Roger Ebert Reviews

"Grown Ups" (PG-13, 102 minutes). "Grown Ups" is a pleasant, genial, good-hearted, sometimes icky comedy, not very funny, that's like spending a weekend with well-meaning people you don't want to see again any time real soon. Such a large cast many stars mostly just stand around. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Maria Bello, Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph, Joyce Van Patten, Steve Buscemi. See what I mean? Two stars

"The Killer Inside Me" (R, 109 minutes). Casey Affleck is effective as a mild-mannered, well-behaved psychopath, who seems utterly disconnected from the vicious crimes he commits. His female victims also seem oddly detached from their pain, and their taste for pain. Adapted from a pulp crime thriller by Jim Thompson, the film is well directed by Michael Winterbottom but lacks closure because its central character is so completely disconnected from his actions. With Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Ned Beatty, Elias Koteas, Bill Pullman. Two and a half stars

If you don't know what LARP is, you'll discover soon enough in “The Wild Hunt,” a parable about the games men play. Live Action Role Playing involves players who dress in costumes and enact epic battles in a land of pretend. We know them best for re-enacting Civil War battles, but in this film, Canadian characters impersonate Vikings and Celts. Both sides speak in mock-Shakespearean imprecations that remind me of Ronnie (Z-Man) Barzell (“Ere this night is through, you will taste the black sperm of my vengeance!”).

"Knight and Day" (PG-13, 109 minutes). Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in a stupendously goofy action-comedy-romance. I like the goofiness, and the charm they bring to it, but the film miscalculates on the proposition of romcom to action, and has so much special effects violence it throws the balance off. Moves from one country to another as if it's teleporting. Three stars.

"Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" (R, 84 minutes). Rivers was 75 in this film, and never tires of reminding us of that fact. She remains one of the funniest, dirtiest, most daring and transgressive of standup comics, and she hasn't missed a beat. The doc follows her for a year as she relentlessly pursues the career that her daughter, Melissa, says was like having another sister. She violates her own privacy, speaks from the heart, does not know tact, and makes us laugh a lot. If you've only seen Rivers on TV, you ain't seen nothing' yet. Three and a half stars

"Winter's Bone" (R, 99 minutes). Jennifer Lawrence is brilliant as a 17-year-old girl who father has skipped bail and left his family threatened with homelessness. In a dirt poor area of the Ozarks, she goes seeking him among people who are suspicious, dangerous and in despair. Winner of the Grand Jury prize at Sundance 2010 and the screenwriting award, this film by Debra Granik is one of the year's best. Four stars

"Jonah Hex" is a Western set around the town of Stunk Crick, although that doesn't entirely explain why the climactic scene involves an attack on the U. S. Capitol Building in Washington. Using my powers of logic, I deduce that the characters traveled there from Stunk Crick. The movie is not precise in its geography. Most of the location filming was in Louisiana, which is not named, perhaps because that might make it hard to explain its vast deserts and dusty frontier town. Two stars

"Toy Story 3" (G, 102 minutes). Young Andy has grown to college age, and has to decide what to do with his once-beloved toys when he goes off to school. This leads to threats of abandonment for the toys, and harrowing adventures at a day care center and a garbage dump. Lacking the humanity that infused the earlier Toy Story sagas and happier with action and jokes than with characters and emotions, but I expect its target audience will love it. Three stars.

It's said that you can't make an effective anti-war film because war by its nature is exciting, and the end of the film belongs to the survivors. No one would ever make the mistake of saying that about Elem Klimov's "Come and See." This 1985 film from Russia is one of the most devastating films ever about anything, and in it, the survivors must envy the dead.

NEW YORK -- Recipients of the Webby Award are famously limited to acceptance speeches of only five words. The always-competitive Roger Ebert needed only three.

