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Monday, April 26, 2010

To be released tomorrow on DVD

DISGRACE (2009) As fiercely unsentimental as this film is, it offers by the end a measure of hope, and because that hope is so hard-won, it has the ring of truth. Star John Malkovich is one of the few actors capable of conveying genuine intellectual depth. GRADE: A

DISTRICT B13: ULTIMATUM (2010) A pleasurable nonsense and another reminder that one of the great pulls of cinema is the spectacle of other bodies in blissful motion. GRADE: B

FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN (2009) A feature-length talkathon built on a sketchy premise, some unpersuasive psychology, a pinch of politics and strong star turns from Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt. The appeal of all those words runs out long before the director Oliver Hirschbiegel turns off the spigot. GRADE: C-PLUS

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (2009) This is potentially wonderful, if not exactly new stuff, but co-writers Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown's willful refusal of coherent narrative and determination to pack every idea about art they ever had into one scenario, make this fiendishly gorgeous movie more exhausting than exhilarating to watch. GRADE: B

IT’S COMPLICATED (2009) It's funny but (sorry, ladies) unrealistic that Jake (Alec Baldwin) continuously sneaks away from his young wife to canoodle with Jane (Meryl Streep). Baldwin is a blast, but the role requires him to indulge in indignities such as a naked webcam conversation. GRADE: B-MINUS

TRANSYLMANIA (2009) Although the inept filmmaking and tiresome gags give the air of coming from one truly bored misogynist, it took two screenwriters (Patrick Casey, Worm Miller) and two directors (David & Scott Hillenbrand) to create this stake through the heart of film comedy. GRADE: F

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