Movie Reviews

Pawing the spy beat to save the world

(Top to bottom) Butch (voiced by Nick Nolte), Diggs (James Marsden), Catherine (Christina Applegate) and Seamus (Katt Williams) are on the case.  (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Cats & Dogs:

The Revenge of Kitty Galore

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Running time: 82 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (animal action and humor)

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"Cats & Dogs:

The Revenge of Kitty Galore"

It's been a pretty ruff summer for live action movies with talking dogs.

"Marmaduke" was definitely yapping up the wrong tree back in June, even with Owen Wilson providing vocal life to the cartoon favorite's live action outing.

Now comes "Cats & Dogs:  The Revenge of Kitty Galore," the follow-up to "Cats & Dogs" of 2001.  That's an eternity between movies in doggie years, of course.  Chances are that the film's target audience of youngsters will have no, or very little connection to the first adventure.

The sequel is bigger and better with animals that really appear to be talking.  We can attribute much of that to advancement in technology as much as anything else.

The bottom line is extremely silly cat and dog spy adventure drivel in bits.  Some work better than others.

Parents may delight to some extent in the stars and former stars who ham it up giving voice to their respective critters.  Veteran songstress Bette Midler gets so far into her vocalization of feline villainess Kitty Galore, for instance, I can almost imagine her coughing up a fur ball at some point.

Also, I never thought I'd hear the lazy, raspy voice of Nick Nolte coming out of an Anatolian Shepherd.  But that's the "Affliction" star as Butch, the gruff DOG agent that's been pawing the beat for some time.

Canines and felines are forced to work together to go after evil in this one.  Christina Applegate brings an impressive balance of toughness and smarts to Catherine, the agent from rival MEOWS.

We only have to look as far as hairless Ms. Galore and the Bond-like opening credits that rookie feature film director Brad Peyton splashes across the screen to deduce that what comes next will be a heated up Cold War-like spy caper.

The only thing those who missed the original "Cats & Dogs" need to know is that animals talk when humans aren't around.  In fact, some of man's best friends and purring kitties have secret lives as elite spies.  In addition to fetching balls and rubbing between the legs of their so-called masters, they might just be off on a grand adventure when the humans aren't looking.

Kitty Galore, once a MEOWS agent, has gone rogue.  Unless cats and dogs put aside their inborn differences, the evil kitty with the Midler meow might just rule the world with a diabolical plot she's planning.

"Cats & Dogs:  The Revenge of Kitty Galore," available in 3-D (which adds a little pop), will entertain young, inexperienced movie-goers the most.

Know this, parents.  You'll need to put on your silly hats as well, or it'll be a long dog (and cat) day afternoon at the movies.

Leave it to Ramona

Ramona (Joey King), right, and Beezus (Selena Gomez) in action.
(20th Century Fox)

Ramona and Beezus

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Running time: 103 minutes

MPAA rating: G (Approved for all audiences)

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"Ramona and Beezus"

Klickitat St., home and adventure headquarters for precocious 9-year-old Ramona Quimby in "Ramona and Beezus," could be about a block over from where Theodore Cleaver of "Leave It to Beaver" fame gave his family lovable fits a half century ago.

Both exist in a sanitized, G-rated, somewhat timeless world where sibling rivalry is important, but daily household events come into play as well.  There's another time-line connection.  Beverly Cleary's tales of out-of-the-box thinker Ramona and her older sister Beezus were first published over 50 years ago.

Oozing a tad too much schmaltz at times, the big-screen version of Cleary's literary playground still serves up a lively mother-daughter, dad-daughter or family outing to the movies.

Newcomer Joey King fits perfectly into Ramona's inquisitive, feisty persona.  She's cute as a bug, as you might expect.  King, who started out on TV and who has provided voices for "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!" and "Ice Age:  Dawn of the Dinosaurs," makes us believe she would hide a report card stating "bright, but lacks focus and shows a lack of respect for rules."

