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Alien adventure: Charlize Theron and Idris Elba in “Prometheus.”
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Updated: June 12, 2012 8:29AM
OPENING FRIDAY
MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED
★ ★
Rated: PG for some mild action and rude humor
Stars: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith
Alex the Lion, Gloria the Hippo, Marty the Zebra and Melman the Giraffe cross Europe in a traveling circus in their latest attempt to return to their home in the Central Park Zoo — with a deranged French animal control officer (voiced by Frances McDormand) in crazed pursuit. Tom McGrath, Eric Darnell and Conrad Vernon directed the second sequel in the animated family-comedy franchise. Reviewed in this section.
PROMETHEUS
Rated: R for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce
The discovery of a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth leads a group of scientific explorers on a journey to the darkest corner of the universe — where they must fight for the future of humanity. Ridley Scott (“Alien”) directed the sci-fi adventure.
STILL PLAYING:
MOONRISE KINGDOM
★ ★ ★ 1/2
Rated: PG-13 for sexual content and smoking
Stars: Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand
Instead of his usual whimsical (and somewhat bitter) tales of adults who haven’t quite left childhood behind, idiosyncratic auteur Wes Anderson’s (“The Royal Tenenbaums,” “The Darjeeling Express”) “Moonrise Kingdom” is a tale of two runaway love-struck ‘tweens who literally can’t wait to grow up — and whose passion for romance generates considerable quirky charm. Newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward strike just the right note of intensely serious grand passion while a search party of desperately disillusioned grown-ups Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand and Bill Murray provide poignant emotional contrast.
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sensuality
Stars: Kristin Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron
In this revisionist fairy tale, the Huntsman (Hemsworth) assigned to kill Snow White (Stewart) instead becomes her protector and helps lead a revolt against the evil queen (Theron). Director Rupert Sanders makes his feature debut with the fantasy adventure.
PIRANHA 3DD
Rated: R for sequences of strong bloody horror violence and gore, graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use
Stars: David Hasselhoff, Christopher Lloyd, Gary Busey, Danielle Panabaker
After chewing up the resort community of Lake Victoria in 2010’s “Piranha,” starving pre-historic piranha make their way into a nearby water park. John Gulager (“Feast”) directed the horror comedy.
HYSTERIA
★ ★ ★ 1/2
Rated: R for sexual content
Stars: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce
Tanya Wexler’s delightful (and often very, very funny) romantic comedy gets considerable mileage from the exquisitely ironic historical fact that the personal vibrating massager was invented in Victorian England. Dancy and Gyllenhaal are nicely matched as a progressive, yet somewhat priggish, young doctor and an outrageously outspoken suffragette (also the daughter of our hero’s employer, a physician who treats unhappy, well-to-do ladies with a highly specialized and minutely focused form of massage). As charming as it is hysterical (literally and figuratively), “Hysteria” toys with the early days of a risqué revolution.
MEN IN BLACK I II★ ★ ★
Rated: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, and brief suggestive content
Stars: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Emma Thompson, Jemaine Clement
Despite product ion problems including working the script out as they went along, this second sequel, 10 years later, touches all t he sci-fi action-comedy bases in a sufficiently entertaining manner to satisfy fans. Smith and J ones return as bickering feds charged with k eeping unruly alien vi sitors in line, inclu ding recent lunar prison escapee Boris the Anim al (Clement, barely recognizable under Rick Baker’s creature effects), who plans to jump back to the ’60s and kill young K (nicely played by Josh Brolin), who previously prevented Boris’s relatives from invading, thus re-setting history. The best thing about it? Smith’s wise-guy reaction to ’60s scenes like Andy Warhol’s Factory and old-school r acism.
WHAT TO EXPE CT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING★ ★ 1/2
Rated: PG-13 for crude and sexual content, thematic elements and language
Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Chace Crawford
This over-crowded, intermittently amusing, thematically linked sitcom featuring five couples coping with babies on the way turns out to be more or less exactly what you might expect, which isn’t bad, really. So long as you’re not expecting too much. If you’re satisfied to chart some emotional ups and downs while chuckling at cutesy-crude prego-comedy gross-out gags along the way to a group birth-a-thon (with all the awww-inspiring moments you could wish for), it’s a pretty safe bet.
BATTLESHIP
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, action and destruction, and for language
Stars: Alexander Skarsgard, Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch
A fleet of ships on a war-games exercise is forced to do battle at sea with an alien armada. Peter Berg (“Hancock”) directed the action thriller.
THE DICTATOR
Rated: R for strong crude and sexual content, brief male nudity, language and some violent images.
Stars: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley
The benevolently oppressive ruler (Cohen) of the nation of Waadeya travels to America to address the United Nations about his nuclear weapons policy. Larry Charles (“Borat,” “Bruno”) directed the sati rical comedy.
THE AVENGERS ★ ★ ★ 1/2
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence throughout, and a mild drug reference
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston
Writer/director Joss Whedon delivers all the spectacular action a summer-movie audience could possibly hope for with this much-anticipated Marvel superhero extravaganza — and he does it with intelligence and humor to spare. The comic book dream team of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and the Incredible Hulk are called upon to save the world from an alien invasion led by Thor’s petulant half-brother Loki (Hiddleston). The only really surprising thing is how funny things get — with the biggest yuks provided by Big Mean Green.
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
Rated: PG-13 for sexual content and language
Stars: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel
British seniors expecting to retire in grand style in India learn that the accommodations are not quite as described in the brochure. John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love”) directed the comedy.
