Now in Theaters

G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA (PG-13)
An awfully loose adaptation of the Hasbro action figures (and the comic books and animated TV shows that followed them), Stephen Sommers’ latest movie is neither as enjoyable as his best work (The Mummy and its sequel) nor as bad as his worst stuff (Deep Rising). Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayans are crack soldiers recruited to join an elite commando group on the trail of a secret terrorist organization. The fight scenes are too complex and the acting isn’t very good, but this is the kind of movie that sweats criticisms like those. What was the big deal here, that Paramount couldn’t show it to critics? 4

JULIE & JULIA (PG-13)
Nora Ephron contributes her strongest direction yet in this dual biopic about Julie Powell (Amy Adams), a post-9/11 blogger inspired to create an online diary about recreating the recipes of Julia Child, and Child herself (Meryl Streep), just starting on her own culinary odyssey as a mid-century Paris transplant. The joy of cooking (to borrow from an unrelated tome) is at full force here, as is Streep’s talent for inhabiting a real-life character without ever sinking into mere mimicry. Unfortunately, neither Powell’s story nor Adams’ acting can match the combination of Child’s origins and Streep’s bravura turn, but there’s still plenty of good movie for audiences to gorge on. 8 (Full Review)

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER (PG-13)
“This is not a love story,” the narrator lies to us in the opening scene. But director Marc Webb’s feature debut is very much a love story, albeit with plenty of twists and turns that put it firmly in a category all its own. A young 20something romantic (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets his opposite number in every way in Summer (Zooey Deschanel): he belives in love and fate and soulmates, and she doesn’t want to be anyone’s girlfriend, ever. The middle ground they find is novel and poignant and exhilarating and witty – and above all, suffused with the infectious, reckless joy of young love. 10

FUNNY PEOPLE (R)
Writer/director Judd Apatow channels his inner James L. Brooks in his most ambitious – and least effective – project to date. In another serious role seemingly designed to once again frustrate his Big Daddy fan base, Adam Sandler plays a hypersuccessful actor/comedian who undergoes a life change when he is diagnosed with cancer. Seth Rogen co-stars as his stand-up protégé, and one of the film’s biggest strengths is its refusal to make either character completely sympathetic. But the picture goes on for so long, without ever really breaking new ground, that eventually it’s the audience that deserves sympathy. 5 (Full Review)

ALIENS IN THE ATTIC (PG)
John Schultz (The Honeymooners) directs this lightweight but satisfying all-ages sci-fi comedy that puts the kids in charge: Think Home Alone meets Alien. On a reluctant vacation with their parents, six cousins (including Ashley Tisdale and Pittsford natives Henri and Regan Young) encounter a team of pint-size E.T.s on the roof of their getaway home; they’re an advance squad looking to prep Earth for a full invasion, and only the cousins can stop them. Brisk physical comedy and a surprisingly sharp script give this otherwise by-the-numbers romp the lift it needs to stand out from the crowd. 6

G-FORCE (PG)
Mission: Impossible with guinea pigs? Why not? The critters are all CGI but given expert life through voice work by Sam Rockwell, Penelope Cruz, Tracy Morgan and others – and their human co-stars (including Will Arnett, The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis and Bill Nighy) provide enjoyable flesh-and-blood backup. Every summer needs a movie aimed at kids that doesn’t alienate their parents, and Hoyt Yeatman’s film is as satisfying as a Sno-Cone on a hot day. 8

ORPHAN (R)
Bad movies don’t bother me too much – I can even enjoy a good stinker, many of which have been responsible for making me laugh longer and louder than lots of deliberate comedies over the years. But there’s “bad” as in “poorly made,” and then there’s “bad” as in rotten – the “bad” you experience when drinking milk that’s been left in the fridge too long. This Evil Kid movie from director Jaume Collet-Sera (2005’s House of Wax remake), is that second kind of bad ... which is ironic to the point of being painful when you consider that in terms of craft, the movie is pretty good. Skip this. 2

THE UGLY TRUTH (R)
A neurotic TV producer (Katherine Heigl) can’t stand the new macho philosopher (Gerard Butler) who has helped her news show soar in the rating – but she sure could use his help in snaring the hunky doctor who’s moved in next door. If this summer's The Proposal is an example of chemistry and script wit saving an absolutely predictable plot, here’s the unfortunate proof that without those elements, sheer predictability can be punishing and painful to watch. A note to screenwriters Nicole Eastman and Karen Lutz: coarse language and sex talk doesn’t automatically make a movie edgy – but thanks to our ratings system, it will trim the audience that can see it. Nice job, geniuses. 3