Ramona has a mind of her own.  When she leaps off the front porch in a homemade parachute, for instance, a third grader's imagination soars.  And so does Ramona.  Director Elizabeth Allen injects special effects to show her little ball of imagination floating happily through the clouds.

Some filmmakers tend to overdo it with setups like this.  But Allen, who made her feature film debut with the teen fantasy "Aquamarine" in 2006, shows logical restraint, using the flights of fantasy as well-timed accents to the live action.

Devotees of the book series shouldn't expect "Ramona and Beezus" to be lifted from one literary adventure springing from the Portland, OR neighborhood (but shot in Vancouver).  Screenwriters Laurie Craig (a co-writer on "Ella Enchanted") and Nick Pustay ("Camille") borrow plot points from several, including "Ramona and Her Father," "Ramona Forever" and others.

There's plenty of sisterly shenanigans between the young free-thinker and her older sister, who's in her first year of high school and having second thoughts about that nickname Beezus.

As the elder sibling, singer-actress Selena Gomez ("Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over") gets a chance to stretch a little.  Beezus is a girl in that awkward stage of thinking about boys in a different way for the first time.  And John Corbett ("Sex and the City") and Bridget Moynahan ("I, Robot") go through the motions well enough as parents navigating real-world problems (a job loss) in a slightly edgy, sanitized movie environment.

"Ramona and Beezus" is the kind of movie a little girl can reach out and hug.  Adults along for the ride might just smile a little along the way as well.

Oliver Stone's South American prez tour

Oliver Stone, left, and Hugo Chávez are greeted by the press.
(Cinema Libre Studio)

South of the Border

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Running time: 78 minutes

No MPAA rating.

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"South of the Border"

Say what you will about Oliver Stone, the multi-Academy Award winning filmmaker.  But the guy is no slouch when it comes to gaining access.

Stone, no stranger to cinematic politics with Oscar noms for "Nixon," "JFK" and "Salvador" and a win for "Born on the Fourth of July," took a little road trip to South America in January, 2009.

His offbeat, odd little documentary, "South of the Border," is a filmed diary of a trek to visit controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez that expanded to five countries and chats with seven presidents of the region.

While it fascinates for much of its short running time of just under 80 minutes, filmgoers might be a little startled by what jumps out of them at times.

Stone, looking like he's about to pop a shirt button and perhaps start an international incident at any moment, obviously wants to show that Chávez isn't the monster the "mainstream U.S. media makes him out to be."

Stone kicks a soccer ball around with some South American leaders, sips a little Chardonnay with others and spends quite a bit of screen time fawning about how different some of them are compared to their political reps in El Norte.

During visits with Chávez, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Lula da Silva of Brazil and even Cuba's Raúl Castro  (and others), Stone lobs the kind of softball questions entertainment journalists have been tossing him at film junket interviews for decades.

It's more amusing most of the time than journalistically intriguing, really.  Stone's lazy, soft voice is no challenge to the hard-hitting style of Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore ("Bowling for Columbine," "Sicko").  There is some appeal, but it springs from feisty, casually entertaining moments instead of in-your-face, confrontational hard questions.

With Stone, at least where "South of the Border" (which contains some subtitles) is concerned, the getting there and rubbing shoulders with South American leaders appears to be the primary interest.

That and taking shots at conservative U.S. media, of course.

'Salt' implodes in the gender blender

Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) spicing up the spy game.  (Columbia Pictures)

Salt

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Running time: 100 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (intense sequences of violence and action, profanity)

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"Salt"

The "Salt" talks have begun, and my inner voice won't stop jabbering about how old fashioned, clunky and preposterous Angelina Jolie's new action flick turned out to be.

Jolie's over the top woman-of-action extravaganza isn't quite enough to make me wish she'd just resurrected Lara Croft for a little more fantasy tomb raiding, but it's darn close.

"Salt" benefits from some great timing.  The movie studio publicity mill is probably downright gleeful about opening a movie about deep-cover spies when the evening news mirrored the theme with busted Russian spies in this country who were outed and traded for detained Americans (also accused of spying).

