New Releases

My expectations were low for Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. By the time most children's series have become trilogies, they've devolved into tired rehashes of past plotlines barely fit for plasma, much less silver screens ... not unlike Shrek 3. The strongest counterexample to this rule is Disney's Toy Story 3, an achievement the likes of which few animated movies will ever hope to approach.

Like its furry protagonists, Madagascar 3 breaks the rules, making for an enjoyable and fun-filled trip to the cinema.

Returning stars Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith are joined by Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Tom McGrath, Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston, Martin Short and Frances McDormand, who voices a character modeled heavily based on Lucile Ball.

If that stellar cast wasn't enough, the music and visual gags -- including several homages to Inception -- make the movie fun for adults as well as kids.

Directed by co-writer Eric Darnell (Antz, Madagascar, Madagascar 2), Tom McGrath (Madagascar, Megamind, Madagascar 2), and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2, Monsters vs Aliens), it is Noah Baumbach's (The Life Aquatic, Fantastic Mr. Fox) co-writing that helps lift the Madagascar circus to the highest platform.

Madagascar 3 stands alone well, even if you haven't seen the first two movies in the series. Dreamworks Animation's artists have outdone themselves with the two circus performances that provide the 3D payoff. The rest of the film would have been best left in 2D, but these spectacular scenes are worth the price of admission. All rainbows and sparkles, some might call them the fruition of the gay master plan, but they're a hell of a good show.

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages will all find something to love in this explosive conclusion to the Madagascar trilogy.

I don't want to gush. It's off-putting. But even though it's two weeks since I've seen Moonrise Kingdom, I keep wanting to start this review with excessively silly phrases like "lovely, lovely, lovely" and "so beautiful" and "I want to see it again right now now now." This repeating of one word is not my writing style at all. I also don't like to talk publicly about press screenings before the movie is released (it feels impolite), but my Twitter feed includes the admittedly fatuous "oh yes oh Wes oh yes yes yes" posted about an hour after the screening ended. I mean, honestly.

I've made my feelings clear about Wes Anderson's latest film. I could stop here, but the movie deserves an actual review that does not consist of a schoolgirl's idea of sexual banter. I'll do my best.

The story, set in 1963, centers around two barely-teenagers: Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), who lives with her family on the remote island of Penzance, reads lots of young-adult fantasy-adventure novels and views the world through binoculars; and Sam (Jared Gilman), an extremely resourceful member of a scout troop camping nearby. Having met under strange circumstances, they instantly feel they're kindred spirits and plan a scheme to escape from their stifling situations.

If you missed the delightful romantic comedy Safety Not Guaranteed at SXSW, Slackerwood is giving you the chance to see it next week, before it opens in theaters ... and at no cost. The preview will take place on Monday, June 11, at 7:30 pm at the Arbor. I'm especially pleased to promote this screening because first of all, I really liked the movie, and second of all, it was produced by two former Austinites, Mark and Jay Duplass.

After the jump, you'll find a promotional code and a link to the Gofobo website where you can enter the code to get an admit-two pass. This is a first-come, first-served pass and to paraphrase the film's title, seating not guaranteed. If you've been to preview screenings, you know that often more tickets are given out than there are seats, so you'll want to arrive early to stake out a good spot in line.

Safety Not Guaranteed is about a trio of journalists investigating a curious classified ad regarding time travel, and what happens when one of them (Aubrey Plaza) meets the man behind the ad (Mark Duplass). Debbie reviewed the movie after its SXSW screening and says, "The well-paced writing fuels the comedic moments, with a rollercoaster of laughs from the audience at times." The movie opens in Austin on June 15.

Inevitably when someone mentions Snow White, the image conjured up is Disney's pure and sweet icon surrounded by cute and cuddly forest animals. Disney's Snow White is dependent on a hunstman to take pity on her, dwarves to provide shelter and a prince to save her from an evil queen. However, the fairy-tale archetype of the vulnerable female in need of rescue by a dominant male is not a stereotype any self-respecting contemporary woman would indulge in. 