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (PG)
The Potter series supposedly raises the stakes with each new installment. So is it so much to ask for the penultimate Potter, Part 6, to keep us awake? Harry and his pals are back at Hogwarts and now dealing with a new potions professor (Jim Broadbent), more deviltry from Voldemort, and ... raging hormones? David Yates' film is too long and awkwardly paced, concentrating more on Saved By the Bell-type boyfriend/girlfriend shenanigans than actual threats to our heroes. The special effects are as grand as ever, but an incessantly gray palette only adds to the slog, and the even actors seem positively unimpressed by what's going on around them. This plays more like a 153-minute warm-up to the two-film finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, coming in 18 and 24 months to a theater near you. But after waiting nine extra months for this installment, fans deserved better than this.  4

BRUNO (R)
It’s impossible to watch Sacha Baron Cohen’s return to big-screen Embarrassment Comedy without comparing it to Borat (2006), and the sad truth is, the follow-up is sorely lacking. Instead of play-acting as a clueless foreigner, this time he’s play-acting as a vaguely clueless Eurotrash gay culturista who travels the world in search of his 15 minutes of fame. Gay jokes and awkward silences ensue, and it’s all very funny, as far as it goes. But apart from a few legitimately inspired sequences, there’s nothing here that can rival the shock of the new that was Borat; it’s still funny, but the thrill is gone. 4

MOON (R)
Sam Rockwell and Sam Rockwell star as Sam Bell, a lonely astronaut stationed on a lunar mining base – and as Sam Bell, Sam’s clone. Confused? Wait until you see the movie – or better yet, don’t wait to see this, one of the year’s more engaging and quietly sharp films. Director Duncan Jones offers a few subtle riffs on classic sci-fi concepts while never forgetting to keep his drama human in scale – which, thanks to Rockwell’s precise and nuanced performances, is a delight all by itself. 8

PUBLIC ENEMIES (R)
Also known as “The first boring Michael Mann movie.” On paper this should have worked like a charm – Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, contemporary thinking-man actors each playing a different side of Mann’s trademark cops-and-robbers fence, in a patient examination of the real-life exploits of infamous bank robber John Dillinger (Depp). But somewhere between concept and reality, the film falls apart – too much A&E Biography content, not enough engaging crime drama. Mann is famous for getting into the heads of his cops and his crooks, but here, shackled to his true-crime agenda, he’s more interested in telling us what happened than in telling us why. Depp poses too much behind his pencil-thin moustache, and Bale hides beneath his fedora. 4

ANGELS & DEMONS (PG-13)
Tom Hanks has cut his hair for the sequel to The DaVinci Code, and while that's not the only improvement between the first and second adaptations of Dan Brown's mega-selling novel series, it's the most obvious. He's still an odd choice to play Robert Langdon, the dapper Harvard intellectual thrown into a jet-set murder mystery involving ancient religious symbols -- this time he's racing against time in Vatican City -- but Hanks tries his best to make the character his own. Ron Howard is an equally awkward pick as the director of this straightforward thriller (he handled DaVinci, too). But if you like your multiplex fare safe and unthreatening, have these two got a summer movie for you! 4

THE BROTHERS BLOOM (PG-13)
In 2006 writer-director Rian Johnson debuted with Brick, an inventive and stylish mash of classic film noir tropes and modern high-school melodrama. For his follow-up he continues to show a lot of visual and narrative flair – as long as you’ve never seen a Wes Anderson movie, that is. This caper comedy – the story of two con-artist brothers (Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody) and their efforts to bilk a winsome heiress (Rachel Weisz) – is so aggressively quirky, I expect the DVD release will come with a free propeller beanie. The acting is fine (Weisz in particular seems to be having fun), but the storytelling techniques seem ripped from Anderson staples (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc.) whose heavy art direction and twee mannerisms can too easily become clichés in the wrong hands. Johnson’s hands aren’t exactly the wrong ones, but without bringing anything new to the table, Bloom never really blossoms. 5

DANCE FLICK (R)
Another lowbrow movie parody, this time lampooning Save the Last Dance, Roll Bounce and other urban, er, dance flicks. It's written by Keenen Ivory Wayans and  Shawn Wayans, two of the more talented Wayans brothers, so let's think good thoughts, OK? (Not yet reviewed.)

DRAG ME TO HELL (R)
A.K.A. "The Return of Sam Raimi, Master of Schlock." Before he became an A-list director of franchises (Spider-Man) and serious movies (A Simple Plan), Raimi was best known for high-tone, low-budget horror movies, and with Hell he's back with (ahem) a vengeance. A meek bank loan officer (Matchstick Men's Allison Lohman) picks the wrong day to turn into a tough-as-nails rejection machine: Snubbing the mortgage-extension pleas of a decaying Gypsy woman (Lorna Raver) earns her a honest-to-goodness curse ... and in three days she'll be dragged by a demon straight to you-know-where. Raimi ladles on the cheap scares - there's no shortage here of things that go bump in the night - but the effects are solid and the tone is pervasive. This is old-school retro horror moviemaking - the kind I hope Raimi never forgets how to make. 9

GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST (PG-13)
Imagine A Christmas Carol without Christmas: It sounds sacrilegious, but director Mark Waters (Mean Girls) comes closer than anyone might have expected to pulling it off. Matthew McConaughey is Connor, an unrepentant horndog until the titular ghosts arrive to show him the error of his love-'em-and-leave-'em ways. Predictable and trite, the film nonetheless succeeds on a certain level by being unafraid to make the leading man absolutely unlikable. He's Scrooge, all right, but with a better wardrobe. 5

THE HANGOVER (R)
There’s a knack to portraying grown men acting like children without the portrayal seeming childish, and between Old School and now The Hangover Todd Phillips has proven he has that knack. (Now, the aptitude for producing TV remakes like Starsky & Hutch – that’s another story.) Here a trio of pals (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifinakis) take a groom-to-be (Justin Bartha) to Las Vegas for a bachelor party they won’t soon forget – or so they think. The next morning the three wake up after the mother of all bacchanals with their hotel suite trashed and the groom, plus all memory of what happened the night before, missing. Their race to find their missing man inspires some solid laughs, as long as you don’t think about anything too much. But as fun, dumb comedy goes, you probably won’t do better this summer. 8

LAND OF THE LOST (PG-13)
Will Ferrell movies range wildly from the staggeringly funny (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) to the justifiably forgotten (Semi-Pro). This time he’s playing the same fatuous, undeservedly arrogant clown that he’s brought to nearly every film; as always, it’s the story around him that gets judged anew, rather than the take-him-or-leave-him star. Land of the Lost – a remake of the ’70s Saturday morning show, with Ferrell as a scientist who discovers a time-traveling path to another dimension, complete with dinosaurs and aliens – never gels as a concept. It’s just Ferrell being Ferrell, with a CGI T-Rex as roaring back-up. Yawn. 4

STAR TREK (PG-13)
So that's what that feels like! I'm speaking, of course, of the sense of excitement at watching a Star Trek movie. It's not a feeling I've experienced before, as most of the Trek canon has been entertaining but inert -- an obligation posing as pop art. Facing that obstacle, J.J. Abrams has donethe impossible -- he's made a 40-year-old franchise lively and fresh without damaging the property's relevance to its longtime fans. (Now that I think about it, he's pulled a Casino Royale.) This reboot of the original film seriesfinds a good reason to put new, youngerfaces in the roles of Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban) and the rest of the Enterprise crew, and it's great fun to watch them boldly go where someone has gone before. Abrams' Trek is simply terrific: spry and engaging, mindful of its heritage without being shackled to it, and visually cool. It's Trek for people who don't likeTrek -- and maybe, just maybe, for people who do. 9

TERMINATOR SALVATION (R)
Twenty-five years ago James Cameron introduced us to John Connor, the future hero who would someday lead humanity in a war against sentient killer machines. Now, after three movies and a TV show mired in the present-day lead up to the Main Event, we finally get to meet Connor (Christian Bale) ... and he’s not even the most exciting part of the movie. Bale is gruff and no-nonsense as Connor, who is struggling against internal bureaucracy and Skynet to try to secure humanity’s future; meanwhile, a troubled loner named Marcus (Sam Worthington) may be both the key to Skynet’s next big plan and the human race’s last true hope. Director McG knows his way around the film’s full-throttle action sequences (yes, that was a Charlie’s Angels reference – deal with it), but whenever the tempo flags, the movie doesn’t know what to do with itself. All in all, Terminator Salvation was not worth the quarter-century wait. (Full Review) 6

UP (PG)
Sure, there are better movies than Pixar’s tenth feature – just none this year, so far. The story of an old widower (Ed Asner) who rigs his house with balloons to fly away to a life of adventure and fulfill a promise to his late wife, Up is packed with whimsy, thrills and unforced sentiment. Director Pete Docter (Monsters Inc.) infuses his film with great characters, magnificent visuals and a geriatric hero worth rooting for. (Full Review) 10

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (PG-13)
Comic book fans are already debating the merits of this film based on its fidelity to the 35-year canon propping up the title character, a metal clawed mutant with a bad attitude (but, as played by Hugh Jackman, so so sexy). Still, there's a better question to ask -- Is the movie any good? -- and sadly, the answer is "no." Assuming mainstream audiences care that Wolverine is 165 years old and has a nasty older brother (Liev Schreiber) with similar powers, they should still be disappointed in this limp attempt to prolong the dead X-Men franchise. Zombie mutants are so passe. 2

WHATEVER WORKS (PG-13)
Woody Allen is nearly two decades past his prime, but his best movies today still carry the imprimatur of classic entertainment. This plain-vanilla relationship comedy – the story of an aged New York curmudgeon (Larry David) who comes out of his shell via a May-December relationship with an expat Southern Belle (Evan Rachel Wood) – offers no new insights into the human condition; no sharp screenplay wit; no Oscar-caliber acting. But it’s a solid yarn that expands organically as the film unspools, and by the time you’ve finished watching it you’ll be entranced at its microcosm of warts-and-all modern romance. If Allen does no better than this for the rest of his career, that’s fine with me. 8