Quit talking to yourself.
Reviewers: Craig Blamer, Rachel Bush and Juan-Carlos Selznick.
and take over the world. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.
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The Host
Opening this week Emperor
Girl with a Pearl Earring director Peter Webber is at the helm of this historical biopic set in post-World War II Japan, when General Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) and General Bonner Fellers were tasked with deciding the fate of Emperor Hirohito/ Showa and whether or not he was guilty of and should be executed for war crimes. Pageant Theatre. Rated R.
Save me Soul-sucking aliens and lovesick humans fall flat in latest tweener sci-fi romance
Iplanet before The Host invaded. I’m not criticizing director Andrew Niccol f only I could’ve moved to a new
(Gattaca) for making something unoriginal. His film (based on Stephanie Meyer’s book that isn’t Twiby light) is about human bodies Rachel being taken over by aliens, a Bush concept which has already made its way to the big screen in one form or another several times over the decades between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Host. However, sans an original setup, something else has to stick, The Host and this just sucks. Starring Saoirse The story is set sometime in Ronan, Diane Kruger and Max the vague future, when alien Irons. Directed “souls,” as they’re called, have by Andrew infiltrated nearly every human Niccol. Cinemark body in the world. Ironically, 14, Feather River Cinemas and these extra-terrestrials lead Paradise Cinema much more peaceful lives than 7. Rated PG-13. humans ever did, despite the fact that their Earthly presence is only possible because of human genocide. This contradiction might have been interPoor esting to explore, but the plot barely touches on it. As some of the few humans Fair remaining, Melanie (Saoirse Ronan), her younger brother, and her boyfriend, Jared (Max Good Irons), struggle to elude alien capture from The Seeker (Diane Kruger). Melanie gets caught, and her body is Very Good infused with the soul of an alien called Wanderer. Usually, the human spirit dies after this Excellent procedure, but a resistant
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Melanie lives on in the subconscious of Wanderer, who soon empathizes with the entrapped human. Their budding friendship, while at times heartwarming, is mostly annoying. Ronan is a promising young actress, but she fails in conveying a believable voice-over, so the dialogue between Wanderer and the internal voice of Melanie plays like unintentionally funny schizophrenia. Melanie leads Wanderer to where her remaining living family is hiding with other human holdouts, but they’re reluctant to believe she is a cohabitant of her own body. In the process of gaining their trust, Wanderer gets to know a human named Ian (Jake Abel). They fall for each other, but Melanie’s still drooling over Jared. And here we get a weird version of the famous love triangle that is the wildly popular trademark of author Meyers. I’m not sure it’s going to work with the tweens this time though. Interspecies relationships between vampires, werewolves and humans just look cooler. Everyone here just looks human (yawn); plus it’s not really a triangle since there are two young studs and technically two women fighting it out in one young head. Luckily, the film is a lot easier to look at than it is to comprehend. The desert caves where Melanie’s family seeks refuge are stunning. It becomes an oasis not only for the film’s characters, but for the viewers too. Smart costume choices help add to the visual appeal. All the “seeker” aliens, aka the ones in charge of killing humans, are dressed in completely white uniforms. Coupled with blue alien eyes, they exude just the right amount of creepy. Bottom line: It’s another pretty but contrived Hollywood formula piece, with the added distraction of being a convoluted and silly love story. The human characters might have some hope for salvation, but it’s too late to save the audience. Ω
Evil Dead
A sort of remake of/sort of sequel to Sam Raimi’s celebrated horror/comedy about an evil book in an evil cabin in the woods, and the giddy fun there is to be had therein, splashing about in the blood as a group of young’uns fight for their souls. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R.
Jurassic Park: 3D
In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Spielberg’s 1993 dino-theme-park flick gets the 3-D treatment. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.
Now playing Admission
A romcom about the hijinks (and romance?) that ensue when the worlds of three people collide: a college admissions officer (Tina Fey), the principal (Paul Rudd) at an alternative high school, and a high school kid (Nat Wolff) who might be the son the admissions officer gave up for adoption. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.
The Call
A young woman (Abigail Breslin) calls a 911 dispatcher (Halle Barry) from the trunk of her abductor, which draws the operator into a dangerous game that finds her back in the sights of a killer (Michael Eklund) from her past. Cinemark 14 and Feather River Cinemas. Rated R.
