August 6, 2009

Another Hairy Year for Harry—A review of HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
By Lisa Miller

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
(2009)
Directed by David Yates
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Tom Felton, Jim Broadbent, Alan Rickman, David Bradley, Robbie Coltrane, Helena Bonham Carter, Warwick Davis, Maggie Smith
Warner—Rated PG—Fantasy—153 min
It is well-known that JK Rowling wrote seven books in her Harry Potter series, but Warner Brothers, surely loathing to see the most profitable film series in history come to an end, plans to release a total of eight films. While agents are busily hounding Rowling for more HP, many readers have found this chapter, with sales topping $65 million and clocking in at an astounding 652 pages, to be the most engrossing of the series. It's worth noting that nine million copies of the book were sold in its first 24 hours of release, a record shattered only by its sequel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
To achieve a running time of two-and-a-half hours, director David Yates has pared Rowling's characters and subplots. The story, set during the 1996-97 term at Hogwarts School for Wizards, finds Harry and friends, Ron and Hermione, noticeably matured and searching for teen love while Voldemort's death eaters attack the fragile muggle world. The film, shot in 2007, sees Daniel Radcliffe's Harry lingering at 5' 6", best pals Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) tower over him. All three exhibit the angular facial features suggesting impending adulthood. Hermione eyes Ron as he dates Lavender Brown. Further complicating the threesome's love-matches, Harry develops a powerful crush on Ron's little sister Ginny.
During the school year Harry, who has failed to purchase a potions text book, receives an old text from his instructor, Professor Slughorn played by Jim Broadbent. Harry's book contains instructions scribbled in its margins, and it isn't long before Harry discovers that following the notations yields better results than those on the printed lines of his book, ominously inscribed as previously owned by the "Half-Blood Prince." Through the memories of Professor Slughorn, once a student with Voldemort, Harry learns that the dark wizard committed six murders, splintering his soul into six fragments embedded in objects, while leaving a seventh piece in Voldemort's body. As long as any of the fragment-containing objects exist, Voldemort cannot be extinguished.
As noted by film critic David Edelstein, the tone of this PG-Rated installment is pure English horror. Where past Harry Potters received PG-13-Ratings, the MPAA board appears to have loosened its grip. Parents may wish to view the trailer, available online at "YouTube," "The Internet Movie Database," "Rotten Tomatoes" and "MovieWeb," to name just a few sites, before purchasing tickets for their younger children.
According to film critic Todd McCarthy of Variety Magazine, Director David Yates also appears to have matured into the series, producing a film that is less eager to please, and less hamstrung by Rowling's source material, than previous chapters. The director's $250 million dollar budget yields seamless special effects and omnipresent cameras that seem to fly over cities and through the hallowed halls of a grayer Medieval Hogwarts. Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes have compiled critics' ratings, the mean score being well into the 80s out of a perfect 100. This may not be your older brother's Harry Potter, but this Harry is an apt metaphor for these tumultuous times.

The Ugly Truth
(2009)
* *1/2 (Grade B-)
Directed by Robert Luketic
Starring Gerard Butler, Katherine Heigl, Cheryl Hines, Bonnie Somerville, Bree Turner, Vicki Lewis
Columbia Pictures—Rated R—Comedy—101 min
When Abby (Heigl), a Sacramento morning show producer is forced to work with Mike (Butler), the station's popular, but offensive late-night, love-coach, emotional daggers fly. Then Mike presents Abby with a challenge. If she follows Mike's advice to the tee, and still can't win the heart of her handsome doctor neighbor, Mike pledges to quit TV for good. Abby eagerly accepts, then is shocked to find Mike's advice has merit. The pairing of Butler and Heigl manages to ignite a few romantic sparks though ramping up the laughs could have taken this one beyond merely competent. Lacking competition, "The Ugly Truth" should turn a pretty buck from the dating set and girls' night out.

G-Force
(2009)
*1/2 (Grade C-)
Directed by Hoyt Yeatman
Starring Will Arnett, Penelope Cruz, Zach Galifianakis, Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan
Disney—Rated PG—Family, Animated
Disney teams with producer Jerry Bruckheimer for this film centered on a team of biologically engineered, brainiac guinea pigs trained in espionage. Tapped by the US government to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world, the rodents are outfitted with tiny high-tech gear. Team members include squad leader Darwin (Rockwell), weapons expert Blaster (Morgan), and sexy martial arts master Juarez (Cruz)—"sexy" as per Disney's literature! The team's reconnaissance expert is a housefly, and for the dirtiest jobs they've recruited Speckles (Cage), a star-nosed mole. Presented in 3-D, this one's likely to benefit the pet store industry as g-pigs get wish-listed by 5 to 8 year olds everywhere.

Orphan
(2009)
*1/2 (Grade C-)
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett
Warner—Rated R—Horror—123 min
John & Kate Plus Orphan? No, it isn't the latest reality TV show, but rather it's the latest demonic-kid horror with unfortunately, no-named leads. Devastated after losing her unborn child, Kate (Farmiga) wants something good to come out of their loss. She and husband John (Sarsgaard) visit an orphanage where they are drawn to precocious 9-year-old Esther (Fuhrman). But, after bringing Esther home, things go terribly wrong for the family and friends. Kate soon discovers Esther isn't the sweet child she appears to be. The film is precisely what you'd expect: one more variation on "The Bad Seed."