Taking a more up-to-date approach is Snow White and the Huntsman, the latest cinematic interpretation of what is actually best known as a Brothers Grimm tale. Yes, Snow White (Kristen Stewart) is at the mercy of an evil queen, but so are all who cross paths with the evil enchantress Ravenna portrayed wickedly by Charlize Theron. Ravenna's unquenchable lust for power is only matched by her obsession with retaining her youth and beauty. In this retelling, a backstory lends a complexity and understanding of her evil motivations.

With the loss of her mother to illness and her father to Ravenna's enchantments and knife in the wedding bed, Snow White has suffered more tragedy than happiness in her life. However, her purity serves to fuel her determination to take back what is rightfully hers and restore the kingdom to one of peace and prosperity. 

In 2010, Alexandre Aja created a surprisingly fun spring-break horror remake, Piranha 3D. Written by two writers known for the acclaimed TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender, critics raved about it. Horror-movie fans enjoyed it, and the film made back several times its budget in worldwide box office. Two years later, director John Gulager has filmed a sequel written by horror veterans Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton of the Feast and Saw series: Piranha 3DD.

Set this time in a water park, the premise of Piranha 3DD is decidedly weaker than its predecessor. In Aja's film, the spring-break crowd at a popular lake is attacked by prehistoric monsters released from an underground lake by seismic activity. Victims in a lake far from shore are vulnerable, and there is much carnage.

Ignoring for a moment that a water park is a sealed system, in Piranha 3DD no potential victim is more than a few feet from an exit at any given time, and most of the pools are quite shallow. Going back to that sealed system I mentioned, a majority of the film deals with how to get the piranha from natural waterways into the chemically treated pools.

Gulager has chosen to go for a more comedic atmosphere, de-emphasizing the horror aspect. As a result, Piranha 3DD definitely differentiates itself from the previous outing. Sad to say it falls flat, as an over-the-top T&A-sploitation lacking in any suspense or fear for the characters, most of whom are more unlikable than one would expect even from this kind of film. The creature design is more cartoony and looks fake, and the fish never seem to even reach their prey. In a Piranha film, the audience should be afraid to even think about putting a toe in the water, while Gulager has these fish tickling people and swimming into their various orifices to take a nap.

Perhaps the worst failure here is marketing Piranha 3DD as the first Piranha film shot entirely in native 3D (Aja's was shot in 2D and post-converted). In fact, anything shot in or near the water looks awful. There were headache-inducing issues with focus, glare and convergence that made many shots virtually unwatchable. Tickets to this shouldn't have a premium charge for 3D; patrons should be paid for having to watch it in 3D.

I liked Men in Black III more than it deserved. I understand why: I saw this movie with my parents, and they looooovvvved it. They loved that nice Will Smith, they always love Tommy Lee Jones, and they sure did like That Other Guy too (Josh Brolin). It was the most fun they'd had at the movies in ages, and they planned to find a copy of the original Men in Black on DVD when they got back home, which they were looking forward to watching for the first time. I can't help but feel grateful.

Although not as fresh and funny as the first movie in the series, my enjoyment of Men in Black 3 wasn't solely because family members were laughing nearby. The first 20 minutes or so had some downright painful dialogue and clunky direction, but once the machinations of the plot were in full swing, the actors' charm carried the day.

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return as agents J and K, respectively. They're still fighting alien crime in New York, still armed with those little flashy things, but J is frustrated with K's seeming lack of emotion and empathy. Meanwhile, an alien assassin whom K took down decades ago and locked into a special prison on the Moon has escaped and is devising a way to get his revenge on K and restore his full powers: time travel. And that's how Josh Brolin as a young(er) Agent K figures into the plot.

