RATINGS
Rating 5 Outstanding
Rating 4 Very Good
Rating 3 Good
Rating 2 Fair
Rating 1 Poor
OPENING
Bernie Rating 3 1/2
(Empire Capitol 6) Jack Black gives a delicate and winning performance as Bernie Tiede, a real-life mortician in Carthage, Tex., who commits a terrible crime but is forgiven because everyone loves him. Using actors and real-life townspeople, director Richard Link later creates a dark and eerily comic piece of the American mosaic. - Jay Stone. PG
Moonrise Kingdom Rating 2 1/2
(Cineplex Odeon Victoria, Empire University 4) Wes Anderson tells the story of two outsider kids who fall in love during the summer of 1965 and attempt to realize the happy-ever-after ending. While the movie looks good, and the performances from an ensemble cast that includes Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis and Ed Norton are solid, the movie feels like a work in miniature where everything is drawn to scale, but carries little emotional heft. - Katherine Monk. PG
Rock Of Ages
(Cineplex Odeon West shore, Empire Capitol 6, Silver City) In this campy musical, a small-town girl and a city boy meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. With Tom Cruise, Russell Brand and Paul Giamatti. PG
That's My Boy
(Cineplex Odeon Victoria, Cineplex Odeon Westshore, SilverCity) Estranged for years from the son he had and raised as a young man, a father shows up uninvited on the eve of the son's wedding in hopes of reconnecting with him. With Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg.
14A
CONTINUING
Battleship Rating 1
(Caprice) Battleship is a board game for children, so it stands to reason a film adaptation would also be aimed at kids. But did they have to gear it to really dumb kids? Halfway through this bloated movie, the most undemanding 10-year-old is going to think about sneaking out and switching theatres to catch the end of The Avengers again. Battleship makes you reconsider every mean thing you ever said about Michael Bay: compared to this, even Pearl Harbor starts looking good.
- Rene Rodriguez.PG
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Rating 3
(Cineplex Odeon Victoria, Empire University 4, Star) An all-star cast of veterans led by Judi Dench and Maggie Smith stars in this new film from John Madden that takes us to an old folks home in India. Hoping to revitalize his dilapidated hotel with English guests, Sonny (Dev Patel) takes on a group of crusty personalities who eventually transform the hotel, as well as each other. Contrived and laden with cliché, the movie still pulls off some gentle comedy because the acting is so solid.
- Katherine Monk. G
Cosmopolis Rating 3
(Empire Capitol 6) David Cronen berg directs Robert Pattinson in this somewhat minimal adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel that follows a multimillionaire over the course of a single day. At the top of the reel, our hero is a master of the universe who controls the world financial markets. By the final frames, he has lost a fortune and may well lose his life. Despite the dramatic potential at his disposal, Cronenberg fails to find a heartbeat - rendering the film more mechanical than human. But that may have been the whole point of this metaphor about monetary power. - Katherine Monk. 14A
Dark Shadows Rating 2 1/2
(Caprice) Johnny Depp stars as Barnaby, a vampire who awakens after a 200-year imprisonment to find his family has fallen on hard times in 1972 Maine. Tim Burton's film is an exercise in style that's drowned in characters - the large cast includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green and Helena Bonham Carter - and tedious subplots.
- Jay Stone. PG
The Dictator Rating 3
(Caprice, Cineplex Odeon Victoria, SilverCity) The bad boy of smart comedy, Sacha Baron Cohen returns with another risqué outing that takes a sarcastic and somewhat sentimental look at the fading era of the dictator. Baron Cohen stars as Gen. Aladeen, a tyrant sitting on oily wealth who wants to build a nuclear weapon. When the UN threatens sanctions, he flies to New York, where he's promptly kidnapped and replaced by his body double. Can love transform the evil dictator's heart, or will his wily old ways grow back with his beard? Either way, it's twisted and wicked entertainment.
- Katherine Monk. 14A
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax Rating 31/2
(Caprice, Roxy) Danny DeVito takes on the role of Dr. Seuss's seminal environmentalist, the Lorax, in this big-screen 3-D adaptation of the book about greed and its devastating effects on the planet. Boiling it all down to human emotion, this kids' movie cuts through layers of calcified optics and political posturing to show us the real issues shaping our current reality. Greed, love, parental approval - it's all part of this rather dense, but altogether useful, weave of a cautionary tale that may have been written 40 years ago, but never gets old.
- Katherine Monk. G
The Five-Year Engagement Rating 4
(Roxy) A charming, off-kilter romantic comedy with Jason Segel as a chef who gives up his job for his fiancée (Emily Blunt). His resulting half-understood resentment almost sinks their relationship. This is a scattered, original film, in which the genre's typical boy-man is trying to come of age. - Jay Stone. 14A
The Hunger Games Rating 4
(Caprice, Roxy) A grim, persuasive version of the Suzanne Collins novel about teenagers who are forced to compete in an annual fight to the death in a dystopia of the future. Jennifer Lawrence is a steely heroine and director Gary Ross makes the spectacle a grimly believable extension of reality TV.