The Croods
Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone and Catherine Keener provide voices for this computeranimated feature about a prehistoric family on an adventure through uncharted territory. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG.
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The Gatekeepers
Ends tonight, April 4. Israeli filmmaker Dror Moreh set up interviews with six men from Shin Bet, Israel’s Internal Security Service—Avraham Shalom, Yaacov Peri, Carmi Gillon, Ami Ayalon, Avi Dichter and Yuval Diskin, each of whom had done a stint as the agency’s head sometime in the last 30 years. The Oscar-nominated documentary that resulted, mostly talking heads with intermittent bits of archival footage, is a riveting, wide-ranging and unexpectedly illuminating account of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Each of the six becomes a distinctive character in his own right, and Moreh’s brilliant editing marshals their remarks into a briskly articulated essay on the miscalculations, self-inflicted wounds, and aggravated blind spots on both sides of the conflict. The Shin Bet six and the film itself are surprising in their candor and their independence from hard-line dogma. Pageant Theatre. Rated PG-13 —J.C.S.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
In this second installment in the film series based on the famous toy, the original Joe (Bruce Willis) joins the G.I. Joe squad, led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, to help them bring down the Cobras as they try
See review this issue. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13 —R.B.
Olympus Has Fallen
Things explode all over Washington, D.C., as it is attacked by terrorists who kidnap the president (Aaron Eckhart). His only hope is a disgraced former security agent (Gerard Butler) trapped in the White House and helping authorities who have no choice but to rely on his inside knowledge of the situation. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R.
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Oz the Great and Powerful
It’s been 74 years since the release of The Wizard of Oz, and director Sam Raimi (Spiderman) and company are exploring its title character, preDorothy and gang. Struggling magician/conartist/womanizer Oscar “Oz” Diggs (James Franco) isn’t living up to his “great” potential, working the circus scene in Podunk, Kansas. So when a tornado sweeps him away to the land of Oz, where the inhabitants believe that he’s their awaited wizard, he goes with it. With the help of Glinda The Good Witch (a sappy Michelle Williams), this amateur hero attempts to save the citizens of Emerald City from the wicked sister witches (Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis). There’s plenty of visual oohing and ahhing to be had, but the fun stops there. The dialogue falls flat and the mediocre acting does little to save it. Keep traveling down that yellow brick road. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG —R.B.
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Quartet
Ronald Harwood has adapted his own play about retired opera singers putting on one more show for the retirement home that is their special last refuge. Dustin Hoffman, making his directorial debut, amiably indulges a frisky cast of veteran Brit actors. The arrival of haughty diva Jean Horton (Maggie Smith) makes possible an on-stage reunion of the eponymous quartet, but maybe not—Horton’s still-heartbroken ex-husband (Tom Courtenay) figures in the erstwhile quartet and the now-humbled diva has her own pride and self-doubt to deal with. The other members, the exuberantly randy Wilf Bond (Billy Connolly) and the sweetly erratic Cissy Robson (Pauline Collins), nudge things toward geriatric farce early on. But once the diva is present, the tone changes to something verging on the tragicomic, and the feel-good finish (with a decorous touch or two of the bittersweet) is certain to draw a few well-earned tears. Pageant Theatre. Rated PG-13 —J.C.S.
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Spring Breakers
The spectacle of beer-sloshed, drug-fueled, semi-naked revelry is here for all to see, but just who this film aims to please becomes a matter of some confusion, which seems deliberate on the part of writer-director Harmony Korine. The unabashedly lurid tale follows four naively rebellious college-age girls as they “go wild” on spring break in Florida and finance the trip via a restaurant hold-up. Once in Florida they become entangled with an unctuously lubricious gangster/rapper (James Franco). Right from the start, Korine is dealing in clichés but churning them out with an exuberance that is at times almost rhapsodic. All in all, his film has an amusing satirical snap to it, and there’s a nifty brio to the cinematography, editing and sound design. Cinemark 14. Rated R —J.C.S.
Temptation
Writer/director Tyler Perry is in dramatic mode here with this film version of his play about a marriage counselor whose life and marriage is turned inside out after she pursues an affair with a very successful man. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.