Movie reviews
The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.
The Expendables 2 (Lionsgate)
Blood-soaked action sequel in which a band of heavily armed mercenaries (most prominently Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham) tangles with a host of Russian gangsters (led by Jean-Claude Van Damme) over a trove of Soviet-era nukes. Ageing action stars (including Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger) are thick on the ground in director Simon West's adventure. Though it serves to relieve the macho insult-trading to which too much of the dialogue in Stallone and Richard Wenk's script is devoted, the cast's self-referential and self-deprecating humor fails to retrieve the queasily gore-stained proceedings. Excessive bloody violence, including torture and decapitation, a vengeance theme, about a dozen crude terms and half that number of crass expressions. (O, R)
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (Disney)
In this fable that draws on both Christian and wiccan imagery, an infertile couple (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton) bury their written hopes for the perfect child in a cardboard box in their backyard. The next morning, a partially vine-covered boy (CJ Adams) precisely matching their description appears, and proceeds to change their lives in unexpected ways. Writer-director Peter Hedges, working from an original story by Ahmet Zappa, spins a sentimental tale that celebrates familial love. Some of the subject matter touched on, however, makes this unsuitable for younger children. Mature themes, some pagan overtones and a single scatological reference. (A-II, PG)
ParaNorman (Focus)
This horror-themed animated adventure sees an 11-year-old boy (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee) — whose ability to communicate with ghosts has caused him to be shunned and bullied by his unbelieving peers -- called on by his eccentric great-uncle (voice of John Goodman) to save their Salem-like hometown from the apocalyptic fulfillment of an 18th-century witch's (voice of Jodelle Ferland) curse. He's helped along the way by his best friend (voice of Tucker Albrizzi), his cheerleader sister (voice of Anna Kendrick), the school quarterback (voice of Casey Affleck) and even a reformed bully (voice of Christopher Mintz-Plasse). The basic message of co-directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler's frequently witty stop-motion celebration of the macabre — that evil acts are often motivated by fear and that the vengeful desire to retaliate in kind only makes things worse — is a valuable one for adults and kids alike. But Butler's screenplay, which occasionally dabbles in sexual humor throughout, concludes with the ironic revelation that a seemingly he-man male character has a boyfriend. However brief and however humorously intended, the scene nonetheless clearly sends a signal that such a relationship ought to be as nonchalantly accepted as it is matter-of-factly announced. As such, it is grievously out of place in a film directed at children. Acceptance of homosexual acts, some sexual and scatological jokes, potentially frightening scenes of peril. (A-III, PG)
Sparkle (TriStar)
Remake of the 1976 melodrama about a girl trio, set in 1968 Detroit, manages to be both as predictably familiar as your grandmother's living room and as subtle as a runaway freight train. But the charisma of the performers and the consistently expressed desire of all the principal characters to lead moral lives hold the enterprise together. Director Salim Akil, together with his wife, screenwriter Mara Brock Akil, creates a grittily authentic period club scene with Jordin Sparks in the title role, Carmen Ejogo and Tika Sumpter as her also-singing siblings and Whitney Houston, in her last role, as their embittered mother. Marital violence culminating in a homicide, cocaine use, sexual banter, several racial epithets, a fleeting scatological reference. (A-III, PG-13)
—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. Full-length reviews: www.catholicnews.com/movies.htm.
The Expendables 2 (Lionsgate)
Blood-soaked action sequel in which a band of heavily armed mercenaries (most prominently Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham) tangles with a host of Russian gangsters (led by Jean-Claude Van Damme) over a trove of Soviet-era nukes. Ageing action stars (including Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger) are thick on the ground in director Simon West's adventure. Though it serves to relieve the macho insult-trading to which too much of the dialogue in Stallone and Richard Wenk's script is devoted, the cast's self-referential and self-deprecating humor fails to retrieve the queasily gore-stained proceedings. Excessive bloody violence, including torture and decapitation, a vengeance theme, about a dozen crude terms and half that number of crass expressions. (O, R)
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (Disney)
In this fable that draws on both Christian and wiccan imagery, an infertile couple (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton) bury their written hopes for the perfect child in a cardboard box in their backyard. The next morning, a partially vine-covered boy (CJ Adams) precisely matching their description appears, and proceeds to change their lives in unexpected ways. Writer-director Peter Hedges, working from an original story by Ahmet Zappa, spins a sentimental tale that celebrates familial love. Some of the subject matter touched on, however, makes this unsuitable for younger children. Mature themes, some pagan overtones and a single scatological reference. (A-II, PG)
ParaNorman (Focus)
This horror-themed animated adventure sees an 11-year-old boy (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee) — whose ability to communicate with ghosts has caused him to be shunned and bullied by his unbelieving peers -- called on by his eccentric great-uncle (voice of John Goodman) to save their Salem-like hometown from the apocalyptic fulfillment of an 18th-century witch's (voice of Jodelle Ferland) curse. He's helped along the way by his best friend (voice of Tucker Albrizzi), his cheerleader sister (voice of Anna Kendrick), the school quarterback (voice of Casey Affleck) and even a reformed bully (voice of Christopher Mintz-Plasse). The basic message of co-directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler's frequently witty stop-motion celebration of the macabre — that evil acts are often motivated by fear and that the vengeful desire to retaliate in kind only makes things worse — is a valuable one for adults and kids alike. But Butler's screenplay, which occasionally dabbles in sexual humor throughout, concludes with the ironic revelation that a seemingly he-man male character has a boyfriend. However brief and however humorously intended, the scene nonetheless clearly sends a signal that such a relationship ought to be as nonchalantly accepted as it is matter-of-factly announced. As such, it is grievously out of place in a film directed at children. Acceptance of homosexual acts, some sexual and scatological jokes, potentially frightening scenes of peril. (A-III, PG)
Sparkle (TriStar)
Remake of the 1976 melodrama about a girl trio, set in 1968 Detroit, manages to be both as predictably familiar as your grandmother's living room and as subtle as a runaway freight train. But the charisma of the performers and the consistently expressed desire of all the principal characters to lead moral lives hold the enterprise together. Director Salim Akil, together with his wife, screenwriter Mara Brock Akil, creates a grittily authentic period club scene with Jordin Sparks in the title role, Carmen Ejogo and Tika Sumpter as her also-singing siblings and Whitney Houston, in her last role, as their embittered mother. Marital violence culminating in a homicide, cocaine use, sexual banter, several racial epithets, a fleeting scatological reference. (A-III, PG-13)
—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. Full-length reviews: www.catholicnews.com/movies.htm.
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