THE GUIDE
THE GUIDE
Still Showing 50/50 – A young man with spinal cancer has a 50 percent chance of surviving. Uproariously funny, human and insightful. R for language, sex, drugs. 100 minutes. ★★★★ COURAGEOUS – Gangs and drugs test small-town deputies in a faithbased drama. PG-13 for violence, drugs. 124 minutes. ★ 1/2 DOLPHIN TALE – Kids care for an inspiring injured dolphin. PG for mild thematic elements. 113 minutes. ★★★ DREAM HOUSE – After moving into their home, a family learns of brutal crimes against former residents. PG-13 for violence, terror, sexuality and brief strong language. 93 minutes. ★★ FOOTLOOSE — The remake gives us a better, more colorful film but less cast chemistry. PG-13 for teen drug and alcohol use, sexual content, violence and language. 113 minutes. ★★ IDES OF MARCH – Presidential candidates maneuver behind the scenes. One confronts a career-ending scandal. R for language. 102 minutes. ★★★ JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN — Rowan Atkinson thinks he’s James Bond, but he’s mostly just a bumbler. PG for mild action violence,
rude humor, language and sensuality. 101 minutes. ★ 1/2 MIGHTY MACS – There’s something irresistible about the underdog in sports, in this case the Immaculata College’s women’s basketball team. G. 99 minutes. ★★ 1/2 MONEYBALL — A band of stats geeks changes the face of baseball. PG-13 for strong language. 126 minutes. ★★★ PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 – Sisters befriend an invisible entity living in their home. PG-13 for fright, language, sexual references. 84 minutes. ★★★ REAL STEEL – A robotic boxing story starring, and apparently created by, robots. PG-13 for violence, intense action and brief language. 127 minutes. ★★ 1/2 THE THING — This prequel to the 1982 monster movie delivers a repetitive assault of gross creature effects. R for violence and gore, disturbing images, and language. 103 minutes. ★★ THE THREE MUSKETEERS – The latest take on the Alexander Dumas story of Athos, Porthos, Aramis and the lionhearted musketeer intern, D’Artagnan, is a puzzler. PG-13 for adventure-action violence. 102 minutes. ★
Movie Amy Step right up for skin-crawling tales of slashers, killer birds and major cockroaches. ••• “I SAW THE DEVIL” (2010, Magnolia, unrated, $28): You’ve never seen anything like this mind-altering Korean masterpiece about a young man named Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-Hun) who vows revenge against the serial killer (Choi MinSik) who slaughtered his fiancée. Often disgustingly lurid, it drips blood and gore but has something downright profound to say about the toxic effects of score-settling. ••• “ALFRED HITCHCOCK: THE ESSENTIALS COLLECTION” (2011, Universal, PG-R, $50): Nobody does white-knuckle terror like the Master of Suspense. This superb, five-disc set delivers two of Hitch’s scariest movies: “Psycho,” in
which Janet Leigh comes to regret her stay at the Bates Motel, and “The Birds,” a nature-gone-berserk shocker, as well the three top-notch thrillers “Rear Window,” “Vertigo” and “North By Northwest.” ••• “MIMIC: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT” (1997, Lionsgate, unrated, $20): Guillermo Del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) has tinkered with his giant cockroach movie, now on Bluray, trying to deepen the characters and underline the themes of science gone awry. It’s still a bit of a mess thanks to subplots about a creepy professor (F. Murray Abraham) and an autistic youngster. But the central story about a scientist (Mira Sorvino) trying to rid Manhattan of man-size bugs is as scary as it is icky. Amy Longsdorf also profiles celebrities for the Sunday Etc. section of The Times Leader.
