Here’s what’s showing on Central Oregon movie screens.

Published 4:00 am Friday, December 12, 2008

HEads Up

“Breaking Away” — Dave (Dennis Christopher), 19, has just graduated high school, with his three friends, the comical Cyril (Daniel Stern), the warm-hearted but short-tempered Moocher (Jackie Earle Haley), and the athletic, spiteful but good-hearted Mike (Dennis Quaid). Dave enjoys racing bikes and hopes to race the Italians one day, and even takes up the Italian culture, much to his friends’ and parents’ annoyance. Meanwhile, the four friends try to break away from their small-town-Indiana reputation while fighting nearby college snobs. The 1979 classic won the Oscar for Best Screenplay that year. The film will screen at 9 p.m. Tuesday at McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend. Tickets are $5. (PG)

— Part of the WebCyclery Movie Night series

“Children of Winter” — Warren Miller’s 2008 Film Tour showcases footage shot in Japan, Austria, British Columbia, Alaska, Iceland and at Mt. Bachelor. World-class athletes featured in the film include Jonny Moseley, Daron Rahlves, Marco Sullivan, Seth Wescott, Gerry Lopez and Wendy Fisher. The documentary will screen at 6 p.m. Wednesday at McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend. Tickets are $10. (no MPAA rating)

“Glenn Beck’s A Christmas Sweater” — “The Christmas Sweater” is a new Christmas Memory Play with Music, based on Glenn Beck’s soon-to-be-released novel of the same name. It is an exciting and compelling piece of theatre, featuring national television/radio personality Glenn Beck, a 10-piece orchestra and a Broadway gospel singer. Filled with warmth and humor, “The Christmas Sweater” tells the story of real people as they come to terms with tragedy, family, redemption, love and the power of faith. The show will be broadcast live from The Charleston Performing Arts Center in South Carolina. The show will screen at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Regal Old Mill Stadium 16 in Bend. Tickets are $20. (no MPAA rating)

— Synopsis from www.fathomevents.com.

What’s New

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” — Alien beings land in Central Park with a message only Jennifer Connelly finds out, and she pleads with Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) to save the human race. A good-looking, well-made remake of the 1951 classic; pity the plot stands still. Co-starring Kathy Bates. Rating: Two stars. (PG-13)

“Delgo” — “Delgo” is yet more proof that not everyone with access to the tools and talent pool to make an animated film should be allowed to. It’s a focus-group film, from its all-star voice cast (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Burt Reynolds) to its mash-up of a plot and “cuddly” critters acting it out. The animation’s not bad. But the staggeringly complicated Tolkien-C.S. Lewis setting, the reptilian leads and the faded fairy-tale plot skewer poor “Delgo” before we have a chance to figure out what’s going on here and why. Rating: One star (out of five). (PG)

“Let the Right One In” — A disturbing story of two lonely and disturbed Swedish 12-year-olds, one of whom is a vampire and has been 12 for a very long time. Dark, bloody, despairing, sometimes faintly funny. Takes vampires as seriously as the “Nosferatu” of your choice. Rating: Three and a half stars. (R)

“Nothing Like the Holidays” — For the first time in several years, all the members of their far-flung Puerto Rican-American family gather for Christmas. A familiar formula, yes, but the actors breathe real life into the characters; funny, sad, corny, romantic, heartfelt, all when it needs to be. With John Leguizamo, Alfred Molina, Elizabeth Pena, Debra Messing. Rating: Three stars. (PG-13)

Still Showing

“Appaloosa” — Ed Harris plays a sheriff and Viggo Mortensen is his deputy. They travel the Old West, cleaning bad guys out of towns. Appaloosa lives in dread of an evil rancher (Jeremy Irons). A cute young miss in a fetching frock (Renee Zellweger) arrives in town on the stage. It’s all atmospheric, touching, involving. Harris, as director, tells a story that may remind you of “Lonesome Dove.” Rating: Three stars. (R)

“Australia” — An Australian “Gone With the Wind,” a sweeping romantic melodrama and broad family entertainment. With Nicole Kidman as a British society figure, Hugh Jackman as a rough-hewn cattle drover, and Brandon Walters, wonderful as the young Aborigine who narrates. Gorgeous film, strong performances, exhilarating images, a powerful but sometimes uncertain consideration about Australian racism. Rating: Three stars. (PG-13)

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” — Those savvy market research-readers at Disney have discovered that kids love Chihuahuas, especially talking ones. Thus, they decreed that “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” take one of the little bug-eyed rats on an “Incredible Journey,” from her chic life in Beverly Hills to the dog fights of Mexico, with a side trip into the land of Chihuahua. A Who’s Who of Latin American voice talent, from George Lopez and Andy Garcia to Placido Domingo, lends this too-chatty, too-plot driven chew-toy from the director of “Scooby Doo” just enough Spanglish flavor to go over. Rating: Two stars (out of five.) (PG)

“Bolt” — Disney animation takes a tentative step out of the shadows of Pixar with “Bolt,” a winning 3-D-animated action-comedy that marries the best Disney traditions with Pixar polish. Though this road comedy of a lost TV star dog doesn’t rival the classics from Disney’s computer-animation pioneer partners, it’s the first in-house Disney animation — after the middling “Chicken Little,” “The Wild” and “Meet the Robinsons” — to bear comparison to the Pixar gold standard. Rating: Four stars (out of five). (PG)