That's not my beef with "Salt."  In fact, good for them on the timing issue.  My problem is that this tale of a CIA operative on the run after being accused of being a deep-cover operative was originally written for a male star.  In fact, Tom Cruise's name has been mentioned a couple of times.

I have no problem with the gender switch, except that Evelyn Salt (Jolie), originally named Edwin Salt, kicks some very serious male buttocks almost constantly in one of the summers most action-packed thrillers.  Think "Iron Man" without the suit.

Make no mistake about it, Salt is one bad dude.  Sorry, woman.  But as she goes rogue and fights for her life she's not duking it out with untrained yokels.  She's enraged because of a plot twist I won't reveal here, so Evelyn's obviously pumped with adrenaline.

But Ms. Salt assaults and takes down highly trained CIA operatives, Secret Service agents and Russian assassins in groups, not just one at a time.  I had a little problem with that, especially since it happens over and over.

Liev Schreiber and British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor play constantly squabbling government agents in hot pursuit of Salt quite well.  Better than this star vehicle with the pedal to the action metal deserves, really.

Australian director Philip Noyce, who put Harrison Ford through his Jack Ryan paces with  "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger" in the early and mid '90s, hasn't made a movie since "Catch a Fire" in 2006.  He's worked with Jolie before, though.  She co-starred with Denzel Washington in "The Bone Collector" with Noyce in the director's chair in 1999.

What have you done for me lately is what matters when the screen lights up these days, of course.

Noyce puts his camera in all the right places and the action is spectacular at times.  But Kurt Wimmer's ("Law Abiding Citizen," "Ultraviolet") script often feels cobwebby.

And Jolie?  She's a very capable actress; an Oscar winner, in fact. ("Girl, Interrupted").

She's just not a guy.  Unfortunately, this actioner cries out for a male anti-hero.

'Inception' conception demands attention

Leonardo DiCaprio, left, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing a little dream-arguing.  (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Inception

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Running time: 148 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (sequences of violence and action throughout)

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"Inception"

"Dark Knight" filmmaker Christopher Nolan dreams the impossible triple-level deep dream with "Inception."

At least the usually innovated filmmaker is dreaming when it comes to entertaining the masses.

The impressive list of actors include Leonardo DiCaprio ("Shutter Island," "Blood Diamond"), Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("(500) Days of Summer").

Unfortunately, the sci-fi action thriller turns out to be an original idea that somehow scrambles the senses; a collision between "Avatar" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Most disappointing from this aisle seat is that Nolan joins the ranks of the overly indulgent A-list filmmakers, like Steven Spielberg has done on more than one occasion (but especially with the "War of the Worlds" remake).  Peter Jackson did as well to some extent earlier this year with "The Lovely Bones."

Nolan, an Academy Award nominee for his groundbreaking "Memento" script in 2002, may be dreaming himself if he believes weekend popcorn-munching moviegoers will wait patiently for two and a half hours for "Inception" to, well, incept.

Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) and his co-conspirator Arthur (Gordon-Levitt) are extremely high tech corporate thieves.  They don't shut down alarm systems and dodge laser beams to steal diamonds or valuable artifacts like James Bond, Indiana Jones or even Cary Grant.  These guys invade the vaults of the human mind while their targets are in an induced dream state.

The similarity to James Cameron's Oscar-nominated "Avatar" emerges because the sleep thieves must be asleep themselves to pull off their dangerous capers.  So Nolan, who pens the script himself, must spend at least some screen time showing his crew of sleep thieves snoozing, like the humans who inhabited space alien cloned bodies in "Avatar."

The plot here involves triple-dipping the process to a third level dream state.  That  left me struggling to make sense of what was going on much of the time.  "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," which also opens this week, requires attention to set up what is to come.  But that's all up front.  "Inception" requires strict concentration at every turn.

