the washington post friday, december 3, 2010 l
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movies from 43
involved in sex trafficking and other nasty business. This is the nest referred to in the title, and the wasps that Lisbeth has stirred up are now very, very angry. (R, 148 minutes) Contains violence, obscenity and sexual themes. Area theaters.
—M.O.
rrrHARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS—PART 1
The latest installment of the Harry Potter series can’t be anything but unsatisfying— it’s meant to leave filmgoers wanting more.
It’s half of a really good movie, full of the enchantment, emotion and incident for which the Potter series has become so fanatically cherished. “Deathly Hallows— Part 1” is also grim, downbeat and unimaginably sad, preparing viewers for the inevitable day next summer when the second “Deathly Hallows” installment arrives in theaters.With its gray palette and elegiac tone, this penultimate offering is just right for what it is: the beginning of the end. The evil Lord Voldemort (a noseless Ralph Fiennes), having taken over the Ministry of Magic, is bent on the destruction of Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and all the magical- Muggle miscegenation he represents.
Meanwhile, Harry, along with his best friends, Hermione (EmmaWatson) and Ron (Rupert Grint), has dropped out of Hogwarts School ofWitchcraft andWizardry in order to find the “Horcruxes” that give Voldemort his power and immortality, and vanquish him forever. (PG-13, 145 minutes) Contains sequences of intense action violence and frightening images. Area theaters.
—A.H. rrHEREAFTER
“Hereafter” plays like a smart and stylish thriller. Smart because of the way it pulls back, but only a little bit, from a full-on embrace of its central premise: the existence of an afterlife for the human soul. Stylish because of its cool and bloodless demeanor. At the center of the mostly mesmerizing but finally flawed film is George Lonegan (Matt Damon). In the script by two-time Oscar nominee Peter Morgan, which has been directed with admirable restraint by Clint Eastwood, George is a former professional psychic who has shut down his lucrative Bay Area practice to work as a menial laborer. It seems that his ability to talk to the dead through readings is less the gift one might think. All George has to do is to touch someone’s hand and he’s plugged into a parallel universe—a universe of actual ghosts and the ghosts of repressed trauma. These days, despite his best efforts, he’s forever running away from skeletons: both the kind in the ground and the kind in someone else’s closet. (PG-13, 129 minutes) Contains disturbing disaster and accident scenes, brief crude language and drug and alcohol abuse. At Regal Ballston Common.
—M.O. rrr½INSIDE JOB
“Inside Job” traces the history of the 2008 financial meltdown and its implications with
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exceptional lucidity, rigor and righteous indignation.What’s more, Charles Ferguson actually breaks news, uncovering the shady world of academic economists who, as paid consultants for the very banks they write seemingly objective research papers about, are part of the revolving door betweenWall Street andWashington. Ferguson shows he is the real thing, as evidenced by “Inside Job’s” taut, laser-focused narrative, which manages to infuse real tension into a story most viewers know all too well. Shot by Svetlana Cvetko with crisp, bold digital imagery and set to Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” and other trenchant pop numbers, “Inside Job” isn’t a tutorial as much as a trip: swift, scary and at times as mind- bending as Alice’s sojourn behind the looking glass. Still, as brilliant as “Inside Job” is, it leaves the viewer with a pronounced feeling of helplessness. (PG-13, 108 minutes) Contains drug- and sex-related material. Area theaters.
—A.H. rrrJACKASS 3D
Would you like to see a midget Super-Glued to a fat guy”s stomach? Or two pantsless men playing tetherball with a beehive? Would you like to see all that in three dimensions? Then “Jackass” is for you. In this third film, Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of idiots subject one another to a series of stunts and pranks meant to test the limits of the human body (and the human gag reflex). By now, the guys’ apprehension when faced with their own handiwork offers as much pleasure to the audience as the stunts themselves.We’re presented with a tableau and the audience squirms in delicious anticipation. They introduce the stunt, and then it happens, more awful than we could have imagined, and the joyous release of tension in the audience is astonishing to behold. Then we get to see it again, in slow motion. But
“Jackass” is also a touching ode to male friendship at its most primal. “Jackass” is devoted to camaraderie—to the willingness to try anything once, out of a genuine curiosity about how the world works. (R, 90 minutes) Contains nudity, language and extremely crude and dangerous stunts. At Cinemark Egyptian.
—D.K.
r½LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA’HOOLE “Through our gizzards, the voices of the ages whisper to us, and tell us what’s right,” intones a dignified owl in the sepulchral inflections of HugoWeaving. How you respond to this bit of feathery hokum will determine how you’ll feel about this film, which combines very old-fashioned storytelling with an of-the-moment 3-D ticket price. Does its majesty send a shiver up your spine? Or does the very idea of an animated owl delivering this line induce—pardon me —hoots of laughter? The animated film follows two owlet brothers whose destinies come into conflict. Owlnapped by a clan of evil owls, the brothers are pulled into a plot to enslave all of owlkind. Kludd (voiced by Ryan Kwanten) eagerly signs on as a soldier in the Pure Ones’ army, while Soren (Jim Sturgess) escapes to seek out a legendary flock of warrior owls who protect owlkind from owl evil. (PG, 90 minutes) Contains scenes of scary owl action. At University Mall Theatres.
—D.K.
rLIFE ASWEKNOWIT After watching this silly, cliche-ridden romantic comedy, you might feel an urge to disavow membership in the club suggested by its all-embracing title.Whose life are we talking about, exactly? There’s really only one tiny group of people on the planet for whom the “life” as depicted in this film will
1FAMILY MOVIE IN AMERICA! THAT’S LAUGH-OUT-LOUDFUNNY.”
“AN EXCITING ADVENTURE SANDY KENYON, ABC-TV/NEW YORK “PURE MAGIC.” ALYNDA WHEAT, PEOPLE “ “ANABSOLUTE DELIGHT!” BILL ZWECKER, FOX-TV/CHICAGO
“MUSICAL, MOVING AND OUTSTANDINGLY FUNNY.” DON’T ★★★★.GLORIOUS.
MARSHALL FINE, HOLLYWOOD & FINE EVEN THINK OF MISSING THIS ONE.” COLIN COVERT, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
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