Movie minis for the week of April 23

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies Synopses and short reviews of current films:

C "17 Again"

Zac Efron of "High School Musical" fame plays a high school student who has traveled back in time from his older self (played by Matthew Perry), now attending high school with his own two children, and much wiser with 20 years life experience behind him. His older self, though, has a host of problems, so he tries to start over at 17, sort of, with mixed results. Comedy mixes with more emotionally painful scenes, and the mood of the film becomes muddled, though a few scenes are funny. PG-13. 98 min. (Dan Bennett)

C+ "Adventureland"

On the surface, director Greg Mottola's follow-up to "Superbad" looks like another good-time, raunchy romp. And it certainly has healthy amounts of partying and pranks to go along with its gross-out gags. But "Adventureland" has more than that on its mind ---- and its heart ---- as its college-age characters struggle to figure out who they are and what they want in a time of flux. Jesse Eisenberg stars as recent college graduate James Brennan, who ends up moving back home to Pittsburgh to live with his parents and working at the depressing Adventureland theme park. Eisenberg is doing the same awkward underdog routine we've seen in previous films like "The Squid and the Whale," but at least he's brainy and likable. R. 107 min. (Associated Press)

B "Crank: High Voltage"

Jason Statham returns to his role as hitman Chev Chelios, who was seemingly killed off at the end of "Crank." He has a new artificial heart, and is trying to find his old natural one. The film includes animation, in-your-face graphics, and, believe it or not, a nod to "King Kong vs. Godzilla" that is thrown in for laughs. If you like your entertainment off the wall, this is something to get stoked about. R. 95 min. (Linda Cook, Quad City Times)

F "Dragonball Evolution"

Those of you who do "worst movie of the year" lists might want to jot down the title of "Dragonball: Evolution" for your consideration. Adapted from a popular manga, or illustrated story, in Japan, this might have worked as anime (Japanese animation), but as a live-acton movie, this is just incredibly awful. PG. 90 min. (Linda Cook, Quad City Times)

C "Fast & Furious"

Latest in series has fast-driving con-on-the-run Dom (Vin Diesel) returning to Los Angeles, where he teams with special agent and sometime-adversary Brian (Paul Walker) to seek justice for a friend's death. The chase leads them into the Mexican desert, where some high-speed match-ups show off the latest in tricked-out rides. Loud, and bypassing much real storytelling in favor of adrenaline. PG-13. 100 min. (Dan Bennett)

C "Hannah Montana: The Movie"

"Hannah Montana: The Movie" drags us all back to the fictional Crowley Corners to bang us over the head with the message that big cities are bad and small towns are good. And there's plenty of down-home singin' and cuttin'-up to emphasize that point. The predictable (though beautifully photographed) film from director Peter Chelsom finds Miley's dad, Robby Ray (Cyrus' real-life father, Billy Ray), taking her home to reconnect with her roots. There she bonds with Grandma (Margo Martindale) and finds her first boyfriend (Lucas Till), a non-threatening farmhand she's known since childhood. But a British tabloid reporter (Peter Gunn) has followed her there, trying to dig up some dirt on Hannah. G. 106 min. (Associated Press)

C- "Haunting in Connecticut"

Creaking floorboards, slamming doors, flickering lights ---- you've seen it all before, and it's all here again. It's one of those frustrating horror movies in which people stay in the house way longer than they should ---- the average person would be out of there upon discovering the metal box full of severed eyelids. PG-13. 92 mins. (Associated Press)

D "Knowing"

An early contender for worst movie of the year, Nicolas Cage's latest begins with an intriguing premise: He plays an MIT prof whose son finds a 50-year-old time capsule, including a letter covered with jumbled numbers. Cage's character realizes the page predicts every major disaster since 1959 ---- including some still in the future. But the premise is abandoned for cheap scares and biblical mumbo-jumbo. PG-13. 121 min. (Associated Press)

F "The Last House on the Left"

Director Dennis Iliadis' take retains the same basic story as Wes Craven's 1972 original ---- a couple of teenage girls on the hunt for pot get abducted and savagely attacked by psychopaths ---- but there's nothing particularly special about it artistically. It's slick and quick and loud, filled with the typical amped-up thumps that accompany every body blow. The result is never scary, but instead feels deplorably gratuitous ---- especially a rape scene in the woods, which goes on forever and seems intended for titillation. R. 109 min. (Associated Press)

B "I Love You, Man"