I don't know how you'll react, but I enjoyed rising star Page much more as the quick-witted teenager in "Juno" than I do here as a gifted architect of dream worlds.  Cobb, the master extractor of info, is no longer able to construct the fantasy worlds himself.  That's basically because his dead (or not dead) wife Mal (Marion Cotillard, the best actress Oscar winner of "La vie en rose") tends to pop up and foul Cobb's dream state.

The Cobb/Mal relationship is the element that conjures up memories of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," the moody on-and-off love story featuring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet of 2004.  That one involved total erasure of the mind.

The idea here is to pop in and pop out with deep-dream role playing; a little like a 21st century "Sting" operation with DiCaprio and Gordon-Levitt as New Age Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Without the fun element.  And that's my main concern with "Inception."  Not only do we study this cinematic oddity for two and a half hours, the only fun is watching walls collapse or city skyscrapers bend over backward to form an upside-down pedestrian maze.  The special effects showcase dazzles for a while, then becomes more tedious and a little boring.  

The acting is there.  And so is the story.  But Nolan, who'll no doubt return with another "Batman" adventure, shows signs here of not being willing to leave parts of spectacular action sequences (one in and around a snowy frozen tundra fortress) on the cutting room floor.  That lack of confidence, willingness or ability to tighten up this high tech, mind-numbing albatross pays disservice to movie fans and Nolan's talented actors.

There is one word that ultimately dominates the phrase noble failure.  That word is not "noble."

Sorry, Mr. Nolan, but someone should have fired up the Bat Signal.

'Kids Are All Right,' the 'moms' are great actors

Annette Bening, left, and Julianne Moore are two Moms in a New Age unconventional family.

(Focus Features)

The Kids Are All Right

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Running time: 106 minutes

MPAA rating: R (strong sexual content, nudity, language and some teen drug and alcohol use)

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"The Kids Are All Right"

Say goodbye to old fashioned unconventional movie families, where a d-i-v-o-r-c-e gummed up the traditional works or brave single moms ventured into the workplace.

In "The Kids Are All Right," there are two reasonably happy mothers, two children from different moms and no father figure until one of the teenage kids begins to secretly investigate.

Guess who's coming to dinner?

Ding dong, sperm donor on the front porch.

It has long been my theory that good acting can overcome many structural obstacles, and that's exactly what happens in this silly, but heartfelt tale of a happy family unit disrupted once the man who made it all possible enters the picture.

Three very good actors, Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, join up-and-comers Mia Wasikowska (who played the title role in the recent "Alice in Wonderland") and Josh Hutcherson (the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" remake) in an edgy cinematic oddity that works.

Nic (Bening), a Type A+ physician, and Jules (Moore), a stay-at-home mom who'd like to pursue a landscaping career, became a couple in college.  An openly  lesbian couple will shock few these days.  Nic and Jules took the relationship a step further, however.  They each conceived a child from the same sperm donor.

Paul (Ruffalo), an organic farmer who runs an earthy California restaurant, gets a call out of the blue one day:  One of his donor kids wants to get in touch.

Director Lisa Cholodenko ("Cavedweller" for Showtime) co-wrote the script with longtime friend Stuart Blumberg, one of three writers on "The Girl Next Door."

"The Kids Are All Right", perhaps in an effort to appear unabashedly daring, limits its wide appeal a bit with graphic sex, drugs and a mom-mom dynamic that resorts to gay male porn when they think the kids are asleep.

Yet the filmmakers -- no, make that the excellent actors -- also supply a genuine sweetness that softens the visual blow much of the time.  Bening, for instance, who was magnificent recently as a tortured middle-aged mother who gave a daughter away at birth in "Mother and Child," scores again here in chopped-off hair and fidgety persona.

Nic won't admit she has a drinking problem, or that she's a control freak.  She does and she is.  But when the script allows Bening to reveal some of her character's insecurities and frustrations this movie (like the kids) is all right.

Moore's seemingly flighty Jules, who feels somewhat edged out of the family dynamic even in her own home, might catch some of her fans off-guard.  Nominated four times for an Academy Award, including twice in 2003 ("Far From Heaven," "The Hours"), Moore takes some acting chances that work about half the time.  When they don't, the Jules character slips to the cusp of caricature.

