Movie reviews

Conan the Barbarian (Lionsgate)
This blood-saturated 3-D action-adventure — based on the 1930s pulp fiction of Robert E. Howard — stars Jason Momoa as the eponymous warrior out to avenge his father's murder by a warlord (Stephen Lang). The latter, together with his half-witch daughter (Rose McGowan), also kidnaps a martial arts maiden (Rachel Nichols) in his quest to dominate the mythical land of Hyboria. Bringing 21st-century moviemaking techniques to the sword-and-sorcery subgenre, director Marcus Nispel offers up a visually dynamic yet exceedingly violent piece of hokum, bereft of positive values. "No mercy" could be its mantra, applying equally to those on screen and off. Pervasive graphic violence — including decapitations, severed limbs and torture — explicit nonmarital sexual activity, considerable upper female and brief rear male nudity, some sexual innuendo, one instance of crude language. (O, R)

Fright Night (Disney)
A Las Vegas-area teen (Anton Yelchin) suspects his new neighbor (Colin Farrell) is a vampire responsible for the sudden disappearance of his boyhood best friend (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). So he seeks the aid of an occult-obsessed illusionist (David Tennant) as he tries to protect his mom (Toni Collette) and girlfriend (Imogen Poots) from the toothy predator. Initially restrained bloodletting gives way to gore galore in director Craig Gillespie's nocturnal remake of a 1985 horror-comedy mix while Marti Noxon's script is peppered with obscenities throughout. Excessive graphic violence, a benign view of teen sexual activity, brief rear nudity, several uses of profanity, pervasive rough and crude language. (O, R)

One Day (Focus)
Turgid screen version of the best-selling romance novel scripted by the book's author, David Nicholls, and directed in a plodding style by Lone Scherfig. Ill-assorted Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess — she a prim children's writer, he a whiny, boorish TV host — are shown in a series of 20 annual episodes, beginning with their college graduation in 1988, as they progress from awkward friends to something more. Though their relationship is mature and broadly, if not always straightforwardly, moral, viewers' interest is likely to be fatally depleted by the excessively wordy dialogue of Nicholls' verbose script well before the five-hanky ending. A shadowy glimpse of female frontal nudity, brief rear nudity, implied cohabitation, a single instance of rough language. (A-III, PG-13)

Our Idiot Brother (Weinstein)
Occasionally effective, but sexually errant, satire about a ridiculously naive produce farmer (Paul Rudd) who emerges from a stint in prison after selling marijuana to a uniformed police officer only to find that his selfish live-in girlfriend (Kathryn Hahn) has taken up with someone new (T.J. Miller). Homeless and broke, he seeks shelter with his mother (Shirley Knight) before lodging, in succession, with each of his tightly wound sisters (Emily Mortimer, Elizabeth Banks and Zooey Deschanel). But his habit of guileless truth-telling complicates the driven lives of all three. Though director Jesse Peretz's underplayed comedy scores a few hits on modern mores, its use of nudity and sexual situations to elicit laughs, as well as its mainstreaming of one sibling's lesbian relationship, make it inappropriate for all. Strong sexual content, including graphic aberrant sexual activity, adultery, partial frontal, upper female and rear nudity, implicit acceptance of homosexual behavior, a narcotics theme, about a dozen uses of profanity, much rough and crude language. (O, R)

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D (Dimension)
Writer-director (and series creator) Robert Rodriguez's third sequel to 2001's "Spy Kids" offers the novelty of "Aroma-Scope," giving viewers the chance, via a scratch-and-sniff card, to "smell" the action as they watch (in 3-D) our young heroes — and their parents — fight to save the world. Now retired to be a housewife, the former top agent (Jessica Alba) for the OSS (Organization of Super Spies) is called back into service when a villain (Jeremy Piven) threatens to unleash a super weapon that will take away all time. Her stepchildren (Mason Cook and Rowan Blanchard) also join the struggle as Spy Kids, members of the "elite juvenile division" of the OSS. As the family — which also includes dad Joel McHale — learns to work together to rescue humanity, they discover that time is a precious commodity that must be used wisely. (A-II, 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.