This "bromance" comedy stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel as two completely different guys who form an unlikely friendship. Rudd's Peter Klaven, a sensitive real estate agent who's about to get married, realizes he has no male pals when he's forced to ponder his choice for best man. Segel's Sydney Fife enters his life as a most charming force of nature. The formula is pretty predictable in this latest film from director John Hamburg ("Along Came Polly"), which he co-wrote with Larry Levin. But the beauty of it lies both in the details of their relationship and the larger chemistry Rudd and Segel share. R. 105 min. (Associated Press)

B "Monsters vs. Aliens"

3D animated comedy from DreamWorks tells of an alien invasion and the only creatures who can stop it: an array of otherwise-friendly monsters long kept secret by the military. The newest includes the ultra-giant Susan (Reese Witherspoon), who until recently was an everyday Modesto gal looking forward to her wedding. The battle is on, a mix of lightweight action merged with a parade of comic one-liners, in a film that struggles sometimes for magic even if its wit is intact throughout. PG. 97 min. (Dan Bennett)

C+ "Mysteries of Pittsburgh"

Mysteries are few, sadly, in this rather straightforward and eventless interpretation of MIchael Chabon's much-admired 1988 novel about a young man trying to escape his father's mob lifestyle and find his own place in the world. R. 95 min. (Dan Bennett)

C "Observe and Report"

Seth Rogen plays a mall cop intent on capturing a flasher who is terrorizing customers, but when local police intervene, the mall man becomes territorial in this dark comedy. A comic mean streak prevails as laughs mix with extreme uneasiness in equal amounts, all of it only semi-satisfying. R. 86 min. (Dan Bennett)

B- "Paris 36"

Mid-1930s France is the setting for the buoyant musical "Paris 36," a film long on pleasant nostalgia, if short on substance. The story covers the closing of a vaudeville-style theater of music and dance in the Faubourg neighborhood north of Paris, and a subsequent attempt to revive it. An ode to old-school entertainment and picturesque nostalgia concerning a long-lost Paris, it's all a little forced, if also friendly. PG-13. 120 min. (Dan Bennett)

B "Race to Witch Mountain"

Loose remake of the original 1975 Disney live-action favorite ups the speed quotient, with Dwayne Johnson (formerly The Rock) as a Las Vegas cabbie transporting two space aliens masquerading as American teens in a quest to save both their planet and ours. If more concerned with forced action and sizzle than the original, also an enjoyable diversion. G. 91 min. (Dan Bennett)

B- "Shall We Kiss?"

French film with a Woody Allen sort of feel, but not the tension, humor or occasional gravity of the best Allen films. A man and woman meet, wondering whether to start a relationship, and she tells him a story of another couple, and the perilous decisions they made when faced with the same decision. Both relationships play out for us, but there is more rhetoric than momentum, though the film has a harmless, vaguely elegant flavor. Playing at the La Jolla Village Cinemas. Not rated. 102 min. (Dan Bennett)

A- "Sin Nombre"

Tells story of a family from Honduras making the dangerous journey through Mexico to the United States, and the equally compelling story of a Mexican gang member trying to make an escape of his own and leave his old life behind. All meet atop a northbound train, and the desperate struggle begins. Straight-up, bold and resonant filmmaking. R. 96 min. (Dan Bennett)

B- "State of Play"

It looks like a political thriller, and superficially it's the murder of a young woman ---- a rising congressman's mistress ---- that drives the narrative. But "State of Play" turns out to be a fond homage to old-school journalism, and it plays like a eulogy for a sadly dying industry. Russell Crowe loses himself yet again in the role ---- a character actor in a leading man's body through and through ---- but he and Ben Affleck never feel like a good fit for each other. The nine-year age difference is too distracting and makes it difficult to believe they were college roommates, which is crucial to the plot. PG-13. 118 min. (Associated Press)

A- "Sugar"

Baseball merges with a story of immigration and isolation in the sturdy character drama "Sugar," wherein a field of dreams is elusive. The story follows the teenage Miguel Santos, an amateur pitcher in the Dominican Republic who trains in a U.S.-run baseball center populated by young men such as Santos, who dream of a career in the big leagues. As Miguel moves to the United States, we observe as his eventful journey unfolds. Strong storytelling. R. 120 min. (Dan Bennett)

A- "Sunshine Cleaning"