- Jay Stone. PG
Hysteria Rating 3
(Cineplex Odeon Victoria) A likable contrivance with none of the heat its subject suggests. Hugh Dancy stars as Dr. Mortimer Granville, the Victorian physician who invented the vibrator, and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays an early feminist to whom he is drawn. It's a sexual history lesson for the whole family. - Jay Stone. 14A
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted Rating 4
(Cineplex Odeon Westshore, Empire Capitol 6, Empire University 4, SilverCity, Star) An animated film that's vertiginous, explosive, ridiculous, frantic and anti-Canadian (they joke about our "work ethic"). Inspired 3-D and nonstop silliness make this the most fun you can have at the movies so far this summer.
- Jay Stone. G
Marvel's The Avengers Rating 31/2
(Cineplex Odeon Westshore, Empire Capitol 6, SilverCity) The summer season lifts off with this mega-budget action movie about a group of superheroes who band together to stop a hostile takeover of planet Earth. With Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Hulk sharing the screen time, director Joss Whedon is forced to spend most of his time dealing out the dramatic cards - without creating genuine dramatic suspense. A movie that seems to hover without effort, The Avengers looks good suspended in the sky, but it doesn't actually go anywhere. - Katherine Monk. PG
Men in Black 3 3D
(Cineplex Odeon Westshore, Empire Capitol 6, SilverCity Imax, Star) With his partner's life and the fate of the planet at stake, a special agent travels back in time to set things right. With Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin.
PG
The Pirates! Band Of Misfits Rating 31/2
(Caprice, Roxy) Hugh Grant drops his voice an octave to play the seemingly generic Pirate Captain in this latest effort from stop-action gurus Aardman Animation. A chaotic flurry of action and sentiment, the story explores the nature of identity and ego, as the Captain tries to win the big pirate prize - only to discover he sold part of his soul along the way. Smart and perfectly silly, the movie is sophisticated enough to appeal to adults without making the kids walk the plank.
- Katherine Monk. G
Prometheus 3D Rating 4
(Cineplex Odeon Victoria, Cineplex Odeon Westshore, Empire University 4, SilverCity Imax) Noomi Rapace emerges as the logical emotional heir to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in this Ridley Scott "prequel" to Alien. Set several decades before the crew of the Nostromo had the beast in their belly, we voyage to the far side of the galaxy with a crew of Earthlings seek the answers to a Paleolithic mystery, and why cave paintings around the globe feature the same planetary cluster and giant humanoids. Though the film suffers from a lack of character development on the edges, the core trio finds the requisite depth to create a micro-cosmos of human emotion, where our redeeming traits are tested against our drive to survive. Smart, gorgeous and dripping with positive nostalgia, Prometheus sets the Alien franchise ablaze once more. - Katherine Monk. 14A
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Rating 31/2
(Caprice) Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt play star-crossed lovers in this creative and frequently funny adaptation of Paul Torday's bestselling novel that tells the story of a fisheries scientist forced into bringing salmon to the Arabian Peninsula. With McGregor playing the uptight academic and Blunt playing a sexy facilitator, the movie hits some rom-com snags, but always finds an elegant escape. - Katherine Monk. PG
Snow White and the Huntsman Rating 3
(Cineplex Odeon Victoria, Cineplex Odeon Westshore, SilverCity, Star) The Lord of the Rings version of the story, with Kristen Stewart as a brave heroine and Chris Hemsworth as the hunky huntsman who leads a company of companions on a quest to overthrow the wicked queen (Charlize Theron.) The result is a constricted epic. - Jay Stone. PG
What To Expect When You're Expecting Rating 3
(Caprice) Cameron Diaz, Anna Kendrick and Elizabeth Banks play women struggling to conceive in this big-screen adaptation of the bestselling book about pregnancy. Despite the endless genre conventions, this multi-pronged comedy has enough depth of feeling to keep us engaged in the characters.
- Katherine Monk. PG
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (Sat. and Thur., Cineplex Odeon Victoria, SilverCity)
The Iron Giant (Sat., Cineplex Odeon Westshore)
Blazing Saddles (Sat., SilverCity)
CINECENTA
The Deep Blue Sea - PG (Fri. and Sat., 7 and 9 p.m.)
The Salt Of Life - G (Sun. and Mon., 7: 10 and 9 p.m.)
The Story of Film: Episodes 3 and 4 - (Tue., 7 and 9: 20 p.m.)
Bully - PG (Wed. and Thur., 7 and 9 p.m.)
IMAX FILMS
See imaxvictoria.com for showtimes.
To the Arctic
Rocky Mountain Express
Dinasaurs: Giants of Patagonia
Tornado Alley
HUBBLE
Born To Be Wild
