Arts & Entertainment
Movie Reviews: The World's End, You're Next, Blue Jasmine
Movie reviews and movie times for theaters across Ames. Let Patch help you decide what you're going to see this weekend. Movies to choose from include "Jobs," "Elysium," "Mortal Instruments" and "We're The Millers."
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Movie information aggregated from moviefone.com and prepared by Stephen Schmidt
Mortal Instruments: City of Bone
Run Time: 130 mins.
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Starring: Lily Collins, Robert Maillet, Kevin Durand, Lena Headey, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
Director: Harald Zwart
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Though imaginatively directed by Harald Zwart, Mortal Instruments, which is adapted from Cassandra Clare's YA novels, is marred by significant flaws. Full Review ~ David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer
The storyline is at times muddled and incoherent. This won't bother readers much since they have the "inside track" on what's happening. Then again, the narrative is so predictable that maybe it doesn't matter. Full Review James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Everything chugs along briskly and reasonably entertainingly until running off the rails a bit with a wildly overcomplicated finale. Full Review Bruce Ingram, Chicago Sun-Times
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The Butler
Run Time: 126mins.
Starring: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack
Director: Lee Daniels
"Make no mistake, Daniels is gunning for awards here; the movie has that sheen, that Big Important Feel. But the performances keep it grounded. Let someone else decide winners and losers. Just enjoy “The Butler” for the sometimes-moving experience it is." Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic. Full Review
"Crudely powerful. You can object to the thuggish direction and the script that’s a series of signposts, but not the central idea, which is genuinely illuminating." David Edelstein, New York Magazine. Full Review
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You're Next
Run Time: 96 Minutes.
Starring: Sharni Vinson , Joe Swanberg , A.J. Bowen , Nicholas Tucci , Barbara Crampton
Director: Adam Wingard
One of the smartest and most terrifying films in years, 'You're Next' reinvents the genre by putting a fresh twist on home-invasion horror. When a gang of masked, ax-wielding murderers descend upon the Davison family reunion, the hapless victims seem ... Read More
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Blue Jasmine
Run Time: 98 Mins.
Starring: Cate Blanchett , Alec Baldwin , Peter Sarsgaard
Director: Woody Allen
It's one of the year's finest, most complex portrayals, in one of Allen's best films in years. Full Review
Cate Blanchett, who played Blanche on Broadway only a few years ago, gives the most complicated and demanding performance of her movie career. The actress, like her character, is out on a limb much of the time, but there’s humor in Blanchett’s work, and a touch of self-mockery as well as an eloquent sadness.Full Review
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World's End
Run Time: 109 mins.
Starring: Simon Pegg , Nick Frost , Rosamund Pike , Martin Freeman , Paddy Considine
Director: Edgar Wright
Despite a too-long third act, dragging action sequences and an epilogue that would have been better left on the cutting room floor, the wordy wit and ingenuity of The World’s End is a sloppy triumph over this summer’s other alien/robot hybrid flick, "Pacific Rim." Full Review ~ New York Observer
A mix of comedy, science fiction, nostalgia, adolescent wish-fulfillment and beer, beer, beer, its parts shouldn’t fit together as neatly as they do. But somehow Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg have again managed to make a movie that is knowing, touching and hilarious. Full Review Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic
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We're The Millers
Run Time: 110 mins.
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Emma Roberts
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
"Though the cast partially eschews the family-friendly timidity that the film defers to in the end, this would-be wild thing remains little more than a rowdy endorsement of the status quo." Chris Cabin, Slant Magazine. Full Review
"Get past the comedy and there's something almost weird at the movie's core - a deep cynicism about family and a longing for family, both at the same time." Mike LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle. Full Review
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Kick-Ass 2
Run Time: 103mins.
Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director: Jeff Wadlow
"A fun if sporadically schizoid return to one of the brighter, brasher comic-bookers of recent years." Total Film. Full Review
"The film doubles down on the love-hate relationship with ultra-violence that typified its predecessor, but A History of Violence this is not." Chris Cabin, Slant Magazine. Full Review
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Elysium
Run Time: 109 mins.
Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley
Director: Neill Blomkamp
"Hollywood loves these apocalypse-soon stories, however, because they function as blank canvases for ruin porn, and if nothing else, Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium gives us the realistically trashed tomorrow we suspect we deserve." David Fear, Time Out New York. Full Review
"Not perfect, but a much more satisfying Earth-in-ruins film than Oblivion or After Earth. It is a little more conventional than District 9 (what isn’t?), but confirms Blomkamp as one of the potential science-fiction greats of this decade." Kim Newman, Empire. Full Review
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Jobs
Run Time: 122mins.
Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad
Director: Joshua Michael Stern
"The movie is constantly at war with attempts to provide an honest portrayal, almost as if its subject were reaching beyond the grave to steer any negativity back in the direction of a hagiography." Eric Kohn, IndieWire. Full Review
"Ultimately, Jobs is a prosaic but not unaffecting tribute to the virtues of defiance, nonconformity, artistry, beauty, craftsmanship, imagination and innovation, qualities it only intermittently reflects as a piece of filmmaking." Justin Chang, Variety. Full Review
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Paranoia
Run Time: n/a
Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, Amber Heard
Director: Robert Luketic
No reviews are available at this time.
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Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Run Time: 106 mins.
Starring: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T. Jackson
Director: Thor Freudenthal
"This "Percy Jackson" is a gentler-spirited, less flashy enterprise, though it still presents a natural world that can morph at the whim of a god. I like that." RogerEbert.com Full Review
"In Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, choosing the dumbest character is a colossal task." Connie Ogle, Miami Herald. Full Review
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2 Guns
Run Time: 109 mins.
Starring: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
"2 Guns is a much-needed reminder that the best summer surprises can come when you least expect them." Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly. Full Review
"There’s nothing about 2 Guns that doesn’t feel prefab, like someone poured a packet of Insta-Movie into a glass of water." Gabe Toro, The Playlist. Full Review
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The Conjuring
Run Time: 112mins.
Starring: Vera Farmiga , Patrick Wilson , Ron Livingston , Lili Taylor , Hayley McFarland
Director: James Wan
"Like the wood-grained farmhouse itself — a beautiful piece of production design by Julie Berghoff — The Conjuring has an analog solidity that makes the terror to come almost unbearable." Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York. Full Review
"Though The Conjuring claims to be based on a true story, in truth it's based on every horror film that's come before it." Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine. Full Review
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Despicable Me 2
Run Time: 98 mins.
Starring: Voices of Steve Carell , Russell Brand , Miranda Cosgrove , Steve Coogan
Director: Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
Trailer
"The minions give good mayhem and the twig-armed animation’s lovely. Despite the coolest submarine-car since Bond’s Lotus Esprit, though, Despicable Me 2 is light on gadgets – and surprises, too." Total Film. Full Review
"It falters in the middle and hesitates unnecessarily in setting up the love story, but Gru still has charm and kids will adore the Minions." Helen O'Hara, Empire. Full Review
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Planes
Run Time: 92 Mins.
Director: Klay Hall
Starring: Jon Cryer , Stacy Keach , Dane Cook , Carlos Alazraqui , Val Kilmer
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The Wolverine, Turbo , White House Down, Now You See Me and Iron Man 3 is also playing at North Grand 5.
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