Santa Cruz Good Times

Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With: Review - MONEYBALL
Times and Trailers.

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NEW THIS WEEK

BEAT RHYMES & LIFE:
THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
The long-running hip hop group, A Tribe Called Quest, the pride of Queens, NY, is the focus of this music doc from actor-turned filmmaker Michael Rapaport.  (R) 97 minutes. Starts Friday. Watch film trailer >>>

THE FUTURE
The attempted profundity of Miranda July's quirky little relationship movie quickly wears as thin as its contrived premise: an LA couple scheduled to adopt a stray cat in one month are so panicked by the impending responsibility, they quit their marginal jobs in hopes of finding something meaningful to do while there's still time. Nothing rings emotionally or culturally true, not the couple's (played by Hamish Linklater and July herself) strained conversations about nothing, not the woman's interlude with a middle-aged divorced father in Tarzana, not the fact that these people are 35 years old and still living like clueless college undergrads, with no lives and a mattress on the floor. Not even the premise makes sense. (R) 91 minutes. (★★) Starts Friday. Watch film trailer >>>

POINT BLANK
Return engagement for this fine, overlooked French thriller.. (Not rated) 84 minutes. In French with English subtitles. (★★★1/2)—Lisa Jensen. Watch film trailer >>>

WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER?
Anna Faris stars in this romantic comedy.. Starts Friday. Watch film trailer >>>

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Film Events
RETURNING SERIES: MIDNIGHTS @ THE DEL MAR Eclectic movies for wild & crazy tastes plus great prizes and buckets of fun for only $6.50. This week: TUCKER & DALE vs. EVIL . (R) 89 minutes. Fri-Sat midnight only. At the Del Mar.

CONTINUING SERIES: FLASHBACK FEATURES Oldies and goodies on Thursday nights at the Cinema 9, presented by your genial host, Joe Ferrara. $5 gets you in. This week: TAXI DRIVER (★★★) (R) Tonight only (Thursday, Sept. 29), 8 p.m., at the Cinema 9.

CONTINUING EVENT: LET'S TALK ABOUT THE MOVIES This informal movie discussion group meets at the Del Mar mezzanine in downtown Santa Cruz. Movie junkies are invited to join in on Wednesday nights to discuss current flicks with a rotating series of guest moderators. Discussion begins at 7 pm and admission is free. For more information visit www.ltatm.org.

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MOVIE TIMES 9/30–10/6

Del Mar Theatre    469-3220
The Help   3:50, 6:45, 9:40 + Fri-Sun 12:50 
Senna  2:30, 4:40, 7, 9:10 + Fri-Sun 12:30
Drive  2:50, 5:10, 7:30, 9:50 + Fri-Sun 12:40
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil  Friday & Saturday  Midnight
The Kitchen  Premiere Performance Thursday 10/6 7:30

Nickelodeon    426-7500
Midnight in Paris  2:30, 6:50  + Sa, Sun 12:30
The Guard  4:40, 9
The Future  3:20, 5:20, 7:20, 9:30  + Sat, Sun  1:20 
Our Idiot Brother  3, 7:10  
Beats, Rhymes & Life (The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest)  
5, 9:10 + Sat, Sun 12:50
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2  2:10, 6:40
Point Blank  4:50, 9:20

Aptos Cinema    426-7500
The Help  1:30, 6:40
The Debt  4:20, 9:20    
50/50  2:30, 4:45, 7, 9:15 + Sat, Sun 12:15

Green Valley Cinema 8    761-8200
What’s Your Number?  1:30, 4, 7, 9:40 + Sat, Sun 11:10am
Abduction  1:30, 4, 7, 9:40  + Sat, Sun 11:10am
Killer Elite  1:05, 3:10, 5:15, 7:20, 9:40  + Sat, Sun 11am
Moneyball  1:35, 4:10, 7, 9:40 + Sat, Sun 11am
Dolphin Tale 3D  1:30, 7
Dolphin Tale 2D  4, 9:30  +Sat, Sun 11am
50/50  1:05, 3:10, 5:15, 7:20, 9:40, + Sat, Sun 11am
Dream House  1, 3:05, 5:05, 7:15, 9:40 + Sat, Sun 11am

