Movie Review: Conan the Barbarian Is Super Cheesy Fun, but Doesn't Know It

Simon Varsano/Lionsgate

Review in a Hurry: A gleeful throwback to the not-even-hugely-popular-in-its-day subgenre of '80s R-rated fantasy, the kind of movie a 13 year-old boy may lap up now and be embarrassed about years later. Not that there's anything wrong with that—it may be ridiculous as all get-out, but the fact that the exaggeration is so irony free is charming in its own way.

READ THIS, TOO! Conan hottie to Arnold: "Leave me alone!"

The Bigger Picture: Does anybody remember how, in the lead up to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Michael Bay made a big deal about how 3-D requires longer shots so that the eye can perceive it properly, and therefore his editing would be less hyper? Yeah, Conan the Barbarian director Marcus Nispel never got that memo. So while it's possible that there are kids out there with short enough attention spans to follow the action sequences herein, it's highly unlikely that the 3-D effects in them will be observed—let alone appreciated—by the naked eye.

Determined to offend anyone who would dare take things too seriously, Nispel's new take on Robert E. Howard's hulking hero begins with fetal Conan in the womb. Prematurely born as the result of a sword slash, the kid is cut out of his mom by Ron Perlman and the ZZ Top pelt that adorns his face. The mother names her son with her last breath, as dad raises his animatronic baby boy to the heavens and screams. Perhaps somebody found this emotionally stirring at one point or another, but don't worry if it elicits laughter—you may still have fun with what's to come.

Years later, the bad guy from Avatar and his daughter, all done up like Babylon 5's Londo Mollari, come a-calling, seeking a piece of bone that will finish the assemblage of a magic crown. In the process, Conan's dad is killed and the youngster is emotionally and physically scarred. Years go by, and our barbarian grows up to be Jason Momoa, Londo Mollari-like girl becomes Rose McGowan, and Stephen Lang's Khalar Zym stays the same age somehow. Maybe it's the bone crown.

From here on out, it's a fairly simple tale of revenge, complicated only by the fact that the villains need a particular female sacrifice to complete their task, in this case Rachel Nichols' Tamara. Since the world these characters inhabit is largely computer-generated and mostly uninhabited, the stakes seem pretty low–does anyone really care if some warlord resurrects his dead wife? Based on what we actually see, these cities all have a population of like 20 people anyway. It's not like any villain could do much with that.

But of course it doesn't matter.

What matters is that Conan fights guys made of sand, Conan fights a tentacle-monster, Conan cuts a guy's nose off. It should be noted that Conan is also stunningly sexist, consistently treating Tamara like a slave and an object, for which she instantly falls in love with him.

Momoa, who in early stills looked like a male model playing dress-up, is surprisingly good. He may not get any lines as memorable to Arnold Schwarzenegger's answer to what is good in life, but he makes a solid action hero in more ways than one.

So did director Nispel intend an inherent camp factor? Given his filmography, it seems unlikely. But then it wouldn't be half as charming if the film were actually winking at itself; let's not forget Arnold did that in an ill-advised sequel (and spin-off, if you count Red Sonja) the first time around.

The original Barbarian is still classic, but Nispel has at least made the second-most-fun Conan movie to date.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Khalar Zym travels over desert terrain in a giant boat carried on the backs of elephants. There's a Werner Herzog movie in there somewhere, and imagining it is sometimes more fun than watching what's actually onscreen.

PHOTOS! Arnold Schwarzenegger's Big Movies

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Movie Review: Winnie the Pooh Is Sweet Like Hunny

Disney Enterprises

Review in a Hurry: It's trickier than it looks to make a movie that offends absolutely nobody, but Winnie the Pooh is as close as it gets. Neither age-inappropriate nor insultingly childish, this classic-feeling throwback (in glorious 2-D hand-drawn animation!) stays true to the beloved characters and the books by A.A. Milne—though in doing so, it's also unavoidably scattershot and short.

MORE: Movie Review: Relax! They Didn't Screw Up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

The Bigger Picture: Not including the animated short that precedes it—in which Billy Connolly narrates the Loch Ness monster's origin story—and the animated end titles (complete with post-credits gag), Winnie the Pooh has a running time of about an hour. To be true to Pooh, one really only can tell short stories, though directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall jazz things up visually by literally making the book's text come alive, and aurally by casting John Cleese as the omniscient narrator who occasionally addresses the characters directly.

If you're reading this, we can probably safely assume you know the basics of the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh and friends are the stuffed playthings of a young English boy named Christopher Robin, and the "silly old bear" is constantly on the hunt for "hunny." He's alternately assisted and hindered by smarty-pants Owl, scaredy-cat Piglet, obsessive Rabbit, rambunctious Tigger, depressive Eeyore and the lovingly familial mother-son team of Kanga and Roo. In the unlikely event that you somehow escaped childhood not knowing any of that, find a nearby kid and have them explain.

The movie mostly deals with the search for Eeyore's lost tail, as well as a missing Christopher Robin who is presumed to have been abducted by a mythical beast called the Backson (a misreading of a note that says "back soon"). It's a plot familiar to Milne readers and thin material for a feature, but you can't just go writing a new story willy-nilly without alienating a massive chunk of the audience: young'uns who'll nitpick every deviation from the source. Yet the story is so episodic that it feels like it was designed to be started and stopped on the DVD player at any point, to be easily resumed without any confusion. That's not necessarily a criticism, but nor is it a wholehearted endorsement of a full-price admission purchase to the big-screen presentation.

New songs written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Richard Lopez and sometimes Zooey Deschanel are charming and fit the whimsical tone, though Deschanel's rendition of the classic theme song may be an acquired taste. The new voice actors are universally good, with Jim Cummings a near-dead ringer for the late Sterling Holloway and Craig Ferguson channeling his old Drew Carey Show persona for Owl.

Whether this movie serves as an introduction to Pooh or a refresher, kids should love it and you won't feel bad about them loving it. But you can easily wait for DVD—if you have children of your own, you'll end up buying it anyway.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Unlike the feature, that Nessie short really is only for the very young, and with its moral that crying for days on end solves your problem it perhaps is not one you want tantrum-prone tots to take to heart.

PHOTOS: Flick Pics: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

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Movie Review: The Smurfs Is a Giant Smurfing Pile of Smurf

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Animation

Review in a Hurry: It's a Smurfs movie. What did you expect? If your answer is "a kid-friendly adaptation of the Peyo comics," you're not thinking enough like a Hollywood executive. There's more character and expressiveness in the cartoon drawings over the film's end credits than is shown at any other point. But on the bright side, at least some of the actors actually try to make it all work.