The good news is that Moore redeems herself for the most part with an emotional soliloquy she has to stand in front of a blaring television to deliver.  Stand and deliver she does, though.  That propels a drama with comedy into an acceptably rewarding entertainment zone.

As Paul, Ruffalo ("The Brothers Bloom") has his quirky moments as well.  Frankly, though, this is not Ruffalo's movie.  His role, while key to launching most of the important plot points, is that of the igniter.

You know, like an organic farmer/restaurant owner.

Disney goes for the 'Sorcerer' sweep

Nicolas Cage showing off a little sorcery. (Walt Disney Pictures) 

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

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Running time: *** minutes

MPAA rating: PG (fantasy action violence, some mild rude humor and brief language)

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"The Sorcerer's Apprentice"

The film-making folks at Disney are quite comfortable poking around their own back lot for ideas.

They only had to look as far as one of their most popular amusement park rides to come up with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, which shows no signs of letting up as a box office cash cow.

Here we go again.  The Mouse House and director Jon Turteltaub slip us a Mickey with "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."  A Mickey Mouse, that is.

Nicolas Cage, Alfred Molina and Jay Baruchel head the cast in an ambitious live action sorcerer's yarn that pulsates with comic quips, CGI wizardry and, for lack of better words, fantasy high jinks.

It's all very loosely based on the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Walt Disney's creative ceiling-breaker "Fantasia" of 1937.  Mickey Mouse conjures up a runaway straw broom in that one.  The new version pays homage to the original with a contrived segment.

Know this:  "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," circa 2010 is  lively and fun comic-adventure.  And know this:  It's not because Turteltaub or some Disney exec felt the need to spotlight the broom (or, in this case, mop) segment.  Frankly, that part's pretty boring.

The rest isn't, though.  Cage, sporting a beleaguered look and rag-mop hair extensions, portrays Balthazar, a former apprentice to Merlin himself about a thousand years ago.  Flash forward to modern day Manhattan and Balthazar is continuing his search for a chosen one, of sorts, to carry on the fight against evil sorcerer Horvath (Alfred Molina).

Balthazar will need a protege, of course.  So young actor Jay Baruchel takes on Dave, an NYU physics major with no idea he's about to play a major role in attempting to save mankind from Horvath and evil sorceress Morgana (Alice Krige).  They're intent on raising the dead to wipe out the living.

With that as the driving force, it doesn't appear that this conglomeration of special effects and nonsense would amount to much fun.  It does, though.

Cage, who chooses roles badly at times ("Knowing," Bangkok Dangerous"), rolls up his sorcerer's sleeves and has the kind of acting blast we've grown familiar with in the "National Treasure" flicks.

Also, I really like the way Molina (the terrific British actor of "An Education" and the forgettable "Prince of Persia") injects frivolity into the villain of the piece.

If I were the jury, I'd still be out on Baruchel, though.  In his meatiest role yet, the guy who finally grabbed center stage with the recent "She's Out of My League," might just be out of his here.

For some reason, instead of conjuring up Mickey Mouse's determined demeanor as the sorcerer's apprentice, Baruchel channels Christian Slater and even Peter Falk's "Columbo" with a stammering, stuttering speech pattern.

Annoying, that.  But it can't smother the overall frolic appeal of what could be the next Disney franchise.

Ahoy, there.  Take that, you "Pirates."

Battle of the 'Predator' all-scars

Oscar-winner Adrien Brody steps out of his acting comfort zone as Royce.
(20th Century Fox)

Predators

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Running time: 107 minutes

MPAA rating: R (strong creature violence and gore, and pervasive language)

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"Predators"

Have you ever had that frightening dream where you're falling, falling, falling?

The special ops mercenary portrayed by Adrien Brody in "Predators" finds himself in that terrifying helpless position.  There's an added dilemma, however.  For Royce (Brody), it isn't a dream.

