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Some releases may not be showing locally this week. • indicates new review • 30 MINUTES OR LESS R) 30 Mmutes or Less starts off pretty poorly thanks to bad writing and a tocus on its two least appealing characters, unfortunately played by the top-billed Jesse Eisenberg and Danny McBride A slacker (is that term valid for this generation 7 ) who drives like Mario Andretti (is that reference too dated as well 7 ), Nick (Eisenberg) is forced by two fledgling criminals Dwayne (McBnde) and Travis (Nick Swardson) to rob a bank after they strap a bomb to his chest Special thanks to Ansan and Swardson the two supporting play ers are given the movies most likable characters and generously respond by supplying the bulk of the laughs BEGINNERS director Mike Mills (not to be contused with the REM bassist) returns for his lirst fictional feature s.nce 2005 with this family dynamic drama about 75-year-old Hal (Christopher Plummer i who decides to confess two secrets to his grown son Oliver (Ewan McGregor) First Hal has terminal cancer Second he is gay and has a younger lover Hal sounds like a plum role for Piummer who isagrng wonderfully CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER i PG-13) Do you remember The Rocketeer 7 1 do. and so does Captain America director Joe Johnston who should seeing as he directed the 1991 throwback Johnston smartly gives Captain America The First Avenger{talk about unnecessary sub titles) the same sort ot Saturday mati nee serial feel Ninety-pound weakling Steve Rogers (Chris Fvans) wants to do his part in WWII but army doctors keep 4Fing him until Dr Abraham Erskine (the ever wonderful Stanley Tucci) approaches with his super sol dier serum Soon Steve Rogers turns into a muscled up superhero called Captain America, who must stop rogue Nazi the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), from devastating the world THE CHANGE-UP (R) Family man Dave (Jason Bateman) swaps bodies with his slacker best bud Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) so he can woo a pretty coworker (Olivia Wilde) Great Another body-switching comedy Coming from Hangover screenwriters Jon Lucas and Scott Moore and starring Bateman and Reynolds The Change-Up might be the right pitch for Wedding Crashers direc tor David Dobkin and better than many ot its body-switching peers CONAN THE BARBARIAN R) Has Marcus Nispel ever met a movie he didn't want to remake 7 The director ot the revamped Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Friday the 13th and TV s ^Frankenstein'' takes on Robert E Howard's famed warrior, best known from the two Arnold Schwarzenegger movies Conan of Cimmeria (Jason Momoa) ventures across Hybona. seeking revenge for his father's murder and villages slaughter Just knowing Ron Perlman and Avatar’s Stephen Lang are other Hybonan citizens makes me feel a bit better about this remake COWBOYS & ALIENS (PG 13 A man with no memory (Daniel Craig) assists a wealthy Civil War vet (Harrison Ford) and the other townsfolk tracking the extraterrestrials who ran off with hall of their dwindling mining town So long as one abides Westerns and isn t turned oft by ETs in their horse operas—this blockbuster do nicely Just don't be disappointed when it Shanes off into the sunset of your memory, never to be thought of again CRAZY STUPID. LOVE. (PG-13) What a crazy stupid idea' Write a mature comedy script Cast pretty, tal ented appropriately aged stars Direct them with care, humanity and simplic ity Who would ever think those actions would develop into the summer s most charming wide release 7 Steve Carell stars as Cal Weaver, whose wife. Emily (Julianne Moore) suddenly bombs him with a divorce pronouncement that leads him to a local bar where Cal meets inveterate womanizer Jacob (Ryan Gosling) While Cal the nice guy is learning to objectify women, Jacob the man-whore is falling for law student Hannah (Emma Stone) DAS BOOT (R) 1981 Nominated for six Academy Awards (Best Director Best Adapted Screenplay Best Cinematography. Best Film Editing Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing). Woltgang Petersons claustrophobic classic chronicles the tomb that is a WWII German U-boat Jurgen Prochnow (as many movies as he's been in and I always recall The Seventh Sign first) stars as the boat's captain MOVIE LISTINGS Schedules often change after our deadline. Please call ahead. CINE (706-353-3343) Beginners (R) 5:00, 9:30 (W. 8/17 & Th. 8/18), 5:15, 7:00, 9:45 (starts F. 8/19) (no 9:45 show Su. 8/21), 2:45 (Sa. 8/20 & Su. 8/21) Das Boot (NR) 7:15 (W. 8/24) Deadly Prey (R) 9:30 (W. 8/24) The Room (NR) Midnight (F. 8/19) Septien (NR) 9:30 (Th. 8/25) Shotgun (NR) 8:00 (W. 8/24) The Tree of Life (PG-13) 7:00. 