New in Theaters
(Playing at the Durango Stadium 9)
Free Birds
(In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge)
(Not reviewed) In this irreverent, hilarious, adventurous buddy comedy, two turkeys from opposite sides of the tracks must put aside their differences and team up to travel back in time to change the course of history — and get turkey off the holiday menu for good. Voices include Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson and Amy Poehler. Rated PG.
Last Vegas.
As creaky as an arthritic hip, “Last Vegas” does for four leading stars of the ‘70s and ‘80s what movies like “Tough Guys” and “Grumpy Old Men” did for survivors of Hollywood’s storied Golden Age: It lets them show they can still throw a punch, bust a move, and get it on, and that they’re not quite ready for the Motion Picture Home just yet. Beyond that, this genteel “Hangover” for the AARP crowd has little to recommend it, though a smattering of funny gags and the nostalgia value of the cast keeps the whole thing more watchable than it has any right to be.
One doesn’t exactly expect “Death in Venice” from a movie that begins on a shot of female cellulite jiggling beneath the surface of a Florida community pool. But as various senior-centric pics have proven, from Martin Brest’s delightful caper “Going in Style” to Ron Howard’s “Cocoon,” going gray isn’t automatically an impediment to a screenplay that consists of more than death and Viagra jokes. But “Last Vegas” scribe Dan Fogelman (who wrote the monumentally smarter and shrewder “Crazy, Stupid, Love”) pretty much sticks to the lowest common denominator as he contrives to get four childhood friends together in Sin City for the bachelor party of the last unmarried man among them.
He’s named Billy and played by a blow-dried, spray-tanned Michael Douglas in what feels like a watered-down version of the actor’s magnificent aging lothario from 2009’s “Solitary Man.” When Billy impulsively proposes to his strapping 31-year-old girlfriend (in the midst of delivering a friend’s eulogy, no less), best bud Sam (Kevin Kline) – the one trapped in that infernal Florida swimming pool – suggests a boy’s weekend in Vegas, and the rest of this white-haired wolf pack is soon to follow. Back when they were kids on the streets of Brooklyn, Billy and his pals were known as the Flatbush Four, though now they’re mainly just flat and bushed: In addition to Sam, there’s stroke survivor Archie (Morgan Freeman, essentially reprising his “Bucket List” character) and surly widower Paddy (Robert De Niro), who hasn’t forgiven Billy for skipping out on his wife’s funeral (she was their shared childhood sweetheart).
From all points they converge on the ultra-luxurious Aria casino resort, where they find themselves comped with a penthouse suite – and a personal concierge (Romany Malco) – after Archie cleans house at the blackjack table. That pretty much gives them the run of the place, though they do make one important side trip to nearby Binion’s, where Billy catches the eye of a jazz chanteuse shimmering in a sparkly mauve gown as she belts out “Only You” in a desolate hotel bar.
The singer, Diana (Mary Steenburgen), is also “of a certain age” and has been around the block a few times, but unlike her male counterparts in “Last Vegas,” she’s been written as more than a one-dimensional type, and she’s played by the marvelous Steenburgen with a richness that goes even beyond what’s on the page. She’s an oasis of real, grown-up emotion in a movie that often feels more sophomoric (and a lot less funny) than the concurrent “Bad Grandpa.”
The rest of the movie rarely if ever rises to Steenburgen’s level. Most of the comic payoffs are so obviously telegraphed that the audience can see them coming within a few frames of the setup. Actors like these can sometimes be a pleasure to watch even when saddled with sitcom material, because their timing and delivery is still better than most. But in “Last Vegas,” everyone seems to be on a mildly diverting paid vacation, especially Freeman, who can scarcely disguise his contempt for the material. He doesn’t just seem to be phoning it in; he seems to be emailing it in from his trailer.
“Last Vegas,” a CBS Films release, is rated PG-13 for “sexual content and language.” Running time: 104 minutes.
SCOTT FOUNDAS, Variety
Ender’s Game
An anti-bullying allegory writ on the largest possible scale, “Ender’s Game” frames an interstellar battle between mankind and pushy ant-like aliens, called Formics, in which Earth’s fate hinges on a tiny group of military cadets, most of whom haven’t even hit puberty yet. At face value, the film presents an electrifying star-wars scenario – that rare case where an epic space battle transpires entirely within the span of two hours – while at the same time managing to deliver a higher pedagogical message about tolerance, empathy and coping under pressure. Against considerable odds, this risky-sounding Orson Scott Card adaptation actually works, as director Gavin Hood pulls off the sort of teen-targeted franchise starter Summit was hoping for.
Card’s novel assumes a situation where, in the wake of a massive Formic attack, the world’s children are somehow best suited to protect their planet from an imminent second strike. The most promising young recruits train on elaborate videogame-like simulators while a pair of officers – Col. Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) – monitor their techniques in search of “the One,” a child with the strategic instincts to save his species. The leading candidate is Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a runt-like outsider whose behavior toward his aggressive classmates reveals his true potential.