Cinelux Scotts Valley Cinema    438-3260
The Help  11:55am, 5:30           
Contagion   3, 8:45
Dream House  11:55am, 2:30, 4:55, 7:15, 9:40
What’s Your Number?  12:15, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10
Abduction  11:30am, 2, 4:30, 7:30, 10
The Lion King  7, 9:15
50/50  11:45am, 2:15, 4:40, 7:10, 9:30
Moneyball  12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45
The Lion King 3D  11:45am, 2, 4:20           
Dolphin Tale  11am, 1:30, 4:10, 7, 9:30
Killer Elite  11:30am, 2:10, 4:45, 7:20, 10

Cinelux 41st Avenue Cinema    479-3504
Dolphin Tale 3D  11am, 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:30
Moneyball  12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45
Drive  11:45am, 2:15, 4:45, 7:30, 10

Santa Cruz Cinema 9    (800) 326-3264 #1700
Jason & the Argonauts  Flashback Feature  Thu 10/6  8
Phantom of the Opera  25th Anniversary Live  Sun 10/2 11AM
Encore  Wed 10/5  7:30 PM
Lion King 3D  2:10, 4:35, 7, 9:30 + Sat & Sun 11:45am
Moneyball  1:15, 3:30, 4:25, 6:40, 7:40, 9:50, 10:40 + Sat & Sun noon
A Dolphin Tale 3D  1:50, 7:20 + Tue-Thu  4:30, 10:10 + Sat & Sun  11:10am
Abduction  digital 2, 4:50, 7:30, 10:05  + Sat & Sun 11:30am
Killer Elite  2:05, 5, 7:50, 10:30 + Sat & Sun 11:20am
Contagion  1:30, 4:20, 7:10, 9:45 + Sat & Sun 11am
Crazy Stupid Love  1, 3:45, 6:30, 9:20 + Sun no 1, Wed + Thur no evening shows

Riverfront    (800) 326-3264 #1701
50/50  1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 9:50
What’s Your Number  1, 4, 7, 9:40

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Now Playing

ABDUCTION Taylor Lautner stars in this thrillr as a man who sees his baby photo on a missing persons website and is swept into a dangerous brush with alternate reality. Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, and Sigourney Weaver pop up in supporting roles. John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) directs. (PG-13) 106 minutes.

BRIGHTON ROCK Graham Greene's 1939 noir-ish novel about the rise and spectacular burn-out of an ambitious young British gangster gets a slight update to 1964 in this period crime drama from filmmaker Rowan (son of Roland) Joffe. In this version, as the next generation of kids struggles to emerge from the shadow of postwar depression, and Mods and Rockers get ready to rumble on The Brighton boardwalk, a volatile young psychopath rewrites the rule book on the road to power, love, and revenge. Sam Riley stars (he played Ian Curtis in Control); Helen Mirren and John Hurt co-star. (Not rated) 111 minutes.

CIRCUMSTANCE Two 16-year-old girls dare to experiment with sex, drugs, boys, and life within the repressive social regime that governs Iran in this feature narrative debut from assured young Iranian-American filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz. Her film won the Audience Award at this yeat's Sundance Festival. (R) 107 minutes.

CONNECTED: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY ABOUT LOVE, DEATH, AND TECHNOLOGY Documentary filmmaker Tiffany Shlain considers what it means to be connected—virtually, politically, and otherwise—in the Internet Age. (PG)

CONTAGION This one’s a keeper. Fine storytelling, wonderful execution and a pitch-perfect cast elevate Contagion beyond typical Hollywood offering. There’s an outbreak of a deadly virus that kills its victims within days. Director Steven Soferbergh.does a fine job of rotating the subjects and the mood he’s focusing on. Great locales here—Hong Kong, Macao, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, London and Geneva. Even better cast: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, and Gwyneth Paltrow. This a bold, thought-provoking work. (PG-13) 106 minutes.  (★★★1/2)—Greg Archer

DOLPHIN TALE It takes a village to rally around a young dolphin caught in a crab trap, save her life, and fit her with a new prosthetic tail in this family film based on a true story (and starring the actual dolphin survivor herself, Winter).  Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, and Morgan Freeman co-star for director Charles Martin Smith. (PG) 113 minutes.

THE DEBT John Madden's gripping, tidily made (if at times, starkly visceral) suspense thriller plot unspools in two separate time frames. In 1965, a trio of young Israeli undercover Mossad agents go underground into East Berlin to expose an ex-Nazi war criminal. 30 years later, the three ex-ops are called out of retirement as the case is unexpectedly reopened. With a featured performance by the iconic Helen Mirren in one of her gutsiest roles, it's a persuasive, time-traveling political thriller about how easily the facts can go astray in pursuit of a more appealing big picture. (R) 114 minutes. (★★★)—Lisa Jensen.

DRIVE Ryan Gosling's commanding presence fuels this lean, stylish suspense thriller. He plays a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a wheelman for petty criminals, forced to go on the offensive after a job goes awry. Director Nicolas Winding Refn has his own smart ideas about crafting suspense and delivering thrills. There are moments of sudden, appalling violence, but more remarkable are long stretches of unnerving silence as Refn creates mood and ratchets up suspense. Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston and Albert Brooks are terrific in supporting roles. (R) 100 minutes. (★★★)—Lisa Jensen.

THE GUARD John Michael McDonagh’s profane, subversively funny comedy pairs a sophisticated FBI agent (Don Cheadle) with an irasicible small-town Irish police sergeant (the great Brendan Gleeson). (R) 96 minutes. (★★★1/2)—LIsa Jensen.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 Series veterans David Yates (directing his fourth Potter film) and Steve Kloves (screenwriter on all but one) do their damnedest to honor all the complex subtexts of J. K. Rowling's books, in one of the most thrilling, yet elegiac films in the series.  (PG-13) 130 minutes. (★★★1/2)—Lisa Jensen.

THE HELP Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel about female solidarity and racial stereotype-busting in the American south of the 1960s is given fine treatment here. Emma Stone continues to prove she can do no wrong on screen. She morphs into a post-collegiate gal here whose empathy and compassion for black maids in a Mississippi town eventually leads to her publishing a tell-all book about the foibles of their often ruthless employers. Great cast. Wonderful story.. Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Mary Steenburgen, Viola Davis, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Octavia Spencer, and Cicely Tyson. (PG-13) 137 minutes.  (★★★)—Greg Archer

HIGHER GROUND Actress Vera Farmiga's impressive directing debut is bsed on the Carolyn S. Briggs memoir "This Dark Place," about a modern woman's decision to leave her born-again Christian church in the 1970s and '80s. Farmiga plays the protagonist with lively intelligence, and her storytelling style is fluid and compelling. But such a strong thread of skepticism runs through the story, we expect the character's break with the church to be more profound, dramatically and spiritually. Instead, her apparent decline in faith occurs with a whimper, not a bang. Because she never seems completely connected to her faith, losing it doesn't have the impact it should. (R) 109 minutes. (★★1/2)—Lisa Jensen.

THE LION KING Return engagement—in 3D—for Disney's classic 1994 Hamlet-like coming of age drama.. (G) 89 minutes. (★★★★)—Lisa Jensen.

KILLER ELITE Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and Robert De Niro star in this action thriller. Gary McKendry directs. (R) 105 minutes.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS There's nothing not to love in Woody Allen's irresistible romantic comedy. Owen Wilson is great fun as a Hollywood screenwriter longing to write serious fiction who's transported back to the era he idolizes, Paris in the 1920s. (PG-13) 100 minutes. (★★★★) —Lisa Jensen.


MONEYBALL
Reviewed this issue. (PG-13) 133 minutes. (★★★)


OUR IDIOT BROTHER A surprisingly good film with a lot of heart—something you wouldn’t know if you just watched the previews, which make the film out to be totally slapstick. Paul Rudd stars.. (R) 90 minutes.   (★★★) —Greg Archer

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES A wonderfully satisfying prequel to the long-running franchise, which was nearly destroyed by Tim Burton’s botch nearly a decade ago. James Franco stars. (PG-13)  (★★★)—Greg Archer

SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD IN 4D  Jessica Alba stars as an ex-superspy who has to enlist her two young step-children on a mission to thwart an evil genius from taking over the world. (PG)
STRAW DOGS Sam Peckinpah  turned heads with original,. starring Dustin Hoffman 40 years and now,  director Rod Lurie does the same. My sense is the original works better. At times, it’s hard to believe this tale, but you certainly can’t take your eyes off of it. James Marsden plays the "civilized" Hollywood scribe who moves to the south with wife Kate Boswoth. (The original took place in the English countryside.) The acting here is stellar all around, especially when Marsden is driven to savagery when a gaggle of sinister locals menace his home and his wife. Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood) and an raging James Woods co-star. (R) 110 minutes. (★★1/2)—Greg Archer

WARRIOR The world of competitive mixed martial arts is the setting for this drama about an ex-Marine (Tom Hardy, from Inception) training for a tournament in conflict between his father (Nick Nolte), an alcoholic former coach, and his brother (Joel Edgerton, from The Square), a former champ. Gavin O'Connor (Pride and Glory) directs. (PG-13).

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