Honolulu Weekly

Unattributed film synopses indicate movies not yet reviewed by HW staff.

Indicates films of particular interest

Opening

Alice in Wonderland 3D Alice is 19, and who better to craft a grown up, 3D version of Lewis Carroll’s classic trip down the rabbit-hole than the neo-gothic tag team of Tim Burton and Johhny Depp, who has another excuse to play a gay-vague dandy with fried hair as the Mad Hatter.

Brooklyn’s Finest After last week’s Cop Out, the popo get serious in this Sundance crime film about three cops (Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke) faced with three different dilemmas following one massive drug sting.

The Ghost Writer When not running from the Feds, Roman Polanski’s been directing this adaptation of Robert Harris’s novel The Ghost, a thriller about a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) who uncovers unsettling information after being commissioned to finish the former Prime Minister’s (Pierce Brosnan) memoir.

The White Ribbon See review on page 18.

Continuing

Avatar Yes, the proceedings are involving, rousing and occasionally heartbreaking, but so was The Princess and the Frog. But before we pan the thing, the movie gets undeniably exciting in its spear-versus-machine climax. –Ryan Senaga

Cop Out Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play the latest interracial cop duo, undoubtedly stumbling, rambling and wisecracking their way through a case involving a stolen vintage baseball card. For Willis, the two-time Emmy Award winner, a cop out indeed.

The Crazies See review on page 20.

Crazy Heart A tragicomedy featuring Bad Blake, a 57-year-old, alcoholic country singer played perfectly by Jeff Bridges, who finds an intimate connection with a young journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal) hungry for a story. –Dean Carrico

Dear John The movie is so manipulative that bright people might feel insulted, and so mechanical that it defies credibility. –Bob Green

An Education This movie knows exactly what it’s doing in telling its archetypal story of a precocious 16-year-old schoolgirl (Carey Mulligan, wonderful) seduced, in every possible way, by a man in his mid-30s (Peter Sarsgaard in his best performance since The Dying Gaul). –B.G.

The Hurt Locker A gripping look into the work of the military’s most courageous and unrecognized heroes: the Explosive Ordnance Disposal squad, responsible for defusing roadside bombs in Baghdad. A critics’ darling.

The Last Station A biographical account of Russian author Leo Tolstoy, meaning a lot of rhetoric about peasant-loving, non-violent resistance and Christian anarchy. His marriage to Countess Sofya (the fantastic Helen Mirren), 16 years his junior, provides the tension.

Oscar Animated Shorts The selection from the animated category features five tales that prove you don’t need a bloated runtime to make your point. Yes, we’re looking at you James Cameron. –D.C.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief It’s a perfectly serviceable distraction, particularly with those who haven’t grown up in the midst of Potter-mania, but for those who have, it’s a painful reminder that lightning rarely strikes twice. –D.C.

Shinjuku Incident Jackie Chan takes a step toward the more serious side of cinema, starring as an illegal Chinese immigrant navigating the Yakuza-studded streets of Shinjuku. Compared to his last release, in which he played soccer mom to his girlfriend’s kids, it sounds like Hamlet.

Shutter Island Along the way we get swooping, claustrophobic shots of circular lighthouse staircases, conveniently flickering light bulbs, matches that flame on with exploding jolts and a Hitchcockian, Bernard Herrmann-like score with loud, blaring horns that practically punctuate strikes of lightning. And yet, the proceedings aren’t as scary, or even as urgent, as they should be. –R.S.

A Single Man Writer-director Tom Ford, making his helming debut, has done a credible, savvy version of the Christopher Isherwood novel, making it visually telling and guiding his actors to near-perfection. –B.G.

Valentine’s Day Could you possibly think of a better way to celebrate the saint of schmaltz than with a gaggle of beautiful celebrities–Joe Jonas and Taylor Swift, among them–canoodling in Los Angeles?

The Wolfman This new version, shelved by the studio for two years, suffers from overkill: huge budget, added characters, hammy acting, overly-long stories and a miscast del Toro. –B.G.

Doris Duke Theatre

8th Annual Jewish Film Festival opens March 6 and runs through March 18, featuring six feature films (two with ties to Japan) and one short. See page 16.

Movie Museum

The Cove (2009) Killing dolphins is bad. Find out why in this documentary with all the makings of an action thriller, with hidden cameras capturing behind the scenes footage of the killers’ atrocities and underwater cinematographers depicting dolphins in their natural grace and beauty.

Thu 3/4, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30, 6:30 & 8:30pm. Mon 3/8, 12:30 & 2:15pm.

Inglourious Basterds (Germany, 2009) Quentin Tarantino is up to his typical shenanigans, starting with the film’s misspelled title and ending, two-and-a-half hours later, with a blood-soaked mockery on revenge set in WWII. Starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz and buckets of fake Nazi blood.

Fri 3/5, 12:15 & 3pm. Mon 3/8, 4:15 & 7pm.

Faubourg 36 (France/Germany/ Czech Republic, 2008) It’s 1936 in Paris and Pigoil has lost everything–his music hall, his wife and son–after being charged with murder. His friends attempt to revive the hall, taking us into the fanciful realm of French vaudeville.

Fri 3/5, 6 & 8:30pm. Sun 3/7, 12:15 pm.

Julie & Julia (2009) Tomato, tomahto. No matter how you cut it, this syrupy flick is like Skinemax for the Food Network set, and with Meryl Streep in the starring role, there’s eye candy for film buffs as well.

Sat 3/6, 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7 & 9:15pm.

Fire and Sword (Ireland/West/Germany, 1982) A romantic adventure based on the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde about a medieval knight torn between his love for an Irish Princess and his loyalty to his king.

Sun 3/7, 2:30 & 4:15pm.

University of Hawaii

Something Unknown Is Doing We Don’t Know What (Netherlands, 2008) Are all self-proclaimed shamans Miss Cleos or do some really possess supernatural capabilities? A documentary that explores this question through a series of unsettling brushes with the paranormal experienced by director Renée Scheltema.

Sun 3/7, 5pm.

3 Doa 3 Cinta (Indonesia, 2008) “3 wishes 3 loves” tells the story of three friends in Indonesia living in an Islamic boarding school who must put their lives and dreams on hold following the racial backlash of 9/11.

Wed 3/3, 6:30pm, Korean Studies Auditorium, Free.

Hey Ram (India, 2000) Named after Mahatma Gandhi’s alleged last words (translation: “Oh God”), this gripping, controversial drama takes place during the Partition of India and traces the events leading up to the assassination of India’s spiritual and political leader, in 1948.

Mon 3/8, 3:30pm, Hawai’i Institute for Geophysics Auditorium, Room 110, Free.

The ARTS at Marks Garage

1159 Nuuanu Avenue, $12, 521-2903

Un’ora Sola ti Vorrei (2008) In “For One More Hour with You,” Director Alina Marazzi pays tribute to her mother–who died when Marazzi was seven–through a piecemeal of home movies, recordings and diary entries. Screening followed by complementary authentic Italian appetizers.

Thu 3/4, 7pm.