Heads Up

“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” — A battle of the bands pits Alvin and the gang against a threesome of female chipmunks. The film opens Wednesday at local theaters. (PG)

“The Metropolitan Opera: Les Contes d’Hoffman (no MPAA rating) — Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this new production, returning after the triumph of his “Barber of Seville” at The Metropolitan Opera (seen live in HD in the 2006–07 season). Offenbach’s fictionalized take on the life and loves of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann is a fascinating psychological journey. Music Director James Levine conducts Joseph Calleja in the tour-de-force title role. Anna Netrebko is the tragic Antonia and Alan Held sings the demonic four villains. “The Metropolitan Opera: Live in High-Definition” series features 9 opera performances transmitted live in high-definition to movie theaters around the world. The show starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Regal Old Mill Stadium 16 in Bend. Tickets are $15 for children, $20 for seniors and $22 for adults. (No MPAA rating)

What’s New

“Avatar” — James Cameron silences his doubters by delivering an extraordinary film. There’s still one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million wisely. The story involves a mission by U.S. Armed Forces to an Earth-sized moon, Pandora, in orbit around a massive star. They encounter a graceful race of towering blue-skinned forest dwellers living in harmony with their environment. Sam Worthington plays the hero, who is befriended by a Na’vi woman (Zoe Saldana) and switches his allegiance. Awesome special effects, good storytelling. Rating: Four stars. (PG-13)

“Did You Hear About the Morgans?” — Feuding couple from Manhattan (Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker) are forced to flee town under the Witness Protection Program, find themselves Fish Out of Water in Strange New World, meet Colorful Characters, survive Slapstick Adventures, end up Together at the End. The only part of that formula that still works is The End. With supporting roles for Sam Elliott and Wilford Brimley, sporting the two most famous mustaches in the movies. Rating: One and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” — School is an ordeal of mocking cruelty for a fat teenager, and home is worse. Precious avoids looking at people, hardly ever speaks, is nearly illiterate, is pregnant. One of her teachers (Paula Patton) and a social worker (Mariah Carey) see something in her, or simply react to her obvious pain. They try to coax her out of her shell. She’s not stupid, but feels defeated. Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe gives a powerful performance in the title role, and Mo’Nique is frighteningly effective as her abusive mother. Directed by Lee Daniels, based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire. Rating: Four stars. (R)

“The Road” — Evokes the images and the characters of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, but lacks the core of emotional feeling. The film is a sincere attempt to relate the story of a man and his son trekking westward across a devastated future America, but the strength of the novel isn’t in the action; it’s in McCarthy’s prose, which evokes so much more than it says. With Viggo Mortensen as the father, Kodi Smit-McPhee as his son and Charlize Theron in flashbacks as the wife and mother in years before the unexplained apocalypse. An honorable attempt, but McCarthy is daunting to film. Rating: Three and a half stars. (R)

Still Showing

“2012” — The mother of all disaster movies (and the father and the extended family) spends half an hour on obligatory ominous setup scenes (scientists warn, strange events occur, prophets rant, and of course a family is introduced). Then it unleashes two hours of cataclysmic special events in which the Earth is hammered relentlessly. This is fun. “2012” delivers what it promises, and will be, for its intended audience, one of the most satisfactory films of the year. Rating: Three and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Amelia” — Hilary Swank is an ideal embodiment of Amelia Earhart, who was strong, brave and true, and looked fabulous in a flight suit. The second person to fly solo across the Atlantic was a born feminist who pioneered aviation for women and wed George Putnam (Richard Gere) after informing him their marriage would have “dual controls.” Well directed by Mira Nair with impeccable period details; an admirable film, if lacking in drama because Earhart’s life was short and happy. Rating: Three stars. (PG)

