"The Lovely Bones"

Richard's Review: 3 stars

If the latest film from "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson is to be believed, the afterlife looks a lot like a Pink Floyd album cover from the late 1970s. In "The Lovely Bones," a loose adaptation of the bestselling book by Alice Sebold, he goes heavy on the computer generated imagery to create a slick looking world, which despite the best efforts of the cast, is almost bereft of emotion.

In case you're not a member of Oprah's book club, who chose "The Lovely Bones" and propelled it up the best seller charts like a rocket, it is the story of Susie Salmon ("like the fish") a 14 year old girl murdered in suburban Pennsylvania in 1973. Susie, however, didn't go quietly into the long goodnight. From a place somewhere between Heaven and Earth she watches over her distraught family and tries to guide them through their time of despair.

Some of the now controversial CGI -- early trade reviews called the film indulgent and "evocative of "The Sound of Music" or "The Wizard of Oz" one moment, "The Little Prince" or "Teletubbies" the next" -- is quite beautiful and some of it is overkill.

When Susie is making her arrival in "her heaven" it is a beautiful representation of a spirit floating away. Huge shots of her never-to-be boyfriend Ray, reflected in a body of water that separates them and Ray again on a gazebo, surrounded by an undulating landscape, are a bit heavy handed. Jackson is the real deal, a skilled filmmaker and visualist, but he has to learn to trust the story and not let the technology do the talking.

Performance-wise Jackson has cast well and gets good, solid work from his actors, particularly Rachel Weisz as the grieving mother, Susan Sarandon as the boozy grandmother and Rose McIver as the spunky sister Lindsey. But it is the two central roles that the whole movie hinges on.

The murderous Mr. Harvey Stanley Tucci is creepy; all twitchy movements and squeaky voiced. He's Norman Bates without the overbearing mom and wonderfully cast. Tucci, it appears, can do anything. Earlier this year he played Julia Child's loving diplomat husband in "Julie & Julia" and held his own opposite Meryl Streep. Now he's the creepiest bad guy this year since Hans Landa drank a glass of milk with a French farmer in "Inglourious Basterds."

At the heart of the film, however, is an arresting central performance by Saoirse Ronan as Susie, the little girl who never got to kiss a boy or see her 15th birthday. Her luminous presence gives the film whatever soul it has and her generous screen presence is a good tonic for the effects-heavy scenes she plays in the "in between," the blue horizon between heaven and earth.

"The Lovely Bones" should have been a better movie. It's not terrible, mind you, it just doesn't push the emotional buttons that a story about the murder of a young person should. Jackson is still in epic "LOTR" mode, taking a small, intimate movie and needlessly cluttering it up with bigger than life images that get in the way of the feeling of the piece.

"Crazy Heart"

Richard's Review: 3 stars

In "Crazy Heart," Bad Blake, played by Jeff Bridges in what will likely become his fifth Oscar nomination, is Willie Nelson if the IRS had their way with him, or Kris Kristofferson if he hadn't written "Me and Bobby McGee."

"I used to be somebody," he sings at one point, "but now I'm somebody else."

That someone else is a broke, drunk country music has-been whose idea of a great gig is playing a bowling alley where he isn't even allowed to run a bar tab.

In a story that echoes "The Wrestler" "Crazy Heart" follows the tail end of the career of a man who once had everything but threw it away. Bad Blake was a big country music star whose life seems ripped from the lyrics of a hurtin' Hank Williams song. On the road he's so lonely he could die, so he fills his time with groupies; women who follow him back to his seedy hotel room, remembering the star he once was and not the sweaty, drunk wreck he has become. His downward spiral is slowed when he meets Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist and single mother who becomes his anchor.

"Crazy Heart" is an average movie buoyed by a great central performance. We've seen stories like this before but Bridges's performance and the film's details make this a recommend.

First the details. As a general rule most movies about fictional musicians get the most basic thing wrong -- the music. Forgettable songs have ruined many a music movie but "Crazy Heart" and composers T-Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton (who died of cancer before the film was released) nail an authentic country sound. The songs sound Grand Ole Opry-ready and once filtered through Bridges's weathered vocal chords, could be echoes from any small town honky tonk or dive bar. It's hurtin' music and is spot on.

Beyond the music there are the small details that add so much to the film. There are the nice shards of dialogue like Bad's flirty remark to Jean as they do an interview in a dingy motel room, "I want to talk about how bad you make this room look" and the accurate portrayal of small town bars and bowling alleys.

It all helps to elevate the predictable story, but none of it would matter a whit if Jeff Bridges wasn't firmly in control. His Bad Blake is pure outlaw country, a hard drinking and cigarette smoking poet who breathes the same air as Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggart. Bridges throws his vanity out the window, allowing his gut to peak out from behind his guitar and wrinkles to peer out from the sides of his aviators. More than that, however, he nails the troubled charm that made Bad a star and then brought him to his knees. It's complex work but Bridges, with his smooth, relaxed way with a character makes it look easy. Don't be fooled; this is the work of a master who is often underrated.

"Crazy Heart" has some major flaws but is worth a look for the performances from Bridges, Gyllenhaal (although she seems a tad young for the part) and Colin Farrell in a small un-credited part as Bad's former prot�g�.

