Babylon A.D. (PG-13, 90 minutes) It’s the dystopian future. Michelle Yeoh is a nun looking after a young woman who might have a deadly virus, and Vin Diesel is a mercenary looking after himself. Many explosions may change that. Opening Friday
Brideshead Revisited (PG-13, 133 minutes) All hail the heart-conquering power of the historical novel! Playing at Vinegar Hill Theatre
College (R, 94 minutes) A high school dude gets dumped and then gets involved with some rowdy freshman-orientation frat bros. There is a fight over a girl. It’s from the director of Pee Shy, if that helps you decide. Opening Friday
The Dark Knight (PG-13, 140 minutes) Just as Batman (Christian Bale) makes real headway cleaning up Gotham’s streets, with help from a top cop (Gary Oldman) and an aggressive D.A. (Aaron Eckhart), some joker calling himself the Joker (Heath Ledger) decides to mastermind a terrifying criminal rampage. Out comes the heavy artillery–and the moviegoers who don’t usually bother with this superhero silliness but are morbidly curious about the late Ledger’s final full performance. Read C-VILLE’s full review here. Playing at Regal Seminole Square 4
Death Race (R, 105 minutes) It’s the year 2020 and the over-crowded New York prisons serve as central casting for the world’s most brutal reality-TV sport. Jason Statham, Joan Allen and Ian MacShane star in a remake of the 1975 Sly Stallone vehicle about hard-time convicts duking it out in souped-up vehicles. Playing at Regal Seminole Square 4
Disaster Movie (PG-13, 90 minutes) A new romp from the go-to guy for movie spoofs, blow-teur Jason Friedberg. Quoth the tagline: “During one fateful night, a group of impossibly attractive 20-somethings must dodge a series of man-made and natural disasters.” Opening Friday
Fly Me to the Moon 3-D (G, 85 minutes) In special 3-D animation, a group of teenaged houseflies (or houseflies the equivalent age of human teenagers, whatever that is) stows away on Apollo 11. Voice talents include Ed Begley Jr., Tim Curry, Kelly Ripa and Christopher Lloyd. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
The House Bunny (PG-13, 98 minutes) Kicked out of the Playboy Mansion, an aging blonde hottie (Anna Faris) finds work, of sorts, as a sorority house mother—and maybe finds happiness? Well, wondering about this movie’s plot is like reading Playboy for the articles. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
The Longshots (PG, 94 minutes) Jasmine Plummer, an 11-year-old quarterback, was the first female player in Pop Warner football history. This is her true but probably cliché-laden story. Ice Cube plays her uncle and coach. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Mamma Mia! (PG-13, 108 minutes) On a cute Greek island where she runs a little hotel, a single mom (Meryl Streep) prepares to give her daughter (Amanda Seyfried) away to marriage. Wedding guests include mom’s former bandmates (Julie Walters and Christine Baranski) and the three men who might be her daughter’s dad (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgaard). Romantic mayhem and many ABBA songs ensue. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Mirrors (R, 110 minutes) Some evil paranormal entity terrorizes an ex-cop (Kiefer Sutherland) and his family by creepily maneuvering their reflections. It’s like that face-peeling scene from Poltergeist got its own whole movie. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (PG-13, 154 minutes) Brendan Fraser, again enjoying himself as a low-rent Indiana Jones, travels the world in search of adventure, with the wife (Maria Bello) and son (Luke Ford) and brother-in-law (John Hannah) in tow. He finds Jet Li as a resurrected Han emperor who wants to make us all his slaves. That should do, adventure-wise. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Pineapple Express (R, 105 minutes) A stoner (Seth Rogen, shocker) and his dealer (James Franco) run afoul of crooked cops and drug lords and run for their lives. No surprise that Rogen co-scripted and Judd Apatow produced; what makes this action comedy especially intriguing, though, is the director, David Gordon Green, who last gave us Snow Angels—not at all an action-com. Read C-VILLE’s full review here. Playing at Regal Seminole Square 4
The Rocker (PG-13, 102 minutes) Rainn Wilson plays a drummer who got kicked out of the Playboy Mansion, and—oh, no, wait, sorry. That’s The House Bunny. He plays a drummer who got kicked out of a famous ’80s hair band, and now he’s planning a comeback—by injecting his own nephew’s band with man-boy mayhem. Read C-VILLE’s full review here. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Roman De Gare (R, 103 minutes) Fact and fiction get a little blurry following the mysterious disappearance of a few people in Paris, among them the ghostwriter of a famous novelist and a formerly imprisoned serial killer. Playing at Vinegar Hill Theatre
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 (PG-13, 117 minutes) The chick-flick adaptations of Ann Brashares’ bestsellers continue apace: One summer, four friends, the pair of jeans they share, and much bittersweet buddy comedy. Playing at Regal Seminole Square 4
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (PG, 98 minutes) This animated 3-D feature, set between the third and fourth episodes of George Lucas’ sci-fi saga, presumably concerns many light-saber-intensive battles between Jedi Knights and dark-sided separatists form the Galactic Republic, and between their respective armies of clones and droids. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Step Brothers (R, 95 minutes) Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and their Talladega Nights director Adam McKay regroup for a tale of two pampered, sheltered pals who become feisty when their single parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) get married. You know you love it. Read C-VILLE’s full review here. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Tropic Thunder (R, 107 minutes) Ben Stiller (co-scripting and directing), Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. portray a group of pampered, quirkily egotistical actors making a megabudget movie about the Vietnam war. Nick Nolte plays the screenwriter who decides to put them in a real war. Boo-yah! Read C-VILLE’s full review here. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (PG-13, 96 minutes) Ah, Woody Allen, how you love to direct Scarlett Johannson! But she’s not to be yours this time around; instead, Javier Bardem makes an offer that ScarJo and another gal can’t refuse. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
WALL-E (G, 97 minutes) Animation giant Pixar returns with another sure-fire winner. This one’s a sci-fi tale set in the far future. Seems mankind has squandered the Earth’s resources with its rabid consumer addictions. The big blue marble has been abandoned as a junkheap to be tended over by a handful of waste allocation robots (among them, our titular hero). One day, after hundreds of years on the job, WALL-E meets a sleek robot named EVE and goes on a quest across the galaxy to find her—and unwittingly save Earth in the process. The animation is incredible, and damn if that boxy little robot isn’t the cutest thing ever. Read C-VILLE’s full review here. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
