Movie Minis: Synopses of current films

By North County Times | Tuesday, November 25, 2008 10:17 AM PST ∞

B+ "Bolt"

Likable story marking the comeback of Disney Animation Studios after years in the successful shadow of partner Pixar. A small dog named Bolt believes he is a superhero, but we know he's simply the star of a hit TV series. When Bolt is separated from his home at the studio, he must navigate his way back with the help of eccentric friends, including a sarcastic cat and a hamster inside a rolling plastic ball, learning the surprising truth about himself along the way, including the fact that loyalty counts. Friendly, amusing, sometimes exciting. With voices of John Travolta, Miley Cyrus. PG. 96 min. (Dan Bennett)

C "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"

This family drama depicts the Holocaust through the simplistic eyes of a child: all the brutality, all the absurdity, crystallized by the innocence of an 8-year-old boy. The lad is the son of a Nazi commandant, and he befriends a Jewish boy his age who is being held in the concentration camp his father oversees. The climactic conclusion is so preposterous, so over-the-top in its melodrama, it's more likely to elicit incredulous frustration than sorrow. PG-13. 97 min. (Associated Press)

B- "Changeling"

Clint Eastwood directs Angelina Jolie in story, based on true events, of a mother in 1928 Los Angeles whose young son disappears one day. When police bring a boy they say is her son back to her, she says it's not him, and she is forced into a mental hospital. Meanwhile, a horrific crime not far away leads to clues concerning the real son's whereabouts. The film is a detailed and beautifully shot period piece, but the basic, chapter-by-chapter storytelling never settles into a full creative rhythm. R. 161 min. (Dan Bennett)

B "Happy-Go-Lucky"

Poppy, our perpetually sunny heroine, is an extraordinary creature, but in the hands of engaging star Sally Hawkins and veteran writer-director Mike Leigh, she becomes real, vibrant and alive. And if you look past the film's blithe veneer, it's really about something that's universally relatable: the quest for a deep and fulfilling happiness. R. 118 min. (Associated Press)

C+ "High School Musical 3: Senior Year"

All those winsome East High Wildcats are back from Parts One and Two of the freakishly successful Disney Channel franchise. Only now, they have more expensive toys to play with, so the production values are glossier and the musical numbers are splashier. The "HSM" kids are so good-looking and high-energy, you may as well surrender to their manipulative ways. G. 108 min. (Associated Press)

A- "Let the Right One In"

Swedish entry in the vampire-entertainment craze, art-house style. Story of a lonely 12-year-old boy who discovers a best friend in the new girl next door, a more confident child who turns out to be a vampire. As the two form a bond, and she struggles for survival ---- much to the detriment of mortal townsfolk ---- an epic young love story emerges. Grim, but filled with slow-burning visual and aural beauty. Not rated. 114 min. (Dan Bennett)

B+ "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa"

Sequel sees the animals we watched escape from a New York zoo complete their world tour, accidentally arriving in Africa, home of their ancestors. There, the lion, zebra, hippo and giraffe must learn to cope with their own problems while situating in a land strange to them. Funny, mostly smart humor, with those amusing penguins again leading the creativity. PG. 92 min. (Dan Bennett)

A- "Quantum of Solace"

Bond purists and casual fans alike can take comfort in the fact that the team behind the James Bond franchise is settling very nicely into the Daniel Craig era. Craig's second go-round as the British spy continues the darker, realistic tone that 2006's "Casino Royale" brought to the long-running film series. But some things remain from the earlier, cheesier era of Bond films: beautiful women (Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton), exciting car chases and exotic locales. Still, it's Craig's combination of real acting chops and athletic physicality that's making this franchise matter again. PG-13. 105 min. (Jim Trageser)

C "Rachel Getting Married"

Anne Hathaway stars as a woman out of rehab for the wedding of her sister. While the family tries to leave at rest its ample unspoken heartache, Hathaway's prodigal daughter dredges everything up, threatening the shaky peace everyone hopes will prevail through the wedding weekend. Hathaway's a marvel for the depths she explores, but Demme and screenwriter Jenny Lumet overload the story with strife and boring excess. R. 113 min. (Associated Press)

B "Role Models"

The premise is completely formulaic and potentially cheesy: A couple of buddies get arrested and, for their community service assignment, must serve as big brothers to a pair of misfit kids. You know from the beginning that many necessary life lessons will be learned and that all parties ultimately will be better off for the unlikely friendships they've formed. But it's the wildly, hilariously crude way that director David Wain and Co. approach this concept that makes "Role Models" so disarming. The rampant wrongness would have been amusing enough on the page, but the delivery from co-stars Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd and the supporting cast of comedy veterans and up-and-comers makes the material consistently laugh-out-loud funny. R. 99 min. (Associated Press)

C+ "The Secret Life of Bees"

Based on the novel, story of a sad girl (Dakota Fanning) who runs away from home in '60s South Carolina, finding refuge in the house of a trio of strong sisters (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okenedo). As the girl tries to reconcile with the mysteries surrounding her long-gone mother, she finds steady guidance from the sisters, even as the civil rights movement rages in the South. Film means well, but tries too hard to elicit big emotions and says little original, though Fanning is once again excellent. PG-13. 108 min. (Dan Bennett)

B "Slumdog Millionaire"

The unassuming Dev Patel stars as our slumdog underdog, Jamal, an 18-year-old who comes from nothing but is on the verge of winning more money than anyone's ever won before on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" The game show's host (an ideally smarmy and egotistical Anil Kapoor) grows unshakably suspicious as Jamal prepares to face one last question for the top prize of 20 million rupees and has him hauled in for police questioning (by the ever-imposing Irrfan Khan). R. 120 min. (Associated Press)

C "Soul Men"

When it's about Mac and Samuel L. Jackson, co-starring as former bandmates bickering over decades of pent-up resentments, "Soul Men" has a fiercely raunchy, buoyant energy. Mac's Floyd Henderson and Jackson's Louis Hinds were one-time backup singers to Marcus Hooks (John Legend, in a cameo), and the three were a popular Motown-style group until Marcus took off for solo stardom. Now, with the announcement of Marcus' death, the two must reunite for a tribute concert at Harlem's Apollo Theater. Naturally, this requires them to travel cross-country in a bright-green, 1971 Cadillac El Dorado ---- the same kind of car that belonged to Isaac Hayes, who has a cameo as himself and who died the day after Mac ---- because flying wouldn't eat up enough time. R. 103 min. (Associated Press)

B+ "Twilight"

Based on the pop-culture phenomenon of a best-seller, "Twilight" deals with quiet and awkward high school student Bella (Kristen Stewart), who finds true love in the arms of classmate Edward (Robert Pattison), whose pale complexion is understandable, because he is a vampire. The story follows a love that can't be stopped, even as it walks the slippery slopes of adolescence, though a rival vampire clan brings danger to the mix. The film ---- better than its intriguing but flawed source material ---- is mostly raw, moody and straightforward, avoiding the colorful, effects-heavy circus it could have become. The no-nonsense lead actors help boost the film's credibility. The first of many films to follow, as the books continue to arrive. PG-13. 101 min. (Dan Bennett)

C+ "Zack and Miri Make a Porno"

Through filmmaker Kevin Smith's skewed prism, though, Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) fall in love while having on-camera sex during an amateur adult movie, something they do out of desperation to pay the bills during a miserable Pittsburgh winter. 101 min. (Associated Press)