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
(2009)
* * (Grade C)
Directed by Carlos Saldanha
Voiced by: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Chris Wedge, Karen Disher
Fox//Rated PG//Animated//87 min
Prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs collide when Sid the sloth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger, Scrat the squirrel and woolly mammoth couple Manny and Ellie, become trapped in an underground Jurassic world. Simon Pegg is also new as a dinosaur-hunting weasel seeking revenge on a Jurassic version of "Moby Dick." The good news is that acorn-obsessed squirrel Scrat and his new girlfriend provide regular breaks from otherwise predictable fare. The film is playing in both 2D and 3D, the latter costing several extra dollars per ticket.

Imagine That
(2009)
*1/2 (Grade C-)
Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick
Starring Eddie Murphy, Yara Shahidi, Thomas Haden Church, Nicole Ari Parker, Ronny Cox, Martin Sheen
Paramount—Rated PG—Comedy—min
It isn't hard to imagine Murphy suiting up for another dumb comedy, but this time he isn't the cutest kid on the block. That distinction belongs to Yara Shahidi, playing Olivia, the precocious 7-year-old daughter of Evan (Murphy), a busy exec prone to ignore his adorable child. Just when Evan feels the pressure to produce at the office, he discovers that Olivia's stories—emanating from her imaginary world—reveal business secrets he can use to his advantage. Quicker than you can say Etch-A-Sketch, Murphy's pumping the little doll for tidbits to revive his sagging career. Oh Eddie, if only it were that easy.

I Love You, Beth Cooper
(2009)
* * (Grade C)
Directed by Chris Columbus
Starring Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rust, Jack T. Carpenter, Lauren London, Alan Ruck, Cynthia Stevenson
Fox Atomic—Rated PG-13—Comedy
Fox Studios rushes to capitalize on Hayden Panettiere while she's still famous enough to turn "Heroes" fanboys into movie ticket buyers. After nerdy valedictorian high school senior Denis (Rust), proclaims his crush on popular girl Beth Cooper (Panettiere) during his commencement speech, the teen queen amuses herself by introducing Denis and his geeky friends to her wild-child party scene. Panettiere cheerfully does her part by stripping for a nude scene, so plot problems shouldn't prevent the film from turning a buck. Meanwhile the MPAA's rating system gets a little more questionable every year.


Bruno
(2009)
* *1/2 (Grade B-)
Directed by Larry Charles
Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Richard Bey, Ron Paul, Paula Abdul, Domiziano Arcangeli, Emerson Brooks, Alice Evans, Gustaf Hammarsten
Universal—Rated R—Comedy—83 min
Flying high on his "Borat" success, Sacha Baron Cohen gets a new look when he becomes a bleached blonde (with highly arched eyebrows) for his latest mockumentary. This time Cohen plays Bruno, a gay, Austrian fashionista spending his exile in Hollywood where Bruno—his lovelorn assistant Lutz (Hammarsten) in tow—seeks stardom. Though a large portion of the humor is insulting and distasteful, the "Punk'd" scenes that depict Bruno offending the very celebrities he hopes to befriend, appear staged. Watch for male frontal nudity and numerous shots featuring skin-and-bones Cohen wearing nothing but itty bitty briefs.


Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
(2009)
* * (Grade C)
Directed by Michael Bay
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Rainn Wilson, Jon Voight
Paramount—Rated PG—Fantasy—147 min
"Transformers" meets "Indiana Jones" and "The Mummy" in what feels like a hybrid of not-so-hot recent movies and LaBeouf's own screen roles. In order to save mankind from marauding Decepticon aliens, Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) and his galpal Mikaela (Fox) travel to the Egyptian ruins where they hope to find a key capable of reactivating the good-guy Autobot Transformers. Ships, tanks, planes, rockets and giant shape-shifting machines battle for audience attention in this $200 million dollar special-effects bonanza. John Turturro, Rainn Wilson and Jon Voight rush to get in on the frenetic action of this video game movie—minus the joystick.

Year One
(2009)
*1/2 (Grade C-)
Directed by Harold Ramis
Starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, Olivia Wilde, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Vinnie Jones, Hank Azaria, Paul Rudd, Juno Temple, Oliver Platt, David Cross
Sony—Rated PG-13—Comedy
Jack Black and Michael Cera play Zed and Oh, friends and lazy members of a primitive tribe in the year one. The pair are exiled after Zed eats the forbidden fruit. Oh joins Zed on a biblical journey that leads them to Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, and the lovely people of Sodom. Unfamiliar with the rules of this new world, Zed and Oh are pressed into military service, thrown out and threatened with execution. At one point the pair are enslaved. Oh is stripped nearly naked, painted gold, and made to rub a hairy priest's chest (Platt) with warm oil. Poorly organized storytelling is one problem; the other is gross out humor that rarely hits the funny bone.

