Roger Ebert Reviews

"Farewell" (Unrated; 113 minutes). The long-untold true Cold War spy story that the real Ronald Reagan called "one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th century." A KGB colonel (Emir Kusturica) and a French businessman (Guilaume Cant) smuggle Soviet secrets to the West and change the course of history. A tense thriller, an emotional drama about the cost of keeping secrets from one's family, and a fascinating piece of world political history. (JE) Three and a half stars.

"Best Worst Movie" (Unrated, 91 minutes). Engaging documentary about the filming, actors and legacy of "Troll 2," widely considered to be the worst film ever made. Directed by its child actor, now grown up, it centers on Arkansas dentist George Hardy, an enormously likable man, who gets caught up in a round of revival screenings jammed by "Troll 2" fans who recite the dialog with the movie. (It was about vegetarian goblins who made their human victims sprout limbs and leaves.) Three stars

"Dinner for Schmucks" (PG-13, 114 minutes) Paul Rudd plays an ambitious young executive invited to a special dinner party by his boss: Each guest has to bring a guest of his own who is a perfect idiot. Biggest idiot wins. Rudd isn't interested until he meets Steve Carell, playing a man whose hobby is filling giant dollhouses worth elegantly dressed dead mice. It's quite a dinner party. Three stars

"Mercy" (Unrated, 87 minutes). Scott Caan plays a pickup artist who meets a woman (Wendy Glenn) who isn't impressed by his new novel--or by him. He goes through a predictable arc of change, but the performances (also by James Caan as his father) are involving. Tries to cover too much ground in the running time. Two stars

"Agora" (Unrated, 141 minutes). Not your average sword and sandal epic. The study of Hypatia (Rachel Weisz), a scientific genius in the fourth century A.D., who taught with her father in the Library of Alexandria, which hoped to collect all the world's knowledge. She is so absorbed by her ideas that she fails to foresee the rising tension between pagans and Christians, which ends with Christians destroying the library. Hypatia was a real person. Weisz and director Alejandro Amenabar show her as an idealist not wary enough of real-world passions. Three stars

At nights in the summertime I heard lonesome whistles blowing, and dreamed of taking the train to the future. To romance. To the rest of my life. Or just simply out of town. Trains embody the fact of travel, the sense of moving through time and space and day and night. Airplanes are elevators whose doors close and then open in another city. The two Japanese kids in Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train" (1989) have the right idea. They're on a train to Memphis. With one suitcase suspended on a pole between them, they wander the bedraggled streets until passing by accident the door of the Sun record studios, which is a shrine for them.

“Ramona & Beezus” (G, 103 minutes). A sweet comedy inspired by the much-loved novels by Beverly Cleary. Joey King sparkles as the innocent-looking 9-year-old trouble-magnet Ramona, and Disney star Selena Gomez plays her teenage sister. Ramona gets into dire situations in everyday life, and James Bondian predicaments in her daydreams. A featherweight comedy of no great consequence, except undoubtedly to kids about Ramona's age. Three stars

"Salt" (PG-13, 100 minutes). A damn fine thriller. It does all the things I can't stand in bad movies, and does them in a good one. Angelina Jolie stars as a CISA agent fighting ingle-handedly to save the world from nuclear destruction. Hardly a second is believable, but so what? Superbly crafted, it's a splendid example of a genre action picture. Directed by Philip Noyce. Four stars

"Inception" (PG-13, 148 minutes). An astonishingly original and inventive thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a men who infiltrates the minds of others to steal secrets. Now he's hired to implant one. Ken Watanabe is a billionaire who wants to place at idea in the mind of his rival (Cillian Murphy). DiCaprio Assembles a team (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page) to assist him, in a dazzling achievement that rises above the thriller level and enters the realm of mind control--in the plot, and in the audience. Written and directed by Christopher Nolan ("Memento," "The Dark Knight"). Four stars

"Wild Grass" (Unrated, 113 minutes). Because Marguerite went to buy shoes that day in Paris, her purse happened to be snatched, and Georges happened to find her billfold, and everything in the film descends from those improbable coincidences. Alain Resnais' work continues to exercise that freedom: If anything can happen, nothing musthappen, as he creates a free-wheeling exercise in comedy, or fate, or irony, or whatever, with great wit and visual style. Three stars

