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Disney’s second 3D effort is definitely an improvement over their first outing, CHICKEN LITTLE. Relying far less on SHREK-like antics, the film economically moves forward holding on to its central thread — its main character’s search for family. The ending delivers so well that all the problems that came before are easily forgotten.

Lewis (Daniel Hansen and Jordan Fry) is an orphan, who creates wacky inventions. After yet another disastrous adoption interview, Lewis decides to build a memory device so that he can remember his mother, who he is convinced didn’t give him up because she didn’t love him, but because she had to out of circumstance. However, during the science fair where he’s about to unveil his new device, he is visited by a boy from the future named Wilbur Robinson (Wesley Singerman, A CHARLIE BROWN VALENTINE), who warns him that a shifty Bowler Hat Guy (director Stephen J. Anderson) is out to steal his invention. Eventually, Lewis and Wilbur get stuck in the future and Lewis promises to fix the time machine as long as Wilbur takes him to see his mother.

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Though it’s not one of Robert Altman’s masterpieces, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION is still a fitting closure to the career of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The sly, dry and somber humor of Garrison Keillor works well with Altman’s signature style. The film is equal part concert film, backstage dramedy and an ode to witty radio entertainment, which the PRAIRIE HOME radio show has singularly kept alive long past the time when the form of entertainment has died everywhere else.

The plot is simple; it’s the last performance of the PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION radio show before an axeman (Tommy Lee Jones, THE FUGITIVE) sells the radio station to some corporation. Keillor playing himself moves along with the show as if it’s like any other. He’s not a sentimental fella. Singing duo Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, & Lily Tomlin, I HEART HUCKABEE’S), however, reminisce about the good ole days and how their family started performing to Yolanda’s daughter Lola (Lindsay Lohan, MEAN GIRLS). Dusty (Woody Harrelson, WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP) and Lefty (John C. Reilly, CHICAGO) perform their humorous country and western tunes.

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Rocky has returned after 30 years in top form. Since the debut of the original film, the franchise has stepped further into ridiculousness with each subsequent installment. Sylvester Stallone wrote every episode and directed two through four. For years, the original looked like, at best, Stallone’s single artistic idea, and at worst, a total fluke. Now at 60, Stallone goes back to the emotion of that original film and delivers a gut punch to his critics. Instead of a sad joke to close out the series, he leaves us with a sad tale about a man who rose to great heights and then life knocked him down to Earth where he will have to spend the rest of his days.

After losing all his wealth in the last film, Rocky (Stallone) has now lost his greatest love Adrian. He owns a small Italian restaurant in Philly where he retells the stories of his glory days to the customers night after night. He’s very lonely, but he tries to keep up a good front with his goofy humor. However, his brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA) doesn’t want to reminisce about the past, because it’s too painful for him to remember how he treated his loved ones. Rocky’s son Robert (Milo Ventimiglia, TV’s GILMORE GIRLS) works at a stockbroker firm where the large shadow of his father is cast over him at all times.

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Sometimes what you bring into a movie makes a big difference in how it will be viewed and ultimately enjoyed. If you’re a history buff you may be irritated with period inaccuracies in a war movie. A fan of a certain comic might hate a feature version because it’s not what they remembered or wanted. So going into TMNT it has a lot riding against it in terms of fans’ expectations and how critics or even the general non-fan population view the Turtles either from the animated TV series or men-in-suits live-action films. It’s tough to do anything right in some critics’ minds when your franchise started with grown men playing teenage mutant ninja turtles.

I come to TMNT as a person who was a big fan of the TV series as a kid and vaguely remember liking the original live-action film when it first came out. Therefore, I have knowledge of the franchise and expectations of what would make a good or bad TURTLES movie. Thus my recommendation of the film comes from that point of view. If you were a fan of the series (but maybe not a hardcore one, I can’t say how it stacks up to the comics) then you will not be disappointed by this film. All others should either go in with an open-mind or take their baggage and fly over to another theater that’s not playing this movie. TMNT isn’t a great film, but it brought back fond memories of the characters that I loved in my youth.

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Oh the puns come flooding to mind when thinking about this film. Nothing but terrible. Nothing but disgusting. Nothing but stupid. I felt sorry for the talented performers as I watched this crud, thinking how did they get convinced to be in this thing. Then when I looked up the credits I found my answer… and the answer was shocking. Dan Aykroyd not only plays two roles, but he also wrote and directed the film too. Chevy Chase, Demi Moore, John Candy must have owed Aykroyd a favor. His screenplay is based on a story from his younger brother Peter. It’s a pet project that caught rabies.