Misadventure and wit in a smart character drama with touches of dark comedy, from some of the people behind "Little Miss Sunshine." Amy Adams and Emily Blunt play two housecleaning sisters who stumble on lucrative work when they begin cleaning rooms after ghastly crime scenes. As they gain confidence, their lives change for the better, but with plenty of new obstacles to conquer. Consistently surprising and different. R. 102 min. (Dan Bennett)

B+ "Two Lovers"

Intense romantic drama stars Joaquin Phoenix as a depressed man who finds himself attracted to the even-more troubled girl-next-door, an emotional mess of a woman played by Gwyneth Paltrow. The unlikely couple form a fitful bond as they navigate family pressures and their own inner demons in modern-day Brooklyn. Intelligent drama with emotional resonance. R. 116 min. (Dan Bennett)

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Happy Days Are Here Again

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies In 2006, a grim little thriller called "Red Road" won the Cannes jury prize for Advance Party, a collective of Scottish, Danish and Irish production companies. It's not a lot of laughs. The film's main character, traumatized by the loss of her husband and son, spends her nights looking through a CCTV camera, monitoring a feral Glasgow housing project. One reviewer described it as "grainy, rasping and bleak." It stands to reason; Advance Party is the brainchild of Lars von Trier, the Danish filmmaker behind the Dogma 95 manifesto, which advocated a dark, minimalist style using handheld cameras and on-location shooting.

That was then, when money was easier and art was tougher. Now that the entire global economy can be fairly described as grainy, rasping and bleak, Advance Party has established a new set of artistic rules for future projects. This cheap and cheerful manifesto stipulates that no budget should exceed €1.5 million; no script should run longer than 88 pages, or feature more than eight characters; and every film should be shot within an eight-mile radius. The kicker: "stories must make the audience laugh, make them cry and give them an uplifting ending."

It's probably the first time von Trier ("Dogville," "Dancer in the Dark") has ever been linked with the term "uplifting." In the business world, this sort of reassessment is called a flight to safety, when nervous investors run from risky assets to the shelter of dull but stable ones like U.S. Treasury bonds. In the entertainment business, tough times trigger a return to the familiar and the formulaic. Experimental and downbeat are out; proven and inspirational are in."Dog bites man" is the artistic order of the day. "In a recession, the first thing to go is risk," says David Foster, whose Opus 3 Artists manages classical music stars like Marin Alsop, Yefim Bronfman and Yo-Yo Ma. "The hardest thing to do in times like these is tell an audience why they should buy a ticket."

People need an escape from the reality of recession, so they are fleeing to forms of entertainment that represent the biggest break from their experiences: crime novels, over-the-top Broadway musicals, fantasy films, standard sitcoms and perennially popular operas like "Turandot"—anything that promises laughter and forgetting. "The feel-good phenomenon really does exist," says Mark Lawson, a cultural commentator for Britain's BBC. "It's become commonplace these days to criticize any new play or movie by saying, 'Not a lot of laughs in that'."

This phenomenon was clear on Oscar night, Feb. 22, with Hugh Jackman's bouncy turn as host marking a distinct departure from the snarky irony of other recent presenters. The Academy's heaping praise for "Slumdog Millionaire," which won eight Oscars, demonstrated that the only role for adversity in storytelling these days is for it to be triumphantly overcome. Just as alluring are films that avoid adversity altogether; this past Easter weekend set box-office records for the holiday weekend—about $130 million, up 14 percent over Easter weekend 2008—thanks largely to "Hannah Montana: The Movie," based on the aggressively unthreatening TV "zitcom," and "Fast & Furious 4," based on, well, "Fast & Furious" 1, 2 and 3. In addition to "Fast & Furious 4," four other movies have broken the $100 million mark already this year compared with only one by this time last year: "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" ($143.2 million), "Monsters vs. Aliens" ($141 million), the revenge thriller "Taken" ($140 million) and the comic-book spinoff "Watchmen" ($105.9 million). The French new wave this isn't.

Still, even Hollywood doesn't expect to cruise through the recession unscathed. Indeed, Washington used Hollywood's recent record-breaking box-office numbers to strip $246 million in tax breaks from the movie business as part of the economic-stimulus bill. Last week a group of studio executives invaded Washington to complain that Hollywood was being taken for granted. About 19,000 Hollywood jobs have been lost since last year. Indeed, a new study by LEK Consulting says that this recession will produce very few real winners in the entertainment industry—with the likely exception of cable-TV networks, videogame producers and low-cost video renters like Netflix and Redbox. For everyone else, the best-case scenario is that they don't lose too much ground.

