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 | The Bumpy Road to Becoming an Icon Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Gabrielle Chanel was, by the evidence presented in director Anne Fontaine’s [b]Coco Before Chanel[/b], a difficult, even unpleasant woman. Rarely does she smile, and even more infrequently might her sentiments be mistaken for tender. She views the men in her early life as means to an end, but why shouldn’t she? They often regard her, in turn, with cold indifference and undisguised condescension.More |  | A Triumph of Style and Silliness Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
There is no social satire to be gleaned from the stylishly staged skull crunching in Ruben Fleischer’s post-apocalyptic comedy [b]Zombieland[/b] -- and not much in the way of serious horror. The first-time feature director (formerly of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) aims more for laughs than for the unrelenting dread of George A. Romero’s [b]Living Dead[/b] movies, and he succeeds almost effortlessly: At 81 minutes, his debut is cheerfully macabre, briskly paced, brimming with demented energy, and otherwise totally disposable.More |  | Snow Job Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars.
Kate Beckinsale’s latest chiller, set around an Antarctica research station and inspired by a series of graphic novels by Greg Rucka, shows little regard for logic.More |  | Leading the Charge Against Technology Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
There is no denying the technical wizardry of [b]9[/b], Shane Acker’s feature-length reimagining of his own Oscar-nominated short from 2005. Backed by producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov ([b]Wanted[/b]), the young director has assembled a superior voice cast, led by the wonderfully expressive Christopher Plummer, to breathe life into a familiar post-apocalyptic fable distinguished by its exquisite artistry.More |  | An Amiable Misfire Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.
The strange, improbable story of Woodstock has been documented exhaustively in print and on the screen, making it somewhat curious that Ang Lee has chosen to make it the subject of his first bona fide comedy since 1994’s [b]Eat Drink Man Woman[/b]. Yet that’s just what we get in [b]Taking Woodstock[/b], a lighthearted look back at three days of peace and music whose more magical qualities fail to materialize here.More |  | Youth Without Youth Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
[b]Somers Town[/b], the most lighthearted offering to date from [b]This Is England[/b] director Shane Meadows, could easily be dismissed as slight. At little more than an hour, it is amiably aimless, following two bored teenagers -- Tomo (Thomas Turgoose), a mysterious runaway from the Midlands, and Marek (Piotr Jagiello), the son of a hard-drinking Polish construction worker -- as they idle away their days on the streets of London.More |  | Alien Nation Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Director Neill Blomkamp’s allegorical flourishes are unsubtle but effective in [b]District 9[/b], a sometimes brilliant sci-fi concoction that pits the people of Johannesburg against a community of alien refugees (known as “prawns”) who arrive on earth and are quickly scuttled into a shantytown surrounded by barbed wire. Victims of government-sanctioned apartheid that seems to grow more virulent by the minute, the prawns are afforded little compassion, and begin to lash out accordingly.More |  | Comedy Stuck in Neutral Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.
[b]The Goods[/b] was co-produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay -- the guys behind [b]Talladega Nights[/b] and [b]Step Brothers[/b], in case you missed the trailers -- so it claims enough of a pedigree to have attracted a gifted cast, including Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames and [b]Anchorman[/b]’s David Koechner.More |  | Another One Bites the Dust Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.
How the toys of our youth lose their subtle charms when thrust onto the big screen. First, it was the Transformers, reduced to inelegant CGI monsters by Michael Bay’s effects crew. Next up? The real American heroes of [b]G.I. Joe[/b], whose back stories are at least acknowledged by director Stephen Sommers ([b]The Mummy[/b], [b]Van Helsing[/b]), but whose charisma is all but eclipsed by the movie’s raison d’ętre – namely, deafening explosions and expensive-looking set pieces.More |  | There Will Be Blood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
It’s not easy to write an original story about vampires, but Chan-wook Park has done it. [b]Thirst[/b] is a buoyantly refreshing story about a priest who turns to sucking blood after an ill-conceived transfusion leaves him hungry for human flesh.More |
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