Movie Reviews

The Story: A warrant officer in Iraq in 2003 starts asking questions about the intelligence that keeps leading him to WMD sites where no weapons are found. The Lowdown: A mix of fact and fiction, fictionalized fact and factualized fiction that works enough of the time to make for reasonably compelling viewing without feeling essential.

The Story: A dorky airport security guard suddenly finds himself in a relationship with a woman who he worries is too attractive for him. The Lowdown: An often pleasant, occasionally amusing romantic comedy that's more harmless than good.

The Story: Romance between two damaged characters with parental issues. The Lowdown: A largely shapeless romantic drama that attempts to prove Robert Pattinson is a real actor -- and doesn't make much of a case.

The Story: Feuding fathers threaten to undermine the wedding of their children. The Lowdown: There is simply no excuse for the movie's existence.

To celebrate their ninth anniversary (and the vernal equinox), West End Bakery will host a free screening of Still Bill on Saturday, March 20, at 8 p.m. For more information, visit http://stillbillthemovie.com/2010/03/07/west-end-bakery-hosts-still-bill/.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Going in Style at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 14, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.

The Story: Three disparate cops all try to survive in a world filled with violence and temptation. The Lowdown: A heavy police drama that's professionally made, but suffers from a reliance on clichés and the feeling that every role in the film was miscast.

The Story: Strange and disturbing events permit themselves the luxury of occurring in a small village in rural Germany just before WWI. The Lowdown: An unsettling, chilly examination of the effects of a tyrannical patriarchal society. Powerful, but unrelentingly grim.

The Story: In this sequel to Alice in Wonderland, the young adult Alice is lured back to the land of her youthful adventures to help defeat the tyrannical Red Queen. The Lowdown: A visually striking, emotionally involving, highly Burtonized take on the Alice in Wonderland stories that sometimes soars without quite striking the gong, but…

Classic Cinema From Around the World will present La Jetee at 8 p.m. Friday, March 5, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St., in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Story: Two suspended cops try to track down a stolen baseball card and bring down a deadly drug lord. The Lowdown: A generic buddy-cop movie that has a handful of decent chuckles, but does little else to distinguish itself.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Titanic at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 7, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.

The Story: A biological warfare experiment gets out of control and infects a small town, turning its victims into psychotic killers. The Lowdown: A surprisingly effective and generally well done remake of George A. Romero's low-budget 1973 film, with better-than-average characters.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Ragtime at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.

Classic Cinema From Around the World will present Ugetsu at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St., in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Story: Racial tensions increase in a small North Carolina town after the cold-blooded murder of a black Vietnam vet. The Lowdown: An unfocused message picture that never has a grasp on what it's really trying to say and is too meandering to ever be engaging.

The Story: A U.S. Marshall and his new partner are sent to a very mysterious maximum-security insane asylum after a patient inexplicably disappears from her room. The Lowdown: Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller is more than a stylish thriller, though it's certainly stylish and atmospheric. However, it's a film that may irritate some viewers by refusing…

The Story: A collection of the 2009 Oscar nominees in the short-film categories. The Lowdown: Uneven -- as all such collections tend to be -- but a generally worthwhile set of films of a genre that isn't often seen.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.

Classic Cinema From Around the World will present Mon Oncle at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St., in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.