"Predators," co-produced by Austin-based Robert Rodriguez, reboots terror into a sci-fi thriller franchise that had not only run out of energy but had gotten downright silly in sequels 2 and 3 in recent years.

There are no clash-of-the-titans confrontations between the cloaking sport hunters from outer space and their rival Aliens in this one.  In the Rodriguez-conceived throwback to the 1987 original, hunters become the hunted.

Rodriquez wrote the script that forms the core of this adventure in the early '90s when Sony was fishing for a suitable first sequel.  That film never got made.  At least it didn't until now with American expatriate Nimrod Antal ("Armored," "Vacancy") in the director's chair and first-timers Alex Litvak and Michael Finch polishing the script.

Royce is just one of nine strangers plumeting at break-neck (literally) speed toward a lush jungle below.  He grabs madly for a ripcord and finds none.  Just above the treetops, however, his chute deploys, as do those of most of the others.  

One chute fails to open, so the ninth person expires suddenly; a stick-in-the-mud.  Seven men and one women survive the terror ride of their lives.  That's just the initial alarm, though as Antal and Rodriguez restore real terror to the "Predator" franchise.

We soon learn what the recently fallen do.  The lush jungle (filmed in Hawaii and at Troublemaker Studios in Austin) may look Earthly, but it's not.

The edgy thrown-together group includes Royce, the special ops guy, Isabelle (Alice Braga of "I Am Legend"), the Israeli sniper, Walter (Walton Goggins of "The Shield" on FX), the death-row inmate, Cuchillo (Danny Trejo, coming up in Rodriguez's "Machete"), the Mexican drug gang enforcer, Edwin (Topher Grace), a doctor and others.

Through clever exposition of character, we learn that everyone dumped into an unfamiliar locale where the sun doesn't appear to move is a predator of some form or another, with the possible exception of the doc.

The real predators -- the clicking cloakers who have been known to do a little sport hunting on Earth -- are about the let the (unearthly) dogs out to see how game the newly arriving fresh meat really are.

Antal, a director who knows how to stir up terror on a movie screen, got my attention with "Kontroll," his edgy drama set in the bowels of the Budapest subway system.  It played the U.S. festival circuit in 2004 before earning a limited wider release in '05.

What "Predators" does best is restore the human us-against-them element to a franchise that had dissolved into a sparring match between creatures from outer space.

Brody, recently on screen as a mad scientist, of sorts, in the bizarre sci-fi thriller "Splice," wanders even farther away from his dramatic comfort zone here.

With the exception of the scene where Royce rips off his shirt for combat, Brody (an Oscar winner for "The Pianist") works for me as the lead prey in a very strange land.

'Despicable' fun brightens summer slate

Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, shoots for the moon in villainy.  (Universal Pictures)

Despicable Me

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Running time: 88 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (rude humor and mild action)

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"Despicable Me"

With an angular lead character that looks like he fell out of a computer somewhere between "The Triplets of Belleville" and "Ratatouille," "Despicable Me" captivates with anti-hero bad-boy naughtiness and determined orphan charm.

It must be a snap for animators to round up A-list talent these days.  The biggest stars appear to be lining up for their turn at the microphone.  Production after production has delivered, beginning probably with the first "Toy Story" in 1995 when Tom Hanks claimed his place in the animation universe as Woody and Tim Allen blasted off "to infinity and beyond" as Buzz Lightyear.

"Despicable Me," like so many animated yarns hitting screens in 3-D, welcomes Steve Carell to the CG-character club.  Of course Carell, who has announced he'll exit "The Office," his highly successful TV sitcom, has breathed vocal life into animated characters before.  He was Hammy the hyperactive Squirrel in "Over the Hedge" in 2006, for instance, and the mayor in "Horton Hears a Who!" two years ago.

Gru, the triangular ambitious villain Carell voices in "Despicable Me," however, is the kind of character that can leave a lasting imprint.

