By Carrie Rickey and Steven Rea
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ALEXANDRA 3 stars. Russian director Alexander Sokurov uses the incongruous image of a dignified old woman waddling around a shabby army base on a desolate patch of land to get at the futility and ugliness of war. A slow-moving and fastidiously staged affair with opera great Galina Vishnevskaya in the title role. No MPAA rating (adult themes) -- Steven Rea
BABY MAMA 3 stars. Tina Fey as a buttoned-up careerist who can't conceive and Amy Poehler as an unzipped trash-talking babe hired to be her pregnancy surrogate. What's not to like? Hilarious cameos from Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver, Romany Malco and Holland Taylor. 1 hr. 39 PG-13 (procreative candor, profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
THE BAND'S VISIT 3 1/2 stars. An Egyptian army band is beached in the Israeli desert in this low-key charmer, a funny valentine from one adversary to another. 1 hr. 2 PG-13 (discreet sensuality, profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
THE BANK JOB 3 stars. Roger Donaldson's high-tension thriller, inspired by an actual 1971 London heist, stars Jason Statham (of the sandpaper face and voice) as a roughneck who thinks he's in it for the money and jewelry but learns there are items in the bank vault that the Crown wants recovered. 1 hr. 50 R (nudity, sexual candor, profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
BE KIND REWIND 3 stars. A sweet, goofy comedy about two video store clerks who film their own slapdash re-enactments -- everything from "Ghostbusters" to "2001" -- when the struggling shop's inventory is destroyed. With Jack Black and Mos Def, from the eccentric and pretty brilliant Frenchman, Michel Gondry. 1 hr. 41 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) -- Steven Rea.
BODY OF WAR 3 stars. This documentary follows the travails of an Iraq war veteran who returns home to the U.S. after being seriously wounded. 1 hr. 27 No MPAA rating (medical candor) -- Carrie Rickey
THE BUCKET LIST 2 stars. Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as terminally-ill men who decide to stop and smell the roses. Which would be fine if director Rob Reiner didn't rub our noses in a bouquet of plastic blooms. 1 hr. 38 PG-13 (profanity, sexual candor) -- Carrie Rickey
CARAMEL 3 stars. "Beauty Shop"-in-Beirut, a fem-centric tale of bonding and blow-drying about five Lebanese women and their travails with family, friends, romance and coifs. Written and directed by Nadine Labaki, who also stars as the salon's owner. Light but charming. 1 hr. 36 PG (sex, profanity, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
CHAOS THEORY 2 1/2 stars. A quasi-screwball romantic comedy starring Ryan Reynolds as an author of time-management tomes whose obsessively organized life, and marriage, fall apart in comically disastrous ways. With Emily Mortimer, Stuart Townsend, and some wimpy soft-rock songs that shouldn't be there. 1 hr. 26 PG-13 (sex, profanity, alcohol, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
CHAPTER 27 1 1/2 stars. Jared Leto gained 60 pounds to play Mark David Chapman, the deranged fan who shot John Lennon. He needn't have bothered, for J.D. Schaefer's film is excruciatingly slow and psychologically opaque. 1 hr. 25 R (sexual thems, profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
CHICAGO 10 2 stars. This documentary uses music, animation and interviews to look back at the riots during the 1968 Democratic convention. 1 hr. 43 R (profanity, sexual candor) -- Carrie Rickey
CITY OF MEN 3 1/2 stars. A gritty, kinetic adaptation of a popular Brazilian TV series set in the same shantytown neighborhoods as the 2004 Oscar-nominated "City of God." The violent turf wars are the same, but "Men" has a different point-of-view, as two childhood friends struggle to survive amid the sun-splashed anarchy that surrounds them. 1 hr. 50 R (violence, drugs, profanity, sex, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
CJ7 2 stars. A poor boy's "E.T.," this kiddie flick from Hong Kong's Stephen Chow follows a bright-eyed gradeschooler as he gets bullied and ridiculed, and then gets revenge when a fuzzy-headed green thing from space befriends him. In Cantonese with subtitles, but it should have been dubbed into English. 1 hr. 28 PG (child in jeopardy, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
COLLEGE ROAD TRIP 1 star. Raven-Symone and Martin Lawrence go together like Mentos and Pepsi in this dopey and artificial family comedy. 1 hr. 26 G -- David Hiltbrand
THE COUNTERFEITERS 3 1/2 stars. Winner of the 2008 Oscar for foreign language film, this true story of a band of concentration camp prisoners who worked on an SS counterfeiting ring -- trading their talents for their lives -- is powerful, affecting stuff. R (violence, atrocities, profanity, nudity, sex, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
DECEPTION 2 stars. Ewan McGregor plays an awestruck dweeb who stumbles into an elite New York sex club in this putative erotic thriller. Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams co-star. 1 hr. 48 R (sex, profanity, nudity, violence, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