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New on DVD This week’s DVD releases are topped by films about people who fight injustice and evil. ••• “CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER,” GRADE C-MINUS: Chris Evans — the guy who put the heat in the Human Torch in the “Fantastic Four” movies — steps into the boots of the latest comic-bookinspired film champion. “ATTACK THE BLOCK,” GRADE B:
Director Joe Cornish offers a fresh look at the aliens-vs.-humans genre with this tale of what happens when a housing complex becomes the subject of an attack. Instead of the military, it’s a gang of South London teens who have to save the day. ••• Also new on DVD this week: “WINNIE THE POOH”: The gang from the Hundred Acre Wood goes on another adventure.
The outlaw cat is back By CHRISTY LEMIRE AP Movie Critic
The “Shrek” franchise reboots anew here, if you’ll pardon the pun, with great energy, creativity and aplomb. This spin-off is actually a prequel, providing the origin story of the diminutive, swashbuckling kitty. At the start, Puss, voiced by Antonio Banderas, is an outlaw in his Spanish hometown. Flashbacks take us to an orphanage, where he was best friends with an ambitious Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis). The two dreamed of stealing the magic beans, climbing the beanstalk and getting rich off some golden eggs. Now, Humpty’s become obsessed and tries to enlist Puss as the operation’s brawn. Humpty’s partner in this caper is the dangerous master thief Kitty Softpaws, voiced with slinky seduction by Sal-
IF YOU GO What: “Puss in Boots” ★★★ Starring: Voices of Antonio Banderas, Zach Galifianakis, Salma Hayek, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris
Directed by: Chris Miller Running time: 90 minutes Rated: PG for some adventure action and mild rude humor
ma Hayek. They’re so good together after so long, the pairing just makes sense. Puss felt like the best part of the “Shrek” movies, but a little of him goes a long way. An entire movie of his own seems like a stretch, and really, he has trouble sustaining his shtick for 90 minutes. But for
lively entertainment, it works just fine, even in 3-D. He looks so soft and fluffy in his little leather boots, jaunty feathered hat and shiny sword, you’ll want to reach out and pet him, especially when he’s a tiny kitten working those big, green eyes for maximum manipulative effect.
Depp dabbles in ’60s journalism By JAKE COYLE AP Entertainment Writer
IF YOU GO
“The Rum Diary” is based on Hunter S. Thompson’s heavily autobiographical novel by the same name, which he wrote as a 22-year-old in the early 1960s. It wasn’t published until 1998. Since then, Thompson’s friend Johnny Depp has been trying to adapt it to the screen. Dedicated to Thompson, who died in 2005, this is a portrait of the Duke as a young journalist. The stand-in for Thompson, the young novelist-reporter Paul Kemp
What: “The Rum Diary” ★★ 1/2 Starring: Johnny Depp, Richard Jenkins, Michael Rispoli, Giovanni Ribisi, Aaron Eckhart and Amber Heard Directed by: Bruce Robinson Running time: 120 minutes Rated: R for language, brief drug use and sexuality
(Depp), is trying to find his voice: It’s the birth of Gonzo. Criminally exaggerated resume in hand, Kemp has gone to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to try his hand as a reporter at a
diminishing daily. He catches the attention of American businessman Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), who’s trying to push through an enormous development of a nearby, pristine island that’s pushing locals out for American investors. Sanderson recruits Kemp to spin the story favorably in the Star. The picture of American corruption of Puerto Rico is compelling. Sanderson’s slick appeal tempts Kemp, but so does Sanderson’s fiancée Chenault (the stunning Amber Heard). It all builds to a moral crisis and, finally, an artistic tipping-point.
ALSO OPENING What: “In Time” Starring: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy Directed by: Andrew Nicol, Genre: Crime/Sci-Fi/Thriller Plot summary: In the not-too-distant future, the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities. The rich can live forever, while the rest try to negotiate for their immortality. A poor young man comes into a fortune of time, though too late to help his dying mother. He ends up on the run from a corrupt police force known as time keepers. Running time: 109 minutes Rated: PG-13 for violence, some sexuality, partial nudity and strong language Source: Internet Movie Database