“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” — Bruno (Asa Butterfield) is an 8-year-old growing up in Berlin, circa 1940. His dad (David Thewlis) is a Nazi official. One day Bruno gets the unwelcome news that his dad has a new job, and they will all be moving to the country. There he finds a puzzling farm where the workers all wear striped pajamas, and makes a friend his age on the other side of a barbed wire fence. A heartbreaking story, a small tragedy wrapped within an immense one. Do not discuss the details with anyone. Rating: Three and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Burn After Reading” — The Coen brothers’ screwball comedy that occasionally becomes something more. The characters are zany, the plot coils upon itself with dizzy zeal, and the roles seem like a perfect fit. The plot involves the missing computer disk of a fired CIA agent (John Malkovich), and no one in it understands the big picture. With George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt, playing a very unPittian role. Rating: Three stars. (R)

“Changeling” — Clint Eastwood’s film made me feel sympathy, and then anger, and then back around again. It’s the factual account of a mother whose boy disappeared, and of a corrupt LAPD running wild. Angelina Jolie stars as the mother, John Malkovich as a crusading reformer, and Jason Butler Harner is riveting as the serial killer. Rating: Three and a half stars. (R)

“Four Christmases” — Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon get trapped having to visit the households of their four divorced parents, which are so dysfunctional, this feels more like a Thanksgiving picture, where the families are always miserable. Rating: Two stars. (PG-13)

“Fuel” — Record high oil prices, global warming, and an insatiable demand for energy: these issues will be the catalyst for heated debates and positive change for many years to come. “Fuel” is the successor to “Fields of Fuel”, which won the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary. “Fuel” exposes shocking connections between the auto industry, the oil industry, and the government, while exploring alternative energies such as solar, wind, electricity, and non-food-based biofuels. Josh Tickell and his Veggie Van take us on the road to discover the pros and cons of biofuels, how America’s addiction to oil is destroying the U.S. economy, and how green energy can save us, but only if we act now. No MPAA rating.

“Happy-Go-Lucky” — Mike Leigh’s new film is his happiest in years, but it has dark undercurrents and deep penetrations into the secrets of his characters. Sally Hawkins is magnificent as Poppy, a grade school teacher who seems irrepressibly cheerful, and Eddie Marsan is terrifying as a driving instructor with road rage. The film gradually reveals the resources that Poppy possesses beneath her merry exterior. Rating: Four stars. (R)

“Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” — Same characters, same challenge: Can wild animals survive in the wild? Our heroes tape together a crashed airplane and try to fly it home, but end up dealing with volcanos and drought. Brighter and funnier than the original. Rating: Three stars. (PG)

“The Punisher: War Zone” — In a city populated only by the good guys and the bad guys, most of the bad guys are dead at the end, as the Punisher (Ray Stevenson) wreaks his vengeance, and Jigsaw (Dominic West) survives an interlude in a glass-crusher. A very well-made film, wall to wall with F/X violence. Its major flaw is that it’s disgusting. Rating: Two stars. (R)

“Quantum of Solace” — A disappointment. No Q, no Miss Moneypenny, no suave and seductive James Bond, and a Bond girl under-named … Camille. The evil villain’s globe-threatening scheme is to control the water supply in … Bolivia. Daniel Craig is handsome, agile, muscular, dangerous. Everything but Bond, who has been replaced by an Identikit action hero mixed in with incomprehensible CGI. Rating: Two stars. (PG-13)

“Role Models” — The kind of movie you don’t see every day, a comedy that is actually funny. Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott play teammates who drive a super truck from school to school, touting a Jolt-like energy drink. They get into trouble, are sentenced to community service, and are assigned two problem kids (terrific performances by Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb’e J. Thompson). Rating: Three stars. (R)

“The Secret Life of Bees” — A heartwarming parable based on the much-loved novel by Sue Monk Kidd. Queen Latifah presides over an idealized rural household that provides refuge for a 14-year-old runaway (Dakota Fanning) and her nasty father’s housekeeper (Jennifer Hudson). With Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo. Rating: Three and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Synecdoche, New York” — The great screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, in his first film as a director, uses a theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the ebb and flow of a human life, its attempts to control others, its negotiations with reality, dream, hallucination and madness. I needed to see it twice to begin to absorb its greatness. Rating: Four stars. (R)

“Transporter 3” — The film is a perfectly acceptable brainless action thriller, starring the steely eyed, taciturn Jason Statham, who makes his deliveries on time and with no questions asked, except this time, when he starts caring for his cargo (the delightfully freckled Natalya Rudakova). Two stunt sequences of remarkable complexity and reckless foolishness. Rating: Two and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Twilight” — Teenage romance between fresh-faced Kristen Stewart and the distant, aloof, handsome, dangerous Robert Pattinson, who plays a vampire. Lush, beautiful, preposterous, based on the runaway best-seller. Primary audience: 16-year-old girls. They’ll love it. Rating: Two and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” — Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks play poverty-row roommates who face eviction and ruin. They become unwitting superstars on YouTube, and have a brilliant idea: They’ll cash in on their fame by making a porn film. With Jason Mewes from “Jay and Silent Bob,” Traci Lords in her debut as the only grown-up in a film, and Craig Robinson as a novice producer with great one-liners. Occasionally there is a non-four-letter word. Rating: Three stars. (R)

— From wire and online sources