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Alice in Wonderland (PG)
Alice in Wonderland is as visually brilliant as you'd expect from director Tim Burton. Like Batman, Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow, its look is distinctive and delightfully weird. But where is the story? What's the film about? Burton seems clueless. It's boring. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is encouraged by her impish father to be a little “half-mad.” At 19, the twittish Hamish (Leo Bill) offers Alice what seems a perfectly sensible proposal — in the eyes of Hamish's snooty mother, anyway. Alice is less sure, and bolts. When Alice follows the White Rabbit down his hole, it seems an attempt to escape from pre-determined destiny. But once she's in Wonderland, she and the movie lose their way: the set-up becomes disconnected from what follows, and neither Burton nor Alice know how to proceed. What happens next? It matters little. 1/2 (KS)
Avatar (PG)
It's 2154 and humanity's technologically advanced military industrial complex is poised to plunder the mineral riches of a planet called Pandora. The only thing in their way is the dominant life form called the Na'vi. The humans take the time to develop a kind of remote control Na'vi doppelganger, or “Avatar”, which will walk among them and be controlled by a marine back on the ship. To reverse a clichĂ©, what you get is what you see. Flesh and falling objects alike behave as they should. In Avatar there's no real suspension of disbelief necessary. It's taken care of and it's all in the details. And the 3-D actually works. It's subtle. Foreground objects seem to be in front of the screen, background seems much farther away. So why, after an exhilarating three hours of beauty and awesomeness, visual perfection, really, do I feel so unmoved? It may simply be the lack of any character development, any real sense of jeopardy in the script. (MK)
Crazy Heart (14A)
You can almost taste the cheap whiskey and smell the stale cigarettes of the bars and bowling alleys that Crazy Heart's Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) has been reduced to playing at every night. The years have been hard to Bad Blake, and the one-night stands, the boozing, and the slow and steady slide into obscurity aren't making things any easier. What really makes Crazy Heart something to behold — thanks to pitch-perfect casting and a tightly-wound script adapted from Thomas Cobb's novel — is that it starts at rock bottom, and you're right alongside Bad for the journey up. The film itself is a story of redemption, and sweetly so. (MH)
The Ghost Writer (PG)
Crews discover a body, that of a ghostwriter, hired to turn the badly penned memoirs of an ex-British prime minister into bestselling gold. The former leader and subject, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), is facing possible war crimes charges. Into the tumult of his household enters a ringer writer (Ewan McGregor) who remains unnamed throughout the film. It's a lucrative opportunity for the Ghost: a quarter of a million dollars stands to be made for a month's work. We share in the Ghost's imprudent curiosity every step of the way, discovery by discovery, until we suddenly realize, at the same time he does, how deeply he's stepped in it. Oh, but how expertly Roman Polanski reels us in. Indeed, The Ghost Writer could almost be considered a wicked black comedy, like Polanski's at play. Some scenes unfold as if he were a pianist, adding little flourishes here and there. (KS)
Hot Tub Time Machine (18A)
Three old friends (and a young hanger-on) head to a ski resort to recapture past glories and forget about their mediocre lives. A bunch of booze, one illegal Russian energy drink and one mysteriously high-tech hot tub later, they awaken to find themselves in the 1980s. It wouldn't be an '80s comedy without nostalgic references aplenty, but while the spot-the-fad sight-gags are a big part of the film's repertoire, they thankfully take a back seat to the dynamics of the cast. John Cusack (who also produced) is excellent in a role that recalls the sensitive sad sacks of his '80s heyday. As Cusack's nephew, Clark Duke breaks through his computer nerd stereotype thanks to a genuinely likeable performance, and Craig Robinson (The Office) steals more than a few scenes as an emasculated former rocker, but Rob Corddry (The Daily Show) is the real standout. Playing a complete alcoholic jerk, he dominates every one of his scenes with his schoolboy taunts. (PH)
How To Train Your Dragon (PG)
Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is not the greatest Celtic Viking. What he lacks in brawn, he more than accounts for in ingenuity as he invents a spring-loaded weapon that throws out a net, ensnaring Toothless who then hurtles to the ground. In the crash, one of his tail wings is ripped off, rendering him unable to fly. This makes it an easy target for Hiccup to finally claim his manhood by killing it. He doesn't and that decision changes the horde's entire way of life. This is one of those stories that has great action, family-appropriate humour, cool animation and a couple of lead characters that you desperately wish you knew in real life. The real story here though is about a boy's struggle to be accepted by his community, especially his overbearing father and ending up as its hero. 1/2 (SH)
Shutter Island (14A)
Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), a U.S. Marshal is assigned to Shutter Island with his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to investigate an escaped patient named Rachel. The problem goes beyond the fact no one can figure out how she got away; there's also the stickiness of who among the facility's ominous staff is telling the truth or if there is more hidden away than just an escapee. There are implications of medieval testing on the patients. Daniels and Aule are discomfited by the bureaucratic and enigmatic wardens who insist upon a thorough investigation but who also stymie it by providing little assistance, even going so far as to withhold vital information. Knowing that the odds are stacked against them, the detectives surmise they have played into an elaborate trap and now are inmates themselves. 1/2 (SH)