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The Bigger Picture: Yes, this really is the epitome of cynical studio cash grabs that it appears to be. Take a property with brand-name identification, throw a ton of money and a couple of name actors at it, add in some inappropriately adult-themed stuff for parents and a shoehorned-in moral for kids. Then make sure there's product placement galore, as well as prominent usage of some of the same classic-rock songs that are in everything.

Voila: The Smurfs.

The Hanna-Barbera cartoon that this is most based upon was never really that good to begin with; it was a preposterous fantasy tale for kids, offering little to remember beyond the infernally catchy "La, la, la-la-la la" theme song. It'd be easier to forgive this live-action/animated adaptation, however, if it kept the kids in mind, perhaps by telling a tale set in that realm of wizards and monsters, featuring the Smurfs' traditional (and young) human pals Johan and Peewit/Peewee.

Instead, because of the idea that parents should be marketed to as well, the Smurfs have to leave medieval Europe via an accidentally generated magic portal and come to modern-day New York City, where they can involve themselves in the life of a put-upon marketing strategist (Neil Patrick Harris) and his pregnant wife (Jayma Mays). Along the way, of course we have to put up with gratuitous references to other films, including some mature titles that are really jarring in this context (Midnight Cowboy, Brokeback Mountain, Braveheart).

Harris works hard to make the movie work, at one point literally pointing out every single absurdity of the Surfs' entire existence, which makes for a funny moment despite undermining the whole premise.

Hank Azaria's hammy, evil wizard Gargamel, here augmented with an odd foreign accent, is a hoot, particularly when interacting with his occasionally digital feline sidekick Azrael. And among the Smurfs, special props to Fred Armisen, whose impersonation of the original Brainy Smurf's voice is far better than any mimicry the SNL star has ever done before.

All else feels forced, from the plot points to the unrealistic behavior of every major human character to the stagey nature of the pratfalls. It isn't desperately painful to sit through, but you're likely to hate yourself if you pay for it.

The 180—a Second Opinion: An early moment with the Smurfs flying on storks is both faithful to the source and thrilling in 3-D. Everything most of the movie isn't.

PHOTOS: Movies From the Future!

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Movie Review: Anne Hathaway Learns It Takes Years to Fall in Love in One Day

Giles Keyte, Focus Feature

Review in a Hurry: Two college grads (Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess) begin a friendship that spans 20 years before it blossoms into something more. Despite the familiar When Harry Met Sally, friends-first, opposites-attract contrivances, this romance is intermittently loveable, thanks to a glam cast and witty script.

MORE: Anne Hathaway is a pretty kitty

The Bigger Picture: Emma and Dexter couldn't be more different. So it's evident from their almost-intimate first encounter and their vow to just be buds that they're destined to fall in love. It's the oldest rom-com trick in the book—or in this case, David Nicholls' bestselling novel. But this bittersweet adaptation makes their two decades of foreplay (mostly) worth the wait.

Emma is a working-class girl with writerly aspirations, but a cynical lack of confidence. Dexter is a wealthy, cocksure cad with a taste for women and booze. Somehow Em and Dex click, at least as BFFs.

Starting on the night of their college graduation, July 15, 1988, Day checks in with Em and Dex every subsequent July 15th. Their lives are usually out of synch: While she works a crap job and suffers a passionless relationship, he's a TV star and married man. Then when Em finds love and success as an author in Paris, London-living Dex sinks his family and career. Eventually, kismet kicks in as these crazy, stupid lovers realize what we've known since scene one.

Perhaps the same-time-next-year device worked better in the book, but here it's unnecessarily gimmicky and forces the film to account for each year, instead of conflating events. Plus, the onscreen treatment of dates, though playful at first, gets precious and distracting.

Hathaway, with her doe eyes and shaky British accent, develops a warm rapport with charmer Sturgess. Their easy chemistry makes it credible that these characters would keep circling back to each other, despite the ups and downs and near-misses. And their snappy banter prevents key moments from getting soaked in sap and sentimentality.

Though far from perfection, this is still one fine Day.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Can we please have a moratorium on scenes featuring a new dad trying to quiet/entertain a crying baby? It's not endearing—it's as grating as the toddler's tantrum.

PHOTOS: Fashion Spotlight: Anne Hathaway

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Movie Review: Final Destination 5 Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies in the End

New Line Cinema

Review in a Hurry: Critics of the Final Destination sequels may say they appeal only to sick, twisted individuals who like to laugh at onscreen misfortune...and they'd be absolutely right. Hard to believe that the first movie aimed at being a genuinely suspenseful shocker from a pair of X-Files producers; it's now all strictly about the elaborate kills, and the associated red herrings. If you know and dig this, you'll have a blast.

PHOTOS: Movie Premiere Pandemonium

The Bigger Picture: It's honestly no insult to say that the best thing about FD5 is its credits—they may be the most gloriously overboard examples of such ever committed to film. Opening titles throw multiple hazardous objects at your face in a shower of 3-D broken glass, while the end credits showcase a montage of the franchise's greatest deaths enhanced with additional 3-D gore and scored to AC/DC.

If you missed any of the first four installments, the formula is as follows: Massive disaster sequence, usually involving attractive young men and women dying violently. Sudden reveal that this was just a premonition, as one character starts yelling at everybody to run away because something bad is going to happen. A significant number of people go along with it, only to later find themselves dying as a result of mysterious Rube Goldberg-like coincidences, in the order they would have died anyway. Each time, the designated main character tries to figure out a way to make an exception to death's arbitrary rules, and every time thus far everyone has ended up eventually buying it anyway.

As a result, there's no real continuity (save the occasional Tony Todd cameos as a creepy mortician) and no suspense to speak of. Death may literally be an invisible hand in this series, but he/she/it is nonetheless the best modern-day equivalent of Jason Voorhees—as in the Friday the 13th sequels, the thrill is in the slasher's creative sadism. Except Jason only got one 3-D movie, and FD is now on to its second. (It should be noted that both franchises fake-promised to stop at part 4.)

Of the new cast, only Miles Fisher really makes an impression. As the absurdly focused team leader for the local paper factory, he comes off like a demented young Tom Cruise (a role he portrayed previously in Superhero Movie). Director Steven Quale, a James Cameron protégé, keeps things reasonably fun despite the fact that we really don't care about much that happens between moments of violence. The ending, however, rewards longtime fans nicely.

The 180—A Second Opinion: It's probably too much to expect in a sequel with this high a number, but a plot that actually got into why death behaves in such a capricious manner might keep our attention more than the frivolous relationship drama we get now.