"The Book of Eli"

Richard's Review: 2 stars

Eli (Denzel Washington) is a regular post-apocalyptic man. He walks the Earth, heading west, stopping only occasionally to read his book, dine on a meal of hairless cat, try on some dead man's shoes and reign bloody carnage down on anyone who tries to stop him from enjoying his simple pleasures.

Like "The Road," another film about a man making his way through a dystopian world, in "The Book of Eli," we never find out how the world ended. We're told it's been thirty years since "the flash" and since then everything has pretty much fallen apart. Rogue gangs roam the desolate landscape, cannibalism is rampant -- you can tell the cannibals because their hands shake from eating too much human flesh -- and there are only small pockets of life left. One such pocket is a town run by Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a despot desperate to lay his hands on Eli's prize possession -- a book.

As the title would suggest "The Book of Eli" is V-E-R-Y Old Testament. Call it Neo Christian Post Apocalyptic if you like, but like the good book that lies at the center of the story, the movie is full of prophets, morals and righteous smiting.

This is a metaphysical story with a few action scenes (but only a few, the trailer implies this is an all-out action flick and that is simply not the case) about the power of religion to both inspire and control people's hearts.

Eli uses the book (SPOILER: it's the last copy of the Bible) as comfort and a reason to stay alive. Perhaps he's a prophet, perhaps not, but he is the keeper of the book and it is a responsibility he takes very seriously even if he doesn't realize why.

Carnegie, on the other hand, understands the power of the book's words to, as he says, strike fear into the "heart of the weak and desperate." For him it is the key to the complete control of the citizens of his town. He is, very likely, a Republican.

Bringing this world to, well, if not exactly vivid life -- it is shot with a color palette that includes grey and various other shades of grey -- is Washington and Oldman.

Denzel is a bit too subdued to really sell the idea that he is a coiled spring of righteous power but that's OK because Gary Oldman keeps things lively, chewing the scenery every time he is on screen. He's a Jim Jones character, equal parts charisma and menace and the film benefits from his presence.

Unfortunately the same can't be said for the female leads. As mother and daughter Jennifer Beals and Mila Kunis are the film's acting Achilles heel. Kunis, in particular is miscast. Despite providing some visual interest, she is out of her depth here and brings little of the charm or magnetism she displayed in last year's "Forgetting Sarah Marshal."

Better is Tom Waits in an awesome cameo as a shop keeper who trades in contraband, like KFC wetnaps and old Zippo lighters. These items take on an increased value in this bleak world and Waits, with his craggily face and scorched vocal chords, brings increased value to his brief scenes.

"The Book of Eli" is a strange movie. It's being sold as an actioner, but is actually a timely movie about how religion can be used for both good and evil. It may have been more effective with a bit more action and a tad less philosophy and without its series of false endings and while it may be filled with thought provoking ideas it doesn't feel well enough thought out to work as a whole.

"The Spy Next Door"

Richard's Review: 0 stars

In "The Spy Next Door" Jackie Chan does a Hannah Montana routine. By day he is Bob, a mild mannered pen salesman, at night, however -- or whenever duty calls -- he's actually a Chinese secret agent working with the FBI.

Like Hannah, whose father Billy Ray co-stars with Chan, Jackie leads a double life. Unlike Hannah he isn't popular with kids. Or more precisely he isn't popular with his girlfriend's three precocious children who think he is a dweeb. He is, however, determined to win them over. "I've brought down dictators," he says, "how tough can three kids be?"

The kids turn out to be just as tough as the Boris and Natasha wannabes (Magn�s Scheving and Katherine Boecher) who are after Bob, thinking that he has downloaded a secret formula that turns oil into dust. That formula will make them rich and they desperately want it back.

Coming hot on the heels of one of the best years in kid's entertainment I had hoped the bar would be raised somewhat. 2009 gave us "Up", "Where the Wild Things Are", "Coraline" and "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", all of which are about as good as it gets in the line of cinematic amusement for teacup humans.

Those movies treated kids like real, thinking people, engaging their imaginations, minds and emotions. Compared to those movies "The Spy Next Door" is a let down, as it connects with none of those elements. It's a throwback to the kind of lame Saturday morning matinee action-adventure that passed for kid's flicks in less adventuresome times.

It's an old formula. Take a silly premise -- undercover spy in love with a civilian --add some "heartwarming" moments -- Chan lectures the oldest daughter on the importance of family -- mix with one popular, yet unlikely star -- Chan doing his take on the Vin Diesel role in "The Pacifier" -- and the result is... a warmed over family movie that won't appeal to adults and has little entertainment value for the kids.

The gags -- like "He's as gone as a rum cake at an AA meeting" -- which I guess, are aimed at the adults in the audience, were old the first time they aired on "Hee Haw" and children may giggle when Chan answers the phone with the greeting, "Yo, it's Ho," but his earnest speeches about togetherness will likely send them to snores-ville.

Of course, Chan's larger-than-life antics have always been popular with kids but there isn't enough high flying action. There is way too much downtime between the kid friendly action sequences to keep little minds interested and even when the pace does pick up it never feels like it kicks in high gear.

Compared to the kind of kid's films we've been treated to recently "The Spy Next Door" feels like a relic from a different time; a time before 2009 when the bar for this type of entertainment was raised very high.