CINEMA
At The Movies
Sneak Preview
No Reservations
The perfectionist nature of a master chef at a trendy Manhattan eatery is put to the test when she "inherits" her 9-year-old niece while contending with a brash new sous-chef who joins her staff. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin star. (PG)
Opening
Hairspray 1/2
The hit Broadway musical based on John Waters' cult movie comes to the big screen. A plus-size girl with a big heart and a passion for dancing dreams of appearing on a local TV dance party in Baltimore of the early 1960s. Review on Page 26. (PG)
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Adam Sandler and Kevin James star as firefighter buddies who pose as newlyweds to take advantage of insurance benefits for one of their two kids. But when an overzealous, spot-checking bureaucrat becomes suspicious, the "couple's" confidentiality becomes front-page news. Review on Page 18. (PG-13)
The Lives of Others
The winner of the best foreign film Oscar gets another theatrical run. The German film takes place five years before the fall of the East German government. A surveillance agent, in hopes of boosting his career, finds his own life changing when he takes on a job collecting evidence against a playwright and his actress girlfriend. (R)
Sunshine 1/2
In the near future, mankind's last hope is a space crew sent on a mission to reignite the dying sun. But once they're out of radio contact, their mission starts to unravel. Review on Page 27. (R)
Now Playing
G
Meet the Robinsons 1/2
A boy genius creates a machine to recover the past and embarks on an amazing adventure with his future family in this Disney animated movie.
Ratatouille
The animated adventures of a plucky Parisian rat who leaves the colony to pursue his dream of becoming a gourmet chef.
PG
Are We Done Yet? 1/2
Ice Cube and Nia Long return in the sequel to the popular "Are We There Yet?" Nick and his ever-growing family move out to the Oregon countryside and have an adventure rebuilding their dream Victorian house.
Evan Almighty 1/2
Steve Carell stars in the tale of a workaholic politician chosen by God to build a floodproof ark.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
The sequel finds the lovably dysfunctional quartet battling an alien foe who assists a planet-eating entity called Galactus.
PG-13
1408
John Cusack stars as a jaded ghost-hunting author who stays the night in a haunted New York hotel room.
Blades of Glory
Will Ferrell and Jon Heder star as rival figure skaters, banned and disgraced from competition, who, in an attempt to make their return years later, team up to perform as the first male-male pair in the sport.
Delta Farce 1/2
Three hapless guys are mistaken for Army Reservists, loaded onto a plane to Iraq and accidentally ejected somewhere over Mexico, where they save a rural village and become local heroes.
Disturbia 1/2
A young man (Shia LaBeouf) under house arrest becomes a voyeur from his window and suspects that one of his neighbors is a serial killer.
Evening
A highly esteemed group of actresses come together for a pretentious, maudlin pile of goo in this adaptation of Susan Minot's bestseller. The story revolves around a woman lying on her deathbed, recalling the one who got away one weekend 50 years ago.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The many fans of the series can take some satisfaction in a sleek, swift and exciting adaptation of J.K. Rowling's longest novel to date, playing like a tense and twisty political thriller.
The Invisible 1/2
Attacked and left for dead, a young man finds his spirit trapped in limbo -- not quite dead but invisible to the living. His spirit can only watch as his mother and the police search frantically for him, unaware that he is only hours away from truly perishing.
La Vie en Rose
The story of Edith Piaf, French diva and national symbol. Marion Cotillard gives a breakthrough performance as "the little sparrow."
License to Wed 1/2
Holy matrimony turns into an unholy mess in this comedy about a young couple who go through a wacky minister's accelerated marriage-prep course.
Live Free or Die Hard
Rapid-fire, stunt-stuffed and yet still character-driven enough to maintain a healthy human pulse, this movie is a fire-breathing throwback to the grand action spectaculars of the '80s and '90s and a worthy entry in the "Die Hard" franchise.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 1/2
With Jack Sparrow trapped in Davy Jones' locker, Will and Elizabeth ally with Capt. Barbossa on a desperate quest to free him. But first, the trio must forge their way to exotic Singapore and confront a cunning Chinese pirate.
Sicko
This documentary about the ills of America's health care system is quintessential Michael Moore: expertly crafted, eminently entertaining, one-sided, overly simplistic and incredibly persuasive.
Spider-Man 3
In this latest installment of the hugely successful franchise, the result is a bloated, uneven behemoth of a flick, with more villains, more supporting characters and more plot lines.
Transformers
Michael Bay's feature about the popular line of 1980s toy action figures is a screeching-metal, smash-and-crash, extreme-action movie lover's dream come true.
Waitress
When a waitress in a cheery Southern diner discovers she's pregnant with her immature husband's baby, her dreams for a better life are squashed until a sympathetic and good-looking doctor arrives in town.
Wild Hogs
Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy play a group of middle-aged friends who decide to rev up their routine suburban lives with a freewheeling motorcycle trip.
R
Bug
Ashley Judd plays a lonely waitress who rooms in a rundown motel, living in fear of her abusive and recently paroled ex-husband. But a tentative romance with an eccentric drifter turns paranoiac when he reveals that there are bugs crawling under his skin.
Captivity
Yet another in a line of gory horror movies, it's the heavily padded and preposterous story of a kidnapped fashion model (Elisha Cuthbert) who is terrorized by an unseen sadist. The audience's only advantage is that they can escape this sickening experience before the heroine can.
Hostel: Part II
Director Eli Roth's horror sequel is about three young American women who are lured to the Slovakian torture chamber by a beautiful model who promises them rest and relaxation at an "exotic destination." This movie has no moral center, other than slaughter feels good, whether you're paying to kill or brutalizing your would-be killer. Roth wants to nauseate the audience into submission with his torture porn.
Hot Fuzz
The guys from "Shaun of the Dead" -- Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost -- do for buddy-cop action tales what they did for zombie flicks. The movie packs a lot of hearty laughs and a few real guffaws as a hotshot London cop (Pegg) adjusts to life in a seemingly tranquil country town.
Knocked Up
A goofball of a slacker-stoner (Seth Rogen) enjoys a drunken romp with an up-and-coming entertainment reporter (Katherine Heigl) who's way out of his league. When the reporter realizes she's gotten pregnant from the one-night stand, she decides to keep the baby, forcing major life changes on both of them.
You Kill Me 1/2
An East Coast hit man (Ben Kingsley) messes up an assignment due to his drinking, so he's sent to San Francisco to clean up his act. But when an outside gang threatens his mob family, he has to go back, and gets an unexpected assist from a new love (Téa Leoni) he met in S.F. while working in a mortuary. This is nothing more than a mildly entertaining if well-made film.
Art House | Revival
The Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Arts
900 S. Beretania St.; $7 general; $6 seniors, students and military; $5 Academy members (532-8768):
The Devils
At 1, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday, and 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Into Great Silence
At 12:30 and 7 p.m. July 26.
Movie Museum
3566 Harding Ave.; $5, $4 members; reservations recommended due to limited seating (735-8771):
Ice Cold in Alex
At 12:30, 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday and Monday.
Au Petit Marguery
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday.
Don Camillo's Last Round
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Sunday.
Zodiac
At 2, 5 and 8 p.m. July 26.
Kids First! Film Festival
Art Building Auditorium, University of Hawaii-Manoa; free, for ages 2 to 6:
Little Keiki Crowd: Sneak peek at PBS' Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies / Knuffle Bunny / Three episodes of Discovery Kids' Paz
At 4 p.m. Sunday.