"Something Better Somewhere Else" (Unrated, 76 minutes). An anthology of four short films telling separate stories, sometimes with overlapping actors, that are delightful and filmed with craft and style. The theme: The grass may be greener on the other side of the road. Yes, but these people are taking big chances, and know it. Written and directed by Ron Lazzeretti, who knows what he's doing. Three stars

Having seen "The Last Airbender" gross untold millions despite the worst reviews in many a year, I confess myself discouraged at the prospect of reviewing "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." This is a much better film than "Airbender," which is faint praise, but it's becoming clear that every weekend brings another heavily marketed action "comedy" that pounds tens of millions out of consumers before evaporating.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (PG, 108 minutes). Nicolas Cage plays the good magician Balthazar, who for 1,300 years has held the evil magicians Morgana (Alice Krige) and Horvath (Alfred Molina) captive. In modern New York, he discovers at last the Prime Merlinian, the master magician who can vanquish the captive villains for once and all. This is young Dave (Jay Baruchel), who would rather smooch with cute Becky (Teresa Palmer) than learn his sorcering lessons. Lots of special effects in a typical two-weekend special. Not and, far from good. Two and a half stars

"The Kids are All Right" (R, 104 minutes). A sweet and civilized comedy, quietly satirical, about a lesbian couple, their children, and the father the kids share via sperm donation. When they meet him, they like him, he likes them, and their moms are not so sure. What happens is calmly funny, sometimes fraught, and very human. With pitch-perfect performances by Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as the moms, Mark Ruffalo as the dad, and Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson as the 20-something children. Directed by Lisa Cholodenko. Three and a half stars

"La Mission" (R, 117 minutes). Benjamin Bratt plays a good man in San Francisco's Mission district--a single dad, hard-working, strong values, doing favors for neighbors. His son (Jeremy Ray Valdez) will be going to UCLA. He's growing friendly with his upstairs neighbor (Erika Alexander). Then he discovers his son is gay, he responds violently, and everything starts coming apart. A well-meaning, sincerely acted film that tries to say too much, too quickly. Two and a half stars

"Despicable Me" (PG, 95 minutes). A villain instead of a hero. That's rare in am animated comedy, but the villain is worth his starring role. He's Gru (voice by Steve Carell), who hatches a dastardly scheme to steal the Moon. Supported by countless little yellow Minions and challenged by there plucky orphan girls, he does battle with his arch-nemesis Vector (Jason Segel). Funny, energetic, teeth-gnashingly venomous, and animated with an eye to exploiting the 3D process with such sure-fire techniques as a roller coaster. But 3D dims the brightness, and the film will look and feel better if you can find it in 2D. Three stars

"Dogtooth" (R, 94 minutes) A bizarre fantasy which takes the concept of home schooling into the realm of home psychopathology. Parents imprison their three late-teen children behind high walls and deny them any knowledge of the world outside. In this sealed world, strange words, customs, beliefs and practices emerge. Beyond weird. Winner of the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes 2009. Three stars

"Predators" (R, 106 minutes). Professional killers from earth find themselves in free fall without explanation, and parachute into a forest where they join up to fight ferocious and frisky half-ton warthog-looking things. Much of the fill is spent in fending off attacks shown in often incomprehensible special effects. With Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne and Danny Trejo. Rating: Two stars

"9500 Liberty" (Unrated, 80 minutes). A law similar to Arizona's controversial recent measure was passed and briefly enforced a few years ago in Virginia's Prince William County, and what happened there may be instructive. This documentary shows the rise and fall of a movement led by a right-wing blogger, and the groundswell of opposition (including many whites and Republicans) that ended it. The cost of the law in higher taxes, exposure to lawsuits and the city's image was startling. The doc shows the rise and fall of the county law, and centers on the American tradition of citizens speaking out in town hall meetings. Three and a half stars

"The Girl Who Played with Fire" (R, 129 minutes). Noomi Rapace, electrifying in last year's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," returns for the second film drawn from Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. Once again she's following the same crimes as journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), but they don't meet until late in the game as a murder trail leads to old family secrets. Well constructed, good cast, not quite up to the "Dragon" standard. Three and a half stars