03/12/10 Film clips

OPENING TODAY

"BROKEN EMBRACES" -- Penelope Cruz and director Pedro Almodovar reunite for a drama about a blind screenwriter recalling how he lost the love of his life. Also starring Lluis Homar and Blanco Portillo. In Spanish with subtitles. (R for sexual content, language, some drug material.)

"GREEN ZONE" -- "Bourne" director Paul Greengrass turns his camera to pre-surge Iraq in this thriller starring Matt Damon as an Army officer who goes searching for weapons of mass destruction amid subterfuge, politics and cover-ups. Also starring Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Khalid Abdalla and Brendan Gleeson. (R for violence and language.)

"OUR FAMILY WEDDING" -- Two families go into competitive overdrive when their children announce they want to get married. Starring America Ferrera, Lance Gross, Forest Whitaker, Carlos Mencia and Regina King. Directed by Rick Famuyiwa. (PG-13 for some sexual content and brief strong language.)

"REMEMBER ME" -- Robert Pattinson stars as a troubled young man who connects with a girl in the summer of 2001 in this romantic drama. Also starring Emilie de Ravin, Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper and Ruby Jerins. Directed by Allen Coulter. (PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language and smoking.)

"SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE" -- An average-Joe airport security agent scores big when a super-babe inexplicably falls for him. Starring Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, Krysten Ritter, T.J. Miller and Debra Jo Rupp. Directed by Jim Field Smith. (R for language and sexual content.)

CLOSED CAPTIONED

"LEAP YEAR" (Sunday-Monday, Yakima Cinema) -- A woman tired of waiting for her boyfriend to propose hatches a scheme to make sure they spend Feb. 29 in Ireland, where tradition allows women to propose. Starring Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, John Lithgow and Adam Scott. Directed by Anand Tucker. (PG for sensuality and language.)

HELD OVER

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" (3-D and 2-D) -- A teenage Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to the magical land she visited as a child in director Tim Burton's seventh collaboration with Johnny Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter. Also starring Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Michael Sheen and Alan Rickman. (PG for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar.)

"ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL" -- A battle of the bands pits Alvin, Simon and Theodore against a threesome of female chipmunks -- The Chipettes -- in Part 2 of their big-screen adventures. The voice cast includes Justin Long, Anna Faris and Christina Applegate, as well as live-in-the-flesh David Cross and Jason Lee. Directed by Betty Thomas. (PG for some mild rude humor.)

"AVATAR" -- In director James Cameron's high-tech, 3-D, sci-fi extravaganza, a wounded soldier inhabits a virtual new body on a distant planet where there's a war brewing between humans and the planet's blue-skin aliens. Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi. (PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking.) OSCAR WINS: Visual effects, art direction, cinematography.

"THE BLIND SIDE" -- A homeless African-American teenager is taken in by a wealthy white couple as part of a college football recruitment program in this adaptation of Michael Lewis' nonfiction best-seller. Starring Quinton Aaron, Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw and Kathy Bates. Directed by John Lee Hancock. (PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references.) OSCAR WIN: Best actress (Sandra Bullock).

"BROOKLYN'S FINEST" -- Three unconnected Brooklyn cops wind up at the same deadly location after taking vastly different career paths. Starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes and Ellen Barkin. Directed by Antoine Fuqua. (R for bloody violence throughout, strong sexuality, nudity, drug content and pervasive language.)

"COP OUT" -- Two New York City cops (Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan) are on the trail of a thief who has stolen a priceless baseball card in this buddy movie. Also starring Adam Brody, Kevin Pollak and Seann William Scott. Directed by Kevin Smith. (R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality.)

"THE CRAZIES" -- A group of small-town Iowans try to survive when the local residents turn into snarling lunatics after the water supply is contaminated. It's a remake of George A. Romero's little-seen 1973 cult classic. Starring Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson and Danielle Panabaker. Directed by Breck Eisner. (R for bloody violence and language.)

"CRAZY HEART" -- A broken-down country singer becomes involved with a journalist and takes stock of his career and his life. Starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall. Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb. Written and directed by Scott Cooper. (R for brief sexuality and language.) OSCAR WINS: Best actor (Jeff Bridges), original song ("The Weary Kind" by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett).

"DEAR JOHN" -- A soldier and a woman carry out a seven-year romance from a distance while he's on assignment. Based on the Nicholas Sparks novel. Starring Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins and Henry Thomas. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. (PG-13 for some sensuality and violence.)

"FROM PARIS WITH LOVE" -- A trigger-happy spy and his inexperienced partner race to thwart a terrorist attack in Paris. Starring John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Kasia Smutniak. Directed by Pierre Morel. (R for strong bloody violence throughout, drug content, pervasive language and brief sexuality.)

"LEGION" -- After God decides to start over, the archangel Michael helps a group of mortals fend off the Apocalypse. Starring Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Tyrese Gibson and Lucas Black. Directed by Scott Stewart. (R for strong, bloody violence, and language.)

"PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF" -- A teen demigod who is the son of the sea god Poseidon is falsely suspected of stealing uncle Zeus' lighting bolt, sending him on a quest to find the true culprit. Based on the Rick Riordan fantasy books about the modern-day machinations of the Greek gods. Starring Logan Lerman, Rosario Dawson, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman and Catherine Keener. Directed by Chris Columbus. (PG for action violence and peril, some scary images and suggestive material, and mild language.)

"SHUTTER ISLAND" -- Director Martin Scorsese's adaptation of novelist Dennis Lehane's novel is a 1950s mystery that has two U.S. marshals (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) searching for an escaped murderess from a creepy island insane asylum. Also starring Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow and Jackie Earle Haley. (R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity.)

"THE TOOTH FAIRY" -- Dwayne Johnson plays a hockey player magically sentenced to serve a week as the mythical tooth fairy. Also starring Ashley Judd and Julie Andrews. Directed by Michael Lembeck. (PG for mild language, some rude humor and sports action.)

"VALENTINE'S DAY" -- Intertwining couples and singles in Los Angeles break up and make up based on the pressures and expectations of Valentine's Day. Starring Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts and Taylor Swift. Directed by Garry Marshall. (PG-13 for some sexual material and brief partial nudity.)

"WHEN IN ROME" -- Passions are magically aroused when a New Yorker steals some coins from a fountain during a visit to Rome and suddenly finds herself pursued by a chain of Romeos. Starring Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel and Danny DeVito. Directed by Mark Steven Johnson. (PG-13 for some suggestive content.)

"THE WOLFMAN" -- Benicio Del Toro is the hairy beast in this update of the horror classic, playing a black sheep son who returns to his ancestral home in England a changed man. Also starring Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. Directed by Joe Johnston. (R for bloody horror violence and gore.)

-- Compiled by the Yakima Herald-Republic