Variety – Movie Reviews

The latest movie reviews from Variety.com.

• This Means War
  Film Front Reviews: This screwball premise lives or dies by the chemistry between Chris Pine and Tom Hardy, who are too busy trying to out-appeal one another to make the buddy dynamic click.
• The Vow
  Film Front Reviews: Inspired by the case of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter (upgraded to Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams onscreen), "The Vow" reps that most welcome kind of Valentine's Day offering, focusing on the feelings that bring couples closer.
• Stars Above
  Film Front Reviews: Pic intercuts the stories of three generations of women who live in the same cottage in the Finnish countryside, to tedious effect.
• The Orheim Company
  Film Front Reviews: "The Orheim Company" is a strongly etched if overly familiar coming-of-ager.
• Flicker
  Film Front Reviews: A dysfunctional telecom business in a small northern town provides the setting for "The Office"-like comedy in "Flicker."
• Best Laid Plans
  Film Front Reviews: A gentle giant with learning difficulties and his exploitative best friend negotiate challenges in "Best Laid Plans."
• Big Miracle
  Film Front Reviews: A Reagan-era whale of a tale is fictionalized in broad, simplistic but modestly engaging strokes in "Big Miracle."
• Chronicle
  Film Front Reviews: "Chronicle" cleverly embraces the found-footage format as shorthand for a new kind of naturalism, inviting auds to suspend disbelief and join in the fantasy of being able to do anything with their minds.
• Bestiaire
  Film Front Reviews: Helmer Denise Cote brings a haunting mix of curiosity and compassion to his docu about Quebec's Parc Safari.
• The Woman in Black
  Film Front Reviews: "The Woman in Black" competently resurrects that hoariest of horror-movie conceits, the haunted house.
• Bones Brigade: An Autobiography
  Film Front Reviews: Skate culture remains in solid hands with filmmaker Stacy Peralta, who fashions his most personal doc on the sport-cum-lifestyle.
• Man on a Ledge
  Film Front Reviews: Between last year's ill-received drama "The Ledge" and the marginally better, more action-driven "Man on a Ledge," auds may well find themselves craving a movie in which a man threatens to jump off a building for non-gimmicky, genuinely suicidal reasons.
• Liberal Arts
  Film Front Reviews: "Liberal Arts" contains the requisite number of audience-pleasing scenes that will make this a hot Sundance bidding item with indie-centric distribs.
• Red Lights
  Film Front Reviews: This otherwise slick pic could require reshoots to restore it to something commercial crowds are willing to take seriously.
• As Luck Would Have It
  Film Front Reviews: "As Luck Would Have It" reps an entertaining but unsubtle satire on the moral confusions of a marketing/media-driven world. .
• Underworld Awakening
  Film Front Reviews: The latest chapter of the popular vamp franchise extends the mythos and sustains the excitement of its predecessors.
• Red Tails
  Film Front Reviews: Exec producer George Lucas spent 23 years developing "Red Tails," a glossed-up B picture about the exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II, but even without the long delay the project took to reach the screen, the result would have felt old-fashioned.
• Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
  Film Front Reviews: As simple and direct as its abbreviated title, "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" is a fun though rarely funny family adventure whose lively special effects compensate somewhat for actors who largely sleepwalk through their roles.
• The Grey
  Film Front Reviews: Audiences primed by trailers and TV spots to anticipate a straight-up man-vs.-nature action-thriller -- something like Liam Neeson in "Tangles With Wolves" -- may find "The Grey" to be at once more and less than what they expect.
• The Girls in the Band
  Film Front Reviews: The hidden history of women in jazz is treated with a fan's enthusiasm and musical depth in Judy Chaikin's lovingly rendered "The Girls in the Band." Plentiful screen time for three generations of femme jazzers, led by energetic and witty gals from the golden age of big band and swing who unlock a treasure trove of memories, make this a real crowdpleaser (it won the Palm Springs fest's documentary audience award). A lock for widespread fest travels and ancillary sales, the pic may prompt a rewrite of jazz history.

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