Movies opening in C-U

"Juno" (Rated PG-13, dir. Jason Reitman)
The story of 16-year-old Juno (Ellen Page), who gets pregnant by her best friend, Paulie (Michael Cera), has received outstanding reviews. The film opened in limited release on Dec. 5 and is scheduled to open next week at Boardman's Art Theatre in Champaign. Says critic Roger Ebert: "Jason Reitman's 'Juno' is just about the best movie of the year. It is very smart, very funny and very touching; it begins with the pacing of a screwball comedy and ends as a portrait of characters we have come to love."
Opens Friday, Jan. 4, at Boardman's.

"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (Rated R, dir. Sidney Lumet)
Starring the great Philip Seymour Hoffman and the underrated Ethan Hawke as brothers who decide to rob their parents' jewelry store, this movie appears on many critics' top 10 list of 2007. It opened in limited release on Oct. 26 and had a brief run at the Savoy 16. Directed by 83-year-old legend Sidney Lumet, the movie returns to C-U on Friday for one week at Boardman's. When the film came out in October, New York Times critic A.O. Scott described it as "a chronicle of destruction — physical, spiritual and moral. That most of the victims and most of the perpetrators are members of a single family gives the story some of the suffocating fatalism of an ancient tragedy. But the workings of fate figure far less in the narrative than bad choices and unlucky accidents."
Opens Friday, Dec. 28, at Boardman's.

"What Would Jesus Buy?" (Rated PG, dir. Rob VanAlkemade)
Bill Talen stars as his alter ego, Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. The reverend, his wife, and their choir travel the country preaching a message of resistance to the gospel of consumerism. Times critic Laura Kern writes: "Reverend Billy is zany and energetic enough to hold the attention of those he’s preaching to — average to extreme shoppers, many clueless as to what globalization means — long enough for them to consider his crusade. At the very least, the film might make a viewer think twice about that next purchase at the Gap."
Now playing at Boardman's; last showing is Thursday night.

"The Great Debaters" (Rated PG-13, dir. Denzel Washington)
Denzel Washington directs and stars in this story of a 1930s debate team from a small black college in Texas that fights racism and class prejudice en route to challenging Harvard for the national championship. (The story is based on fact, but the team actually debated the University of Southern California in the climactic match.) In giving "The Great Debaters" four stars, Roger Ebert says simply, "This is one of the year's best films."
Opened Christmas Day at the Savoy 16.

"The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" (Rated PG, dir. Jay Russell)
A 12-year-old boy finds a strange-looking egg on the beach in coastal Scotland and brings it home, only to see it hatch into the title character. The Times' Laura Kern calls the movie "family-friendly escapist fare that should enthrall, without insult, fantasy-minded viewers of any age."
Opened Christmas Day at the Savoy 16 and Beverly 18.

"Alien vs. Predator: Requiem" (Rated R, dir. Colin Strause & Greg Strause)
Another pairing of the two iconic enemy species, who have fought each other on the big screen and in video games. Neither Ebert nor The Times reviewed this film, so we offer the following appraisal from a commenter at IMDb: "I just saw this, and let me tell you … it's Bad-Ass, with a capital B and A, if you didn't notice."
Opened Christmas Day at the Savoy 16 and Beverly 18.

DVD releases this week

"Eastern Promises" (Rated R, dir. David Cronenberg)
A London midwife (Naomi Watts) sets into motion a dark and twisted chain of events when she uncovers potentially harmful evidence against Viggo Mortensen, who plays a member of a Russian émigré crime syndicate. Ebert gave this four stars back in September: "The actors and the characters merge and form a reality above and apart from the story, and the result is a film that takes us beyond crime and London and the Russian mafia and into the mystifying realms of human nature."

"Rush Hour 3" (Rated PG-13, dir. Brett Ratner)
Yet another chapter in the Chris Tucker-Jackie Chan franchise, which was once quite amusing, but now not so much. When this film opened in theaters back on Aug. 10, Times critic Manohla Dargis wrote: "'Rush Hour 3,' the junky, clunky, grimly unfunny follow-up to the marginally better 'Rush Hour 2' and the significantly finer 'Rush Hour,' isn’t the worst movie of the summer. But it’s an enervating bummer nonetheless, largely because it shows so little respect for its two likable stars and its audience."

"The Kingdom" (Rated R, dir. Peter Berg)
Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner and Jeremy Piven headline an all-star cast in this thriller about an elite FBI unit investigating a terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia. Back on Sept. 28, Times critic A.O. Scott wrote: "Just as 'Rambo' offered the fantasy of do-over on Vietnam, 'The Kingdom' can be seen as a wishful revisionist scenario for the American response to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. … After a murderous terrorist attack a few of our best people — four, rather than a few hundred thousand — go over to the country that spawned the terrorists, kill the bad guys and come home. And they even leave the door open for a sequel."

"The Brothers Solomon" (Rated R, dir. Bob Odenkirk)
Will Arnett of "Arrested Development" fame and Will Forte of "Saturday Night Live" play socially inept brothers who turn to artificial insemination and a surrogate mother to fulfill their father's wish for a grandchild. Back on Sept. 7, Times critic Matt Zoller Seitz called this "a deranged, sometimes desperate parody of an inspirational losers-make-good comedy. Three gags miss for every one that hits. But the good ones are keepers …."

"The Heartbreak Kid" (Rated R, dir. Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly )
The Farrelly Brothers’ latest offering is a remake of the 1972 Elaine May-Neil Simon romantic comedy “The Heartbreak Kid.” In this update, Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller), upon deciding that he is too picky regarding women, sparks up a romance with and impulsively marries Lila (Malin Akerman), realizing on his honeymoon that he can’t stand her. Calling the Farrelly Brothers' effort a "lame, long, ugly joke of a movie," A.O. Scott wrote on Oct. 5: "Their squeamish, childish fascination with bodily ickiness, when crossed with the iffy sexual politics of the original, yields a comic vision remarkable for its hysterical misogyny."

Special event preview: Hannah Montana in 3D

"Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" (Rated G, dir. Bruce Hendricks)
For reasons that are clear to tweener girls everywhere (but maybe not to anyone else), the hottest act in show business is 15-year-old Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana, and the toughest ticket to get is for her nationwide concert tour, "The Best of Both Worlds." Soon fans in C-U can join in the fun with what the Beverly 18 is billing as the "Hannah Montana Pre-Recorded 3D Concert Event." We don't know much about it, except the Disney picture is said to be 77 minutes long, rated G, and costs a whopping $15 per ticket — although that's quite a bargain compared to the concert prices. The "event" will go on nearly nonstop for seven days from Feb. 1 to 7. The concert film will be shown five times daily except for Feb. 2, when it will be shown six times. What does it all mean? We're not sure. As the modest folks at Fox News like to say, "We report, you decide."
Scheduled to play at the Beverly 18 from Feb. 1 to 7.