ME & TECHNOLOGY: Movie scoreboard: 'Johnny English Reborn,' 'The Mighty Macs,' 'Paranormal Activity 3'

Monday, October 24, 2011

Movie scoreboard: 'Johnny English Reborn,' 'The Mighty Macs,' 'Paranormal Activity 3'

Rowan Atkinson, left, and Rosamund Pike in "Johnny English Reborn." / GILES KEYTE/Associated Press

"The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" * * *
Documentary is based on material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the U.S. decades ago to chronicle the black power movement and includes footage of Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver. Stitched together with contemporary audio commentary by artists like Erykah Badu and Ahmir (Questlove) Thompson, the images in "Black Power" are electric. They have the immediacy of history being lived in front of the camera and the charm of allowing us to glimpse the people who made that history before they turned into icons. Not rated. 1 hour, 40 minutes. By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times.
"Johnny English Reborn" * *
You probably weren't clamoring for a sequel to the 2003 British spy parody "Johnny English," which was far more successful overseas than it was in the United States. Still, here's "Johnny English Reborn," again starring Rowan Atkinson. This time, Johnny must find out who is behind a plot to assassinate the Chinese premier, and even though he's been training in the remote mountains of Tibet, he still isn't quite up for the challenge. The film relies on the same tired spy spoofs as the "Austin Powers" movies and partly succeeds only because of Atkinson's skills as a comedian. He's so gifted physically that he makes pretty idiotic material more enjoyable than it should be. Rated PG; mild violence, rude humor, language, brief sensuality. 1 hour, 41 minutes. By Christy Lemire, Associated Press.
"The Mighty Macs" * *
Director Tim Chambers employs a lot of old-fashioned heart and a dash of wit in telling the story of the glory days of the women's basketball team at Immaculata College, a tiny Catholic school that dominated the sport at a turning point in history. Carla Gugino plays the coach who sets out to convince the girls on her early '70s team that they have to play like boys to win. Ellen Burstyn is the Reverend Mother who struggles with finances at the financially strapped school. The movie, a feel-good Cinderella sports story, doesn't go anywhere we don't expect it to. But it's a good history lesson, especially for 21st Century girls, about what life in America was like at the dawn of the women's movement. Rated G. 1 hour, 39 minutes. By Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel.
"Paranormal Activity 3" * * *
This spooky outing offers more of the same, using the found-footage tricks the first two films employed to try to shock its audience. But man, are those some good tricks. A brief framing device that includes cameos by Katie Featherston and Sprague Grayden, reprising their roles as Katie and Kristi, alerts those who have seen the first two films that this is a prequel to a prequel. A pregnant Kristi has moved into a new home, and Katie drops off a couple of boxes of belongings that include videotapes from their childhood. From there, we go back to 1988, when the tapes where made and Katie and Kristi were little girls. As before, a big part of what makes "Paranormal Activity" so effective is seeing everything through the eye of a camera. Almost nothing is visible on the periphery, so it's harder to see anything coming and the audience's sense of dread and terror is heightened. Rated R; violence, language, sexuality, drug use. 1 hour, 24 minutes. By Bill Goodykoontz, Gannett News Service.
"The Three Musketeers" *
This latest version of the 1844 Alexander Dumas adventure classic seems to exist solely for its digital airborne sailing vessels and deadly retro-futuristic flamethrowers. Leonardo da Vinci, we learn, drew up plans for a deadly flying war machine, a combination of dirigible and seafaring galleon. In the prologue, Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Aramis (Luke Evans) and Porthos (Ray Stevenson) sneak into Venice on a special-ops mission, along with accomplice Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich). Soon she betrays them, allying herself with Cardinal Richelieu on the one hand and the Duke of Buckingham on the other. The movie plays as though any two people involved in its making failed to have a single conversation with any other two people. The action is so dominated by green-screen effects and bombastic nonsense that you long for a decently paced, shrewdly edited sword fight or two. Rated PG-13; action violence. 1 hour, 42 minutes. By Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune.
"The Way" * * *
Martin Sheen stars as a California eye doctor who is called to France to reclaim the body of his grown son, who has died in a hiking accident in the Pyrenees. Emilio Estevez, Sheen's real-life spawn and the writer-director of "The Way," is that son, a restless soul who is everything his father is not. Once he's in France, Sheen's character decides to complete the journey his son started, taking along a canister containing his remains and hooking up along the way with a Dutch stoner, an acerbic Canadian and an Irish travel writer. The film is heartfelt and scrappy, and it succeeds despite, not because of, its sentimental excess. Rated PG-13; mature themes, drug use. 1 hour, 55 minutes. By Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer.