Movie Capsules: Now showing

Alvin, Theodore and Simon return to the big screen in "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-wrecked!"

movies

Capsule descriptions and starred mini-reviews by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss.

OPENING TODAY

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (G, 90 min.) Another "squeakquel."

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

Pregnant by the Pastor (Not rated, 90 min.) Little Rock-born debut filmmaker SaTonya L. Ford (author of the novel "A Player in the Pulpit") wrote and directed this provocatively titled, faith-inspired, made-in-Arkansas, micro-budgeted drama about marriage, religion, sin and salvation, which opens in Memphis four weeks after its Little Rock premiere.

Majestic.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (PG-13, 129 min.) See review.

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

Young Adult (R, 94 min.) See review.

Ridgeway Four.

OPENING TUESDAY

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (R, 158 min.) Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig star in David Fincher's big-budget adaptation of the phenomenal international best-seller.

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

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (PG-13, 133 min.) Tom Cruise is back, with a promising new director: former animator Brad Bird ("The Incredibles").

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

OPENING WEDNESDAY

The Adventures of Tintin (PG, 107 min.) Director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson collaborated on this "performance capture" animated adventure about a boy reporter searching for a legendary treasure.

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

SPECIAL MOVIES

Ballet in Cinema: The Nutcracker (Not rated, 124 min.) A filmed version of a recent Bolshoi Ballet performance of the Tchaikovsky holiday classic.

2 p.m. Sunday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Tickets: $15, or $12 for museum members. Call (901) 544-6208 or visit brooksmuseum.org.

It's a Wonderful Life (Not rated, 130 min.) The Majestic Grille's holiday dinner-and-a-movie series concludes with this originally disdained, now beloved 1946 masterpiece, which puts a film-noir spin on the tradition of the redemptive Dickensian Christmas fable.

7 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Grille, 145 S. Main. "Christmas dishes" available along with regular menu. Call (901) 522-8555.

The Metropolitan Opera: Hansel and Gretel (Not rated, 115 min.) A holiday encore screening of a filmed 2008 performance of the 19th-century opera by the original Engelbert Humperdinck.

6:30 p.m. Thursday, Paradiso. Tickets: $12.50. Visit malco.com.

The Metropolitan Opera: The Magic Flute (Not rated, 115 min.) A holiday encore screening of a filmed 2006 performance of the Mozart masterpiece, directed by Broadway's Julie Taymor ("The Lion King," "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark").

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Paradiso. Tickets: $12.50. Visit malco.com.

Opera in Cinema: Don Giovanni (Not rated, 195 min.) A filmed version of a December performance of Mozart's masterpiece at the famed La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy.

1 p.m. Saturday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Tickets: $15, or $12 for museum members. Call (901) 544-6208 or visit brooksmuseum.org.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (R, 84 min.) A 2010 comic horror-fantasy adventure from Finland about a young boy who helps defend his snowy rural village when American archeologists uncover the icy mountain tomb of the scary original Santa Claus.

7 p.m. Thursday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Tickets: $8, or $6 for museum members. Call (901) 544-6208 or visit brooksmuseum.org.

The Tenants (Os Inqulinos) (Not rated, 103 min.) The "Global Lens" series travels to Brazil for a story about a working-class family in São Paulo that feels threatened when a trio of noisy young thugs move next door.

6 p.m. Wednesday, Meeting Room C, Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar. Admission is free; children under 17 admitted with parent or guardian. Call (901) 415-2726.

The Ultimate Wave Tahiti: Viewers will learn how waves influence and shape our planet while they ride alongside champion surfer Kelly Slater as he challenges Tahiti's toughest wave. Runs through March 2. Tickets $8.25, $7.50 senior citizens, $6.50 children ages 3-12 and children under 3 free.

IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call (901) 320-6362 for show times, tickets and reservations.

A Useful Life (Not rated, 70 min.) This superb "Global Lens" film from Uruguay about the devoted manager of a small arthouse/revival theater in Montevideo is as much a love letter to cinema as "Hugo" and "The Artist."

6 p.m. Thursday, Meeting Room C, Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, 3030 Poplar. Admission is free; children under 17 admitted with parent or guardian. Call (901) 415-2726.

NOW SHOWING

Abduction (PG-13, 106 min.) Taylor Lautner's on the run, and John Singleton's directing.

Bartlett 10.

Arthur Christmas (PG, 100 min.) This digitally animated holiday bandwagon-jumper lacks the visual charm of the stop-motion Plasticine animation that is the signature of England's Aardman studios; otherwise, it's funny and clever and even moving, as might be expected from the company responsible for "Wallace & Gromit." James McAvoy lends his voice to the title character, Santa's youngest son, an earnest but clumsy lad whose "general aura of seasonal positivity" seems inadequate to the demands of a 21st century "North Pole Mission Control," operated with military efficiency by Santa's brawny No. 1 son, Steve (Hugh Laurie).

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

Blackthorn (R, 98 min.) The Spanish team of writer Miguel Baros and director Mateo Gil deliver a south-of-the-equator Western that imagines that Butch Cassidy (Sam Shepard) is alive and well and gray and living in Bolivia in 1927, 19 years after he and his outlaw partner, the Sundance Kid, were supposed to have been gunned down by South American soldiers.

Studio on the Square.

Colombiana (PG-13, 108 min.) Catlike Zoe Saldana is Cataleya (named for an orchid), a vengeful Bogota orphan turned cold-blooded unstoppable killer in the latest saga of female kick-assery from the action- movie assembly line of producer/co-writer Luc Besson ("The Professional," "Nikita").

Bartlett 10, Majestic.

Courageous (PG-13, 130 min.) The faith values of four police officers are challenged.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

The Descendants (R, 115 min.) A certain contender for most of the major Oscars, the first film in seven years from director Alexander Payne ("Sideways") casts George Clooney as Matt King, a haole (white person in Hawaii) lawyer with royal Hawaiian blood who is facing two terrible deadlines: As trustee, he must determine what to do with his family's "huge parcel of virgin land," worth millions; and as husband, he has to decide when to pull the plug on his comatose wife. Payne -- whose other films include "Election" and "About Schmidt" -- specializes in depictions of aging white males in crisis; he's a humanist director who favors people over style and confrontations and conversations over set pieces, but he relies too much on storytelling crutches (Matt's voiceover narration is annoying and redundant).

Cordova Cinema, Ridgeway Four.

Dolphin Tale (PG, 113 min.) Winter the dolphin, Harry Connick Jr.

Bartlett 10.

Dream House (PG-13, 110 min.) Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz.

Bartlett 10, Majestic.

Footloose (PG-13, 113 min.) Although this music-filled remake of the 1984 hit about a small town that has outlawed public dancing in the wake of a fatal teen car crash is extraordinarily faithful to its somewhat cornball source, writer-director Craig Brewer has made the "Don't Knock the Rock" premise relevant for a post-9/11 generation still struggling with its response to shocking trauma and injury: This time, the adults are not motivated so much by priggishness as by their genuine concern for their children, and the film becomes an examination of the dilemma faced by those in authority when they attempt to honor the dead and protect the living by inhibiting the rights and freedoms of those in their care.

Bartlett 10, CinePlanet 16, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Happy Feet Two (PG, 103 min.) The movie gives a major role to Memphis kid rapper Lil P-Nut, who supplies the voice of a scene-stealing fat-and-fluffy kid penguin named Atticus, whose take on LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" ("Don't call it a comeback!") was a major part of the ad campaign.

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

The Help (PG-13, 137 min.) This adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's phenomenally successful best-seller about "colored" maids and their white employers in early 1960s Jackson, Miss., is not only superior to the novel but it may be the most surprising movie of the year: a wide-release studio film about race relations that adopts a liberation rather than plantation mentality by suggesting that nothing good can come of a system in which one race controls the destiny of another. It's also one of the funnier movies of the year, with more than a dozen indelible, distinctive characters.