Chris Thorne (Chase, FUNNY FARM) meets Diane Lightson (Moore, ST, ELMO’S FIRE), who was recently dumped by her rich businessman boyfriend. Thorne is driving two clients to New York City and he offers to take Diane along with him. While driving through a small town, he tries to outrun the police and his eventually caught by the local police chief Dennis (Candy, PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES), who takes them to an out-of-the-way mansion, where Judge Alvin “J.P.” Valkenheiser will pass judgment on them.

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Forget what you may have heard about this film. Roger Ebert said it best when he wrote, ” Every criticism I have read of this film would alter its fragile magic and reduce its romantic and tragic poignancy to the level of an instructional film.” I couldn’t agree more.

At 14, Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES) is taken from Austria and virtually given to France as a payment for peace between the two countries. On the border, before she enters France, she is stripped bare, so that nothing Austrian (accept for her flesh I guess) is allowed to enter the French court. She meets her fiancée Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman, SHOPGIRL) mere hours before their marriage. He can barely look at her, let alone drum up the nerve to play his part in Marie’s purpose to bring an heir to the French court at Versailles. She is all but a prisoner in the huge royal estate, where her every action is criticized and every move is governed by excessive and demeaning ritual. Robbed of everything she knew as well as her childhood, she has no voice of her own, only duty. Trapped in a ridiculous world, she can only find release in partying, because it’s all that is tolerated. Eventually, she loses herself in excess to ease her pain.

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Based on a novel by Helen Cross, the film takes the core conflict of the book, mainly just focusing on the teen romance story. It’s more interested in capturing the rush and danger of teenage love than presenting a grander issue. This character study follows these particular characters over one unforgettable summer.

Mona (Natalie Press, TV’s BLEAK HOUSE) is a working class teen whose mother has died and her father was never been in the picture. She has inherited the family pub with her brother Phil (Paddy Considine, IN AMERICA), who has just recently been released from prison where he found Jesus. Mona thinks he’s crazy when he pours all the booze down the drain and turns the bar into a Christian community center. With her married boyfriend discarding her and her brother transforming into someone she doesn’t even know, Mona is lost in the world until she meets Tamsin (Emily Blunt, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA).

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If you go into this film wanting a history lesson on the Battle of Thermopylae then you will be disappointed. If you want a rousing, iconic and gorgeous looking entertainment then you will love 300.

Based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, the story follows King Leonidas (Gerard Butler, DEAR FRANKIE) of Sparta who defies the surrender demands of Persian king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro, CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE) in order to keep all Spartans free citizens. Leonidas gathers an army of 300 of Sparta’s best warriors to make a stand against the 20,000 plus Persian army at a narrow path along the sea.

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Depending on your political or religious persuasion this film is either a straight-forward portrait of the evangelical movement in America or really freakin’ scary. I’ve never hid my political leanings in my reviews because that would be disingenuous. However, this film is such a lightning rod that I’m afraid that it’s nearly impossible to review without injecting your point of view somewhat. So the most even-handed way I can think of to review it is to just describe some of its key characters and scenes and present the questions that it brought up in my mind. Even those questions will probably tell you my feelings, but at least it prevents this movie review from spiraling off into a political rant.

Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady followed a specific group of ultra-conservative evangelicals who are involved in a Jesus camp at Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Yes, the irony of that is amazing. Becky Fischer is the main adult focus of the piece. She has made it her life’s goal to share the word of God with others, especially children. At one point she seems in awe of Muslims who can train their children to blow themselves up for Islam. She is certain that her beliefs are the only real truth in the world. At the end of the film, she states that democracy is the best Earthly government ever formed, but it will eventually collapse because it allows other non-Christian points of view in.

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David Fincher, director of SEVEN and PANIC ROOM, adapts Robert Graysmith’s books on the notorious unsolved case of the Zodiac killer who plagued Northern California in the 1960s and 1970s. The straight-forward procedural focuses first on the police investigation into the crimes and then how Graysmith, a cartoonist at the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, took it upon himself to hunt down the killer when the case went cold.

The film begins with one of the Zodiac’s killings and sets the unease tone of the entire film. Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) is a young cartoonist at the time and floats around Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr., WONDER BOYS) as the lead reporter investigates the murders. Graysmith is very interested in the Zodiac’s cryptic messages, which he helps give Avery some incite into. So as Avery pokes his nose into the case, detectives David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME) and William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards, TV’s E.R.) begin their investigation.

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