Movie Reviews

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

The Story: A wealthy playboy finds out his female best friend is getting married -- just when he's realized that she’s the one for him. He accepts her offer to serve as maid of honor at her wedding in order to stop the proceedings and steal her away. The Lowdown:: A completely by-the-book romantic comedy…

The Story: A janitor and a soon-to-be-fired manager at a large diamond corporation team up to relieve the company of a portion of their inventory. The Lowdown: Dynamite performances, stylish direction and an incredible script combine to make clever entertainment.

The Story: A fact-based story of a Nazi scheme to destroy the British and U.S. economies with counterfeit money produced by prisoners in a concentration camp. The Lowdown: An intelligent, entertaining and morally complex film that wisely leaves much up to the viewer.

The Story: A 37-year-old single woman discovers she's infertile, and hires a white-trash woman to be her surrogate. The Lowdown: A pleasant yet forgettable comedy carried on the strength of Tina Fey’s lead performance and the film’s supporting cast.

The Story: An uptight accountant becomes involved in a high-class sex club and gets more than he bargained for. The Lowdown: A terminally silly story that constantly thinks it's being surprising when it isn't and largely sinks whatever value you're likely to get from the film's A-list performers.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show End of the Game at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4, 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…

Twin Rivers Media Festival presents Fix at 8 p.m. Friday, May 2, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Other festival events and films take place over the weekend. Info: 273-3331.

Whoopee! is the first of a three-movie Busby Berkeley retrospective being presented at Pack Library in Lord Auditorium. The film will be shown at 6 p.m. Monday, May 5, and will be introduced and discussed by Xpress film critic Ken Hanke.

The Story: When his grandmother dies, a young Mexican boy crosses the border into the U.S. in search of his illegal immigrant mother who lives in Los Angeles. The Lowdown: Melodrama and politics make an uneasy combination in this well-intentioned film that succeeds more than it doesn't thanks to the performances.

The Story: The stoner boys from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle get arrested as terrorists and escape from Guantánamo Bay in an effort to prove their innocence. The Lowdown: Though it tries hard to equal the original and expand on it in thematic content, this sequel only works in bits and pieces, becoming…

The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Wages of Fear at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27, 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…

A Clockwork Orange is part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World being presented at 8 p.m. Friday, April 25, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Story: A man who wants to marry another woman can't bear to put his wife through a divorce, so he devises a more lethal solution. The Lowdown: A beautifully acted, finely detailed period drama that's certainly worth watching, but finally feels a little insubstantial.

The Story: The Rolling Stones as captured in concert at New York's Beacon Theatre. The Lowdown: A very good -- if maybe not great -- concert by the Grand Old Men of rock is brilliantly captured by Martin Scorsese.

The Story: Ben Stein drones his way around the world to make a case for intelligent design. The Lowdown: An interminable, shockingly bad and completely irresponsible slab of propaganda masquerading as fact.

The Story: An American teen travels to a mystical realm of martial arts and super powers in order to return a supernatural weapon and defeat a despotic warlord. The Lowdown: A perfectly fine little piece of entertainment that works as what it is while on-screen, yet is too predictable and insignificant to be memorable.

The Story: Dumped by his girlfriend, a composer goes on vacation to regroup only to find his ex and her new companion staying at the same resort. The Lowdown: Standard lowbrow comedy courtesy of producer Judd Apatow, but one marked by an occasionally insightful, warmhearted screenplay.

The Story: On the eve of the execution of a man he helped convict, a forensic psychologist finds himself under suspicion of murder and is told he has 88 minutes to live. The Lowdown: Impossibly silly writing, bad direction and an overzealous star collide in a spectacular train wreck of movie.

The Loved One, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, April 18, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, the Captain's Bookshelf and Western Carolina University present Polis Is This for one show only Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m. at the Fine Arts Theatre.