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.

“DRILLBIT TAYLOR” (C): Judd Apatow produced, Stephen Brill (“Little Nicky”) directed and Seth Rogen co-wrote the script to this one-note story about a trio of high school nerds who hire a bodyguard to protect them from a psychotic bully. Owen Wilson is the same low-key guy as usual, playing the titular Santa Monica homeless dude who pretends to have special ops training to get the gig. Young stars Nate Hartley, Troy Gentile and David Dorfman have a likable, goofy chemistry with each other, and the fact that they’re up-and-comers makes them more believable. But once you get past the premise, there’s just nowhere to go. 102 minutes. Rated PG-13 for crude sexual references throughout, strong bullying, language, drug references and partial nudity.

“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.

“HORTON HEARS A WHO!” (C):Horton may hear a Who, but the rest of us may hear a lot of hoopla, and it’s not all the charming sort you expect from a benign Seussian world. This animated family flick succeeds to a point in putting the Hollywood spin on Theodor S. Geisel’s beloved children’s book about an elephant defending a microscopic civilization. Very young children will find plenty to giggle over in the movie’s manic slapstick as Horton (voiced by Jim Carrey) incurs the wrath and ridicule of his jungle pals, who refuse to believe he’s discovered a tiny land called Who-Ville that exists in a speck resting on a clover. The lyrical nonsense of Seuss’ rhymes generally give way to loud pratfall nonsense, though, as the filmmakers stretch a thin, thin story to fit a feature-length movie. 86 minutes. Rated G.

“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.

“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.

“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.

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