GALLERY: Movies From the Future

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Movie Review: Selena Gomez Brings Sugary Disney Sweetness to Europe in Monte Carlo

Larry Horricks/Twentieth Century Fox

Review in a Hurry: Tween idol Selena Gomez tackles not one, but two roles for her big-screen adventure, playing both a Texas waitress who travels to Paris and the snotty, rich, tabloid celebrity whom she gets mistaken for. Along the way, she ends up crushing on some dude with a crazy 'do, naturally.

A flick with a Disney star usually means broad humor, but thankfully the laughs come without pratfalls. Selena fans will be pleased that she's just as spunky as ever. Parents will not be bored...at least? too much.

MORE: Get our review of Transformers: Dark of the Moon!

The Bigger Picture: Grace (Gomez) dreams of getting out of her small Texas town. She's spent four years working at a diner saving for her dream trip to Paris with her BFF Emma (Katie Cassidy). Mom (Andie MacDowell) is anxious for her daughter to see the world but has one condition: Her older stepsister, Meg (Leighton Meester), will be the trip's chaperone. Meester (Blair from Gossip Girl) makes with her brand of know-it-all sass.

But when the trio enter a ritzy motel to get out of the rain, Grace gets the royal treatment. Turns out she's a ringer for British socialite Cordelia Winthrop Scott. So Grace impersonates! Don't feel bad for Cordelia though, as it comes as no surprise that she's a grade-A jerk. Although, as Cordelia we're not sure why Gomez sounds like a snotty version of Angelina Jolie...but...just go with it.

Gomez might be the stunner in a fancy evening gown, but it's CW alumnae Meester and Cassidy (Supernatural, Melrose Place) who shine. Meester can make any role more interesting than it deserves. Cassidy plays a gal from a small town who loves shiny, pretty things. Her enthusiasm feels genuine.

So maybe it's not Gomez to blame but the character of Grace. Grace feels some remorse for her identity thievery but only at the very end of the movie. After all, there are those lovely dresses to be worn, boys to swoon over and did we mention a $3 million necklace that gets "misplaced." Of course it does.

In the spirit of situational comedy, the "OMG! What do we do next?!" kind, the script clicks. What young gal wouldn't want the opportunity to be famous, have it all and party in a gorgeous place like Monte Carlo? Director Thomas Bezucha filmed on location in Paris and Monte Carlo, and both look superb.

The film's lessons on friendship and growing up are effective. Nothing's ever as dire as things were for those sisters of the traveling pants, but that's fine. Sometimes girls just want to have fun.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Glee's Cory Monteith plays Owen, boyfriend to Cassidy's Emma. In a subplot that sidetracks the fun, he travels to Paris to declare his true love for her. Monteith is solid, but cutting away from the three gals living it up in Europe is distracting.

PHOTOS: Totally New Releases!

(Originally published June 30, 2011, at 6 p.m. PT)

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Movie Review: Zookeeper Should Be Considered Cruelty to Audiences

Tracy Bennett/Sony Pictures

Review in a Hurry: Kevin James goes from mall cop to zoo dude, but the results are just as disappointing. He's a guy in love with a gal who's not worth his time, but he has a posse full of animals that can actually speak voiced by Sylvester Stallone and Cher among others. And they're all ready to help him woo his mate.

Little kids might love the critters, but adults will have a hard time caring about the disjointed plot. No one will dig the long running time. How many poop jokes from an Adam Sandler monkey does one film need?

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The Bigger Picture: Ever since his breakout as Will Smith's pal in Hitch, Kevin James has played role after role as the charming guy whose heart is as oversized as his frame. But as seen in Paul Blart and now, Zookeeper, that one mode of acting is not enough.

Griffin (James) has been a zookeeper for nearly a decade, but apparently even in these hard economic times, that awesome-sounding job isn't enough for his shrill girlfriend Stephanie (Leslie Bibb, who must be frustrated that this is the only role she gets anymore). She dumps him the moment he proposes to her. A few years later, Griffin is still working at the zoo, but his ex (who's now older and out of options) is thinking maybe she should have stayed with him. He still loves her (why?), but has no idea how to get her back. Right there, this feels disingenuous. Why does the script by James, Nick Bakay and Rock Reuben need Griffin to bend over backward for his ex if she clearly already wants him back? We're meant to believe it's because he's still got that "loser" job taking care of all those animals. Meanwhile, his coworker looks like Rosario Dawson and loves Griffin for who he is. Riiight.

Eventually this leads to the zoo animals revealing their secret to Griffin. They can talk! (And if you make it to the credits, they can sing...badly.) The CG lip-syncing looks cheap. There's Sly the Lion, Sandler the monkey and Maya Rudolph as a sassy giraffe. All speaking on top of each other. And it never feels like they're having the same conversation.

Odds are little kids won't notice. But all that would be OK if the antics of the zoo weren't disrupted to spend time with Griffin and his human pals like Ken Jeong. It isn't remotely convincing to see Griffin go to a wedding with his beard Rosario to try and make his ex jealous. Either go 100 percent with the talking animals concept or do the rom-com thing. Director Frank Coraci (The Waterboy) never finds the right tone.

As an actor James can't handle the ups and downs of the character. He's got that earnest-guy thing down, but trying to man up or roar like a lion falls flat. Without James to anchor the film, Zookeeper is a botched idea that's mildly diverting at best and a confusing mess at worst.

The 180—a Second Opinion: About halfway thru, Griffin breaks a gorilla out of his cage and heads to a TGI Friday. Nick Nolte providing the voice for the ape is weird and silly in a good way, and this scene is the only moment that feels unexpected and fresh.

PHOTOS: Movie Premiere Pandemonium!

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Movie Review: Crazy, Stupid, Love All Kinds of Crazy, Stupid Fantastic

Warner Bros. Pictures

Review in a Hurry: Steve Carell is a sad sack suburbanite. Ryan Gosling an über-cool urbanite. And both extremes find themselves in a romantic comedy about finding one's soul mate. Crazy, Stupid, Love supplies plenty of laughs but truly impresses in the low-key moments, revealing genuine warmth for its characters.

That they look like Emma Stone, Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon is just an added bonus.

WATCH: New Ides of March Trailer: Vote George Clooney in 2011!

The Bigger Picture: Fortysomething Cal (Carell) has bailed on his life. After his spouse of 25 years (Moore) tells him she wants a divorce—and that she slept with another man (Bacon)—Cal literally falls out of a moving vehicle. So he starts hanging out at a singles bar where he meets Jacob (Gosling), a smooth thirtysomething who gets every woman he hits on.

Jacob decides Cal needs his help, partly because Jacob is a nice guy but mostly because he's simply tired of having to hear Cal whine on night after night about his failed marriage.

Let the man makeover begin!

"Be better than The Gap!" is Jacob's mantra.

