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By Roger Ebert Universal Press Syndicate It’s not so much that the Earth is destroyed, but that it’s done so thoroughly. “2012,” the mother of all disaster movies (and the father and the extended family), spends half an hour on ominous setup scenes (scientists warn, strange events occur, prophets rant, and of course a family is introduced) and then unleashes two hours of cataclysmic special events hammering the Earth relentlessly. This is fun. “2012” delivers what it promises, and since no sentient being will ...

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By Roger Ebert Universal Press Syndicate Bear with me here. Imagine “Ghostbusters” is based on a true story. Imagine the Big Lebowski as a real-life U.S. Army general. All factual, right? That’s what “The Men Who Stare at Goats” sort of wants us to believe. I think I sort of do — to a small degree, sort of. “More of this is truer than you would believe,” the movie says in an opening title. We begin with a newspaperman named Wilton (Ewan McGregor) from ...

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By Roger Ebert Universal Syndicate  “Trucker” has one of those perfect moments when I’m thinking, ‘This is the moment to end! Now! Fade to black!’ And the movie ends. It is the last of many absolutely right decisions by the first-time writer-director James Mottern, who began by casting two actors who bring his story to strong emotional life. Both of them show they’re gifted and intelligent artists who only needed, as so many do in these discouraging times, a chance to reveal their ...

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Let me search my memory. I think — no, I’m positive — this is the first movie I’ve seen where the hero dangles above a chasm lined with razor-sharp peanut brittle, while holding onto a red licorice rope held by his girlfriend, who has a peanut allergy, so that when she gets cut by some brittle and goes into anaphylactic shock and her body swells up, she refuses to let go, and so the hero bites through the licorice to ...

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By Roger Ebert Universal Press Syndicate It is not much fun to laugh at a crazy person. None, I would say. Sandra Bullock plays a character who is bonkers in “All About Steve,” which is billed as a comedy but more resembles a perplexing public display of irrational behavior. Seeing her run around as a basket case makes you appreciate Lucille Ball, who could play a dizzy dame and make you like her. Overacting is risky even in a screwball comedy. Perhaps especially. REVIEW Bullock ...

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Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others, and demonstrate once again that he’s the real thing, a director of quixotic delights. For starters (and at this late stage after the May 2009 premiere at Cannes, I don’t believe I’m spoiling anything), he provides World War II with a much-needed alternative ending. For once the bastards get what’s coming to them. From the title, ripped off a 1978 B-movie, to the Western ...

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Clare is in love with a man who frequently disappears into thin air, leaving behind his clothing in a pile on the floor. “It can be a problem,” he observes. Henry is a time traveler, and his trips are out of his control. Another problem is that whenever he arrives at another time, or even returns to the present (whenever that may be for him), he is naked. Well, that makes sense. You wouldn’t expect his clothes to travel. The dilemma of ...

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“BaNd Slam” (PG, 111 minutes) A geeky kid (Gaelan Connell) gets chosen to manage a popular girl’s (Aly Michalka) high school band for a big tri-state competition. He recruits a quiet loner (Vanessa Hudgens of “High School Musical”) to join the band, romantic complications develop, and all is settled at the Bandslam. Charming, and not any more innocuous than it has to be. Roger Ebert says: 3 stars (Galaxy 16 Cine and Wynnsong 12 in Cedar Rapids; Coral Ridge 10 ...

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Did you ever want to take a three-day bus trip sitting next to Julia Child? Just asking. In 30-minute programs on TV, she was priceless. But to live with her, I suspect, must have taken the patience of a saint. Her husband, Paul, in “Julie & Julia” is portrayed as a saint, so that explains her marriage. Now about Julie Powell — the woman who wrote a blog documenting her vow to cook her way through Child’s “Mastering the Art of French ...

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“A perfect Getaway” (R, 98 minutes) Two couples join up during a difficult wilderness hike on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, while meanwhile the killer(s) of a newlywed couple in Honolulu may now be on the same island. It’s creepy out there in the forest, and how much do you really know about nice folks you meet on vacation? With Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant, Milla Jovovich and Kiele Sanchez. A deceptive thriller. Roger Ebert says: 3 stars (Galaxy 16 Cine ...

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Stand-up comics feel compelled to make you laugh. They’re like an obnoxious uncle, with better material. The competition is so fierce these days that most of them are pretty good. I laugh a lot. But unlike my feelings for Catherine Keener, for example, I don’t find myself wishing they were my friends. I suspect they’re laughing on the outside but gnashing their teeth on the inside. Judd Apatow would possibly agree with this theory. I e-mailed him a bunch of questions ...

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“Aliens in the Attic” (PG) When Tom, Jake, and friends discover that the Aliens mind control guns do not work on kids, it is up to them to save their parents and the rest of the world from the invasion. (Galaxy 16 Cine and Wynnsong 12 in Cedar Rapids; Sycamore 12 in Iowa City; Coral Ridge 10 in Coralville) “The Collector” (R, 88 minutes) Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer’s ...

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Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler are so pleasant in “The Ugly Truth” that it’s a shame to spoil their party. But toil and try as they do, the comedy bogs down in relentless predictability and the puzzling overuse of naughty words. Once, the movies were forbidden to drop the f-word at all, but in this one, it’s only an opening salvo in a potty-mouth bombing run. Heigl plays Abby, producer of the Sacramento early morning news on a station that is ...

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By Robert Ebert, Universal Press Syndicate - "Bruno" is a no-holds-barred comedy permitting several holds I had not dreamed of. The needle on my internal Laugh Meter went haywire, bouncing between hilarity, appreciation, shock, admiration, disgust, disbelief and appalled incredulity. Here is a film that is 82 minutes long and doesn't contain 30 boring seconds. There should be a brief segment at the next Spirit Awards with John Waters conferring the Knighthood of Bad Taste to Sacha Baron Cohen. If ...

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