Bartlett 10.

Hugo (PG, 127 min.) Advertised as a children's adventure, Martin Scorsese's first 3D feature might more accurately be described as a love letter to cinema, set in the city of storybook romance, Paris. Even the movie's clockwork automaton is motivated by a symbol of love: It is brought to life by a key shaped like a Valentine's heart. Asa Butterfield stars as Hugo, a young 1930s orphan who lives in hiding in a bustling train station, where he tends the great clocks; aided by a precocious, booksmart girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), he uncovers a mystery involving a toymaker (Ben Kingsley) and a real-life master of cinematic invention and special effects, Georges Méliès, a stage magician turned filmmaker who marvels that the movies represented "a new kind of magic" -- a statement that endorses Scorsese's decision to embrace the spirit of Méliès and explore the new magic of digital 3D.

CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Immortals (R, 110 min.) The most unpretentious -- or should that be ridiculous? -- film yet from style-drunk director Tarsem Singh ("The Cell," "The Fall") is also his most enjoyable, a Cuisinart-blended shot of Greek mythology and ultraviolent 3D digital effects that choke the viewer with unrelenting and impractical decor and design. (The gods of Olympus dress like extras from a silent Soviet science-fiction movie.) Mickey Rourke is evil King Hyperion; the next screen Superman, Henry Cavill, is heroic Theseus; Freida Pinto is a virgin oracle; and old-timer John Hurt and hunky Luke Evans are different aspects of Zeus.

CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Paradiso, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

In Time (PG-13, 110 min.) Justin Timberlake.

Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic.

Jack and Jill (PG, 91 min.) Not since Max Baer donned ringlets and petticoats to portray Jethrine Bodine on "The Beverly Hillbillies" has a drag act been as ghastly as the one perpetrated by Adam Sandler in this alternately tasteless and schmaltzy comedy about a privileged Hollywood adman (Sandler) who ultimately learns to love his obnoxious, awkward sister (also Sandler, wearing a long black wig, so he resembles a Bronx Cher worthy of a Bronx cheer).

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

J. Edgar (R, 137 min.) Like the ultimately unknowable subject of this ambitious biopic, director Clint Eastwood has spent almost his entire adult like being regarded as an icon of law enforcement and often violent justice, and he understands the tension between private life and public image. Convincingly portraying a paranoid septuagenarian as well as an enthusiastic young champion of scientific crime investigation, Leonardo DiCaprio is impressive as longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover; Naomi Watts is his loyal secretary, Helen Gandy, while Armie Hammer is FBI associate director Clyde Tolson, who may have been Hoover's lover.

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

Margin Call (R, 107 min.) Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Melancholia (R, 136 min.) Inspired by writer-director Lars von Trier's battles with depression, this overwhelming if occasionally maddening faux-science-fiction fable is so dark it imagines not just the end of the world but the annihilation of all life in the universe: According to the movie, life only exists on Earth, and -- as depicted in the film's stunning montage/prelude -- the Earth is destroyed in a collision with a giant "fly-by" planet named Melancholia. Grandiose and solipsistic, the movie associates this dark, impossible calamity with the crippling chronic depression of Justine (deserving Cannes Best Actress Kirsten Dunst), a new bride staying at the lavish estate of her sympathetic if often frustrated and accusatory sister (an equally wonderful Charlotte Gainsbourg). The "realistic" first half of the film chronicles Justine's wedding night, and offers a lacerating portrait of often hateful family relations; the "fantasy" second half focuses on the approach of doomsday, an inevitability that shakes the sister but calms Justine because it confirms her darkest suspicions about the terror and meaninglessness of life. Though often as unsteady as the characters' equilibrium, the handheld camerawork is always purposeful and stylish; the shakiness foreshadows the impact on the viewer of this hopeless, even devastating film.

Ridgeway Four.

