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ARTHUR (PG-13) Let’s face it. A
large chunk of today's movie watchers,
largely the ones who make up British
comic Russell Brand’s fanbase, don't
know who Arthur Bach, Dudley Moore
or Sir John Gielgud are, and they
probably only know Christopher Cross’
Oscar-winning song “Arthur's Theme
(Best That You Can Do)" in passing.
For those unfortunates, the new Arthur
will serve its disposable, comedic pur
pose. Laugh today, forgotten tomorrow.
BATTLE: LOS ANGELES (PG-13)
Battle: LA offers nothing new to either
the war or science fiction genres it
mashes together, but the action movie
manages to engage for its near-two-
hour running time without being
particularly interesting or entertaining.
Strangely, this needlessly cacopho
nous, visually unintelligible movie is
better during its quiet, still moments as
opposed to its textbook sacrifices and
acts of cowboy bravado.
BRIDESMAIDS (R) Considering its
competition, calling Bridesmaids the
funniest movie of 2011 may be as
much an insult as a compliment to this
hilarious comedy, written by and star
ring Kristen Wiig. This female-driven
flick needs to be judged and compared
to its raunchy, hearty brothers, all
raised under the banner of the House
of Apatow. These bridesmaids prove
to be just as funny and dirty as the
groomsmen of The 40 Year Old Virgin,
Knocked Up, etc. When Lillian (Maya
Rudolph) gets engaged, crazy, broken
best friend Annie (Wiig) takes on the
task of Maid of Honor and screws it up
with uproarious results.
THE CONCERT (PG-13) 2009. A for
mer superstar conductor of the Bolshoi
Orchestra, Andrei Simoniovich Filipov
(Aleksei Guskov) was removed from
his position for ignoring Brezhnev's
order to fire all Jewish musicians. Now
a janitor at the Bolshoi, he plots to
create a group that can impersonate the
renowned orchestra in Paris, so he can
conduct the Tchaikovsky concert he
never finished.
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID:
RODRICK RULES (PG) I really
enjoyed the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid
movie, and its sequel, Rodrick Rules,
is no different. Middle schooler Greg
Hefftey (Zachary Gordon, who could be
a lost Savage brother) must contend
with brotherly abuse from his mean
older sibling, Rodrick/Devon Bostick).
Fortunately, Greg still has best bud.
Rowley (Robert Capron), by his side.
FAST FIVE (PG-13) As the "plot"
goes, Dorn (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul
Walker) and Dorn's sister/ Brians
squeeze, Mia (Jordana Brewster), are
on the lam after a daring, non-fatal
prison break. In Rio, the trio runs afoul
of super drug lord, Reyes (Joaquim
de Almeida). They also have to outwit
federal bounty hunter Hobbs (a more
gigantic than usual Dwayne Johnson).
Other stuff goes on to set up the
“Oceanls 11 on wheels’ heist that cre
ates the climax.
THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER
SOLD (PG-13) Super Size Me docu-
mentarian and Oscar nominee Morgan
Spurlock returns to explain the process
of product placement with a film com
pletely financed by product placement.
I enjoyed his debut but have grown
fonder of Spurlock through the three
seasons of his FX show, “30 Days."
His last teature, Where in the World Is
Osama Bin Laden?, didn't seem to get a
proper release. Hopefully, we'll be able
to view his latest feature at the local
multiplex.
THE HANGOVER PART II (R) The
Wolfpack—Phil (Bradley Cooper),
Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zack
Galifianakis)—-makes its way to
Thailand for this highly anticipated
sequel. On the eve of Stu^s wedding,
the gang must piece together another
lost evening if they are to find the
brother of Stu’is fiancee. All of the major
players, including director-cowriter
Todd Phillips and Ken Jeong's Mr.
Chow, are back, which is a very good
thing.
HOP (PG) I’m still a sucker for a grand
holiday fantasy factory sequence, and
Hop opens with a spectacular one,
detailing how all the marshmallow *
chicks and hollow chocolate bunnies
are produced. Unfortunately, the family
film goes creatively downhill from that
high point.
IN A BETTER WORLD (R)Two
families are intertwined thanks to the
actions of their young sons. Anton
(Mikael Persbrandt) is a doctor who
splits time between his Danish home
town and the African refugee camp
where he practices. His son Elias
(Markus Rygaard) is being bullied
until the new kid, London transplant
MOVIE LISTINGS
Schedules often change after our deadline. Please call ahead.