"Solitary Man" (R, 99 minutes). Michael Douglas in one of his best performances, as a once rich and famous car dealer, now in hard times but still tireless as closing the hardest sell of all--himself. He's a seducer, a cheater, a user, but running outgo of options, in a smart comedy/drama with an excellent supporting cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Jenna Fischer, Danny DeVito and Susan Sarandon. Three and a half stars

"Daddy Longlegs" (Unrated, 100 minutes). Lenny (Ronnie Bronstein) isn't a bad father. He's no father at all. He doesn't understand the concept. I don't believe he ever will. The film shows him during the two weeks in the year he gets custody of his two young sons, who he treats more a his playmates than his children. His life is a balancing act over utter catastrophe. The influence of John Cassavetes is clear here, but that's not a bad thing. Few filmmakers have the nerve to travel that path. directed by Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie. Three stars

Q. Would you please refer me to a review you have written where you refer to a man as a “sexaholic slut” because he has engaged in the same sexual behavior as Samantha's [in “Sex and the City 2”]? No doubt you cannot refer me to any such review. I assume you get my point. Kathleen Dunham, Costa Mesa, Calif. A. Damn! I received this too late to describe the Michael Douglas character in “Solitary Man” as a “sexaholic slut.” Of course the dictionary says “slut” is a word referring to a woman, but I am willing to bend the rules. Amazingly, according to the global word search on my computer, the “SATC2” review is the first time I have ever used the word “sexaholic.”

"Accomplices" (Unrated, adults; 93 minutes). The movie begins with a corpse and follows two stories, one about a reckless young couple in love, the other about two police inspectors. One works back to the crime, the other forward, and when it's solved there is a surprisingly satisfactory epilogue. French, with Emmanuelle Devos. Three stars

"The Karate Kid" (PG, 126 minutes). Faithfully follows the plot of the 1984 classic, but stands on its own feet and takes advantage of beg shot on location in China. Jackie Chan dials down convincingly as the quiet old janitor with hidden talents, and Jaden Smith (son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith) holds the screen with glowing charisma. The obligatory final fight climax is unusually well-handled. Three and a half stars

"The A-Team" (PG-13, 121 minutes). an incomprehensible mess with the 1980s TV show embedded within. at over two hours of Queasy-Cam anarchy it's punishment. Same team, same types, same traits, new actors: Liam Neeson, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, “Rampage” Jackson, Patrick Wilson. One and a half stars

"OSS 117: Lost in Rio" (Unrated, 101 minutes). French Special Agent 117 came before James Bond, and inspired an incredible 281 novels. But here's the second recent 117 movie to parody the 007 titles, and Jean Dujardin, the star, has some of the self-kidding cool of Sean Connery. The plot climaxes on atop the right arm of the Christ statue towering above Rio, and on the way there 117 offends and insults almost everyone he meets--not to hurt them, but because he is awesomely ignorant and clueless. Three stars

"October Country" (Unrated, 80 minutes) A stark, honest documentary of four generations of a family in the Mohawk Valley of New York, who live in two adjacent houses and share a sad, resigned narrative of their dysfunctions. "Bad taste in men runs in the family," observes a bright 11-year-old granddaughter, who is a spark in the gloom. The patriarch has been depressed sine he came home from Vietnam. His wife is a practical survivor. Their daughters have moved between abusive relationships. A son not seen on screen co-directed the film, which follows them from one Halloween to the next. Three stars.

"Get Him to the Greek" (R, 108 minutes). Jonah Hill plays an earnest young record exec assigned to deliver a wasted rock star (Russell Brand) to his comeback concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. This sets in motion a screwball raunch fest with a surpassingly effective foundation of slow-building friendship. With Elisabeth Moss and Kate Byrne as women tired of enabling. Vulgar, scatological, obscene and funny. Three stars

"Micmacs" (R, 104 minutes). A feckless video store clerk gets a bullet in his head, is homeless, meets a troupe of oddballs living in high style in a junkyard, and conspires with them to gain revenge against the manufacturer of both the bullet and the land mine that killed his father. An elaborate, fantastical comedy by Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("Amelie"), whose visual invention unfortunately upstages the thin story. Two and a half stars