By Plain Dealer staff and wire reportsMarch 11, 2010, 11:59PM
View full sizeAssociated PressDaniel Ellsberg speaks to reporters outside the federal building in Los Angeles on Jan. 17, 1973.”The Most dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
Not rated. 92 minutes.
The plight of Vietnam War whistleblower extraordinaire Daniel Ellsberg (who leaked more than 7,000 pages of documents to the New York Times in 1971) is charted in this documentary, which was up for best documentary at Sunday’s Oscars. It screens at 7:20 p.m. Saturday and 6:45 p.m. Sunday at Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, 11141 East Blvd in University Circle. – Clint O’Connor
ALSO PLAYING
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
PG, for fantasy action/violence. 108 minutes.
What sounded like an awesome marriage — Tim Burton meets Lewis Carroll in 3-D — is more of a bad first date. A rather flat version of “Alice,” with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. (Clint O’Connor)
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL
PG, for some mild rude humor. 88 minutes.
A kids comedy that screams “Direct to DVD.” It doesn’t help that it screams that in high, squeaky, three-part harmony. The cast is cut-rate and the script needed a serious visit from a serious gag writer. (Orlando Sentinel)
AVATAR
PG-13, for intense battle sequences, sensuality, language and smoking. 162 minutes.
One of the most amazing-looking films in years. Writer-director James Cameron has created the planet of Pandora, in 2154, where Marines prepare to battle the indigenous Na’vi. (Clint O’Connor)
THE BLIND SIDE
PG-13, for a scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references. 135 minutes.
Oscar winner Sandra Bullock is fantastic in this touching, entertaining film charting the real-life exploits of football star Michael Oher and the Memphis family that changed his life. (Clint O’Connor)
THE BOOK OF ELI
R, for brutal violence and language. 118 minutes.
The great Denzel Washington finds himself wandering a post-apocalyptic world protecting a sacred book in this action-adventure yarn with religious undercurrents. (Clint O’Connor)
BROOKLYN’S FINEST
R; contains gory violence, sexual situations, language and substance abuse. 133 minutes.
Antoine Fuqua, a flashy filmmaker who thinks big, directs a long and emotional police movie. The characters are types, but Fuqua gets some great actors to inhabit them. With Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin. (Newark Star-Ledger)
COP OUT
R; contains violence, sexual situations and constant profanity. 116 minutes.
A unfunny buddy movie, directed (but not written) by Kevin Smith, and starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as police officers on the trail of Mexican gangsters. It’s like a parody of an ’80s movie, but with most of the jokes taken out. (Newark Star-Ledger)
THE CRAZIES
R, for bloody violence, language. 100 minutes.
A lean little thriller that doesn’t mess around, adapted from George A. Romero’s 1973 zombie movie without zombies. A small Iowa town copes with an outbreak of homicidal maniacs and the shoot-first military sent to contain the contagion. (Orlando Sentinel)
CRAZY HEART
R, for language and brief sexuality. 112 minutes.
Oscar winner Jeff Bridges is superb as broken-down country singer Bad Blake, who’s looking to escape his life of dives and desolation. With Maggie Gyllenhaal and Colin Farrell. (Clint O’Connor)
DEAR JOHN
PG-13, for some sensuality and violence. 105 minutes.
Nicholas Sparks writes “beach novels” for people whose vacations are too short for anything heavy and whose tastes are pretty far from the cutting edge. Lasse Hallstrom’s film of this one is as bland as unseasoned grits. (Orlando Sentinel)
THE GHOST WRITER
PG-13, for language, brief nudity/sexuality, violence and a drug reference. 128 minutes.
An entertaining, crisply made mystery about a writer (Ewan McGregor), the shady secrets of a former prime minister (Pierce Brosnan), and the dangers lurking for both. (Clint O’Connor)
THE HURT LOCKER
R, for war violence and language. 131 minutes.
An unrelentingly intense war drama that follows an army bomb squad around the streets of Iraq. Won the Oscars for best director (Kathryn Bigelow) and best picture. (Clint O’Connor)
INVICTUS
PG-13, for brief strong language. 134 minutes.
Morgan Freeman is wonderful as Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood’s look at how the newly elected president tapped a rugby team (Matt Damon plays the captain) to unite South Africa in 1995. (Clint O’Connor)
THE LAST STATION
R, for a sex scene. 112 minutes.
Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren play their Oscar-nominated roles as Leo and Sofya Tolstoy, the literary giant and his wife, who love, laugh and lash out in Russia, circa 1910. (Clint O’Connor)
LEGION
R, for strong, bloody violence, and language. 100 minutes.
In “Legion,” God has given up on the human race and is ready to wipe us out with assaulting hordes of demons and angels. Profane, profanely silly and blasphemous to beat the band, it begins well, then plunges into the abyss of tedium. (Orlando Sentinel)
THE LOVELY BONES
PG-13, for mature themes including violent content, images, and language. 135 minutes.
Director Peter Jackson lets down fans of Alice Sebold’s best seller with a rather tepid film version of the aftershocks of a teen’s murder in 1973. With mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz. (Clint O’Connor)
OLD DOGS
PG, for some mild rude humor. 89 minutes.
The new comedy from some of the folks who brought us the manipulative “Wild Hogs” is badly written, broadly acted, shamelessly manipulative and not above stopping by the toilet for a laugh or two. With John Travolta and Robin Williams. (Orlando Sentinel)
PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF
PG; contains violence and sensuality. 118 minutes.
The story, taken from the first novel of Rick Riordan’s fantasy series, has a Harry Potter vibe. Fun as it can be, it feels like a half-hearted Hogwarts at times. But with great effects (and a few surprises), it’s a fun, Saturday-matinee adventure. (Newark Star-Ledger)
PLANET 51
PG, for mild sci-fi action and some suggestive humor. 87 minutes.
A genial but generic riff on sci-fi movie history. The big joke here is that an alien has “invaded” a provincial and paranoid suburban town. And the alien is us, a NASA astronaut who touches down and interrupts an alien barbecue. (Orlando Sentinel)
THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG
Disney’s animated “The Princess and the Frog” offers a modern take on a Disney princess inside an old-fashioned fairy tale. Tiana and Prince Naveen journey deep into the bayou to get help reversing spells that turned them into frogs. (Julie E. Washington)
SHUTTER ISLAND
R, for disturbing violent content, language and brief nudity. 138 minutes.
A psychological thriller that never delivers much dramatic punch despite its impressive creative team: Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, mark Ruffalo, and Ben Kingsley. (Clint O’Connor)
A SINGLE MAN
R, for some disturbing images and nudity/sexual content. 99 minutes.
Colin Firth earned an Oscar nomination for his stirring portrayal of a college professor who looks for meaning in life after the loss of his long-time partner. With Julianne Moore. (Clint O’Connor)
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
PG-13, for some violence and action. 110 minutes.
The adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s second book begins with Bella opening birthday presents with her vampire family. Bella also discovers that werewolves live near her home. The special effects are an improvement over the first movie. (Julie E. Washington)
UP IN THE AIR
R, for some language and sexual content. 109 minutes.
A smart, funny film from director Jason Reitman (“Juno”). George Clooney plays a frequent flying corporate type who has mastered the art of travel, but may have met his match in the saucy Alex (Vera Farmiga). (Clint O’Connor)
VALENTINE’S DAY
PG-13, for some sexual material and brief partial nudity. 125 minutes.
A day in the life of the loved and loveless of L.A. The multi-star-studded cast, including Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner and Jessica Biel, fails to bring life to this dud. (Clint O’Connor)
THE WHITE RIBBON
R, for some disturbing content involving violence and sexuality. 144 minutes.
A strange, masterful, amazing looking film from writer-director Michael Haneke about evil doings in a German village on the eve of World War I. in German with subtitles. (Clint O’Connor)
YOUTH IN REVOLT
R, for sexual situations, substance abuse, strong language and nudity. 90 minutes.
A rebel-without-a-clue comedy, with Michael Cera resorting to lies, arson and illegal drugs in attempts to win the heart of a girl. Unfortunately, Cera began to get tiresome long ago, and the movie’s attitude is shallow and cheap. (Newark Star-Ledger)
COMING ATTRACTIONS
The Bounty Hunter: A bounty hunter (Gerard Butler) goes in search of his plucky ex-wife (Jennifer Aniston). Guns, beds, much mayhem.
Hubble 3-D: Travel through distant galaxies, thanks to a really big telescope and the massive IMAX screen at the Great Lakes Science Center.