Movie Reviews

The Story: A group of kids come upon a magical, rainbow-colored rock that grants any wish. Mayhem ensues. The Lowdown: A charmingly goofy kids movie that occasionally shows sparks of Robert Rodriguez’s directorial panache, but too often suffers from the constraints of the film’s lo-fi, backyard approach.

Fido will be shown at 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 31, at Firestorm Cafe & Books, 48 Commerce St., in downtown Asheville.

The Story: World War II action with sardonic humor and a fantasy twist about efforts to blow up a cinema filled with Nazis. The Lowdown: Quentin Tarantino's new film is brilliant and unabashedly (and genuinely) quirky -- a truly personal work in a sea of largely impersonal movies.

The Story: A college grad doesn't get the job she wants and has to move in with her family. Supposedly mirth and life lessons follow. The Lowdown: Predictable, pointless, shapeless and basically worthless.

The Story: A documentary about extreme sports interspersed with 3-D footage of X-Games action. The Lowdown: A mildly entertaining 3-D "event" that’ll be more entertaining to fans of the X-Games than the uninitiated.

Knife in the Water, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Tiger of Eschnapur at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance…

Blonde Venus will be shown Saturday, Aug. 22, as the final in a series of four films being screened Saturday nights at dark in Pritchard Park. Presented by the Alvy Fund and the Friends of Pritchard Park, in association with the Hendersonville Film Society. Film historian Chip Kaufmann will introduce the film. All the films…

The Story: Following an accident with a mysterious liquid in the District 9 alien-internment camp, a civil servant finds his worldview altered by alarming changes. The Lowdown: A thoughtful, surprisingly deep science-fiction film with an even more surprising emotional core.

The Story: An awkward teen moves to New Jersey and gets persuaded into managing a ragtag group of musicians attempting to win an all-important battle of the bands. The Lowdown: An occasionally intelligent, sporadically entertaining teen comedy with surprisingly good taste in music that unfortunately devolves into a mess of clichés and teenage melodrama.

The Story: A magical goldfish escapes to dry land after deciding she wants to be human, thus knocking the balance of nature out of whack. The Lowdown: A wholly sweet and fanciful -- not to mention endearing -- animated film that’s none too deep, but never becomes too precious or too schmaltzy.

The Story: A documentary film showing how the filmmakers and some other activists got the footage of what really takes place in the cove of the title. The Lowdown: Shrewdly conceived and expertly crafted, The Cove is a documentary of rare suspense that should be seen.

The Story: A group of hotshot used-car liquidators are called in to save a dysfunctional car dealership from its terminally quirky employees. The Lowdown: Live hard, sell hard -- crash harder.

The Story: The romantic saga of an uncontrolled time traveler and the woman who loves him. The Lowdown: A soupy, goopy mélange of ill-conceived science fiction and uninvolving romance.

Boudu Saved From Drowning, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

Scarface will be shown Saturday, Aug. 15, as the third in a series of four films being screened Saturday nights at dark in Pritchard Park. Presented by the Alvy Fund and the Friends of Pritchard Park, in association with the Hendersonville Film Society. Film historian Chip Kaufmann will introduce the films, which were all made…

King of Hearts will be shown as part of the Wedge Brewing Company's Outdoor Cinema series Saturday, Aug. 15, at 9 p.m. at 125-B Roberts St.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Killers at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance and park…

The Story: The stories of Julia Child and Julie Powell told in a series of crosscut events. The Lowdown: A thoroughly charming and winning entertainment with great characters and acting. It may not be terribly deep, but it's funny and invariably pleasant.

The Story: An overview of the Afghan version of American Idol with the focus on four finalists. The Lowdown: A well-intentioned, intelligent documentary with a clever hook at its center, but one that never quite soars thanks to rather uninspired filmmaking.

The Story: A super covert group of high-tech soldiers must stop an evil arms dealer from taking over the world. The Lowdown: A loud, cheesy, dumb action picture that closes out the summer moviegoing season in a blaze of property damage, bad dialogue and hokey CGI.