Point Blank

"Point Blank": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

"Point Blank" will leave you breathless. Unfolding at a blistering clip from its slam-bang opening through its bravura close, it grips you at frame one and doesn't let go.

A tiptop French thriller that's reminiscent of everything from Alfred Hitchcock to 2006's "Tell No One," "Point Blank" is genre all the way. Its story of an ordinary man facing extraordinary peril doesn't go anywhere we haven't gone before, but seeing familiar material presented with such crisp élan brings intense pleasure.

Read Turans's full review of "Point Blank" at the LA Times

Point Blank 
Samuel (Lellouche) is a happily married nurse working in a Paris hospital. When his very pregnant wife (Anaya) is kidnapped before his helpless eyes, everything falls apart. After being knocked unconscious, he comes to and his cell phone rings: he has three hours to get Sartet (Zem), a man under police surveillance, out of the hospital. Shot on location in wide lens, POINT BLANK is an exhilarating non-stop ride through Paris' streets, subways, hospitals, warehouses, and police stations, as Samuel quickly finds himself pitted against rival gangsters and trigger-happy police in a deadly race to save the lives of his wife and unborn child.

Opened July 22, 2011 | Run time:1 hr. 24 min. 
Note: This film is released in French with English subtitles.
Cast: Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gérard Lanvin, Elena Anaya, Mireille Perrier
Director: Fred Cavayé
Genres: Action Thriller, Thriller

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The Guard

"The Guard": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

In the fun 'The Guard,' Brendan Gleeson is at his clever best as the rowdy police sergeant giving Don Cheadle's uptight FBI agent a dose of his own brand of Irish welcome amid a murder investigation. As befits a film set in the spacious west of Ireland, "The Guard" is not a breath but a great gust of very funny fresh air. An impish and impudent black comedy that knows where it's going and how to get there, it gives veteran actor Brendan Gleeson one of the tastiest roles of his career and introduces a gifted writer-director with a familiar family name.

Read Turan's full review of "The Guard" at the LA Times

The Guard
A vulgar Irish cop (Brendan Gleeson) and a straight-laced American FBI agent (Don Cheadle) uncover police corruption among the former's superiors while probing a drug-trafficking ring.

Opened July 29, 2011
Run time:1 hr. 36 min.
Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Rory Keenan, Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Genres: Black Comedy, Detective Film, Comedy

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

The smart script, impressive cast and crackerjack direction make this origin story fantastic summer fare. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" does it right. Smart, fun and thoroughly enjoyable, it's a model summer diversion that entertains without insulting your intelligence. Adroitly blending the most modern technology with age-old story elements, it's also an origin story that answers the question that's been hanging in the air since 1968: How did it happen that apes rule?

Read Turan's full review of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" at the LA Times

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Will Rodman (James Franco), a scientist in San Francisco, is experimenting with a drug that he hopes will cure his father's (John Lithgow) Alzheimer's disease. After his work is deemed a failure, Will becomes the guardian of Caesar, an infant chimp who was exposed in-utero to Will's drug. Caesar displays unusual intelligence, and Will decides to continue his experiments secretly. But as Caesar's intellect and abilities grow, he comes to represent a threat to man's dominion over Earth.

Opened August 5, 2011 | Run time:1 hr. 50 min.
Cast: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Andy Serkis, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Richard Ridings, Chris Gordon, Devyn Dalton, Jay Caputo
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Genres: Sci-Fi Action, Science Fiction

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Crazy, Stupid, Love

"Crazy, Stupid, Love": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

The romantic comedy and its stellar cast play out each of the title's three words to brilliant, but it's love in all its permutations that comes away with the starring role. "Crazy, Stupid, Love" is one from the heart and one for the heart. This grand romantic gesture about grand romantic gestures conjures up the bittersweet magic of first loves, lasting loves, lost loves and all the loves in between. It may well restore your faith in the very possibility of love, to say nothing of romantic comedies.
Read reviewer's full review of "Crazy, Stupid, Love" at the LA Times

Crazy, Stupid, Love
At 40-something, straight-laced Cal Weaver is living the dream-good job, nice house, great kids and marriage to his high school sweetheart. But when Cal learns that his wife, Emily, has cheated on him and wants a divorce, his "perfect" life quickly unravels. Cal is taken on as wingman and protégé to handsome, thirty-something player Jacob Palmer. Jacob opens Cal's eyes to the many options before him: flirty women, manly drinks and a sense of style that can't be found at Supercuts or The Gap. Cal's son is crazy about his 17-year-old babysitter, who harbors a crush on Cal. And despite Cal's makeover and his many new conquests, the one thing that can't be made over is his heart, which seems to keep leading him back to where he began.

Opened July 29, 2011 | Run time:1 hr. 47 min.
Cast: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton Director: John Requa Genres: Comedy of Manners, Romantic Drama, Comedy

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Kenneth Turan:

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2' is the last, and one of the best, in the film series with the veteran cast and creative team back with a thrilling and satisfying finish.

In a classic storybook finish, however, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2" turns out to be more than the last of its kind. Almost magically, it ends up being one of the best of the series as well.

Read Turan's review of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2' at the LA Times

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
The end begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to Hogwarts to find and destroy Voldemort's final horcruxes, but when Voldemort finds out about their mission, the biggest battle begins and life as they know it will never be the same again.
Opened July 15, 2011 | Run-time: 2 hr. 5 min.

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane
Director: David Yates
Genres: Children's Fantasy, Fantasy Adventure, Fantasy, Children's/Family


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Another Earth

"Another Earth": LA Times Critics' Choice Award from Betsy Sharkey:

Director Mike Cahill has woven sci-fi imaginings and quantum physics theories of parallel universes into a provocative meditation on the prospect of rewriting your life history. It is no simple task to spin such abstract notions into smart (versus cheesy) entertainment, but there is such a strong creative voice stirring in Cahill's first feature that it's easy to forgive the shortcomings.Read Sharkey's full review of "Another Earth" at the LA Times

Another Earth
Following her release from jail, a morose young woman (Brit Marling) seeks out the man (William Mapother) whose life she shattered in a car accident several years earlier.
Opened July 22, 2011 (Limited 7/22) | Run-time:1 hr. 32 min.
Cast: Brit Marling, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, D.J. Flava, William Mapother, Meggan Lennon
Director: Mike Cahill
Genres: Psychological Drama, Drama

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