Cal's transformation leads to one of the film's highlights. A random encounter with a "crazy" gal played by Marisa Tomei (hilarious and unpredictable). The setup is familiar—lonely dude gets freaky with a freaky gal—but Carell convinces as a big bundle of nerves and joy. Funny? Absolutely, but better than that, it's hard not to root for the guy.

Structurally, we're constantly dropping in and out of the lives of people who are all in some way or another obsessed with finding "the one." (Except Cal, who believes he did that 25 years ago and just wants her back.) As is standard for these stories, the characters lives seem unrelated, linked only by the city they reside in: a suburban-feeling Los Angeles.

While Crazy is an ensemble it's Cal's struggle to be the man his wife fell in love many years ago that resonates most. Carell is superb, never letting the jokes get in the way from allowing us to sympathize with Cal's heart ache.

Ryan Gosling has impressed as an actor (Blue Valentine), but Jacob might be his most likable part. He exudes the confidence of a star. Which is why when he admits to shopping QVC 24/7 it's still cool.

The supporting roles are all well cast. Stone (Easy A) is frazzled and lovely as a single gal. Moore makes her character's infidelity heartbreaking. Watch for a cameo by singer Josh Groban, schmucking it up as lousy boyfriend.

Peeling away the layers these people think they are in order to reveal the better person they can be ties the whole film together. This could have gone really cheesy, really fast. Some of the situations do seem born from a sitcom—like a teen babysitter who has a crush on Cal and whose son has a crush on her—but the script by Dan Fogelman and direction by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa slows things down to just observe their lives.

Past the crazy, and the stupid, is just a whole lotta love, actually.

The 180—a Second Opinion: A few scenes play way too big. Like, a car chase (really?) that feels out of place. Why do so many comedies feel the need to deliver such big moments when a story with characters we relate to makes pratfall gags unnecessary?

PHOTOS: Movies From the Future

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Movie Review: Fright Night the Perfect Amount of Vampires, Gore and Colin Farrell

DreamWorks

Review in a Hurry: Teen D-bag Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) fears his nerdy ex-friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) will reveal his own former nerd status. But there's a much nastier problem awaiting him than being a social outcast...Jerry the vampire has just moved in right next door.

The original Fright was the Scream of its age—filled with very clever quips about horror movies and quite bit of blood. The new one? Half the humor, twice the gore. Still, casting Colin Farrell as the fanged one is a big win.

PHOTOS: Check out the hottest vamps not from Twilight!

The Bigger Picture: The best gag Fright Night 2.0 has is while real vampires are nowhere to be found, jerky dudes seem to be everywhere. They might be dressed in black, play sports or even be geeks, but they sure do whine a lot. The script by Buffy alum Marti Noxon addresses this problem with a tasty solution: Enough with these self-absorbed teens, bring us an immortal to "take care" of these dolts!

Great idea! Let the mayhem begin!

Problem: The Charlie Brewster of this new version, our supposed hero who is tasked with vanquishing a bloodsucker and whom we're supposed to support, is the biggest jerkwad of the bunch. Even when Ed is begging for his help to find out what happened to another old friend (Jerry's first snack), Charlie blows him off. Yup, Charlie is a total douche. Yelchin (Star Trek) can be very charming but he fumbles here, not quite sure just how much of a tool he's supposed to be. Does he act this way because he's afraid he'll lose his hot girlfriend (Imogen Poots)? When he finally transforms into the hero, do we care? Nope.

The rest of the story, in a Vegas 'burb where it's always dusk, features Charlie facing off against Jerry. As played by Farrell, Jerry is smart as hell. Charlie is not so smart. Really, who sneaks into a vampire's house? They have super hearing!

The supporting cast clicks. Toni Collette (United States of Tara) plays Charlie's mom. Poots (Jane Eyre) gets a few slayer-esque moments. Mintz-Plasse has a nice turn once he's shuffled off his mortal coil.

Fright-wise, there are decent thrills, which the 3-D-filmed set pieces use to full effect. From a tract home to a tacky Luxor penthouse there's a great sense of danger at every turn.

The 180—a Second Opinion: While director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) mounts the thrills effectively, it's odd that his character-centric résumé (he also produced Collette's Tara) would produce such lackluster chemistry with his younger castmembers. Maybe he too had a hard time relating to such a shallow dude like Charlie. We can't blame him.

PHOTOS: Movies From the Future

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Movie Review: Glee: The 3D Concert Movie Completely Warms Our Cynical Hearts. Almost.

Adam Rose/Twentieth Century

Review in a Hurry: From small screen to the big stage, the world's most famous cover band (aka, the cast of Glee) rocked through season-one staples ("Don't Stop Believing") and empowering original songs ("Loser Like Me"). Despite all the drama surrounding the show, it was easy to get lost in the catchy songs and high-energy performances. With touching real-life underdog stories woven through the concert, Glee: 3D hits all the right notes, even if the 3-D was completely unnecessary.

MORE: Glee Exclusive Video: Ryan Murphy Admits He Was "Freaked Out" By Scandal, Promises "No Breakups"

The Bigger Picture: In just two seasons on television, Glee went from a magical show that championed underdogs to a controversial magnet that was surrounded by cast drama, rumors of divas on set and creator Ryan Murphy in the press every day. Basically, those who were once enchanted by Glee slowly turned into eye-rollers and cynical shoulder-shruggers. There was just too much mess revolving around the show.

But when you watch Glee: 3D, you forget about all that. It helps a lot that the castmembers are in their Glee characters during the movie. Lea Michele is talented and slighty crazy Rachel. Kevin McHale is smooth-wheeling Artie. Heather Morris is dumb but lovable Brittany. Most of the time we're just watching them perform, but occasionally in the film we talk to them backstage, and we're supposed to believe New Directions from Lima, Ohio, is now performing for thousands of screaming fans. The thing is...we do believe it.

Michele slays her vocals in "Don't Rain on My Parade" and pretty much every song she sings. Darren Criss has enough swagger during "Teenage Dream" to light up the entire arena (and the screams heard when he appears onstage prove it). McHale gets out of the wheelchair for a performance of "Safety Dance," and you're reminded that he's one of the best dancers on the show...We just rarely get to see it. Fact is, these guys are real superstars, maneuvering the stage like seasoned pros, but with enough enthusiasm to engage the crowd from beginning to end. And true, you can tell some of the numbers are lip-synced, but when Morris is killing her routine to "Slave 4 U," you don't even care! You're still dancing in your seat.

Another standout was Harry Shum Jr., who pulls double duty with Morris throughout the entire show. He's Glee's star dancer, and he's front and center for most of the numbers; plus, he has to "sing" along with everyone else. Amber Riley will not get quotation marks around her singing. No, sir! Mercedes once again proves that she can stand toe-to-toe with Rachel vocally during her rendition of "Ain't No Way."