In April 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor experienced a meltdown caused by a failed system test. This failed test was accompanied by a power surge, explosions and subsequent exposure of the reactors control material. The exposure of the control material caused a fire, sending a radioactive plume of smoke to be released into the atmosphere. The fallout from this radioactive plume caused the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in the areas surrounding the nuclear plant. One of the abandoned places is Prypiat. Prypiat is the city that housed the workers of Chernobyl. This city is now an a empty husk of a city and the setting of the new movie Chernobyl Diaries. 

Chernobyl Diaries tells the story of a group of twentysomethings on an extended trip through Europe. Before they leave for Moscow, the travelers decide to take a day trip to the ghost city Prypiat. Turned back by security guards, the group's tour guide finds an alternate route into the city.

First position is one of the first things you learn in ballet class, placing your feet heel to heel in as straight a line as possible. In the case of the documentary First Position, the directorial debut by former dancer Bess Kargman, this position is not only in frequent use among the dancers involved, but also the goal they hope to attain in the Youth America Grand Prix.

Kargman's film follows six young ballet dancers in their many months of preparation for the Grand Prix. Eleven-year-old Aran comes from a supportive American military family. His dad took a tour in Kuwait so they could be placed closer to a city with a good ballet program for Aran (they currently live in Italy). Aran meets Israeli Gaya (both pictured above) in ballet class and they are inseparable during competitions. These pre-teens are proficient dancers, and their facial expressions throughout their interactions with each other and on stage are fun to watch.

Whether or not it's a fair comparison, people are going to think about Michael Bay when they watch Peter Berg's movie Battleship. This movie proves though, that only one person can do Michael Bay action correctly, and his name isn't Peter Berg.

Battleship is every bit the type of film that you can "turn your brain off to." It isn't going to win over a lot of critics, and it may not even win over the casual moviegoer, but give it some time after the first 30 minutes or so and you'll either not care anymore and enjoy the ride, or you'll just have to brace yourself for a pretty miserable 90 more minutes of what you just sat through.

Based on the famous board game of the same name, Battleship starts out with a bizarre storyline. Scientists have apparently figured out that they can send a signal to a galaxy that has a similar planet to ours and so, you know, they do it. A few years later, an alien invasion begins. That's pretty much it. There are other characters and storylines of course, but they're just footnotes on the outlandish actions scenes that dominate the movie after the 30-minute mark.

Some of the characters include Lieutenant Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), who is dating Admiral Shane's (Liam Neeson) daughter Sam (Brooklyn Decker). Alex is also the brother of Commander Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgård). Stone is the overachieving opposite of Alex's wasted potential despite his skill. Battleship has a large cast of smaller characters but the story pretty much revolves around those four people.

The story taking such a small focus is one of the biggest problems with Battleship. The film had an opportunity to make a really epic story with an international and world-ending focus similar to Independence Day, but instead chose to literally put all of the main characters in a bubble (you'll see what I mean). It was a matter of silly convenient timing that the aliens attack during RIMPAC, a multinational war games event hosted by naval battle forces of dozens of different countries, but then the film completely ignores the fact that the other countries could maybe help fight off the aliens, and those forces are nowhere to be seen.

What to Expect When You're Expecting is the epitome of what's wrong with the romantic comedy genre. Sure, it's actually a mildly entertaining movie, but what makes it seem that way is the fact that it includes a few genuinely hilarious laughs in an otherwise stale plotted movie. Most of the hearty laughs come from supporting characters who don't have much to do with the story at all or are otherwise a subplot of a far less interesting storyline.

What to Expect When You're Expecting is far from the worst thing you'll ever see in theaters, but its cheap laughs might trick you into thinking you've seen a decent movie until you start really thinking about it.

If the film has a centralized story, it's that of Jules Baxter (Cameron Diaz), who hosts a TV show called Lose It and Weep and is currently a contestant on a celebrity dance-off show where she has been intimately involved with her dance partner. In what turned out to be the most elaborate "pregnancy nausea" gags, it's revealed that her and her partner have gotten pregnant.