9:45 (W. 8/17 & Th. 8/18) The Trip (NR) 5:00. 7:15, 9:30 (starts F. 8/19) (no 7:15 show W. 8/17) (no 9:30 shew Su. 8/21) Winnie the Pooh (G) 4:30 (W. 8/17 & Th. 8/18) 2:30 (Sa. 8/20 & Su. 8/21) Accurate movie times for the CARMIKE 12 (706-354-0016), BEECHWOOD STADIUM 1 1 (706 546 1011) and GEORGIA SQUARE 5 (706-548-3426) cinemas are not available by press time. Vis'! www.flagpole.com for updated times. • FINAL DESTINATION 5 (R) Do you enjoy watching creatively gory death scenes 7 How about creatively gory death scenes in 3D 7 If you answered yes. Final Destination 5 is handcrafted from the dismembered limbs of hundreds of previous slasher victims just for you A bland white guy with a boring haircut and tucked in shirts (Nicholas D Agosto) has a premonition that he and several friends will perish during a bridge collapse Death takes notice after this guy the movie distinguishes him from the other bland, slightly Tom Cruise-tan white guy by calling him Sam, saves eight people Now these survivors must face even worse, much more complex death scenarios cooked up by the master himself FRIGHT NIGHT (R) Young Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) thinks his new neighbor Jerry Dandridge (Colin Farrell), is a vampire responsible for a spate of local deaths Charley enlists the help of the host of his favorite TV show (my favorite former Doctor Who" David Tennant) I didn't think the remake of this 80s cult-horror-comedy could actually excite me. but the cast is an all-around winner GLEE: THE 3D CONCERT MOVIE (NR) Fox's musical hit, Glee." comes to the big screen If you can't wait for the new season this flick is the next best thing GRIFF THE INVISIBLE (NR) An indie superhero flick starring Ryan Kwanten. the “True Blood' star whose sixpack has developed quite a following, might be a hard sell in today s super saturated comic-hero market Kwanten stars as an office worker who masquer ades as a superhero at night However his crime fighting life changes when he meets Melody (Maeve Dermodyi, a scientist with similar passions for the impossible GREEN LANTERN (PG-13) The movie version of DC s second-line superhero a ring-equipped inter ga lactic policeman, lacks the nostalgic baggage checked by the big two Supes and Bats Test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is chosen to join the Green Lantern Corps just in time to battle Parallax a world-devouring baddie who uses the yellow power ot tear to turn Peter Sarsgaard from a John Carpenter doppelganger into an evil, bloated alien John Carpenter THE HANGOVER PART II (R) Sequels to hit comedies mostly suck The reasons these sequels fail are numerous failure to comprehend what was funny about the original, loss of the original stars characters lose li ability sequel mines exact same jokes as the first movie; etc. The Hangover Part II sidesteps the landmines that blow away the humorous limbs from most comedy sequels. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 (PG-13) It s over The final battle rages over and through the hallowed halls of Hogwarts as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) attempt to end Voldemorts (Ralph Fiennes) evil reign The last few Horcruxes must be found and destroyed if Harry is ever to truly defeat You-Know-Who •THE HELP PG 13 T his 60s-Mis- sissippi-set melodramedy will draw raves from your mother grandmother aunt, the ladies e f the church, etc. but the whitewashed world of The Help lacks the proper depth to feel real Every black servant is a samt every white employer a demon Thankfully college-educated Eugenia Skeeter'' Phelan (the extremely likable Emma Stone) comes home to Jackson to save its minority population through bestselling pop fiction She collects the stories of long-serving maids Aibileen (the wonderful Viola Davis). Minny (Octavia Spencer who shines as a lead rather than her typical small support ing player) and more into an illegal (in 1960s Mississippi) tome that scandal izes the gentry represented by Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) KUNG FU PANDA 2 (PG) However much l dug the first Kung Fu Panda. the second adventure of Dragon Warrior Po (v Jack Black) and the Furious Five—Master Tigress (v Angelina Jolie) Master Crane (v Cross). Master Viper (v Lucy Liu), Master Mantis (v Seth Rogen) and Master Monkey (v Jackie Chan)—has more visual inventiveness than it does comic or narrative combined MR POPPER S PENGUINS PG) Tom Popper (Jim Carrey) is a ruthless real estate something-or-other whos a rather sorry husband (to Carla Gugtno) and father (to Swing Votes wonderful Madeline Carroll and Maxwell Perry Cotton), that is. until he inherits six penguins from his late absentee father ONE DAY (PG-13) Having met on their graduation night July 15,1989, Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) hold that date in special significance and for two decades use it as a check-in point tor their life and love Director Lone Schertig has an unenviable task following up her excellent and popular An Education PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ON STRANGER TIDES (PG-13) You would think Johnny Depps Captain Jack Sparrow would soar to the surface now that hes shed of the dead weight that was Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Kmghfley) Instead the fourth adventure of Captain Jack is terribly unexciting and, worst ot all boring, as he canters frantically about for no reason more dramatically pressing than box office booty RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES PG-13) The apes return in this remixed mash-up of Escape from the Planet of the Apes and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes I loved The Planet of the Apes senes when I was growing up Just ask the Ape bust watching over my DVD collection While Tim Burton's damned dirty apes disappointed heav ily, this new Apes prequel has my inner Dr Zaius all a flutter A super smart chimp named Caesar (Andy Serkis) leads a primate revolution James Franco stars as the human scientist that created and raised him SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD (PG) Robert Rodriguez’s family espionage franchise is reborn, and Miramax is hoping for this flick to be a big hit A former spy (Jessica Alba) returns to battle the villainous Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) who'S plotting to rule the wofId Expect appearances from senes regulars THE SMURFS p Gi The liv CGI hybrid version of The Smurfs is nof as bad as its atrocious trailers would imply thanks largely to the smurtish talents ot Neil Patrick Harris Thanks to the clumsy plotting via Clumsy Smurt (v Anton Yelchin). Papa Smurf (v Jonathan Winters) Smurfette (v Katy Perry) et al Brainy Smart (v Fred Armtsen) and Clumsy are chased to NYC by Gargamel (Hank Azaria) THE TRIP NR) Director Michael Wmterbottom (Tristram Shandy A Mighty Heart) has edited together his BBC series in which Steve Coogan plays an(other) exaggerated version of himself Asked by The Observer to tour Northern England's finest restaurants Coogan plots a perfect getaway with his girlfriend, instead, he finds himself tortured by his best friend Rob Brydon THE TREE OF LIFE (PG-13) The Tree of Life certainly lends itself to interpre tation and lengthy post-film dissection A man (Sean Penn) must come to terms with his dead brother, coldly caring father (Brad Pitt) and loving mother (Jessica Chastain) It is a funny heartfelt tough commg-of-age tale that is the best film I have seen this year WINNIE THE POOH (G) Disney brings Winnie the Pooh and all the other denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood back to the big screen. X MEN: FIRST CLASS (PG-13) Considering my interest in the X-Men wanes by 90 percent when Wolverine isn't involved, it's a good thing the last 10 includes Professor X and Magneto. "With Kick-Ass filmmaker Matthew Vaughn in charge. X-Men First Class is what the third X-movie should have been Drew Wheeler TREE OF LIFE * FUOCSfclNNY jruc*s*iNxrrcOM TefttYiteMc*life.* J* 6 ?, Witog.UaOfTol aW-TVye jjofse fAwi«-twe ev«v Thro^k- P«W is SiH i- xfartoos foo*> win, to •*.-2 oWeosU W HiU-ftis fcwJo* dips " — Disco'j«'OJ Charnel 9oc. yjoobe Setv\, Wow PirVJSaurs,-R> AMoefeas. •(d 'Ike fcnjs iFs 551 -to See. u)kg if +00t LVacT Pffr's ,, Pare jo jd-Tkis bwaweA-.' 1 Jo/I Waivl-to Scew U'Ve (X kaV fW AnuIVng j Like Art as a tick As Ike lieyf filift'sf cblcMafite., buf TVs |S MAsk/t>fl-l 8 *j 9obfc>!t'btfooic.z o&xsux-'O'SL iiMrter-ixWkv^sof Uwu*jse.«f are < Soft>ose<l'!t>yx‘Vf05e. ulitVi Ike problems of >Aawtiwt, but i+ utes Pews Ma 1 leok-TM' MWdk Mote feVta \o Coix^a.riso»i. 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