Other highlights: Naya Rivera and Riley dueting to "River Deep, Mountain High," Shum and Morris' dance routine during "Valerie," Gwyneth Paltrow appearing onstage for "Forget You" and, of course, the goosebumps that you can't hold back during the opening notes of "Don't Stop Believing."

But woven throughout all the performances are in-depth looks at several Glee fans, and it's those moments that really squash the cynical thoughts. One is a gay teenager who was outed in a terrible way. Another is an outcast suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. And we also get to know a little person who's the star on her cheerleading squad. They've all been helped by Glee, and it's hard to roll your eyes when they reveal their secret fights with everyday society. Those moments are truly touching; magnified by the powerful performances of "Loser Like Me" and "SING."

Unfortunately, we do not get to see any of the skits performed onstage between songs that were crowd pleasers on tour. We see glimpses of it here and there, but Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) doesn't make an appearance, and the humor of New Directions' constant fighting is missing from the movie. Plus, the 3-D is nowhere near necessary, except in the end credits when slushies start flying through the air. That makes your cynical side return, but the encore of "Somebody to Love" pushes it right back down. You'll leave the theater smiling, and that's what Glee is supposed to do to us every week.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Glee: 3D is full of songs you've heard on TV before, but with masses of shrieking people added. Plus, a lot of the lip-synching insults the hard-core music fans. If you never enjoyed Glee, you most likely won't enjoy this.

VIDEO: Watch the Glee: The 3D Concert Movie Red Carpet Premiere!

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Movie Review: Apes Reboot Gets a Rise Out of Us

Twentieth Century Fox

Review in a Hurry: After all of the feel-good, comic-book heroics of summer, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a surprisingly nasty (in a good way) franchise reboot that comes closer than any prior POTA film to being a full-on horror movie. Unlike Tim Burton's "re-imagining," this hews closer to its immediate inspiration, 1972's Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the one in which oppressed chimps rise up to attack mankind and we humans in the audience cheer our own obsolescence every step of the way.

Oh, and this time it's all James Franco's fault.

GALLERY: Comic-Con Star Sightings

The Bigger Picture: Franco and precocious primates are a volatile combination. In 2005's The Ape, he inherited one as a roommate, and the resultant film was a cinematic disaster. In this movie, playing a scientist named Will Rodman, he secretly adopts a genetically altered chimp named Caesar (Andy Serkis), and a pretty fine piece of disaster cinema ensues.

Rodman's seeking an Alzheimer's cure so that he can save his father (John Lithgow), a once-brilliant musician. So he tests his vaccine on chimps, apparently making them smarter, until things go badly wrong and everything is shut down. But nobody knows about new ape-infant Caesar, so Rodman, unwilling to put him down, takes the sleeping simian home.

At first, the film is a bit iffy. The C.G.I. ape—as a child—looks unfinished and vaguely cartoonish, and the narrative brushes over several major leaps (Rodman has no idea that the female chimp he's carefully monitoring for medical side-effects is pregnant and about to give birth? Really?). But the more things proceed, the less that stuff matters (though there are a few shots towards the end that really could have used a few extra week's work on the rendering).

By the time an older Caesar makes trouble and gets thrown in a poorly run sanctuary with other apes, the suspension of disbelief is complete, even though (or maybe because) Caesar looks and emotes more like the real-life Andy Serkis than did the actor's previous motion-capture roles of Kong and Gollum.Considering his captors are a sadistic Tom Felton and an apathetic Brian Cox, the deck is stacked in terms of whom to root for.

You may think you know the entire story already, not just because it's a remake but also because the trailers give away some significant moments from the last part of the film. Fortunately, it turns out that 20th Century Fox has been playing some cards close to the vest. You probably don't know as much as you think you do, and it's a pleasure to watch the chaos theory in motion, with relatively minor events that come together in just the right way to create a planetary crisis (be sure to sit through the first part of the end credits for a crucial plot detail).

But be warned, this is no mild escapism. Apes and humans kick, punch, bleed, die and kill, while culture critics will have a field day wondering if the subtext is about slavery like the original, or perhaps the terrorists winning in the new era. Wink-wink in-jokes provide some levity, while fleeting newspaper headlines set up possible sequels. It'll be interesting to see how, and if, those evolve.

The 180—A Second Opinion: If you were hoping the C.G.I. had improved since the trailer...it hasn't. Then again, it's not like the rubber masks in the original were super-believable, and we love them anyway.

PHOTOS: Movies from the Future

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Movie Review: The Change-Up Is Like Freaky Friday, Except With Lots More Poop Jokes

Rocket Pictures

Review in a Hurry: This body-switching comedy plays like a super-raunchy Freaky Friday, with two best buds (Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds) accidentally swapping their wildly different lives. Funny performances and one-liners freshen the hackneyed premise somewhat, but Change-Up gets effed-up by sloppy storytelling and gratuitously vulgar gags.

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The Bigger Picture: Dudes, take note—this might not be a great first-date movie. Unless neither of you is embarrassed by jerking off, ball shaving and loads of poop jokes, not to mention the flimsy, demeaning treatment of female characters.

Longtime friends Dave (Bateman) and Mitch (Reynolds) have grown apart over the years. Dave is now a successful lawyer with the house, wife (Leslie Mann), and kids; Mitch is a single, perpetually stoned slacker with a roster of booty-call babes.

Dave and Mitch claim to envy each other's life, and after drunkenly peeing together in a park fountain, they get their "wish": they wake the next morning having switched psyches. Freaking out, they return to Zoltar, er, the fountain, but it's conveniently been relocated to an unknown location. So the guys keep up the ruse until they can reverse the curse. Expected high jinks ensue as they try not to destroy their respective lives and learn, of course, that the grass (and weed) isn't always greener.

Bateman and Reynolds, both adept comedians, convincingly embody their different personalities and admirably commit to some humiliating situations. But they can only squeeze so many laughs from a script that forces the writers' puerile sensibilities and then a sappy-happy ending.

In the opening scene, a baby hershey-squirts Dave in the mouth, and the poop just keeps on flying, along with the F-bombs. The depiction of women also stinks—poor Leslie Mann is seen naked on the toilet as she noisily takes a dump, and a skanky soft-core actress gets butt-probed by Mitch's thumb. Ugh. The movie isn't much kinder to kids, with the uncomfortable sight of young girls watching Dave and Mitch in their ultimate act of male bonding: taking a public piss.

Maybe save Change-Up for bromance night.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Stunningly lovely Olivia Wilde makes the most of her role as Dave's assistant and remains (mostly) unscathed by the movie's crude humor.

PHOTOS: Body Swap Madness!

