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At the movies: Aug. 17, 2012
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New in theaters Great Escape 14 Stadium Cinemas, Moline: -- "Expendables 2" (R) -- "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" (PG) -- "ParaNorman" (PG) -- "Sparkle" (PG-13) Rave Motion Pictures 53, Davenport: -- "Expendables 2" (R) -- "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" (PG) -- "ParaNorman" (PG) -- "Sparkle" (PG-13) Nova 6 Cinemas, Moline: -- "The Amazing Spider-Man" (PG-13) -- "Magic Mike" (R) -- "Step Up Revolution" (PG-13) Galva Autovue, Galva -- Friday and Saturday: "The Dark Night Rises" (PG-13) and "Total Recall" (PG-13) or "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" (PG) and "The Watch" (R) -- Sunday: No Sunday shows this weekend. U.S. 61 Drive-in: -- "Total Recall" (PG-13) and "Tec" (R) Minireviews These are Roger Ebert's mini-reviews (unless otherwise noted) of movies currently playing in the Quad-Cities area. New this week 'Expendables 2' (R, 102 minutes): A shoot-em-up for septuagenarians starring Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A festival of horrendous one-liners, it's jam-packed with explosions and guns and crashes and unnaturally loud punches, with faceless, nameless stuntmen taking all the risks. It barely qualifies as a movie, but it does make for a fascinating study on male vanity. Most of these actors are extremely fit, with the bodies of muscular 30-year-olds, but there's nothing they can do about the lines and creases in their faces. Rating: 1 star -- Rene Rodriguez,The Miami Herald "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" (PG, 104 minutes): A warm and lovely fantasy, the kind of full-bodied family film that's being pushed aside in favor of franchises and slam-bang confusion. On a picture-postcard farm in the middle of endlessly rolling hills where it is always Indian summer, a lovable boy comes into the life of a childless couple and brings along great joy and wisdom. Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, young CJ Adams and a rich supporting cast. Written and directed by Peter Hedges ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape"). Accessible for all but the youngest children, and I suspect their parents will enjoy it, too. Rating: 3 1/2 stars "ParaNorman" (PG, 92 minutes): So much drawing for such an unworthy script. The labor necessary to create a movie like this is colossal, so it's tempting to applaud it politely, simply because of the admirable work. But the frequently wondrous and whimsical visuals far surpass the disappointingly slipshod story of an 11-year-old boy named Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) who can see and speak to the dead. "ParaNorman" is from the creators of 2009's "Coraline," and bears much of the same fantasy-horror spirit. It also has some of the comic elements of the British studio Aardman Animations ("Wallace and Gromit"). Norman's uncle (John Goodman) bequeaths to him the duty of pacifying a witch that has haunted their town of Blithe Hollow for 300 years. After failing in the ritual, Norman and an improvised gang (Tucker Albrizzi, Casey Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Alex Borstein) flee from a septet of zombies. The running around town takes up much of the film, robbing "ParaNorman" of pace and setting it on a tiresome and frantic trajectory before enough character development has taken place. Rating: 2 stars -- Jake Coyle, AP "Sparkle" (PG-13, 114 minutes): Plows the same ground as a century of other showbiz musicals -- good kids lured away from religion and piety by the limelight's glow, stumbling into drugs, sex and abuse before trying to pull it all together for one big show. It's a perfectly serviceable version of a time-worn tale, entirely too long. With Jordin Sparks and the late Whitney Houston in her last role. Rating: 2 stars -- Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service Last week "The Bourne Legacy" (PG-13, 135 minutes): Jeremy Renner plays another secret agent like Jason Bourne, who realizes he's been targeted for elimination. To save himself and the experimental medication that gives him great physical and mental power, he travels from Alaska to Manila, fighting off wolves, drone missiles and assassination, while hooking up with Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), a biochemist who knows all about the medication. The action scenes are gripping in the moment, but go on too long and don't add up; the dialogue scenes (with Edward Norton, Stacy Keach and Scott Glenn) are well-acted; the plot is a murky muddle. Rating: 2 1/2 stars "The Campaign" (R, 85 minutes): Raucous, bawdy comedy starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as opponents in a North Carolina GOP congressional primary. Ferrell is the incumbent, and Galifianakis is a doofus bankrolled by billionaire brothers who want to buy the district and resell it to China. The movie uses their campaign as a showcase of political scandals and dirty tricks that have become familiar in both parties. Sad fact: Some of the scandals in the movie would have been hard to believe until recent years, when -- well, they've happened. Rating: 3 stars "Hope Springs" (PG-13, 100 minutes): Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep play a couple whose marriage has frozen into a routine. Every day starts with his nose buried in the newspaper and ends with him asleep in front of the Golf Channel. They haven't slept in the same room for years. She convinces him over his own dead body to attend a couples therapy session at a Maine clinic run by Steve Carell. The movie contains few surprises, but one of them is Jones' excellent performance -- vulnerable, touchy and shy. Rating: 3 stars "Nitro Circus: The Movie 3D" (PG-13, 80 minutes): A documentary about daredevils attempting to pull off extreme stunts. With Travis Pastrana, Jolene Van Vugt and Erik Roner. Directed by Gregg Godfrey and Jeremy Rawle. No rating Coming to video Tuesday, Aug. 21: "The Dictator" (R, 85 minutes, 2012): Sacha Baron Cohen establishes a claim to be the best comic filmmaker now working. "The Dictator" is funny, obscene, disgusting, scatological, vulgar and crude, and also merciless political satire. With Ben Kingsley, John C. Reilly, Anna Faris and a great cameo from Megan Fox, who shows up for sex but draws the line at an all-night cuddle. Rating: 3 stars "A Separation" (PG-13, 123 minutes, 2012): A happily married middle-class couple in Tehran have a sweet 11-year-old daughter, and his senile father also lives with them. They have agreed in principle to move abroad, where they hope their daughter's prospects might be better. She wants to leave now; he wants to stay because of his father. A wonderfully written and acted, very human story that ends in a courtroom. These decent characters are all trying to do the right thing. To untangle right and wrong in this fascinating story is a moral challenge. Rating: 4 stars "Bernie" (PG-13, 98 minutes, 2012): Richard Linklater's droll comedy stars Jack Black as an East Texas funeral director named Bernie Tiede, and it is surely one of the best performances of the year. Bernie is superb at his job: solicitous, gentle, tactful. When Marjorie Nugent's husband dies, he is the angel at her shoulder, creating the impression that no client has ever touched him quite so much as she. That's a triumph because Marjorie (Shirley MacLaine) is the most disliked woman in Carthage. Based on an almost unbelievable true story, balanced at a peculiar angle between pathos and satire. Rating: 3 1/2 stars 
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Today is Friday, May 24, the 144th day of 2013. There are 221 days left in the year.
1863 -- 150 years ago: A military escort will be at the square at 9 a.m. tomorrow forthe funeral of Lieut. Joseph Eaton. The county judge is absent in Chicago, which willaccount for his not being in the procession.
1888 -- 125 years ago: Rock Island's City Council last night appropriated $95,000 forexpenses for the 1888 and 1889 fiscal year.
1913 -- 100 years ago: Mrs. F.W. Reimers last night was re-elected president of the RockIsland Musical Club at a meeting in the New Harper Hotel.
1938 -- 75 years ago: Seven members of Boy Scout Troop 21 got their Eagle badges lastnight. They were Ralph Hurt, Robert Nelson, Howard Schersten, Cecil Nelson, RobertFryxell, Clarence Stone and Rollin Hurt.
1963 -- 50 years ago: Mayor Morris Muhleman has resorted to a form letter in an effort toanswer objections to the wheel tax increase. "It was my hope that I could, in some way,restore the faith of the citizens in our city. In order to do this I knew I must face the factthat I would become very unpopular."All they are trying to do is protect the citizensproperty and build their town.
1988 -- 25 years ago: RICCA, the Rock Island County Council on Addictions, inconjunction with the Quad City Downs, will hold its annual "Night at the Races" June 2.The benefit "Night at the Races" will raise funds locally to assist in maintaining the twohalfway houses, New Hope Lodge (for women) and Beacon House (for men).
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