Movie Reviews

The Story: Molly Hartley's parents give her the 18th birthday present most people only dream of -- possession by the devil -- proving you can't trust your parents. The Lowdown: Less frightening than High School Musical 3.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show War Requiem at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, 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: Fact-based story of Christine Collins, who was victimized by the LAPD for refusing to accept that the boy they returned to her was her missing son. The Lowdown: A truly compelling story that suffers from shaky characterization and a story line that necessitates a slightly meandering narrative.

The Story: Lower-echelon crooks go up against both higher-echelon old-school Brit gangsters and their new-school Russian counterparts. The Lowdown: A deliriously giddy wild ride of warped comedy and over-the-top violence, full of odd characters and delighful plot twists, plus it moves at lightning speed and with terrific style.

The Story: Two down-on-their-luck lifelong friends decide to make a skin flick in order to pay their bills. The Lowdown: An extremely adult sex comedy from Kevin Smith, which shows the director’s continuing maturity as both a writer and a director, but trades too much on hit-and-miss vulgarity to be as funny as it could…

The Story: The Jigsaw Killer saga continues with the aid of the old boy's previously unknown other protégé. The Lowdown: It's Halloween. There's a new Saw picture. It's crap. Next question.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Lola Montès at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, 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: Internal police corruption bedevils a family of cops who must decide how far loyalty can go. The Lowdown: Clichéd, dull, pretentious, unpleasant, totally lacking in surprise, an absolute waste of its stars and just generally not good.

Topsy-Turvy, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Story: A collection of teens deal with the pains of G-rated high school, while attempting to stage their senior-year musical. The Lowdown: A poorly directed, meandering musical full of unmemorable pop songs. As a whole, the movie is of little use to anyone who’s not already a fan of the series’ previous television incarnations.

The Story: Tired of the same old thing, the King of Halloween, Jack Skellington, decides to take over another holiday -- Christmas -- and make it his own. The Lowdown: If this slightly twisted musical fantasy isn't perfect, it's close enough that it hardly matters, and its new 3-D incarnation only enhances that.

Nosferatu will be shown outdoors (weather permitting) Saturday, Oct. 25, at 9 p.m., at the lower level of the Wedge (in front of the Wedge Brewing Co.), 125B Roberts St. A "bring your own lawn chair" event. Info: 505-2792.

The Story: A look into the life of George W. Bush, from his misspent youth to his presidency. The Lowdown: A thoughtful, somewhat surprising film from Oliver Stone that seeks as much to understand Bush as to villify him.

The Damned, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Winter Kills at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, 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: A humorless, revenge-obsessed cop and a gun-toting woman team up to solve the mystery behind the murders of his family and her sister. The Lowdown: Quite possibly the most boring action movie ever made -- and one of the least coherent.

The Story: A dorky high-school virgin steals his brother’s vintage muscle car and takes a road trip with his two best friends to Tennessee in order to have sex with a girl he met on the Internet. The Lowdown: An utterly generic, gross-out teen-sex romp, with some likable enough leads and an entertaining performance from…

The Story: A 14-year-old girl runs away from home with the family servant to escape an unloving father and to learn the truth about her mother. The Lowdown: A sentimental film that bites off more than it can chew, The Secret Life of Bees is still a nicely acted, shrewdly cast, enjoyable film with undercurrents…

The Story: A CIA agent stationed in the Middle East must figure out a way -- with the help of his arrogant boss -- to capture a mysterious terrorist mastermind. The Lowdown: A slick action-oriented thriller with some strong performances that tries to be something more by being politically aware, but never quite feels as…

The Story: A relatively -- but only relatively -- accurate biopic of the Duchess of Devonshire that aims more for the domestic drama of her life than her public influence. The Lowdown: Too staid and soap-operatic for its own good, but with compensations from the performances, direction, intelligent dialogue and characterizations.