The Austin Chronicle

  • FILM

Pick of the Week

Sleepless Night

Sleepless Night

NR   98 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Purloined cocaine, his kidnapped son, and a den of thieves who wish him ill cause one man to have a very desperate night in this taut French thriller.

New This Week

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

PG-13   124 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

A troupe of top-tier British thesps raises this crowd-pleasing pap into something enjoyable,

Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows

PG-13   112 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Sometimes it might be best to let sleeping vampires lie.

The Dictator

R   84 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Opens Wednesday.

Girl in Progress

Girl in Progress

PG-13   101 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

The roles of mother and daughter get mixed up in this old story told in a smart way.

First-Run Movies

American Reunion

American Reunion

R   112 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Thirteen years after American Pie jump-started sexual innuendo for a new generation, this sequel is the best one in the series.

The Artist

The Artist

PG-13   100 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

It's a silent, black-and-white film for the 21st century, full of coy delights.

Bernie

Bernie

PG-13   110 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey star in Richard Linklater's latest film – an East Texas true-crime story with a comic touch.

Bully

Bully

PG-13   98 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

The documentary Bully is devastatingly effective when it comes to putting faces on harassed children and giving them a voice.

The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods

R   105 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Cabin in the Woods is the most intoxicating morsel to hit the horror circuit since Scream or, at least, Paranormal Activity.

Casa de mi Padre

R   84 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Will Ferrell commits 100% to this goofy, all-Spanish-language soap opera-cum-horse opera.

Chimpanzee

G   78 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

The Planet Earth filmmakers turn their cameras on an orphaned chimp.

Chronicle

Chronicle

PG-13   83 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Like a marriage of Cloverfield and Carrie, Chronicle blends faux-naif techniques with a teen telekinesis plot and gets fresh results.

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

PG   101 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Even though it's primarily a cautionary ecological tale, this animated film is fun and visually pleasing.

The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement

R   124 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This romcom starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segel possesses something rare: rational, relatable adults.

Footnote

Footnote

PG   103 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

The usual strife between fathers and sons charts an uncommon course through academia in this laceratingly comic and award-winning Israeli film.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

PG-13   142 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

The wait is over. Katniss Everdeen finally graces our screens.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

R   83 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

The Duplass brothers return with this finely observed slice of life starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms, and Susan Sarandon.

John Carter

John Carter

PG-13   132 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Old-school "Gosh, wow!" sense-of-wonder filmmaking is in short supply these days, but now John Carter has arrived to fill the void.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

PG   94 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Michael Caine zips around on a giant bumblebee and Dwayne Johnson is a pectoral spectacle in this family-friendly, fantasy-island adventure tale.

The Kid With a Bike

The Kid With a Bike

NR   87 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This latest film from Belgium's Dardenne brothers is a towering achievement, perhaps all the more so because of its deceptive simplicity.

Lockout

PG-13   95 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

In this Luc Besson-produced thriller, a man must rescue the president's daughter from a prison in outer space that has been taken over by the inmates.

The Lucky One

PG-13   101 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks bestseller is timelessly shopworn.

Marvel's The Avengers

Marvel's The Avengers

PG-13   143 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Excelsior! This Marvel adventure knocks it out of the universe.

Mirror Mirror

PG   107 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Holding on to the Snow White fairy tale's most tiresome aspects, this iteration has some visual sass but is devoid of wit.

Monsieur Lazhar

Monsieur Lazhar

PG-13   94 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

In a Montreal classroom, adolescent students and their Algerian substitute teacher help one another cope with grief. The film was an Oscar nominee.

October Baby

PG-13   105 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This faith-based film soft-pedals the Christianity while playing to the anti-abortion faithful.

The Pirates!: Band of Misfits

PG   88 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Whether it's Pirates or Wallace and Gromit or Chicken Run, Aardman's stop-motion animation delivers the goods.

The Raid: Redemption

R   100 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This Indonesian film truly has a nonstop glut of martial-arts action, so don't worry about the minimalist story and characters.

The Raven

R   111 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

John Cusack plays Edgar Allan Poe in this historically imaginative but dull and off-putting detective story set in old Baltimore.

Safe

R   94 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

The (Jason) Stathamization of action filmmaking continues with the star's latest.

Safe House

Safe House

R   114 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This hectic, deftly edited, and unexpectedly bracing thriller stars Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

PG-13   107 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt are delightfully matched in this offbeat romantic comedy from the director of Chocolat.

The Secret World of Arrietty

The Secret World of Arrietty

G   94 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This new animated film from Japan's Studio Ghibli is based on The Borrowers, a story about 4-inch-tall people who live undetected among their human hosts.

Sound of My Voice

R   84 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This festival favorite marks an impressive film debut for its director and star, but its sum total is less satisfying than its parts.

Think Like a Man

PG-13   122 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

This romantic comedy is based on comedian Steve Harvey's book, "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man."

A Thousand Words

PG-13   91 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Eddie Murphy plays a truth-challenged literary agent who learns his lesson when a bizarre set of circumstances allow him to utter only 1,000 words before dying.

The Three Stooges: The Movie

PG   92 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

All three leads are adequate, but the attempt to re-create the madcap aura of the original Stooges’ brotherly sadomasochism is doomed from the get-go.

Titanic

Titanic

PG-13   194 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

James Cameron has retooled his ocean behemoth for 3-D, but the ship's outcome is still the same.

21 Jump Street

R   110 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum go back to high school in this new take on the old TV series.

Tyler Perry's Good Deeds

PG-13   110 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

Tyler Perry also stars in his latest film, playing a wealthy businessman whose orderly life comes undone as the result of a good deed.

Wrath of the Titans

PG-13   99 min.      Full Review   Showtimes

The Greek gods of antiquity must be angry: this sequel is merely loud and uninspired.

Chrontourage