Movie reviews

Director Joe Johnston displays a warm affinity for 1940s America as he chronicles the muscular warrior's battle against a rogue Nazi (Hugo Weaving) and his restrained romance with a fetching scientist (Hayley Atwell). Despite some scenes of destruction, the result is, for the most part, full-on family entertainment of the old school. Much action violence, including gunplay. (A-II, PG-13)

The Change-Up (Universal)
This raunchy riff on the age-old switched identities premise has a diligent but beleaguered husband and dad (Jason Bateman) temporarily exchanging bodies with his commitment-phobic ne'er-do-well best friend (Ryan Reynolds). Since the single lothario's lifestyle includes making soft-core porn and indulging his aberrant sexual tastes, while his amigo's parenthood is marred by diaper disasters, helmer David Dobkin's puerile comedy amounts to little more than a tiresome attempt to expand the boundaries of bad taste. Graphic nonmarital sexual activity, masturbation, upper female and rear nudity, drug use, repulsive scatological humor, several uses of profanity, pervasive rough and crude language. (O, R)

Cowboys & Aliens (Universal)
Genre bender in which a posse of perplexed Old West townsfolk -- led by an amnesic ex-outlaw (Daniel Craig), a ruthless local cattle baron (Harrison Ford) and a mysterious stranger (Olivia Wilde) — track the extraterrestrials who attacked their ramshackle village and kidnapped numbers of its citizens. Interludes of harsh violence and dubious — though inconsequential — theologizing by the community's resident preacher (Clancy Brown) restrict the appropriate audience for director Jon Favreau's sometimes clever, but ultimately unsatisfying, adaptation of Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's graphic novel. Intense, sometimes gory violence, including torture, brief partial nudity, ritual drug use, about a half-dozen uses of profanity, a few crude and some crass terms. (L, PG-13)

Crazy, Stupid, Love (Warner Bros.)
Multigenerational romantic comedy tracing the tangled loves of a long-married but recently separated suburbanite (Steve Carell), his dissatisfied wife (Julianne Moore), their 13-year-old son (Jonah Bobo) and the family's 17-year-old babysitter (Analeigh Tipton) for whom the boy yearns, but whose heart belongs — secretly — to daddy. Also in the mix is the suave playboy (Ryan Gosling) who tries to teach the newly single nebbish the secrets of successful womanizing before being smitten himself (by Emma Stone). As helmed by co-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the proceedings eventually reach a conclusion that affirms genuine affection and marital fidelity over the apparent glamour of promiscuity. But the path to this mostly acceptable wrap-up is littered with sordid attempts to garner laughs from degraded behavior. Strong sexual content — including semi-graphic adulterous activity, implied masturbation, and an amateur pornography theme — considerable sexual and brief irreverent humor, a couple of uses of profanity, a bit of rough and much crude language. (O, PG-13)

Friends With Benefits (Screen Gems)
Frustrated with the urban dating scene, a New York headhunter (Mila Kunis) and the formerly L.A.-based art director (Justin Timberlake) she recently recruited for a job in Gotham, form a pact to maintain their newfound friendship while also sharing commitment-free, emotionally uninvolved sex. Neither friendly nor beneficial, director and co-writer Will Gluck's thoroughly unromantic romantic comedy features excessively detailed bedroom scenes, a frivolous view of human sexuality and dialogue replete with obscenities. Strong sexual content including graphic nonmarital sexual activity, rear nudity, pervasive sexual and some irreverent humor, relentless rough and crude language. (O, R)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Fox)
This iteration of the successful screen franchise based on the science fiction of French novelist Pierre Boulle is a prequel set in modern-day San Francisco. James Franco plays a master geneticist who believes he's found the cure for Alzheimer's disease using primate test subjects. When the apes run amok, however, the project is canceled and the animals are put down. Yet one chimp survives, with ultimately disastrous consequences for mankind. While this is primarily a special effects-driven action film, as directed by Rupert Wyatt, it's also a cautionary tale about human hubris and misguided science out to achieve a good end through morally unmoored means. As such, its real-life resonance is all too easy to recognize. Intense and bloody action violence, including animal attacks, gunplay, and moments of terror, implied premarital sexual activity. (A-III, PG-13)

The Smurfs (Columbia)
The famous blue elves return in a 3-D mix of animation and live action as the evil wizard (Hank Azaria) who has long been their nemesis chases a sextet of them (voices of Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, Katy Perry, Fred Armisen, George Lopez and Anton Yelchin) from their enchanted forest village through a wormhole that leads into real-life New York City. As the pursuit continues through Gotham, the Smurfs attempt to navigate their new surroundings while coming to the aid of an expectant couple (Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays). Extending a franchise that originated in the 1950s with the work of Belgian cartoonist Peyo, and continued with a popular 1980s television series, director Raja Gosnell keeps the story fun for youngsters and largely free of objectionable elements, a few forays into potty humor notwithstanding. Moderately intense action sequences, mild scatological humor, some slapstick violence. (A-I, PG)

Winnie the Pooh (Disney)
Delightfully innocent, predominantly animated adaptation in which the immortal bear (voice of Jim Cummings) finds his characteristic quest for honey interrupted by his friend Eeyore's (voice of Bud Luckey) latest crisis — the downcast donkey has lost his tail — and by a misunderstanding that leads all the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood (voiced, among others, by Craig Ferguson, Travis Oates and Tom Kenny) to fear that Christopher Robin (voice of Jack Boulter) has fallen into the clutches of a monster. With its messages about friendship and putting the interests of others first, directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall's visually and spiritually faithful screen version of incidents drawn from A.A. Milne's classic books for children is family fare of the highest quality and widest appeal. The proceedings — though brief at an hour-and-a-quarter — are further enhanced by narration from John Cleese and songs by the husband-and-wife team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. (A-I, G)

Zookeeper (Columbia/MGM)
Scattershot, sometimes earthy comedy in which a mild-mannered Boston zoo attendant (Kevin James, who also co-wrote the script) discovers that the animals under his care (voiced by an ensemble that includes Nick Nolte and Adam Sandler) can communicate with him. Their "Wild Kingdom"-style mating advice, however, does little to help him recognize that a caring colleague (Rosario Dawson) is the gal he ought to be pursuing instead of the attractive but shallow ex-girlfriend (Leslie Bibb) with whom he continues to be infatuated. Director Frank Coraci's ill-matched crossbreeding of romance and children's fantasy is too mushy — and occasionally too mature — for kids, yet too sloppy for their discerning elders. Probably acceptable for mature teens. Cohabitation, brief implied frontal nudity, some scatological and restrained sexual humor and a couple of mildly crass terms. (A-III, PG)
—-CNS

Catholic News Service classifications: A-I — general patronage; A-II — adults and adolescents; A-III — adults; L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; O — morally offensive.