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Scroll down this page for movie reviews
Starting Friday, March 12
ALICE IN WONDERLAND, PG, Potsdam Roxy, in 3D, 7:15, 9:30 p.m. nightly, & matinees Sat., Sun. 1, 3:15 p.m.; Canton American, in 2D, 7, 9:15 p.m. nightly, & matinees Sat., Sun. 12:45, 3:15 p.m.; Massena Movieplex, in 2D, 7, 9:15 p.m. nightly, & matinees Sat., Sun. 12:45, 3:15 p.m.; Ogdensburg Cinemas, Fri. 7, 9 p.m., Sat. 1:30, 3:30, 7, 9 p.m., Sun. 1:30, 7 p.m., Wed. & Thurs. 7 p.m.
GREEN ZONE, R, Potsdam Roxy, 7, 9:30 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:15, 3 p.m.; Canton American, 7:05, 9:30 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:30, 3 p.m.; Massena Movieplex, 6:45, 9:30 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:30, 3 p.m.
SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE, R, Potsdam Roxy, 7, 9:15 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:45, 3 p.m.; Canton American, 7, 9:15 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:45, 3:15 p.m.; Massena Movieplex, 7, 9:15 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:45, 3 p.m.
COP OUT, R, Potsdam Roxy, 7, 9:15 p.m., & Sat. Sun. 12:30, 3 p.m.; Canton American, 9:25 p.m., & Sat. Sun. 3 p.m.; Massena Movieplex. 7, 9:20 p.m., & Sat. Sun. 12:30, 3 p.m.
SHUTTER ISLAND, R, Potsdam Roxy, 6:45 (exc. Mon.) & 9:30 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:20, 3 p.m.; Canton American, 6:50 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:20 p.m.; Massena Movieplex, 6:45, 9:30 p.m., &Sat., Sun. 12:30, 3:15 p.m.; Ogdensburg Cinemas, Fri. 7, 9 p.m., Sat. 1:30, 3:30, 7, 9 p.m., Sun. 1:30, 7 p.m., Wed. & Thurs. 7 p.m.
BROOKLYN’S FINEST, R, Canton American, 6:45, 9:25 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:20, 3 p.m.
OUR FAMILY WEDDING, PG-13, Massena Movieplex, 7, 9:15 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:45, 3 p.m.
THE CRAZIES, R, Massena Movieplex, 7, 9:20 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:30, 3 p.m.
THE TOOTH FAIRY, PG, Massena Movieplex, 7:10 p.m., & Sat., Sun. 12:45, 3 p.m.
VALENTINE’S DAY, PG-13, Massena Movieplex, 9:10 p.m. nightly.
Movie Reviews
Alice In Wonderland
It would help to have some prior knowledge of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass.” Tim Burton's fresh and often miraculous take, which mixes live-action with all sorts of digital effects, moves beyond the two books while incorporating most of the original characters. Chief among these are Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Matt Lucas), the now-you-see-me-now-you-don't Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), and the hookah-smoking Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman). This movie's Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is a young Victorian woman of 19 with an independent streak, and the story is about her liberation from doing what's expected. When a twit of an aristocrat (Leo Bill) proposes to her publicly at a garden party, Alice dashes off to follow the waistcoated White Rabbit (voice of Michael Sheen). She falls -- and falls, and falls -- down the rabbit hole and lands in what she now realizes is Underland. (In her dreamlike childhood times there, we learn, she thought of it as Wonderland.) Ruled by the bulbous-headed, tyrannical Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), Underland is a ruin. Alice learns she's destined to slay the Red Queen's fearsome Jabberwocky monster, fomenting an uprising against the Red Queen, but Alice feels inadequate. It is the brave, gap-toothed, occasionally distracted Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), his hair orange from mercury -- a poison used in hat-making (this is talked about in interviews, but not explained in the film) -- who nudges her toward victory, along with the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). The movie is sometimes incomprehensible due to accents or effects. Shown in 3-D, the film has extra visual depth, but doesn't get in your face. (PG)
Brooklyn’s Finest
This film about cops working Brooklyn's toughest neighborhood ought to grab filmgoers who like the genre. "Brooklyn's Finest" has terrific ensemble acting, intense emotions, and moments of stomach-churning urban violence. It borrows heavily from other classic cop films, overusing street slang, and cliches. Richard Gere plays a burned-out cop just a week away from retirement and trying to avoid any conflict. Don Cheadle plays an undercover cop trying to bring down a drug gang, but torn about betraying its leader (Wesley Snipes), an old friend just out of prison. Ethan Hawke plays a family man with a sick wife (Lili Taylor), and is desperately trying to skim off some confiscated drug money. His partner (Brian F. O'Byrne) tries to stop him. All these cops don't know one another, but their fates intertwine. (R)
The Crazies
This remake of George A. Romero's 1973 horror film has all the elements needed to engross horror buff. This winningly acted and beautifully shot movie cleverly exploits today's paranoia about government intrusion in our lives. Citizens in a nice farming community in Iowa seem to go violently insane from some contaminant in their water supply. Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) and his doctor wife Judy (Rhada Mitchell), along with his trusty deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) see people turn nearly catatonic, then violent. Friends of theirs die or kill their own families. David has to shoot one man, whose wife and son hate him for it. Soon, helmeted, gas-masked government troops descend upon the town, and David, Judy and Russell must try to escape and get to the relative safety of Cedar Rapids. (R)
Cop Out
