Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
"Just Like Heaven" - Reese Witherspoon is sunny and bright and appropriately otherworldly in her blond radiance - since, after all, she haunts the man who rents her apartment after she's involved in a serious car accident, and learns more about life and love while in spiritual form than she ever did on Earth. Sound just like "Ghost," or "City of Angels," or "It's a Wonderful Life?" Yes, "Just Like Heaven" has elements of all of those and "All of Me" when Mark Ruffalo, showing a surprising knack for physical comedy, convulses and flails while struggling with Witherspoon's ghostly character at a crowded bar over a glass of scotch. The whole exercise might have been too precious - and at times its message about the importance of appreciating life is too obvious - if not for the intelligent presence and infinite likability of its stars. Together they bring weight and tenderness to a movie that could have been as ethereal as the fog that lingers over its San Francisco settings. PG-13 for some sexual content. 97 min. Two and a half stars out of four.
- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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"Lord of War" - Andrew Niccol does satire, from the brilliantly pointed ("The Truman Show," which he wrote) to the oppressively heavy-handed ("Simone," which he wrote and directed). This falls somewhere in between. His story of an unapologetic gun runner, played with great swagger and charisma by Nicolas Cage, is smart, taut, thrilling and darkly funny. It's also meticulously researched, evocatively detailed and very, very relevant. Functioning again as both writer and director, Niccol based Cage's character, Ukrainian immigrant Yuri Orlov, on five real-life weapons dealers and he re-enacted events that actually have taken place. But it's precisely because he rooted the film in such realism that when he eventually slips into preachiness and melodrama, it feels unnecessary and out of place. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And people with arsenals of AK-47s can (and do) kill a lot of people. We get it already. Jared Leto plays Yuri's coke-addicted younger brother; Bridget Moynahan plays his trophy wife with statuesque blandness. R for strong violence, drug use, language and sexuality. 122 min. Three stars out of four.
- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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"Proof" - In happier, saner times - when he's alive, in flashbacks - Anthony Hopkins' mad mathematician describes the sensation of lucid, analytical thought by saying the machinery is working. In a film, though - especially one with such pretensions of realistic heft and emotional resonance - you shouldn't be able to see the machinery working, or to hear it. It should just happen. Director John Madden's adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning play by David Auburn tries very hard and very noisily to be powerful, to be About Something. It presents its ideas about mental illness - whether it's inherited, whether it's inevitable - with the volume consistently turned up. And most of the sound and fury comes from Gwyneth Paltrow as Hopkins' daughter, who wonders whether she inherited his insanity as well as his mathematic ability. Jake Gyllenhaal and Hope Davis co-star. PG-13 for some sexual content, language and drug references. 100 min. Two stars out of four.
- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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"Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" - More than a decade after "The Nightmare Before Christmas," Tim Burton marries stop-motion animation and digital technology in way that's wondrous, strange, poignant, and beautifully reflective of the director's distinctive, darkly humorous style. His fans will be more than satisfied - much of it is visually reminiscent of "Beetlejuice," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Sleepy Hollow" - and their children, who may have only been exposed to his work through this year's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," will be dazzled, as well. And at an efficient 74 minutes, the whole family can enjoy it together. With an all-star voice cast led by Burton regulars Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, the film follows the romantic troubles of a shy young man torn between the woman his parents have arranged to marry him (voiced by Emily Watson) and the woman who rises from the Land of the Dead and accidentally becomes his wife. PG for some scary images and action, and brief mild language. 74 min. Three and a half stars out of four.
- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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"Venom" - A voodoo-crazed serial killer wreaks havoc in the Louisiana swamps, and leaves the corpses of several attractive young people in his wake. It's a straight-up slasher flick, which probably should have gone straight to video, for the cheesy-looking, computer-generated snakes alone. Potential victims do stupid things like ride a bike home from work, alone, at night in the fog. Or wander into a dilapidated, deserted gas station and yell out "Hello?" over and over until someone they probably didn't want to meet up with answers their calls. Director Jim Gillespie does manage to evoke the sticky humidity of the bayou. But it's hard not to laugh at a couple of scenes that weren't meant to be funny. One features the teenage friends using one of their own (who's already dead) as a voodoo doll, and stabbing him repeatedly in the leg to slow the killer down. Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Bijou Phillips and Meagan Good co-star. R for strong horror violence/gore, and language. 87 min. One and a half stars out of four.
- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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