wrestle at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis on April 5, 1982, as part of their legendary feud.

7 p.m. Thursday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Admission: $8, or $6 for members. Visit brooksmuseum.org, or call 544-6208.

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. Their mission — to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Jeff Bridges narrates. Starts Saturday, and runs through Nov. 12. Tickets: $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children ages 3-12; children under 3, free. Call for show times.

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

Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails (Not rated, 70 min.) This 2009 production mostly uses computer animation to tell the story of a brave train engine who may be the only character still allowed to smoke in a kids' movie.

10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, Paradiso. Admission: $5. Visit malco.com.

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, Palace 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). 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 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(his only apparent friend is his adoptive brother, the Tuohys' wisecracking young son), 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. On the positive tip, the movie — which functions primarily as a star vehicle for Bullock — presents a welcome sympathetic portrait of the type of "traditional values" family rarely seen onscreen. With Tim McGraw as Leigh Anne's husband, Grizzlies broadcast analyst Sean Tuohy, and Atlanta as Memphis.

Stage Cinema, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Paradiso, 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").

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

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.

Couples Retreat (PG-13, 114 min.)

Bartlett 10.

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.

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, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

An Education (PG-13, 95 min.) Set in 1969 London, this impeccably mounted and acted BBC Films production from director Lone Scherfig is the type of sturdy character study and "movie of quality" that habituées of the modern "art" house expect but too infrequently experience. 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.

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

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").

Hollywood 20 Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

It's Complicated (R, 118 min.)

Stage Cinema.

The Last Station (R, 112 min.) Shot in Germany and Russia, director Michael Hoffman's handsome adaptation of Jay Parini's novel falls well short of its lofty ambition to be, all at once, a love story, a coming-of-age yarn, a debate about the "ownership" of an author's legacy, a satire of do-gooder sanctimony and a wry domestic comedy about a pair of bickering old folks, Count and Countess Tolstoy, played by Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren (both Oscar-nominated for these performances). A chronicle of Leo Tolstoy's final days in 1910, by which time the author of "War and Peace" was regarded as a "living saint" because of his Jesus-inspired ideals, the movie mostly reveals its events through the eyes of an earnest young celibate "Tolstoyan" (James McAvoy), who is torn between his filial affection for the countess and his loyalty to her adversary, an oily Tolstoy movement leader (Paul Giamatti) who wants Tolstoy's writings to be disseminated freely, as "the birthright of the Russian people." The playful gravitas Plummer brings to his portrayal deserves a more interesting showcase than this conventional production, aimed at those who value "culture" over art.

Ridgeway Four.

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.

Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, 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.

Nine (PG-13, 110 min.) If you remember the lugubriously comical Bela Lugosi accent used by Jason Segel when performing his "Dracula" puppet opera in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," you've got a notion of Daniel Day-Lewis' "singing" voice as movie director Guido Contini in this lumbering and pretentious so-called musical, adapted from a 1982 Broadway production that itself was inspired by the 1963 movie "81/2 ."

Bartlett 10.

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.

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.

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.) 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."

Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

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.

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.

Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, 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.

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.

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, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

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.

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.

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) queen; 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").

Forest Hill 8, Studio on the Square.

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