-Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" — It's post-Katrina New Orleans and there are snakes in the water — none bigger than Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage), an exceptionally corrupt detective, who slinks through town snorting coke, smoking heroin, harassing women and brandishing a .44 Magnum stuffed in the front of his pants. "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" is a kind of remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 cult classic "Bad Lieutenant," which was set in New York and starred Harvey Keitel in a similar role. Director Werner Herzog has summoned the sensational spirit of the original while making something fresh and gloriously insane. Cage dives headlong into the madness, and it's plain fun to see the actor give himself so fully to a character after several years of mostly forgettable action movies. The film keeps closer to the original's plot than one might want of a movie by a highly skilled director. And the ending feels like a forced, extra dose of Herzog mania. But it has a pulse, and it's a marvel to watch. R for drug use and language throughout. 122 minutes. Three stars out of four.
— Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer
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"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. PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references. 128 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
— Glenn Whipp, for The Associated Press
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"Broken Embraces" — Pedro Almodovar weaves his spell just as assuredly as he does in his finest films — "Bad Education," "Talk to Her" — but the payoff comes a little too tidily and with a little too much self-reference. The Spanish director's beloved, vivid melodramas often suck you in and slyly lead you somewhere darker, but "Broken Embraces" feels like it leads you only back to Almodovar, himself. Mateo Blanco (Lluis Homar) is a blind screenwriter, forced to recall his past after a visitor jars him. That past centers on Lena (Penelope Cruz), whom he casts in a comedy very much like Almodovar's own "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." They promptly begin a doomed love affair. Cruz gives her most glamorous, movie star performance yet — fitting because "Broken Embraces" is in many ways a movie about movies — with beautiful camera work from Rodrigo Prieto and a sensuous score by Alberto Iglesias. R for sexual content, language and some drug material. 127 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
— Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer
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"Planet 51" — This sci-fi family tale offers passable computer imagery but is an aborted liftoff when it comes to the lame story of a human astronaut among little green aliens who, for some uninspired reason, are living the serene "Ozzie and Harriet" life of 1950s America. Video-game veteran Jorge Blanco shifts to the big screen with an adventure as bland as the sitcommy decade that fostered it. Likewise, voice stars Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel and Justin Long seem to take their cue from the Ward Cleaver school of parental droning. Even vocal gymnast John Cleese sounds neutered as a partly mad alien scientist, while only Gary Oldman adds some bark as an alien general. Johnson provides vocals for the astronaut hero, who is befriended by a few young aliens while the rest of their planet wants to hunt him down as a monster. Though set on another world, the jokes are as derivative as they come, the filmmakers endlessly mining human pop culture in a vain search for laughs. PG for mild sci-fi action and some suggestive humor. 91 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
— David Germain, AP Movie Writer
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"Red Cliff" — John Woo's Hollywood movies never quite captured the grace and gutsiness of his Hong Kong action films. Woo has brought a good dose of Hollywood scale and style to his first film shot in mainland China, though. The U.S. release of "Red Cliff" suffers from the inevitable emasculation of a historical pageant chopped in half — it was cut down from a two-part, five-hour version for Asian audiences. Yet what remains on screen is impressive — grand battles, dazzling action, sumptuous sets, magnificent panoramas. What's lost in the abbreviation is the emotional element as Woo chronicles an epic clash of warriors in the 3rd century. Fine moments of humanity and heroism do remain, particularly in the friendship forged between a warrior (Tony Leung, star of some of Woo's Hong Kong films) and a sage (Takeshi Kaneshiro) as their outnumbered forces square off against a power-mad general (Zhang Fengyi). R for sequences of epic warfare. 148 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
— David Germain, AP Movie Writer
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"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" — As every Stephenie Meyer fan knows, this is the one where studly vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) dumps human girlfriend Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) for her own safety, and she turns to old chum Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) for solace, unaware that he's a werewolf, and therefore Edward's sworn enemy. Fans will turn out in blockbuster legions, but here are a few of the many things wrong with director Chris Weitz's adaptation: It's really two half moons, or two halves of a movie that don't quite fit. Mopey teenager Bella has all the luster of, well, a mopey teenager. The real rivalry is whether werewolves or vampires can behave with greater preposterousness and pretension. Finally, "New Moon" is boring, eternally so. The soap-opera melodrama of Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner's performances provides some unintentional laughs. Yet Stewart is on screen almost all the time, and her Bella is just a drag to be around. With her flat speech and listless presence, it's unfathomable how two different sets of monsters could fixate so completely on her. PG-13 for some violence and action. 130 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
— David Germain, AP Movie Writer