DRILLBIT TAYLOR 2 1/2 stars. Owen Wilson stars in the title role as a homeless loser dude who hires on to protect three ninth-grade nerdballs being tormented by school bullies in this not altogether successful mash-up of "My Bodyguard" and "Superbad." 1 hr. 42 PG-13 (profanity, violence, adolescent and adult themes) -- Steven Rea
THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS 3 1/2 stars. Jacques Rivette's classy, compelling cq19th century period piece about a married tease (Jeanne Balibar) and the poor smitten military man (Guillaume Depardieu) who can't get her out of his head. A Restoration tale of coquetry and compulsion that manages to feel old-fashioned "and cooly modern. 2 hrs. 18 No MPAA rating (adult themes) -- Steven Rea
88 MINUTES 1 1/2 stars. Al Pacino, wearing a messy coif and a dazed expression, bustles and barks through this maddeningly mediocre, ineptly manipulative "real time" serial killer thriller. With Amy Brenneman, Leelee Sobieski, Deborah Kara Unger and Alicia Witt. 1 hr. 45 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
FOOL'S GOLD 1 1/2 stars. Perennially shirtless Matthew McConaughey and untypically mirthless Kate Hudson as a couple whose marriage is in the doldrums and who get back on course when he finds traces of a long-buried treasure. If this were a treasure chest, its contents would be dross. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (crude humor, action violence, discreet nudity, sexual candor) -- Carrie Rickey
THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM 2 1/2 stars. Martial arts superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li team up for the first time in this enjoyable, if hardly life-changing Fung Fu fest set in the smog-free days of ancient China. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (violence, martial arts mayhem, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL 3 stars. Jason Segel, beer of the month from the Judd Apatow comedy microbrewery, is a musician who gets dumped by his actress girlfriend, runs away to Hawaii to nurse his wounds and finds himself at the hotel where his ex (Kristen Bell) is shacked up with her new beau (Russell Brand). Generic, if enjoyable. 1 hr. 52 R (frontal nudity, sex, profanity, drug vandor) -- Carrie Rickey
HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY 3 stars. A post-9/11 pothead picaresque, this sequel to the 2004 hit finds the stoner duo doing just that -- escaping -- and skewering Bush-era xenophobia, government ineptitude, and a melting pot of racial and ethnic stereotypes. With John Cho as Harold, Kal Penn as Kumar, Rob Corddry as a lunkhead G-man and Neil Patrick Harris back again playing himself. 1 hr. 40 R (profanity, drugs, nudity, sex, violence, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
HORTON HEARS A WHO! 3 stars. In this animated feature, a lovable elephant protects a microscopic community from those who don't believe it exists. Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Carol Burnett provide their voices. 1 hr. 28 G (mild cartoon suspense; nothing unsuitable for children) -- Carrie Rickey
IRON MAN 3 1/2 stars. Fast. Funny. Deliriously entertaining. As a hybrid of Howard Hughes and Hugh Hefner, Robert Downey Jr. delights as Tony Stark, billionaire playboy/inventor/businessman who realizes that U.S. soldiers are casualties of the weapons he's designed to protect them. 2 hrs. 06 PG-13 (sexual innuendo, violence) -- Carrie Rickey
MADE OF HONOR 2 1/2 stars. "My Best Friend's Wedding" by way of "Notting Hill" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral," with Patrick Dempsey as a serial cad and Michelle Monaghan as his platonic best friend -- until she decides to go off and get married. 1 hr. 41 PG-13 (sex, profanity, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
MARRIED LIFE 2 1/2 stars. An oddly unsatisfying affair about a marital affair -- and a murder plot -- with Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Cooper and Rachel McAdams in late 1940s New York. Part pulp, part melodrama, part dark, grown-up comedy -- but some part's missing. PG-13 (adult themes) -- Steven Rea
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS 1 1/2 stars. A thumping, gabby slog of a sequel to the surprise 2004 blockbuster. Nicolas Cage returns as the galavanting historian, this time digging for clues in the diary of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. An impressive cast -- Bruce Greenwood, Ed Harris, Harvey Keitel, Diane Kruger, Helen Mirren and Jon Voight -- is wasted. 2 hrs. 04 PG (action, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
NEVER FOREVER 3 stars. An intense Vera Farmiga stars in this compelling cross-cultural romantic melodrama that asks the question: Is paying a stranger to impregnate you really an act of love towards your sterile husband? That's quite a question, and this is quite a movie -- fevered, erotic, outlandish. 1 hr. 42 No MPAA rating (sex, nudity, profanity, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