There are many cheap laughs in this buddy flick/action comedy, but that doesn't mean "Cop Out" is anything other than atrocious -- sloppily filmed and trafficking in every kind of ethnic/racial stereotype and cop movie cliché. As directed by Hollywood iconoclast Kevin Smith ("Zack and Miri Make a Porno," R, 2008; "Dogma," R, 1999; "Clerks," R, 1994), the film is intended to spoof the whole cop movie genre. But Smith can't decide whether it's wholly tongue-in-cheek, or partly serious, and if so, in what proportions -- it's just slapdash. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play police detective partners Jimmy and Paul, respectively. Jimmy's divorced, cynical and wondering how he'll pay for his daughter's (Michelle Trachtenberg) wedding. Paul's sentimental, movie-mad, and convinced his loving wife (Rashida Jones) cheats on him. Suspended for the crazy way they go after a drug dealer, the partners turn semi-vigilante. Seann William Scott is funny as a motormouth burglar. (R)
Green Zone
"Green Zone" is based on the nonfiction book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" by The Washington Post's former Iraq bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Directed by Paul Greengrass (the PG-13 "Bourne" thrillers), the movie has his trademark handheld camera moves, to make us feel at the dizzying center of the action. Matt Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Miller. It is the start of the Iraq War in 2003, and he is in search of WMDs -- the weapons of mass destruction Saddam Hussein supposedly stockpiled. But Miller and his team are finding nothing. When he asks about the bad intelligence at a briefing, the White House's man in Iraq (Greg Kinnear) and the military brass tell him to shut up, but a grizzled CIA guy (Brendan Gleeson) asks Miller to do off-the-books work for him. The film's plotting spins a little out of control, but it is always fascinating. (R)
The Last Station
Writer-director Michael Hoffman dramatizes the year leading up to Leo Tolstoy's death, when the Russian writer's wife (Helen Mirren) and the followers of his communitarian Christian philosophy clashed over his will. The less-than-revelatory result allows Christopher Plummer to flaunt his beard and be impishly gnomic, Dame Mirren to indulge in histrionics, Paul Giammati to rub his hands together as the devious disciple, and, James McAvoy to limn a more callow version of his character in "The Last King of Scotland." In other words, it's a modestly diverting actor's showcase that contains as much substance as you'll find in an average installment of "Masterpiece Theatre." (R) FAIR
She’s Out Of My League
"She's Out of My League" earns its R rating (and then some), with highly profane language and explicit sexual slang, as well as semi-explicit comic sexual situations. Even so, the story is sweet: A skinny, nerdy Pittsburgh guy named Kirk (Jay Baruchel) works for airport security and figures, since he never went to college, that his life is mapped out for him and it's pretty dreary. Then he meets a gorgeous young woman (Alice Eve), who falls for him not because of his washboard abs (he hasn't got any) or money, but because he's nice and funny and smart. His burping, beer-drinking, friends can't believe it, nor can his awful ex-girlfriend (Lindsay Sloane). Their constant buzzkill chatter nearly destroys Kirk's self-confidence. (R)
Shutter Island
Lugubrious and more than a bit of a mess in terms of story flow, "Shutter Island" (based on the novel by Dennis Lehane) may still grab moviegoers. Yet they, too, may be frustrated by the film's disjointedness and its overheated mix of themes, ranging from mental illness to Nazi atrocities to Cold War commie-baiting. And they may giggle now and then at the atmospherics, which are laid on awfully thick by director Martin Scorsese and his team. It is the early 1950s. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a troubled U.S. Marshal and World War II vet. He and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) are sent to Shutter Island, a federal facility for the criminally insane off the coast of Boston, where a patient has disappeared. After meetings with the chief psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley), his associate (Max von Sydow), other patients and guards, Teddy comes to suspect a conspiracy. (R)
Tooth Fairy
When Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's over-the-hill minor-league hockey player is sentenced to collect baby incisors as punishment for "disseminating disbelief," a few of the magical tools at his disposal are amnesia dust, invisibility spray, and shrinking paste. Alas, there's not enough amnesia dust in all of fairyland to erase the painful memory of sitting through his banal family comedy. Johnson's paycheck may explain why he was willing to endure a host of humiliations, including getting flushed down a toilet. But what about Julie Andrews, Ashley Judd, and Billy Crystal? Evidently, times are so tough they felt compelled to sign on to this demeaning, pun-filled exercise in anti-humor. (PG)
Valentines Day
Valentine's Day is an anthology in which many characters face romantic hurdles on the holiday and turn out to be connected to one another. They include a florist (Ashton Kutcher) who gets engaged to his career-oriented girlfriend (Jessica Alba); a teacher (Jennifer Garner) who pines for a doctor (Patrick Dempsey) who lies to her; her friend (Jessica Biel) who gives an annual I Hate Valentine's Day party; a secretary (Anne Hathaway) who can't tell a nice new guy (Topher Grace) that she moonlights as a phone sex "entertainer"; an 18-year-old (Emma Roberts) and her boyfriend (Carter Jenkins) who plan to lose their virginity; their pals ("Twilight" co-star Taylor Lautner and singer Taylor Swift), who decide to wait. (In the end, all the teens decide to wait.) Discerning high-schoolers may see it's the performers who rescue -- just barely -- this movie from the hackneyed writing and bad jokes. (PG-13)
Local Reviews
Stoked Reviews! Cinema 10 film reviews NEW!
Links to Local and Regional Theaters
Potsdam Roxy
Canton American
Cinema 10
Rt. 56 Drive-In
Cornwall, Ont., movies
Brockville, Ont., movies
Regal Cinemas, Salmon Run Mall, Watertown
Bay Drive-In Theatre, Alexandria Bay
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