Movies

Opening This Week

The Burning Plain See Steven Rea's preview on this page.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs In this animated feature, a scientist's effort to end world hunger brings unintended consequences as food starts to fall from the sky. From the beloved children's book.

Earth Days The history of the environmental movement and the crises that gave rise to it are the subject of this documentary.

Flame & Citron This World War II thriller focuses on two Danish resistance fighters who have their own ways of dealing with Nazi informants. Danish and German with subtitles.

The Informant! See Steven Rea's preview on this page.

Jennifer's Body See Steven Rea's preview on this page.

Love Happens A self-help author (Aaron Eckhart) falls for a woman (Jennifer Aniston) who attends one of his lectures.

Excellent

(

****)

Reviewed by critics Carrie Rickey (C.R.) and Steven Rea (S.R.). W.S. denotes a wire-service review..

The Beaches of Agnes Enchanting and uncategorizable cine-memoir from filmmaker Agnes Varda, godmother to the French New Wave, formidable personality, irrepressible life force, and congenial host to a life well-lived and well-loved. 1 hr. 50 No MPAA rating (nudity, profanity) - C.R.

Up Buoyant Pixar film about a childless grouch (voice of Ed Asner) and a fatherless boy (Jordan Nagai) who float off to the wilds of Venezuela in a house lashed to helium-filled balloons. It darts unpredictably between comedy and adventure, defying gravity and age. 1 hr. 36 PG (perilous situations, appropriate for those 5 to 105) - C.R.

Very Good

(

***1/2)

The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow's riveting and profoundly tense war movie, set in Baghdad in 2004, follows the members of a bomb squad as they go looking for IEDs, looking to stay alive. Far and away one of the strongest of the films to come out of the Iraq conflict - a white-knuckle war movie. 2 hrs. 10 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Julie & Julia Like Nora Ephron's captivating film about Julia Child and her influence, Meryl Streep's performance is cuisine disguised as comfort food, a complex preparation yielding effects both broadly entertaining and subtly moving. With Amy Adams as Julie Powell, the cook-blogger besotted with Julia. With Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina. 2 hrs. 03 PG-13 (profanity, implied sex) - C.R.

Also on Screens

All About Steve *1/2 Not really about Steve, but about Mary - an insufferably kooky crossword puzzle constructor who starts stalking the title character (Bradley Cooper). Strained screwball comedy ensues. 1 hr. 36 PG-13 (sex, profanity, cartoonish mayhem, adult themes) - S.R.

District 9 **1/2 Intriguing premise about aliens stranded on Earth and forced to live in a squalid South African shantytown. The seamless mix of documentary-like footage of humans interacting with the human-sized, buglike ETs is gritty and gripping, but the story devolves into a Transformers-style shoot 'em up. 1 hr. 52 R (violence, gore, profanity, aggressive action, adult themes) - S.R.

The Final Destination * A teen's premonition enables him and his friends to escape a deadly disaster at a racetrack. But to his horror, the friends he saved begin to die, one by one. 1 hr. 24 R (strong violent/gruesome accidents, language and a scene of sexuality) - W.S.

Gamer * The star of a futuristic online game in which players control the lives of others tries to escape the game in this lame sci-fi thriller. 1 hr. 30 R (frenetic sequences of strong brutal violence throughout, sexual content, nudity, language) - W.S.

Inglourious Basterds ** Quentin Tarantino's tonally schizoid Jewish revenge fantasy rewrites World War II history to give Brad Pitt and company a chance to do a lot of jive riffing, while the movie mashes up the combat exploits of the Dirty Dozen, the madcap slapstick of Duck Soup, Sam Fuller swagger, and Hostel gore. 2 hrs. 32 R (violence, gore, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

9 **1/2 Visually rich and narratively destitute animation set in a postapocalyptic world where burlap rag dolls, each with a number instead of a name, battle a mechanical "Beast." Shane Acker's film betrays its origins as a short padded to feature length. 1 hr. 19 PG-13 (animated battle sequences, scary machines, too intense for those under 11) - C.R.

Theater

Reviewed by critic Howard Shapiro (H.S.).

New This Week

Chicago (Academy of Music) This time starring Jerry Springer! Opens Tuesday.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Walnut Street Theatre) Two con artists duel over rights to fleece Riviera pigeons. Previews today and Tuesday, opens Wednesday.

Little Shop of Horrors (Theatre Horizon/11th Hour Theatre Company) Two troupes tackle this botanical blockbuster. Previews today and Wednesday, opens Thursday.

Nathan the Wise (People's Light & Theatre) Jews, Muslims, and Christians in 11th-century Jerusalem. Previews Thursday and Friday, opens Saturday.

The Philly Fan (Bristol Riverside Theatre) Tom McCarthy's back, enduring 50 years of sports ups and downs. Previews Tuesday and Wednesday, opens Thursday.

Continuing

Bus Stop (Montgomery Theater) Life lessons for travelers marooned in a snowstorm. Through Oct. 3. - H.S.

Little Shop of Horrors (Devon Theatre) A boy, a girl, a meat-eating plant, a musical! Through Sept. 27.

Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe Today begins the final week of the 13th annual iteration of this sprawling - 201 productions - multidisciplinary, multimedia, multi-venue celebration of all things arty/risky/wacky. Details, schedules, and ticketing information at www.livearts-fringe.org. Find reviews and feature stories at www.philly.com/fringe.

Proposals (Ritz Theatre) A nostalgic Neil Simon summer afternoon in the Poconos. Through Oct. 10. - H.S.

Thoroughly Modern Millie (New Candlelight Theatre) Cool set, zippy dancing, Erica Scanlon Harr's Millie is a standout. The rest is erratic. Through Oct. 10. - H.S.

Video

X-Men Origins: Wolverine ** Hugh Jackman revisits his X-Men role to show how Wolverine came into being in this meaningless mishmash of combat sequences, passable visual effects, Marvel Comics backstory, and goofy Liev Schreiber-as-a-villain thespianizing. 1 hr. 47 PG-13 (violence, intense action, adult themes) - S.R.