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Movie Review: Spy Kids: All the Time in the World Will Probably Give You a Headache

Dimension Films

Review in a Hurry: When a demented clock maker threatens to snatch up all the time left on the planet, a new duo of spy kids arrive to save the day. First they have to become spies, but that won't take long once they discover their new stepmom (Jessica Alba) is a super spy and their dog is a talking robot (Ricky Gervais).

Fans (and their parents) of writer/director Robert Rodriguez's over-the-top candy-colored series know what's in store—bad acting, terrible effects, a barely there?plot. But even the tangiest of confections lose their flavor eventually. For Spy Kids that "time" has arrived...

FUN FACT: Spy Kids' Joel McHale hosts a little show we call The Soup

The Bigger Picture: What started a decade ago as a fun side project for Rodriguez—and a surprise hit—has become tired (as most sequels do) and rather obvious.

There's still plenty of plenty diaper bombs and other brightly-colored goop but the timing feels off. Much of Spy Kids 4 feels like underdeveloped riffs on the series. Even kids will have a hard time paying attention.

So there's the Timekeeper's plan to speed up time: first in nanoseconds then entire days. Essentially, this adds up to characters looking in astonishment as their timepieces speed up. It's as exciting as it sounds.

The identity of the Timekeeper is a mystery, since he sports a cheap plastic clock mask. The main baddie is his accomplice Tick Tok, who's a villain less by action and more because he wears big goggles and speaks with an annoying chipmunk-type voice.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Piven is the boss of OSS, the spy headquarters, delivering nearly all his lines like they're punchlines to non-jokes. Can that get things worse? A scene with a dozen computer-generated Pivens is a big yes.

All the while the new kids spend most of their time not actually doing that much. They bicker, play practical jokes (more goop) and fumble into becoming the titular spy kids. This amounts to much camera mugging and plenty of eye-rolling.

The original Kids were never great thespians but they owned their excitement to becoming a spy! These new kids, well sure they want to play with gloves that can make you go SMASH! and own backpack that has nearly everything in it but they don't seem very compelled to ya know, save the universe. And if they can't be bothered. Why should we?

Incidentally, the original spy kids do show up. Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara are older now but they're still directed like younger actors: all mugging, all the time.

Alba does her usual job of kicking butt, but here she brings a one year old along for missions. The baby is cute but it's a bit unsettling to see the tyke shoved into moments of frenetic action involving weapons and aerial stunts.

As is usual, pretty much all the name stars are wasted in their roles. Were you really expecting much here from Joel McHale, Gervais and Piven? We didn't think so.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Among many bad performances, Jessica Alba still manages to be so likable—and she looks great in a black cat suit!

PHOTOS: Hollywood's Sexiest Geeks

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Movie Review: Cowboys & Aliens Needs Better Aliens, More Cowboys

Universal Studios/DreamWorks

Review in a Hurry: Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford make a great onscreen team...so who thought it would be a great idea to just totally split them up for most of this movie? Was it you, director Jon Favreau? You used to be better than this. A handful of good scenes do not a great movie make.

WATCH: Eddie Murphy Teaches Ben Stiller Bad Things in New Tower Heist Trailer

The Bigger Picture: Craig plays an outlaw named Jake Lonergan, who has lost his memory and woken up with a strange metal device on his wrist. He seems like a natural good guy, but he has a dark past. Ford is Dolarhyde, a small-town big-shot who is widely disliked, both for not suffering failure well and for letting his alcoholic nutcase of a son (Paul Dano) get away with anything he likes. Yet beneath it all, the old grump has a soft side.

When metal flying things attack the town, scorching cattle and abducting humans, it's team-up time. But James Bond and Indiana Jones don't work all that well together, at least at first. Some epic staredowns and face-punches ensue. For a mismatched buddy movie, this is a good start.

Shame, then, that this isn't that kind of movie. Craig is soon paired off with Olivia Wilde (playing a tough cookie who hides a ridiculous secret) while Ford is left to hang with a dozen or so other characters who get established with no payoff. Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Keith Carradine and Clancy Brown are among the more notable supporting players left without much material, but they're far from the only ones.

Ford, who so often sleepwalks through generic hero parts these days, shows some real fire as a more ambiguous figure, lighting up the action (emotional and physical) when he can. Then the narrative cuts away from him and momentum gets lost again.

Poor pacing isn't the only problem. The aliens are really ineptly thought out compared to the cowboy side of the equation. Their motivations are silly, as is their biologically unlikely anatomy. Like the creature in Super 8, many of the things they do serve immediate story needs without making any sense once the grand scheme is unveiled.

Director Favreau used to have a good feel for genuine emotion. Think of the fraternal bonding in Zathura, or the daddy issues in Elf. Sad to say, he now falls for easier shortcuts, using a manipulative and treacly score to enunciate moments that haven't earned their weight.

But damn, that wrist-blaster thingy Craig wears is cool. Every kid who sees this will want one.

The 180—a Second Opinion: If it performs decently at the box office and a sequel is made that understands the Ford-Craig pairing is what makes things work as well as they do, all might not be in vain.

PHOTOS: Movies From the Future

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Movie Review: Relax! They Didn't Screw Up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Warner Bros Pictures

Review in a Hurry: Relax. They didn't screw it up. The grand finale of the Harry Potter saga brings narrative and emotional closure by finally delivering the grand confrontation all the previous films were building toward. Nonfans may be a little lost, but then, how many nonfans are going to jump into a franchise cold at part eight?

MORE! Top 10 Harry Potter Villains

The Bigger Picture: Let's get the most obvious questions out of the way first. The 3-D, which always sounded like an afterthought, works well (especially in IMAX). The dementors that hover around Hogwarts are enhanced particularly nicely, and an underground-dwelling albino dragon is surprisingly scary in stereoscopic.

Director David Yates still periodically allows some awkward edits, but he's gotten a lot better since Order of the Phoenix and is up to the challenge of ending things with a big bang. And he's not to blame for the franchise's curious early step of casting Warwick Davis in dual roles as Professor Flitwick and Griphook the Goblin, which has never felt more weird than in this film where both have significant scenes.

If the now-adult wizard Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) were real, we'd half-expect, after all he's been through, to turn to his professors and go: "See? You should have listened to me way back in the first movie!"

Being better than most of us, he does not do this, and anyway, if he did it would go against the primary metaphor of the books, which is the journey from boy to man, and the process of coming to grips with the weirdness of the adult world. Nemesis Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), looking like both a cancer patient and an overgrown baby gone bad, is less a full-on character in these movies than an embodiment of the fears of both arrested development and mortality.

One of the seldom-noted strengths of the Potter films is that, with the notable exception of Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), they treat death in a naturalistic fashion. People are casually, brutally dispatched, and that gets amped up here, with major players biting the bewitched bullet on- and off-screen. Parents should be warned that the PG-13 rating is probably inappropriate: there is blood and murder aplenty, not to mention a gross fetus-like monster.

What of everyone's favorite ambiguously mean teacher, Professor Snape (Alan Rickman)? Rest assured he gets the resolution he deserves, while providing crucial backstory. The movie could have used a bit more of him, though.

Blink and you may miss quick moments that wrap up the storylines of smaller supporting staff, though. Take a bathroom break and you may find yourself without information crucial to understanding the hows and the whys of all these good and evil wizards hurling energy bolts at each other.

We figure you'll be glued to the screen, so it won't be an issue: this is the summer spectacle you've been waiting for.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Readers of the book will remember a key scene and memorable line between Mrs. Weasley (Julie Walters) and Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). It's here, but it feels like it made it to the screen out of obligation. What should have been a stand-up-and-cheer moment is just something to quickly dispense before cutting back to Harry.

PHOTOS! Deathly Hallows: Part 2 premiere arrivals

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Movie Review: Looking for Great Comedy & Action? Then Pass on 30 Minutes or Less

WILSON WEBB/Sony Pictures

Review in a Hurry: Don't "friend" Jesse Eisenberg's Social Network follow-up. This manic, mean-spirited actionner about a pizza delivery guy who's forced to rob a bank plays like a very low-rent Coen Brothers comedy. You should get free pizzas for enduring more than 30 minutes of this dud.

MORE: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are all kinds of wet and wearing very little clothing

The Bigger Picture: After voraciously, uproariously sinking his teeth into the brain-chomping genre, Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer turns to cranially challenged criminals. But this scattershot bank-robbery caper is as brainless as its bumbling "masterminds"—and the hungry zombies before them.

Pizza-boy slacker Nick (Eisenberg) ends up delivering pies to the wrong guys—volatile morons Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson), who plot to off Dwayne's dad for his lottery winnings. See, they want to open a tanning salon that fronts for a prostitution ring. Genius.

The douchey dudes need cash to hire an assassin and kidnap Nick to steal the hit money for them. They strap the kid with a vest of explosives that will detonate if he contacts the police or fails to rob the specified bank within...10 hours. Why they give him so long makes no sense, but whatever.

As Dwayne and Travis keep watch (and yammer endlessly), Nick convinces former best bud Chet (Aziz Ansari) to help him with the heist. Their bungled burglary and drop-off is further complicated by the meddling assassin (Michael Pe?a) and his stripper girlfriend.

30 Minutes is less than it could've been. The pic poses as hipster cool and hilarious, but botches things as badly as the wannabe badasses. Any dark-comedy potential is marred by clumsy plotting, lame bros-before-hos bonding and witless banter riddled with racist, homophobic slurs.

Always earnest Eisenberg does his nervous, sputtery thing, while Ansari gets increasingly shrill and spastic. Boorish McBride and Swardson are similarly grating.

Fleischer does wrangle a few laughs and stages an exciting, mid-film car chase as well as a twisty (though overly dark) climax. But with the rest being crude filler, this whole flick should have run at 30 minutes or less.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Charismatic Pe?a is both sinister and sexy and rises above the stereotypical gangsta role.

PHOTOS: Movies From the Future

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Movie Review: Captain America May Be Ripped, but His Movie's Still a 98-Pound Weakling

Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures

Review in a Hurry: One of Marvel Comics' oldest heroes receives the big-screen treatment in a WWII period pic. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) becomes Captain America after he takes an experimental serum and transforms from a 98-pound asthmatic into a dude with serious muscles and really blonde hair. The perfect guy to fight the S.S. officer Red Skull who wants to rule the world!

But with cheap production value, a generic story and powers that barely feel all that super, the first Avenger is a weak superhero flick in a summer that's seen a dud (Green Lantern) and a hit (X-Men: First Class).

MORE: Captain America Sneak Peeks: A Snazzy Shield May Be the Best Sidekick Ever

The Bigger Picture: After a kinda cool opening in the present day where Cap's shield is found frozen in the Arctic, the story goes back 70 years—back to war. The period detail (old cars! women called dames!) is only a little more convincing than a theme park ride.

So we're stuck watching director Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer) merge his love for Hogan's Heroes gags with GI Joe-level action. That sounds like at least campy fun, right? It's not.

One of the biggest issues is that Captain America isn't all that super. When, for the first time, Captain has his official government-issued suit and Howard Stark's (Iron Man's dad!) red, white and blue Vibranium shield, he hurtles into the world of...montage? Seriously? We miss the action and have to settle for cinematic short change. When we do witness an actual scene, he's just a guy with a gun and a shield who's stronger than your average soldier.

And then there's Red Skull (a hammy Hugo Weaving) who's scientific tampering made his face look like a bad Halloween mask but gave him a good nickname. His obsession with the occult has led to the discovery of some blue energy that he loads into guns and bombs. Great, so the period flavor is ruined once the Nazis start shooting ray guns. Again, this sounds like silly fun that might satisfy kids. For the rest of us, nothing's ever that exciting and everything is fairly predictable.

Evans wears the suit well. It's just that the character of Captain America is paper-thin. Actually, worse than that. He starts with a bit of an arc thanks to the weakling with a big heart who won't back down angle, but once he dons the suit, that goes out the window.

There are some highlights: Tommy Lee Jones as a de facto, cranky military man earns some chuckles, and Samuel L. Jackson's required cameo as Nick Fury is great.

Converted 3-D? No, it's not worth the extra price. Like Thor the conversion is actually solid, but the world of the first Avenger isn't enhanced by an extra D.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Early on, the U.S. Army decides Cap's better as a symbol for the war effort than an actual hero. So he tours with the Rockettes and thrills really young kids while the GIs keep their eyes on the gals. This entertaining retro scene actually works. And then it's over...

PHOTOS: 2011 Comic-Con Star Sightings

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Movie Review: Horrible Bosses Is Funny, but Doesn't Let Its Cast Go All Out

John P. Johnson/New Line Cinema

Review in a Hurry: A gender-switched take on 9 to 5, Bosses follows three doofus dudes who conspire to kill their execrable supervisors and fail miserably. Though sporadically funny, this revenge comedy about emasculated males in the workplace is more talk when it should go balls-out insane.

MORE: Jennifer Aniston: "She's Like a Crazy Diva Sex Machine!"

The Bigger Picture: We're still feeling the effect of The Hangover—not just in that beat-by-beat copycat sequel, but in the myriad recent, raunchy, R-rated comedies. Case in point: Horrible Bosses, which also features a buddy trio bumbling through an out-of-control situation. Unfortunately, the pic never takes full advantage of its demented characters and talented cast.

The leads remain vague types: The ambitious, level-headed one, Nick (Jason Bateman), gets screwed over by his slimy manager (Kevin Spacey, riffing on his Swimming With Sharks persona). The horndog, Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), discovers his company's cokehead owner (Colin Farrell) is hell-bent on destroying his career. And then there's scattered, passive Dale (Charlie Day, the screechy love child of Bobcat Goldthwait and Zach Galifianakis), who's sexually harassed by a man-eater dentist (Jennifer Aniston).

At the breaking point but unable to quit, the friends plot to off these monsters but have no luck hiring an assassin. Instead, they take advice from an ex-con (Jamie Foxx), who suggests they kill each other's boss to avoid being tied to the crime.

Lean and mean to this point, the movie gets flabby and loses its footing. As inept killers, the guys can fumble, but the humor can't. The script swings a big bat—hitting some jokes, missing others—when you really want it to slay with a darker, sharper sword.

The three men have a fun, easy chemistry and do rack up laughs with their increasingly neurotic ranting. Spacey, Farrell, and Aniston appear to have a blast playing evil, though only Spacey's role gets a worthy story. And unfortunately, the female characters, including Aniston's, are merely frat-boy fantasies of sexually aggressive nymphs.

If Bosses had worked harder, it could've been promoted from "not horrible" to "kick ass."

The 180—a Second Opinion: Why cast the wonderful Donald Sutherland and then give him only a handful of lines right before he croaks in an offscreen car crash? What a weird waste.

PHOTOS: Movie Premiere Pandemonium!

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Movie Review: Friends With Benefits Is the First Decent Rom-Com in, Like, Forever

Sony Pictures

Review in a Hurry: Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis prove that insanely attractive twentysomethings can have it all! Including each other! And a pretty funny movie! Obvious? Maybe, but just a few months ago the same premise was an epic fail for Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.

MORE! Justin Timberlake surprises crowd at Comic-Con

The Bigger Picture: Funny dialogue helps. A strong supporting cast, including an inspired Woody Harrelson, helps too. J.T. and Kunis have great chemistry—both between the sheets and out of them—playing too smart for their own good types who spend their time deconstructing romantic comedies. But can the script stay formula-free?

Nah, but that's OK.

New York headhunter Jamie (Kunis) and L.A. dotcom wunderkind Dylan (Timberlake) both just got dumped. Their soon-to-be exes (nice cameos by Andy Samberg and Emma Stone) have similar complaints: too focused on their careers and too dysfunctional to function. Lucky for Jamie and Dylan they soon meet each other. (She lands him a swanky job at GQ magazine.)

Millennial media savvy Dylan and cute as heck Jamie know the rules of romantic comedies. They decide they'll do everything they can to avoid any future relationship messiness. They still need a partner for purely physical reasons so why not each other? The sexy is back.

And wow, is it ever. There's plenty of um, benefits in the film.

Easy A director Will Gluck, working with a script he cowrote with Keith Merryman and David A. Newman, spends a lot of time examining why so many rom-coms fail. One scene has Jamie and Dylan watching a fake film starring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones. Jamie goes off on Goofy Music Syndrome, manipulating audiences to feel happy, sad, etc. At times, it seems one "rule" away from Kevin Williams' Scream territory, but since Kunis and Timberlake are such fun to hang with, we hardly care.

Woody Harrelson pops up as an openly gay sports editor at GQ. Shaun White shows up as a crazy rage-filled version of his persona. The results are some of the film's best scenes.

Of the too sexy pairing, Kunis is the more experienced actor. As a result her character is burdened with a bit more of the dramatic stuff. Have no fear though, even in Black Swan, Kunis knew how to keep things loose and entertaining.

Timberlake might be more a performer than an actor but no one would deny the guy's pretty fearless. On SNL he's does almost anything for a laugh and thankfully, the script offers lot of opportunities to use his boundless energy. Like a rather timely joke about Dylan's lightning bolt tattoo, paying tribute to a certain boy wizard. Nerdy J.T.? Sure! Later he cuts loose with a dance number showing off his mad skills for Kris Kross's "Jump." Awesome.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Subplots with Dylan's ailing father (Richard Jenkins) and Jamie's hippie mom (Patricia Clarkson) are a everybody's time, and talents. Worse, it feels like the exact kind of trite storytelling Jamie and Dylan would pick apart.

PHOTOS! 15 Biggest Movies of 2011 Comic-Con!

(Originally published July 21, 2011, at 5:23 p.m. PT)

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Movie Review: Like Good Southern Cooking, The Help Comforts & Satisfies

DreamWorks

Review in a Hurry: An entertaining adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's bestseller, this early '60s, Mississippi-set dramedy follows three seemingly different women writing one tell-all book about black maids working for white families. Despite some Hollywood touches, The Help gets big help from its solid cast, namely Viola Davis.

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The Bigger Picture: Fans of the beloved novel should be (mostly) pleased. Navigating the book's shifting points of view, the film faithfully covers the major story points, though in doing so—as with many adaptations—sometimes skims the emotional resonance and details beneath those beats. Still, like Southern fried cooking, there's a mess o' stuff to savor, y'all.

Reliably strong Davis plays Aibileen, the loving but long-suffering maid who develops an unlikely bond with white socialite Skeeter (Emma Stone). A recent college grad with journalistic ambitions, Skeeter pitches a book proposal to a New York editor—a collection of revealing stories told from the perspectives of black "help."

With a smidgen of encouragement, Skeeter attempts to find any black maids in Jackson who will talk to her. But they're too scared of the racist repercussions—unemployment or, worse, physical harm. Aibileen finally agrees to be interviewed, as does headstrong Minny (Octavia Spencer), who was recently fired by haughty debutante Hilly (steely Bryce Dallas Howard).

The book and film's emotional core is Aibileen. Davis powerfully embodies this character who somehow faces unspeakable personal tragedy and a lifetime of social injustice with unwavering faith. Stone, too, is stellar as the plucky, progressive Skeeter, but Spencer, though adequately sassy and outspoken, never conveys Minny's deep well of bitterness and rage.

Screenwriter-director Tate Taylor, a Jackson native, has a clear understanding of Southern culture and manages to stitch together the many patches of this crazy quilt, even if some pieces don't fit perfectly. But his visual style is too golden-sunny and colorful for the subject's darker undertones.

Although flawed, the well-acted Help is like a cooling drink during these dog days at the multiplex, overheated by raunched-out comedies and bombastic superheroes. So help yourself.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Allison Janney is miscast as Skeeter's mom, and her final-reel face-off with Hilly, which veers from the novel, is as forced as Janney's accent.

PHOTOS: Movies From the Future

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