Like “The Hunger Games,” the pic peddles the unseemly idea of watching kids thrust into life-and-death situations. Though they’re not instructed to kill one another, these moppets’ prime directive should also give parents pause, raising the stakes from hand-to-hand combat to the potential genocide of an unfamiliar race. Fortunately, Hood (who also penned the adaptation) factors these weighty themes into the story without making them the primary focus. Between the officers, Graff’s agenda is more complicated than he lets on, while Anderson represents the voice of reason, remarking, “It used to be a war crime to recruit anyone under the age of 15.” But these are not soldiers, per se, but highly skilled Junior ROTC types, training on virtual conflict scenarios.
Butterfield – who has grown into his big blue eyes, if not the rest of his body, since “Hugo” – makes ideal casting for Ender: He’s scrawny and physically unimposing, yet there’s an intensity to his stare that suggests he might indeed be masking deeper (or darker) gifts. It’s nothing so powerful as the Force, or Neo’s Matrix-bending abilities, though “Ender’s Game” dedicates nearly its entire run time to Battle School, where our hero and his fellow recruits practice various drills, including an anti-gravity game (the rules of which aren’t terribly clear) that looks like the next best thing to Quidditch.
Despite the obvious “be all you can be” subtext, “Ender’s Game” manages to make these training sequences compelling without veering into pro-military propaganda, doing so by focusing on the interpersonal dynamics between the various squad members. Though Card may have publicly revealed his own prejudices, the casting department has assembled a wonderfully diverse group of young actors – male and female, they come in all colors, shapes and sizes – to serve alongside Ender.
So much youthful energy onscreen makes Ford seem tired and weary by comparison. Still, it’s a treat to discover Han Solo all buttoned up and back to do more space battle – not that anyone here is quite as lively or memorable as the characters B-movie fans discovered in “Star Wars” three dozen years ago. Butterfield’s “Hugo” co-star Ben Kingsley also pops up for a late cameo, sporting an Australian accent and an elaborate Maori tribal tattoo across his entire face (a poor man’s Darth Maul, perhaps?). It might not seem fair to compare what Hood has created to someone as visionary in all things sci-fi as George Lucas, and yet, considering the sizable budget expended on “Ender’s Game,” one could have hoped for something a bit more groundbreaking.
“Ender’s Game,” a Summit release, is rated PG-13 for “some violence, sci-fi action and thematic material.” Running time: 114 minutes.
PETER DEBRUGE, Variety
Generation Iron
(Playing at the Gaslight Cinema)
(Not reviewed) This documentary examines the professional sport of bodybuilding today and gives the audience front row access to the lives of the stars of todays international bodybuilding arena - Phil Heath, Branch Warren, Kai Greene, Dennis Wolf, Victor Martinez, Hidetada Yamagishi as well an ambitions newcomer Ben Pakulski and a European sensation Roelly Winklaar on their journey to the Olympia.
Each of the athletes has a story to tell of their life, journey, aspiration and motivation. They have been through up and downs, overcoming the toughest judges in the world as they’ve entered the stages around the world and flexed their muscles for eager fans. To their fans, they are more than superstars - they are Olympian Gods. Rated PG-13.
Still Showing
Animas City Theatre
(128 E. College Drive, 799-2281, www.animascitytheatre.com)
In a World.
A comedy about a struggling vocal coach who strikes it big in the cutthroat world of movie-trailer voiceovers, only to find herself in direct competition with the industry’s reigning king — her father.
Durango Stadium 9
(Next to Durango Mall, 247-9799, www.allentheatresinc.com)
The Patience Stone. (Wednesday only.) Somewhere, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, in a country torn apart by a war... A young woman in her thirties watches over her older husband in a decrepit room. He is reduced to the state of a vegetable because of a bullet in the neck. He is abandoned by his companions of the Jihad and also by his brothers.
One day, the woman decides to tell the truth to him about her feelings about their relationship to her silent husband. She talks about her childhood, her suffering, her frustrations, her loneliness, her dreams, her desires... She says things she could never have done before, even though they have been married for the past 10 years.
This paralyzed man unconsciously becomes syngue sabour, a magic stone which, according to Persian mythology, when placed in front of a person shields her from unhappiness, suffering, pains and miseries. Rated R.
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. Johnny Knoxville dresses as an old man and teams up with a child for this latest creation of the “Jackass” laboratories. Rated R.
Captain Phillips. Tom Hanks stars in the true story about the captain of a freighter hijacked by Somali pirates. Rated PG-13.
Gravity. (In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge.) George Clooney and Sandra Bullock star as astronauts stranded in space after a devastating accident in orbit. Rated PG-13.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. (In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge.) Chester V’s evil machine is still creating animal-food hybrids, much to the chagrin of Flint Lockwood. It’s a sequel – hopefully someone understands what all that means. Rated PG.
Gaslight Cinema
(102 Fifth St. Next to the railroad depot, 247-8133, www.allentheatresinc.com)
Romeo & Juliet. A faithful if unimaginative re-telling of the classic tragic love story, set in period. Hard to mess it up, but nothing really new here. Rated PG-13.
Ted Holteen and Associated Press