ACC LIBRARY (706-613-3650)
Waiting for Superman (NR) 6:30 (Th. 5/26)
CINi (706-353-3343)
The Concert (PG-13) 7:00 (W. 5/25 & Th. 5/26), 4:30 (starts F. 5/27)
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (PG-13) 5:15, 7:30, 9:30 (starts F. 5/27)
(no 9:30 show Su. 5/29)
Jane Eyre (PG-13) 4:30, 7:15, 9:45 (W. 5/25 & ih. 5/26), 7:15 (starts
F. 5/27), 2:15 (Sa. 5/28 & Su. 5/29) '
Mia and the Migeo (PG) 5:00 (W. 5/25 & Th. 5/26), 2:30 (Sa. 5/28 &
Su. 5/29)
Super (NR) 9:30 (W. 5/25 & Th. 5/26), 9:45 (starts F. 5/27) (no 9:45
show Su. 5/29)
Accurate movie times for the CARMIKf 12 (706-354-0016),
BIECHWOOD STADIUM 11 (706-546-1011) and GEORGIA
SQUARE 5 (706-548-3426) cinemas are not available by press
time. Visit www.flagpole.com for updated times.
Christian, comes to his aid. But when
Christian (William Johnk Nielsen)
involves Elias in a possibly tragic act
of vengeance, the two families must
confront the consequences.
JANE EYRE (PG-13) Charlotte
Bronte's classic novel (just ask any
high schooler) is brought to the big
screen yet again, this time by an
intriguing filmmaker, Sin Nombre's
Cary Fukunaga. The titular, mousy gov
erness (Mia Wasikowska, who is every
where right now) falls for her employer,
Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender),
only to discover he harbors a horrible
secret. Screenwriter Moira Buffini also
wrote last year's Tamara Drewe.
JUMPING THE BROOM (PG-13)
Jumping the Broom has all the familial
melodrama of a Tyler Perry production
without Madea's tonal aggression.
When uptown girl Sabrina (Paula
Patton) meets downtown boy Jason
(Laz Alonso), they quickly get engaged.
The wedding on Martha's Vineyard
highlights the divide between the two
families, led by tough-verging-on-
unlikable matriarchs played by Angela
Bassett and Loretta Devine.
KUNG FU PANDA 2 (PG) Kung fu
master Po (v. Jack Black), Master
Shifu (v. Dustin Hoffman), the Furious
Five—Tigress (v. Angelina Jolie),
Mantis (v. Seth P.ogen), Monkey (v.
Jackie Chan), Crane (v. David Cross)
and Viper (v. Lucy Liu)—and some
new friends— Thundering Rhino (v.
Victor Garber), Soothsayer (v. Michelle
Yeoh), Croc (v. Jean-Claude Van
Damme)—must battle an old enemy,
Lord Shen (v. Gary Oldman), who is
armed with a deadly new weapon.
LIMITLESS (PG-13) Limitless, the
new film from Illusionist director
Neil Burger, is pretty much about star
Bradley Cooper's career. He goes from
being “Alias’^ Will Tippin to “The
A-Team's’ Face in the course of two
hours. Writer Eddie Morra stumbles
upon a designer drug that opens up the
limitless potential of the human brain.
Nicely adapted from the Allan Glynn
novel by Leslie Dixon and stylishly
directed by Burger, Limitless needs a
better advertising campaign. It’s a lot
better than you think it’s going to be.
MADEA'S BIG HAPPY FAMILY
(PG-13) Having written, directed,
produced and/or starred in 11 movies
since 2005, Tyler Perry has become
predictable. The broad, slapstick antics
of mad matriarch Madea (Perry) are
jarringly meshed with a faith-based
melodramatic family drama. The family
in Perry’s newest movie belongs to
sweet Shirley (Loretta Devine), who
is dying of cancer. Not that her awful
brood seems to care.
MARS NEEDS MOMS (PG) Mars
Needs Moms is a fairly tepid animated
kids movie of the most average kind.
Milo (not voiced by credited star,,
37-year-old Seth Green, who did the
motion capture performance) doesn't
appreciate his mother (v. Joan Cusack).
When aliens in need of mothering take
her away, he sets out to save her with
the help of an overweighi earthling,
Gribble (v. Dan Fogler), and a martian
rebel, Ki (v. Elizabeth Harnois).
MIA AND THE MIGOO (PG) 2008
Impressively created from 500,000
hand-painted frames of animation,
French Animator Jacques-Remy
Girerd's second feature (Raining Cats
and Frogs was his first), Mia and
the Migoo calls to mind the modern
classics of Hayao Miyazaki. Led by a
premonition, young Mia goes on a wild
adventure to save her father, who is
trapped by a mudslide at a construc
tion site. Winner of the European Film
Award for Best Animated Feature.
• PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN:
ON STRANGER TIDES (PG-13)
The fourth adventure of Captain Jack
is terribly unexciting and, worst of all,
boring, as he canters frantically about
for no reason more dramatically press
ing than box office booty. Pirates of
the Caribbean is a needlessly extended
series: I haven’t cared about since the
Black Pearl’s initial outing. Depp does
what Depp does as Captain Jack battles
the Spanish, Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush),
Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and a beau
tiful lady pirate (Penelope Cruz) for
the Fountain of Youth. The cinematic
equivalent of stale popcorn and flat
soda, On Stranger Tides is missing the
key component that set the unlikely first
blockbuster apart from its peers: fun.
PRIEST (PG-13) An aggressively
boring movie, /Y/es/doesn't bring one
original idea to its tale of a warrior
man of the cloth battling an army of
vampires in the cities of Blade Runner
and the desert wastelands of Mad
Max. The graphic novel series, upon
which the second unimpressive movie
directed Scott Charles Stewart and
starring Paul Bettany is based, may be
acclaimed, but I cannot see why from
its filmed version. In a world ruled by
the Church, man lives in the aftermath
of a brutal war fought to extinguish
the vampire threat. When the Priest’s
(Bettany) family is attacked by the very
vampires he helped eradicate, he must
break his vows to save his only living
relative, an 18-year-old girl named
Lucy (Lily Collins).
RANGO (PG) Boasting a cute trailer,
this animated feature from Pirates of
the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski
stars his lead pirate, Johnny Depp, as
the voice of a chameleon that wants to
be a gunslinging hero. Rango must put
his skills, if he has any, to the test to
protect a Western town from bandits.
RIO (G) After Rango. 2011 s animated
output has some minor big, quirky
boots to fill. Rio isn’t quirky. It mashes
together several popular cartoon
plotlines. A pet out of water—Blu, a
domesticated macaw, must negotiate
the wide world in order to finds its
owner, Linda (v. Leslie Mann) again.
But what will he learn on the way?
SOMETHING BORROWED (PG-
13) Something Borrowed, something
blew. In an in-spirit, if not in-name
sequel to Bride Wars, another greater,
more appealing actress withers when
matched with the poisonous Kale
Hudson. I love Ginnifer Goodwin,
but she is no match for KHud, whose
career continues to spawn entries on
my personal worst movies list.
SUPER (NR) Regular guy Frank
D'Arbo (Rainn “Dwight Schrute"
Wilson) becomes a superhero named
the Crimson Bolt after his wife leaves
him for a drug dealer, Jacques (Kevin
Bacon). Along with his teen sidekick
(Ellen Page), the Crimson Bolt vows to
take down Jacques’s criminal empire
THOR (PG-13) After a raid on the
Frost Giants goes awry, a petulant Thor
(Chris Hemsworth) is put in timeout by
his Allfather, Odin (Anthony Hopkins).
Until he learns to use his godlike pow
ers selflessly, he is forced to exist as
one seriously cut, regular dude who
gets to woo Natalie Portman as astro
physicist Jane Foster. When Odin goes
down for the Odinsleep. Thor's trick
ster brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston),
assumes the throne
THE TREE OF LIFE (PG-13) Terrence
Malick’s long-delayed fifth film,
starring Brad Pitt no less, is here!
(Granted, the delay isn’t that long in
Malick-time.)The life of Jack O'Brien
(Sean Penn) is tracked from his 1950s
Midwest upbringing with his dad (Pitt)
and mom (Jessica Chastain, Jolene)
to modern adulthood. The initial word
from Cannes was mixed (lots of boos)
but early reviews have been effusive.
WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN’’
(PG) In Waiting for ‘Superman' An
Inconvenient Truth Oscar winner Davis
Guggenheim simplistically outlines
simple solutions to solve our devastat-
ingly important education problem.
Have higher standards. Be more
rigorous. Most importantly, hire better
teachers, and fire incompetent ones.
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (NR)
Jacob Jankowski (Robert Patti nson)
hops a train carrying the Benzini
Brothers Most Spectacular Show on
Earth to its next stop. Soon, he con
vinces ringmaster August Rosenbluth
(an absolutely terrifying Christoph
Waltz) to hire him as the circus’ vet.
And when Benzini Brothers gets a new
star attraction, Rosie the elephant.
Jacob becomes the all-important bull
man (i.e., elephant trainer).
Drew Wheeler
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