At least audiences have something to smile about in the interim. Broadway hit some rocky times last year but now all's swell on the Great White Way—and it's not due to probing new dramas. A bilingual revival of "West Side Story," the great '50s musical that updates the tale of "Romeo and Juliet," is setting box-office records at Broadway's Palace Theater, earning $1.3 million for Easter weekend. "Billy Elliot," based on Stephen Daldry's 2000 film, has been joyfully recouping its investors' money, with its young star dancing his way out of Britain's coal miners' strike during the bad old 1980s. And a revival of "Hair," the classic '60s countercultural celebration, is playing to packed houses down the block. "The Broadway bloodbath is so overrated," says "Hair" producer Jeffrey Richards buoyantly.

London's West End, meanwhile, is a grinning hostage to "revivals of old hits, musicals in new clothes and anything having to do with the Beatles," says Nicholas Kenyon, director of the Barbican, London's music, art and theater complex. Indeed, the West End's current big hit is a borrowed trifle called "Calendar Girls," adapted from a Disney movie about a bunch of spunky dames who get naked to raise money for leukemia research, tee-hee.

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Reese Witherspoon pressurised to get married

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies The Monsters vs. Aliens actress who has been dating actor Jake Gyllenhaal for over two years is tired of the constant speculation about her love life, and is considering tying the knot to put a stop to it.

A source said: “Reese's best friend, Heather Whitney, just got engaged. She's got Reese thinking! People around her have been speculating that she and Jake are getting closer and closer to the altar, and Heather's engagement only puts that much more pressure on them.”

Those close to the pair are said to be keen to see them fully commit to each other, which is making Reese even more determined to walk down the aisle.

The source added to Life and Style magazine: “At least they're discussing it. Close friends shrug and say, 'I don't know anything,' when you can tell they know something. Everyone in their circle is talking about it. It's like any other relationship the marriage issue has finally caught up with them.”

Earlier this year, the couple sparked rumours they were engaged after Jake was spotted ring shopping in a New York jewellers.

Soon after, the 33-year-old actress who has nine-year-old daughter Ava and five-year-old son Deacon with her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe reportedly removed a sparkling ring during a photo shoot. Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies

Friday Report: ’Obsessed’ Thrills

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies On Friday, Obsessed attracted an estimated $11.1 million on approximately 3,000 screens at 2,514 sites, which points to a weekend in the vicinity of $30 million. That would be one of the biggest debuts ever for a Fatal Attraction-type picture or an erotic thriller. Obsessed's opening day alone nearly matched the first weekend grosses of comparable titles Perfect Stranger and SwimFan.

While Obsessed was exceptional, the other three nationwide openers were passable by the modest standards of their sub-genres. Fighting drew an estimated $4.5 million on around 2,400 screens at 2,309 venues. The action drama fared respectably well, delivering more in its opening day than Never Back Down and Annapolis. It's on track for an over $11 million weekend.

The Soloist made an estimated $3.2 million on nearly 2,200 screens at 2,024 theaters, which could lead to a weekend of nearly $10 million. The music drama had a much greater start than similarly-themed pictures like Resurrecting the Champ and Music of the Heart, though it trailed Ray and Radio among others.

Earth (2009) took in an estimated $2.9 million on close to 1,900 screens at 1,804 locations, and could pull ahead of The Soloist by weekend's close with over $10 million. That would be more than nature documentary benchmark March of the Penguins ever made on a given weekend, but that picture was a platform release, not nationwide out of the gate. Prior to the weekend, Earth posted a strong $4 million in its Wednesday debut, and its total is $8.5 million in three days.

Last weekend's champ, 17 Again, came in third on Friday with an estimated $3.9 million, down a typical 59 percent. With $32.2 million in eight days, the body switch comedy continues to follow the path of the last one, 13 Going on 30.

After a so-so start last weekend, State of Play had a relatively more severe drop than 17 Again, falling 55 percent on Friday to an estimated $2.1 million. That was a steeper decline than Body of Lies, and adult-oriented thrillers usually maintain much more of their audience in their second weekends.

Monsters Vs. Aliens is headed for a decent hold, grossing an estimated $2.1 million on Friday, while Fast and Furious, Hannah Montana The Movie and Crank: High Voltage rounded out the Top Ten with declines ranging from 50 to 70 percent. Also debuting, The Informers mustered a weak estimated $110,000 in an aggressive limited release of 482 venues. Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies