Movie Reviews

The Story: Two best friends, who have a falling out over a mistake in booking a wedding venue, proceed to sabotage each other's wedding. The Lowdown: Unfunny, unromantic, unlikable and seemingly interminable even at a scant 91 minutes.

The Story: A girl finds herself plagued by strange visions and learns that an evil entity is determined to take over her body. The Lowdown: An interesting concept falls prey to stock exorcism shenanigans, unintended humor and laughably enjoyable shock effects.

The Story: A fact-based story centered around the Bielski brothers and their attempts to save Jews from the Nazis in the Belarussian woods during WWII. The Lowdown: At once too earnest and too prone to being an action/adventure movie, Defiance works in bits and pieces, which may be enough for many viewers.

The Story: An aging racist Korean War vet becomes attached to the troubled Asian family that moves in next door. The Lowdown: More myth-busting drama from Clint Eastwood. A strong concept, but it's mired in clichéd scripting, bad dialogue, indifferent filmmaking and some unpersuasive performances.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Elephant Man at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, 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…

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

The Story: Fact-based story of the 1944 attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The Lowdown: Reasonably effective, but not a terribly compelling WWII drama that benefits from a strong supporting cast, despite a miscast lead.

The Story: A hotel maintenance worker attempts to change his lot in life once he realizes the fanciful bedtime stories he has been telling his niece and nephew are coming true in real life. The Lowdown: The usual tired brand of Adam Sandler comedy, but now with the added bonus of being wrapped up in…

The Story: A complex story of the impact that a youthful affair with an enigmatic older woman has on a man's entire life -- not so much because of the affair itself, but because of what he later learns about the past of the woman and his reaction to that discovery. The Lowdown: Brilliant and…

The Story: The tale of a growing family and their unruly dog, and the life lessons that come with both. The Lowdown: A meandering, sloppy affair that’s more concerned with tricking the audience into waterworks than actually creating sympathetic characters or an involving plot.

The Story: Seemingly indestructible crime fighter The Spirit battles with archcriminal The Octopus in an attempt to learn the secret of his origins and bring The Octopus to justice. The Lowdown: Stylized, screwy, silly and deliberately preposterous, The Spirit is a lot of loopy fun -- if you're on its wavelength.

The Story: Benjamin Button is born with all the attributes of a man in his 80s, but the catch is that he ages in reverse, becoming ever younger as the years pass. The Lowdown: A sometimes charming fantasy made with a good deal of technical panache, but one that's strangely lacking in the kind of…

The Story: A fearless little mouse sets out to make big changes in the dismal land of Dor in order to please a princess. The Lowdown: A perfectly acceptable, but far from exciting animated film that should be fine for kids and reasonably painless for those accompanying them.

The Story: A sullen man with a penchant for saying “no” to everything decides to do the exact opposite after attending a self-help seminar. He says “yes” to every opportunity that presents itself and goes along with the misadventures that follow. The Lowdown: What could have been another grating Jim Carrey high-concept comedy is surprisingly…

The Story: The head nun at a Catholic school in 1964 harbors suspicions -- that become confirmed in her own mind -- about the relationship of the priest and one of her students. The Lowdown: A wholly intelligent, entertaining and thought-provoking film showcasing a powerhouse of acting talent at their best.

The Story: A guilt-ridden IRS agent tries to find salvation for his past by helping others. The Lowdown: A patently ridiculous weepie that constantly mistakes contrivance for profundity and has little connection to even marginal reality.

The Story: The rise and eventual fall of pioneering American rock-n-roll label Chess Records. The Lowdown: A fairly standard biographical film that is nearly lifted to something more solely by virtue of the film’s first-rate cast.

The Story: A would-be visionary tries -- for years -- to stage his ever-growing, ever-changing masterpiece. The Lowdown: A singularly strange movie that requires both patience and considerable work from the viewer. Only for those looking for a film that challenges them -- and whether you like it or not, it's hard to deny that…

The Story: A Puerto Rican family gets together at the family home in Chicago's Humboldt Park for Christmas. Things are revealed. The Lowdown: Predictable, flat, rather boring waste of a good cast in a trite dysfunctional-family yarn.

The Story: Delgo, a teenage lizard-man living in a fantasy realm, tries to save the princess of his people’s mortal enemies, a race of creatures with insect wings. This, in turn, will prevent an oncoming war. The Lowdown: A cheap, shoddy, superfluous animated adventure that had no point in ever being made, let alone shown…

The Story: The life of a bullied, put-upon, lonely 12-year-old boy is changed forever when he gets a new neighbor who turns out to be a vampire, more or less his own age. The Lowdown: A brilliant, chilling, often sad and thoughtful horror film that delivers the genre goods, while offering considerably more in the…