NIM'S ISLAND 2 1/2 stars. Mildly diverting action/adventure starring Abigail Breslin as a Robin Crusoe living on a desert isle with her marine-biologist father (Gerard Butler). Jodie Foster co-stars as an agoraphobic novelist. 1 hr. 35 PG (mild profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
PENELOPE 3 stars. Christina Ricci stars in this modern-day fable about a girl and her problem proboscis. It's a variation on "The Ugly Duckling" and other tales where the hero -- or heroine -- has to overcome beastly obstacles to discover 1) their true self, and 2) true love. With James McAvoy as a down-on-his-luck Prince Charming. 1 hr. 30 PG (comic mayhem, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
SMART PEOPLE 2 stars. A morose comedy starring Dennis Quaid as a cerebral professor and Ellen Page as his brainiac daughter who learn the difference between book-smart and life-smart. With Thomas Haden Church and Sarah Jessica Parker. 1 hr. 35 R (sexual candor, profanity, marijuana, underage drinking) -- Carrie Rickey
THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES 3 stars. Tween adventure/fantasy about bickering siblings (Freddie Highmore and Sarah Bolger) who inherit an enchanted house and stand together against the dark forces who want it for their own. 1 hr. 31 PG (scary creatures, tweens in peril) -- Carrie Rickey
STOP-LOSS 3 1/2 stars. Kimberly Peirce's pro-soldier, anti-bureaucrat,war-neutral account of Iraq soldiers redeployed to combat at the end of their tours-of-duty. Exceptional performances from Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum and Abbie Cornish. 2 hrs. 02 R (combat violence, profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
STREET KINGS 3 stars. A hardboiled rogue-cop drama from "L.A. Confidential's" James Ellroy and "Training Day's" David Ayer. Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker star in this compelling, violent, if flawed and too-familiar tale of crime, corruption and belated honor on the streets of L.A. 1 hr. 45 R (violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
10,000 B.C. 1 1/2 stars. Roland Emmerich's tedious, ludicrous and harmless glimpse at the dawn of civilization. With Steven Strait and Camilla Belle, whose mud makeup and dreadlocks match those of the woolly mammoths. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (intense acton, violence, sexual threat) -- Carrie Rickey
THEN SHE FOUND ME 2 1/2 stars. Bette Midler stars as an eccentric talk-show host who decides to find and get involved in the life of the daughter (Helen Hunt) she gave up years earlier for adoption. R (profanity, sexual content) -- Carrie Rickey
21 3 stars. A glammed-up, hammed-up version of a real story about a gang of MIT math geniuses who figure out a way to win at blackjack, and take the Vegas casinos for millions. Jim Sturgess stars as a Beantown brainiac caught up in the scheme, with Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey. 2 hrs. 03 PG-13 (profanity, violence, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
TYLER PERRY'S MEET THE BROWNS 2 stars. Angela Bassett stars as a hard-pressed single mom from the big city who goes to the Georgia sticks for a funeral, meeting up with her long-lost family -- and with some soapy melodrama and over-the-top farce, too, in this latest feel-good black-centric Tyler Perry production. With Rick Fox, Jenifer Lewis and David Mann. PG-13 (drugs, violence, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
UNDER THE SAME MOON 2 1/2 stars. How do you say "tearjerker" in Spanish? A plucky, precocious 9-year-old Mexican lad embarks on a dangerous cross-border trip to reunite with his illegal immigrant mom in L.A. It's one of the biggest tearjerkers to come along in a while. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (child in jeopardy, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
UNTRACEABLE 1 1/2 stars. An abhorrent cyberthriller starring a compelling Diane Lane, it exploits the inhumanity of torture as it cynically condemns Internet rubberneckers (and by extension, moviegoers) for watching it online. 1 hr. 36 R (torture, gore, profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
VANTAGE POINT 3 stars. A white-knuckle thriller set in Salamanca, Spain, in which an assassination attempt on the U.S. president is viewed from different perspectives. With William Hurt as the president, Sigourney Weaver as a news producer, Forest Whitaker as an American tourist with a camcorder, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox as Secret Servicemen and Eduardo Noriega as a Spanish policeman. 1 hr. 30 PG-13 (mature themes, violence, profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? 2 1/2 stars. Documentarian Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") travels to the Middle East, ostensibly looking for Al Qaeda's architect, but really to make the point that from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia to America, people are more alike than not. 1 hr. 30 PG-13 (profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