“Armored” — Director Nimrod Antal showed so much promise when he delivered that minimalist Hungarian subway thriller “Kontroll” that it’s a shock how pedestrian this potentially gritty story looks and plays. The camera is almost always locked-down when it should be, as in a few moments when we see action through a shaking rear-view mirror, jumpy and nervous. There’s one arresting shot — a chase, on foot, viewed through the tiny holes in a long row of stacked pipes. The staging and editing are by-the-book and static. And the sometimes absurd plot points are as forgettable as the abandoned LA industrial park this was shot in is over-familiar. That’s what “Armored” is — over-familiar and industrial, a factory film made because a recycled script, minimal budget, a location, a grab-bag cast and some armored trucks were available. This film was not given a star rating. (PG-13)

“The Blind Side” — This redemption-minded sports flick serves its inspiration straight-up with no twist. Writer-director John Lee Hancock wisely lets the true story of Michael Oher — the African-American teen who found a home and, eventually, football stardom, after being adopted by a wealthy Memphis family — speak for itself. That direct focus delivers a feel-good crowd-pleaser, but it also drains the film of the kind of subtle nuances that might have separated it from other Hollywood Hallmark-like efforts, including Hancock’s own “The Rookie.” The movie dutifully chronicles the transformation of Oher (newcomer Quinton Aaron) from blank slate to a fully formed young man, emphasizing the involvement of Leigh Ann Tuohy (Sandra Bullock). Bullock brings her trademark spunkiness to the mother hen role, delivering an iron-willed woman who looks past appearances to do the right thing. Rating: Two and a half stars. (PG-13)

“The Box” — A preposterous but never boring sci-fi movie where a mysterious stranger (Frank Langella) gives a couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) a box with a button on top, and tells them if they push it they’ll get $1 million in cash — but someone unknown to them will die. Well, what would you do? And then the plot REALLY gets wild. Stay away if you expect it to add up and make sense. You’re entering … the Twilight Zone. Rating: Three stars. (PG-13)

“Brothers” — About a family twisted from its natural form when a father leaves for service in Afghanistan just after his brother comes home from prison. The good brother (Tobey Maguire) goes into harm’s way while the bad brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) is shielded by his misbehavior. The serving brother is reported killed in action. The survivor tries awkwardly to help the widow (Natalie Portman). We know all along Maguire didn’t die and is being tortured by the Taliban. When he returns, the drama deepens. Directed by Jim Sheridan; remade from a 2004 Danish film. Rating: Three and a half stars. (R)

“A Christmas Carol” — An exhilarating visual experience that proves for the third time Robert Zemeckis is one of the few directors who knows what he’s doing with 3-D. The story that Dickens wrote in 1838 remains timeless, and if it’s supercharged here with Scrooge swooping the London streets as freely as Superman, well, once you let ghosts into a movie there’s room for anything. In motion-capture animation, Jim Carrey does the movements and voice of Ebenezer Scrooge, never thinner, never more stooped, never more bitter. The A-list cast also includes Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. Rating: Four stars. (PG)

“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” — A 3-D animated comedy about a kid who invents a machine that will turn water into food. It goes wild, floods his island with food, and attacks it with a spaghetti and meatballs tornado. Haven’t seen that before. Rating: Two and a half stars. (PG)

“Couples Retreat” — Four troubled couples make a week’s retreat to an island paradise where they hope to be healed, which indeed happens, according to ages-old sitcom formulas. The jolly ending is agonizing in its step-by-step obligatory plotting. Starring Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell, Kristin Davis and Kali Hawk. Rating: Two stars. (PG-13)

“An Education” — A 16-year-old girl (Carey Mulligan) is the target of a sophisticated seduction by a 35-year-old man (Peter Sarsgaard). Could have been shabby or painful, but the luminous Mulligan makes it romantic and wonderfully entertaining. The romance isn’t so much with him as with the possibilities within her, the future before her, and the joy of being alive. Sarsgaard plays a smoothie who bewitches her protective parents. He’s a dirty rotten scoundrel, but a real charmer. With Mulligan, a star is born. Rating: Four stars. (PG-13)

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” — Not for kids, not for adults. Just a lovely film. That’s the charm. After “The Darjeeling Limited” and “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” Wes Anderson again creates an inexplicably odd and riveting look for Roald Dahl’s fable about a fox trying to overcome his basic foxian nature. A combo of traditional stop-action animation and uncannily real fur. Voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep. Rating: Three and a half stars. (PG)

“The Hurt Locker” — A great film. Jeremy Renner stars as a bomb-defusing specialist who dismantles bombs under fire in Iraq. Not a phony action movie, no false alarms, but almost unbearable suspense in a story that asks: Why does he do it? Why MUST he do it? With Anthony Mackie as the head of his support team, who is driven crazy by what he considers Renner’s reckless approach to the job. Director Kathryn Bigelow, a master of intelligent action (“Strange Days,” “K-19: The Widowmaker”), superbly creates suspense out of the traditional tools of performance, story, timing and editing. In a movie about bombs, this one doesn’t depend for its effect on blowing things up. Rating: Four stars. (R)

“Invictus” — Strange, that the first of many proposed biopics about Nelson Mandela centers on the South African rugby team. Mandela took an intense interest in the Springboks’ drive to an eventual World Cup championship, and it was a famous victory for the parish apartheid state. Here it is foregrounded, and who would have expected this film to be structured around who wins the big match? Yet Clint Eastwood has crafted a strong film with many other key moments, and Freeman and Damon are well cast. Entertaining, but not a companion-piece for “Gandhi.” Rating: Three and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Ninja Assassin” — In Japan, where the blades are shiny and sharp and if the fake blood isn’t staining the lens, you’re not trying hard enough, there’s a rich tradition of sword-and-splatter pictures. That’s the tradition Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” leaned on, and it’s the foundation of “Ninja Assassin,” a more run-of-the-mill Hollywood ninja movie with “Matrix” ties. Rain makes a charismatic coiled spring of hero. But there’s more to making sword-and-splatter work than just shiny blades and blood. It’s got to have an edge, and the one on “Ninja Assassin” is dull as a butter knife. Rating: One and a half stars. (R)

“Old Dogs” — Stupefyingly dimwitted. John Travolta’s and Robin Williams’ agents weren’t perceptive enough to smell the screenplay in its advanced state of decomposition. The film seems to have lingered in post-production while editors struggled desperately to inject laugh cues. Example: Rita Wilson gets her hand slammed by a car trunk, and the sound track breaks into “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” Rating: One star. (PG)

“Planet 51” — Although not bowling me over, this is a jolly and good-looking animated feature in glorious 2-D. There’s a twist: This time the alien is a human, and he lands on a planet occupied by little green men. On this world everyone speaks English, it’s the Fabulous Fifties, and the rain is made of rocks. Perfectly pleasant as kiddie entertainment. Rating: Two and a half stars. (PG)

“The Princess and the Frog” — The Disney studios still shelter animators who know how to make classic animated stories, in an age when too many animated films feel obligated to assault us with input overload. Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) is a hardworking New Orleans lass who dreams of opening her own restaurant. A visiting prince, turned into a frog, begs her to kiss him, but then they both become frogs, in a story involving voodoo, sorcery and song. Spritely and high-spirited. Voices by Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Oprah Winfrey, Keith David, Terrence Howard and John Goodman. Rating: Three stars. (G)

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” —The film takes the tepid achievement of “Twilight” (2008), guts it and leaves it for undead. You know you’re in trouble with a sequel when the word of mouth advises you to see the first movie twice instead. Bella (Kristen Stewart) is still living at home with her divorced dad, and Edward (Robert Pattinson) is back in school, repeating the 12th grade for the 84th time. Sitting through this experience is like driving a pickup in low gear through a sullen sea of Brylcreem. Rating: One star. (PG-13)

“Where the Wild Things Are” — Maurice Sendak’s much-loved 1963 children’s book becomes a big-budget fantasy, with particularly good realizations of his Wild Things, creatures on an island visited in the imagination of a small boy (Max Records). But the plot is simple stuff, spread fairly thin by director Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers. Rating: Three stars. (PG)

— From wire and online sources