Movie reviews | In local theaters

movie reviews | In local theaters

“THE BANK JOB” (C): This is a solid, no-nonsense heist thriller, yet one that ultimately fails to distinguish itself from the many others of the genre. Jason Statham, star of the “Transporter” movies, plays the vividly named Terry Leather, a used-car dealer with a criminal past. He and some of his amateur thug pals get roped into robbing the bank’s vault by seductive ex-model Martine Love (the stunning Saffron Burrows). Martine herself has been roped into organizing the heist by her married lover (Richard Lintern), a member of MI5 who wants to retrieve some potentially scandalous photos of someone in the royal family, which are stashed inside a safe deposit box in the vault. 115 minutes. Rated R for sexual content, nudity, violence and language.

“BE KIND REWIND” (C): The frantically useless Jerry (Jack Black) gets zapped by an electromagnetic field while trying to sabotage a power plant in Passaic, N.J., and ends up accidentally erasing every tape at the video store where his longtime friend, the low-key Mike (Mos Def), works. The two hatch a scheme to reshoot a bunch of movies, starting with “Ghostbusters,” and rent them out to unsuspecting customers. Not only do people in town not mind, they fall in love with the makeshift movies. “Be Kind Rewind” could have been a clever, biting satire about pop culture but instead feels too fluffy and sweet. 101 minutes. Rated PG-13 for some sexual references.

“THE BUCKET LIST” (B-): Facing terminal illness, we all should get to go on a no-costs-barred world tour to do everything we ever wanted. Most of us don’t have the convenient bottomless wallet that allows Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman to do just that in this comic drama that puts director Rob Reiner back in commercial — if not artistic — form. Unlike Reiner’s string of duds the last 10 years or so, the movie is easily accessible, with Nicholson and Freeman elevating a story overloaded with clich√©d life lessons and self-help slogans into a tolerable, relatively painless way to go. 97 minutes. Rated PG-13 for language, including a sexual reference.

“CHARLIE BARTLETT” (B): Anton Yelchin absolutely shines as the title character, a wealthy kid who gets booted out of his elite academy, ends up in public school and becomes instantly popular when he starts doling out psychological advice in the boys bathroom (as well as copious meds, courtesy of the family’s shrink). Sure, there’s some familiarity in the directing debut from longtime editor Jon Poll — shades of Ferris Bueller and Max Fischer from “Rushmore.” Still, Yelchin has an unflagging sweetness and likability about him, even as he repeatedly gets into trouble with the principal, played with mounting anger and vulnerability by Robert Downey Jr. 97 minutes. Rated R for language, drug content and brief nudity.

“DEFINITELY, MAYBE” (B): Ryan Reynolds’ Will, a disillusioned New York ad man who’s just been served divorce papers, picks up his 10-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) from school and is horrified to discover that she and her classmates have had a sex education lesson, which prompts a flurry of uncomfortable questions about where she came from and who else Will dated besides her mom. He tells her of his romantic past as a bedtime story, changing the names so she (and we) won’t know which girlfriend became her mother until the end. It’s an inventive romantic comedy but it takes way too long and makes too many twists. 111 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sexual content, including some frank dialogue, language and smoking.

“FOOL’S GOLD” (D): Painfully lifeless and lame romantic comedy starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, who look great but don’t play terribly well off each other. A newly divorced couple awkwardly reconcile when a clue pops up that could lead to the hidden treasure they’d been obsessed with for years. 113 minutes. Rated PG-13 for action violence, some sexual material, brief nudity and language.

“JUMPER” (C-): Let’s say you’re a young, good-looking guy, with strong cheekbones and puppy-dog eyes and pillowy, kissable lips. Hayden Christensen, for instance. And let’s say you have this amazingly cool ability to jump anywhere in the world at any time, just by thinking of the place you want to go. But you can’t tell anyone about this talent, so you have to experience all these adventures by yourself. Wouldn’t you feel lonely? Guilty? Conflicted? Something ...? Not in “Jumper,” which is all concept and zero substance. Director Doug Liman, who has made a huge leap of his own from small gems like “Swingers” and “Go” to blockbusters like “The Bourne Identity” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” initially offers up what feels like a globe-trotting thriller for the ADD generation. 92 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some language and brief sexuality.

“JUNO” (A): Juno MacGuff is the kind of teenager we all wish we could have been: quick-witted, frighteningly smart and comfortable enough in her own skin to resist those high-school pressures to conform, even as her body expands with an unplanned pregnancy. And “Juno” is the kind of movie all indie comedies wish they could be: light and lovable, perhaps a bit too pleased with the cleverness of its dialogue, but a charmer nonetheless. Ellen Page as Juno absolutely shines in this second feature from director Jason Reitman, once again showing a deft touch with tone after his 2006 debut, “Thank You for Smoking.” 91 minutes. Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content and language.

“NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN” (A): This film marries the strengths of novelist Cormac McCarthy and filmmakers the Coen brothers in ways that are deceptively simple and profoundly moving, set against the harshly beautiful, seemingly endless landscape of West Texas. Set in 1980, the tale follows three vastly different men tied together by a big-money drug deal gone bad. Josh Brolin is perfectly cast as the stoic Vietnam vet who stumbles upon the bloody aftermath, finds a briefcase stuffed with $2 million and impulsively makes off with it. Javier Bardem is chilling as the mysterious, murderous psychopath chasing after him to get the cash back. And Tommy Lee Jones is right in his element as the sheriff tracking them both and lamenting the loss of his honorable way of life in an increasingly senseless world. 122 minutes. Rated R for strong graphic violence and some language.

“THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL” (C-): This film too often comes off as an unintentionally campy, highbrow soap opera — albeit one with elaborate production design and richly textured costumes. Director Justin Chadwick’s film looks great, the high-definition heightening both the grit and glamour of 16th-century England. But the script vacillates awkwardly between sexy romp and serious period piece. 114 minutes. Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content and some violent images.

“PENELOPE” (B): Christina Ricci is lovably adorable in this fairy-tale romance that’s a perfect mix of Ricci’s oddball sensibilities and her inherent sweetness. Ricci plays the title character, born with a pig’s snout because of an old family curse, with James McAvoy as the suitor her parents (Catherine O’Hara and Richard E. Grant) pray will be the one able to lift the hex. A smart, funny, endearing twist on “Beauty and the Beast.” 90 minutes. Rated PG for thematic elements, some innuendo and language.

“SEMI-PRO” (C): Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the owner-player-coach of the Flint, Mich., Tropics, a fledgling (and fictional) American Basketball Association team. It’s essentially the same self-serious, delusional guy Ferrell plays in almost every movie he’s made. 90 minutes. Rated R for language and some sexual content.

“THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES” (A): This family flick based on the books of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black is an all-around class act, even if its world of ogres and goblins is a bit stale. The human characters are the main source of wonder here. Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger and Mary-Louise Parker authentically capture the spirit of a fractured family, while David Strathairn adds a wistful streak as a naturalist who uncovers the secrets of a hidden magical realm. The story follows a newly divorced mom and her kids as they move into a fanciful house surrounded by menacing goblins and an evil ogre (Nick Nolte) out to take over the world. 96 minutes. Rated PG for scary creature action and violence, peril and some thematic elements.

“10,000 BC” (D): A mix of vast CGI spectacle and small, silly moments, this prehistoric saga is an epic in name only. The latest mind-numbing extravaganza from director Roland Emmerich (“Independence Day,” “The Day After Tomorrow”) feels more like a video game in film form. Our dreadlocked, dirt-smudged hero, D’Leh (Steven Strait), must protect his Yagahl people from a variety of foes, including woolly mammoths, marauders on horseback, angry ostrich-looking things and an enormous saber-toothed tiger. 109 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence.

“THERE WILL BE BLOOD” (A): What a character director Paul Thomas Anderson has created in Daniel Plainview — and what a performance he’s gotten out of Daniel Day-Lewis. As a turn-of-the-century oil man, Day-Lewis gives one of the more terrifying turns of his long and eclectic career. He can be charming and cruel in the same breath, and he says and does whatever he must to get his way. That includes taking over a chunk of the central California coast and building a town there so that he can drill. 158 minutes. Rated R for some violence.

“UNTRACEABLE” (C): This is one of those deplorably gratuitous movies that wants to have it both ways, but gets nothing right. It’s about a Web site that allows you to watch — live and streaming! — as some poor sap gets killed. The more hits that come in, the faster the victim dies. In theory, the thriller from director Gregory Hoblit (“Fracture”) is intended as an indictment of society’s moral decay. But it’s actually a shameless celebration of that very phenomenon, not unlike the “Saw” movies. 110 minutes. Rated R for some prolonged sequences of strong, gruesome violence and language.

“VANTAGE POINT” (D): This preposterous yarn relies on a quickly strained gimmick — the shooting of the U.S. president shown over and over from various characters’ viewpoints — to cover up the fact that it’s less of a story than a commotion of human pool balls clattering against one another in ways that defy sense and even physics. 90 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language.

“WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS” (D): Martin Lawrence’s title character is a TV talk show host who fled Georgia to escape his unsupportive family and now reluctantly returns for the 50th anniversary of his parents (James Earl Jones and Margaret Avery). When they’re not beating the stuffing out of one another, the members of this family keep busy crudely mocking their relations and tossing about lewd sexual suggestions. 114 minutes. Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and some drug references.

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