As it turns out, Gru, who has very high evil aspirations, merely wants to steal the moon.  That's right, in this animated world where a rival villain (the nerdy Vector voiced by Jason Segel of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall") has already made off with one of the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Gru's topper is to grab the moon and demand a princely ransom from Earthlings.

These are the kinds of villainy, I suppose, we can only find in animated fare.   Jimmy Stewart offered to lasso the moon for Donna Reed when they were courting in "It's a Wonderful Life" in 1947.  Stewart's lovestruck George Bailey was just joshin', though.

Gru is so serious about his task that he has a secret lair under his semi-Gothic house in an otherwise ordinary bedroom community.  Every villain needs a lair, of course, and Gru has a good one.  Dozens, perhaps hundreds of tiny yellow minions construct whatever the boss needs; sort of an anti-Santa's workshop.  

Resident mad scientist Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand, on screen recently in "Get Him to the Greek") is the brains of the operation, and might just be more evil than Gru himself, who's a bit of a mama's (Julie Andrews) boy.

"Despicable Me" works where some elaborate animated fables has failed.  Co-screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (both part of the "College Road Trip" writing team) and co-directors Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin (both with animated short experience) fill the world they've created with gadgets (a shrinkage machine), off-beat adventure and the cutest trio of young orphans you're likely to see on a movie screen -- animated or not -- for years to come.

Let's just say it takes a heap of evil to resist three precocious faces in desperate need of a father figure.  Another impressive thing:  The directors don't overuse the 3-D effect, which apparently takes major restraint these days.

With a PG-rating, "Despicable Me" serves up family entertainment that'll have the kids on the edge of their seats with a to-the-moon-and-back tale.  Parents, meanwhile, can breathe a sigh of non-offensive entertainment relief.

Passion in the key of a sultry affair

Igor Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen) and Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) orchestrating an affair.  (Sony Pictures Classics)

Coco Chanel and

Igor Stravinsky

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Running time: 115 minutes

MPAA rating: R (some strong sexuality and nudity)

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"Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky"

The disastrous premiere of Igor Stravinsky's revolutionary "The Rite of Spring" and the mixing of the concoction that will become Chanel Nº 5 are career watermarks thumped with vigor in "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky."

The cornerstone of Jan Kounen's early 20th century biopic of the fashion and musical pioneers, however, is the fiery affair that bound them together and tore at the foundation of the Russian composer's marriage.

"Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky," in Russian, French and English with subtitles, is, at times, as daring as "The Rite of Spring," which bombed and started a near riot at its world premiere at the Champs-Elysées Theater in Paris in 1913.

That's where Dutch director Kounen and Chris Greenhalgh's screenplay (adapted by Carlo de Boutiny and Kounen) meticulously orchestrate the event that eventually brings the two creative forces together seven years later.  Kounen ("Blueberry") takes his sweet time and recreates the event beautifully as an artist's face dissolves into the kind of deep despair only total failure in public can provide.

There has been much vodka under the bridge for Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen) since budding fashion designer Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) witnessed the "Rite" disaster.  A Russian Revolution has come and gone.  A penniless Stravinsky and his wife and kids are living in a tiny flat.

Chanel takes them in and takes the composer as her lover.

Mikkelsen, Le Chiffre in "Casino Royale" in 2006, and Mouglalis ("The Dark Sea"), the French actress Kounen has called the muse of Chanel, are on fire together as ill-fated lovers.  From this aisle seat, however, I am extremely impressed by Russian actress Elena Morozova, who so vividly conveys the angst of the composers long-suffering (physically and mentally) wife Catherine.

Some film goers may feel they know about Coco Chanel, especially if "Coco Before Chanel" (with Audrey Tautou in the title role) was on the agenda last year.  "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky," though related only in subject matter, carries the story forward.

Kounen delivers a very well-acted heartbreaking, yet fascinating story of colliding artistic forces that alternates between fiery passion and icy chills of emotional damage.

The eccentric ending, which won't be revealed here, serves as an appropriately stunning end piece to a visually vibrant opening sequence.

What lies between is the stuff that make and eventually muffle legends.