The Muppets (PG, 109 min.) "As long as there are singing frogs and joking bears... the world can't be such a bad place after all." That's the hopeful philosophy of a pleasant felt-and-foam Muppet-sized individual named Walter (voiced and enacted by puppeteer Peter Linz) in this valiant and worthy Disney attempt to revive the late Jim Henson's distinctive creations for a generation of kids perhaps more familiar with Kim Kardashian and Snooki than with Kermit and Piggy. Co-scripter and über-Muppet fan Jason Segel stars as Walter's best friend and unlikely brother; the duo's physical differences aren't remarked upon except in a rather brilliant existential song, in which the brothers ask themselves: Am I a man? Or am I a Muppet?" The plot finds the brothers encouraging Kermit to round up the old gang -- Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great, and so on -- to put on a fundraising show to save the dilapidated Muppet Theater from being torn down by a greedy oilman (Chris Cooper); the premise provides a framework for jokes, slapstick and musical numbers, which demonstrate that Henson's live-action puppetry ethos remains irresistible.

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

My Week with Marilyn (R, 101 min.) Sort of like "Me and Orson Welles" but with a more curvaceous title celebrity, this impeccably produced and thoroughly entertaining backstage show-business yarn examines a few days in the presence of greatness through the eyes of a starstruck young man, Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), who parlays a job as gofer on the tense set of Laurence Olivier's 1957 production "The Prince and the Showgirl" into a short-term one-sided love affair with "the most famous woman in the world," Marilyn Monroe. Michelle Williams brings depth and compassion to her performance as Hollywood's tragic blond bombshell, and her sincerity invests the entire film with a sort of grandeur.

Ridgeway Four.

New Year's Eve (PG-13, 119 min.) In the tradition of "Valentine's Day," an all-star romantic-comedy romp from director Garry Marshall.

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

Puss in Boots (PG, 90 min.) The scene-stealing swashbuckling "Shrek" feline (voiced by Antonio Banderas) makes the most of this starring-role spin-off.

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Majestic, Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Summer Quartet Drive-In, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Real Steel (PG-13, 127 min.) Hugh Jackman.

Majestic, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (PG-13, 105 min.) James Franco.

Bartlett 10.

The Sitter (R, 82 min.) Smart-aleck college student Jonah Hill is unprepared for the challenges of babysitting.

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

The Smurfs (PG, 103 min.)

Bartlett 10.

The Thing (R, 103 min.) Joe Edgerton.

Bartlett 10.

The Three Musketeers (PG-13, 111 min.) The producer of the "Resident Evil" series puts the 3D into D'Artagnan.

Bartlett 10.

Tower Heist (PG-13, 104 min.) This snappy big-budget caper comedy from the much-reviled Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour") casts Ben Stiller as the leader of a motley crew of "clock punchers" -- an elevator operator (Michael Peña), a maid (Gabourey Sidibe), a desk clerk (Casey Affleck) and so on -- who seek revenge on the "Wall Street kingpin" (Alan Alda) who stole their pension fund.

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

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 (PG-13, 118 min.) While certain political groups try to push through "Defense of Marriage" legislation and "personhood" amendments, moviegoers and readers vote by the millions in favor of a series that approves of marriage between human and non-human, and that suggests that a vampire or werewolf can be just as worthy of love as a conventional "person." Yet this first chapter of the conclusion of the "Twilight" series also conveys a "pro-life" message, as virgin-no-more Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) insists on carrying to term the bloodsucking, life-threatening half-vampire baby in her belly, the result of her bed-shredding honeymoon with hooded-eyed Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). The fourth film inspired by Stephenie Meyers' best-sellers and the first directed by Bill Condon ("Gods and Monsters," "Dreamgirls") is the dullest to date, spending its first hour on the wedding (with fetishistic attention to the lace of Bella's dress) and honeymoon, before introducing a bit of conflict via the shape-shifting clan of shirt-challenged Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who -- unlike Meyers and the series' swooning fans -- seems to understand the contradiction inherent in the insistence that coldblooded undeath is just another lifestyle choice.

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

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