Public Enemies
(2009)
* * * (Grade B)
Directed by Michael Mann
Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Jason Clarke, Rory Cochrane, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, and Stephen Lang
Universal—Rated R—130 min
Virtuoso style and cinematic bravado flesh out the retelling of John Dillinger's saga. After escaping from prison in 1933, Dillinger (Depp) goes on a bank-robbing spree that gains him public admiration in an era of failing banks and first place on J. Edgar Hoover's (Crudup) Public Enemies list. Dillinger breaks his own rules when he woos and wins the heart of coat-check girl Billie Frechette (Cotillard). Knowing their romance can not last, the pair make every moment count. As FBI Agent Melvin Purvis, Christian Bale uses his intensity, rather than his underwritten character, to convey the agent's determination to bring Dillinger down by any means necessary.

My Sister’s Keeper
(2009)
* *1/2 (Grade B-)
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
Starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Sofia Vassilieva, Joan Cusack, Jason Patric, Thomas Dekker, Emily Deschanel, Lin Shaye
Warner—Rated PG-13—Drama—109 min
Abigail Breslin headlines a drama exploring complex ethical and familial issues. She plays 11-year-old Anna Fitzgerald, conceived by her parents (Diaz and Patric) to help their leukemia-stricken daughter Kate (Vassilieva) stay alive. During her short life Anna has happily donated blood and bone marrow numerous times, but when Kate needs one of Anna's kidneys, the younger girl hires an attorney (Baldwin) to secure Anna's medical emancipation from her parents. A cozy plot twist has Anna's mom resume her legal career in order to oppose Anna’s petition to the court. Despite all the squabbling, the Fitzgerald's are a loving family doing the best they can. From Jodi Picoult's novel, the film is sufficiently well-executed to assure there won't be a dry eye left in the house.

The Proposal
(2009)
* * (Grade C)
Directed by Anne Fletcher
Starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Betty White, Denis O'Hare, Malin Akerman
Disney—Rated PG-13—Comedy—107 min
In this chick flick banking on Bullock's wholesome appeal, the actress appears as cutthroat New York City book editor, Margaret Tate. Facing deportation to Canada, Margaret conspires to marry her young assistant Andrew (Reynolds) whom she knows nothing about. She finds herself succumbing to his charms during a trip to Alaska to meet Andrew's quirky family. A safe, non-offensive offering, 45-year-old Bullock and 33-year-old Reynolds make a cute pair, but never persuade as a couple. They aren't helped by a script lacking both an "aha" moment and evidence of their blossoming love.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
(2009)
* * (Grade C)
Directed by Tony Scott
Starring Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzman, Michael Rispoli, James Gandolfini
Sony—Rated R—Action—106 min
The 1974 original film was an adrenaline rush casting Robert Shaw as the merciless mastermind behind a crew of hostage takers on a New York City subway. He was matched by Walter Matthau playing Walter Garber, a subway train dispatcher with a very grumpy disposition. Having gained Ryder's trust, Garber tries to keep Ryder calm while city officials plan their next move. This time, Travolta plays the madman demanding $10 million dollars in exchange for the hostages. Washington packs on the pounds for the Garber role, but director Scott has reversed his actors, putting the intense one where the funnyman belongs. It's a slick, passable production, but lacks the one, two, three punch that made the original a knock out.

The Hangover
(2009)
* * *1/2 (Grade A-)
Directed by Todd Phillips
Starring Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Sasha Barrese, Ken Jeong, Rachael Harris, Jeffrey Tambor, Mike Tyson
Warner—Rated R—Comedy—100 min
Phil, Stu and Alan (Cooper, Helms and Galifianakis) take their soon-to-be-married buddy (Bartha) to Vegas for a bachelor blowout that quickly spins out of control. The following morning, Phil, Stu and Alan awaken in a luxury casino suite where they've somehow acquired both a human baby and full-grown tiger. Though questions abound, the trio's biggest problem is that they've misplaced the groom. Unable to remember events of the previous night, the three attempt to retrace their steps. Clues lead them first to the ER, then to Mike Tyson, and finally reveal that one of them has married a stripper. Using a second-tier cast, director Todd Phillips hits pay-dirt with marvelous comic performances from Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, longtime supporting players earning their break out roles. Pumping its Vegas locale for everything its worth, the tale's zany humor combines with a crazy detective story to hit the comedy jackpot.

UP
(2009)
* * * * (Grade A)
Directed by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
Voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, John Ratzenberger, David Kaye, Elie Docter, Jeremy Leary
Buena Vista—Rated PG—Animated, Family—96 min
Another Pixar story, this one takes to the skies in a big way. When curmudgeon senior citizen, Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Asner), takes off to see a remote range of Venezuelan mountains, he ties thousands of balloons to his house that lift it up, up and away. Comfortably settled inside his flying home, Carl is appalled to discover that a young scout has inadvertently hitched a ride. Animated with spellbinding beauty and vibrance, the film follows the pair's adventures, and eventual meeting with Carl's boyhood hero (Plummer)—a famed explorer. Encountering wondrous animals, as well as with confronting an evil plot, will test the pair's resolve and leave audiences feeling "Up"- beat.