‘The Soloist’ ★★★ Inspiring, relevant and real, the story of Nathaniel Ayers — a schizophrenic but wildly talented Juilliard-trained cellist living on the streets of downtown L.A. — captivated Los Angeles Times readers in 2005. The fact that columnist Steve Lopez didn’t just ignore him like most people would — that he not only spoke to Ayers but befriended and wrote movingly about him — added to the unexpected humanity of the tale. “The Soloist” takes all those innately engaging details and turns them into what is essentially a made-for-Lifetime movie, albeit one populated by Oscar winners and nominees. 116 min. Rated PG-13.
‘Lymelife’ ★★ Are you aware that the suburbs aren’t nearly as idyllic as they may appear? It’s true. All those polished, homogenous facades, with their manicured lawns and their fancy cars parked out front — sometimes they hide the fact that the people living inside aren’t all that happy. Well, if you haven this point, up to and including last year’s overwrought “Revolutionary Road,” Derick Martini hammers it home with not-so-subtle symbolism in his directing debut. He also wrote the script with his brother, Steven, based on their childhood on Long Island. Clearly, they are still scarred. Only the performances from a strong ensemble make “Lymelife” more tolerable than it ought to be. 95 min. Rated R.
‘Fighting’ ★ Channing Tatum has the proper presence as a bruiser rising to stardom in New York City’s underground fighting circuit, yet he, Terrence Howard and their cast mates are stuck in a dull, cliche-sodden drama during the many moments when someone’s fist isn’t connecting with someone else’s jaw. Director Dito Montiel’s follow-up to his debut, “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” has a tired old premise as an underdog (Tatum) finds a wise but down-and-out mentor (Howard) to take him to the big time and a nice new girlfriend (Zulay Henao) to lend him emotional The forgettable script drowns in boring dialogue, including incoherent monosyllabic scenes where Tatum and Howard seem to engage in a mumbling duel. 105 min. Rated PG-13.
‘Observe and Report’ ★★★★ The most charitable thing we can say about this otherwise insufferable comedy is that it shows Seth Rogen has some range. He’s not just the self-deprecating cutup, the stoner teddy bear we’ve come to know and love in movies like “Knocked Up,” “Superbad” and “Pineapple Express.” Apparently, he also has some pent-up rage in him, which he unleashes in spectacularly wild fashion as the head of security at a suburban shopping center. Rogen’s Ronnie Barnhardt takes his job far too seriously, of course, but he’s forced to spring into actual action when a flasher starts antagonizing the shoppers — and, more importantly, blond bimbo Brandi (Anna Faris), the cosmetics clerk he secretly adores. But there’s nothing about Ronnie that makes you root for him to succeed personally or professionally. 86 min. Raay’ Rated PG-13.
‘Earth’ ★★ The debut from the DisneynFothergill and Mark Linfield, follows three species of mothers and babies over a year — polar bears in the Arctic, elephants in Africa’s Kalahari Desert and humpback whales near the Equator — with a variety of wondrous creatures mixed in between. Narrator James Earl Jones provides the necessary gravitas to accompany these majestic images, and the score composed by George Fenton and performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is appropriately sweeping and grand. 89 min. Rated G.
’17 Again’ ★★★ This is one of those movies that requires you to suspend all disbelief and assume that someone who looks like Zac Efron could, in 20 years, turn into someone who looks like Matthew Perry. Can’t do it, you say? Well, that detail is just about as implausible as the film’s premise itself: Mike O’Donnell (Perry), a miserable father of two on the brink of divorce, gets a chance to relive his high-school days and improve his future by becoming 17 in the present day, all thanks t of a mystical janitor. Efron maintains the dreamy presence that made the tweens scream in the “High School Musical” series, and he gets a couple of amusing scenes as a grown-up delivering uptight diatribes in a boy’s body, but he still seems too pretty and lightweight to be a persuasive leading man capable of carrying a film. 98 min. Rated PG-13. – AP
‘Observe and Report’ (1.5) ★★★★ The most charitable thing we can say about this otherwise insufferable comedy is that it shows Seth Rogen has some range. He’s not just the self-deprecating cutup, the stoner teddy bear we’ve come to know and love in movies like “Knocked Up,” “Superbad” and “Pineapple Express.” Apparently, he also has some pent-up rage in him, which he unleashes in spectacularly wild fashion as the head of security at a suburban shopping center. Rogen’s Ronnie Barnhardt takes his job far too seriously, of course, but he’s forced to spring into actual action when a flasher starts antagonizing the shoppers — and, more importantly, blond bimbo Brandi (Anna Faris), the cosmetics clerk he secretly adores. But there’s nothing about Ronnie that makes you root for him to succeed personally or professionally. 86 min. Rated R. -AP
“Hannah Montana: The Movie” (2) ★★★ There’s no way to analyze this movie as an adult. The big-screen version of the Disney TV series is not made for us — it’s made for tween girls and no one else — and so we must consider how they’re going to respond to it. Now, this will come as no surprise at all, but they’re gonna love it. If you were a 10-year-old girl, you’d also want to be small-town sweetheart Miley Stewart and/or her secret pop-star alter ego, Hannah Montana. Singer/songwriter/dancer/trendsetter Miley Cyrus makes both characters so likably harmless, so attractively accessible, it’s hard not to be charmed. Just you try to resist her endless supply of energy and moxie! 106 min. Rated G.
“Adventureland” (2.5) ★★★★ 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. The 1987 amusement-park setting also allows Mottola to revel in dead-on period kitsch, from acid-washed jeans and teased-up bangs to the absurdly annoying strains of Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus,” which repeatedly blares over the loud speakers. (He wrote the script based on his own experiences working at a Long Island theme park while at Columbia University in the late ’80s; two decades later, he’s clearly still traumatized, and understandably so.) But “Adventureland” has more on its mind — and its heart — than that, as its college-age characters struggle to figure out who they are and what they want in a time of flux. 107 min. Rated R.
“Fast & Furious” (1.5) ★★ Noise, noise, noise. Crunched metal and shattered glass. More noise. Revving engines. Vin Diesel’s giant head. Hot chicks in tight miniskirts. Even more noise. The end. That’s pretty all much there is to “Fast & Furious,” essentially a remake of the 2001 hit “The Fast and the Furious” with the same cast, except it seems to exist in some parallel universe where the word “the” no longer exists. It also seems to function outside of logic, cohesive plot structure and the laws of gravity, but hey — this being the fourth film in the street racing series, such niceties have long since been tossed out the widow and run over repeatedly. Justin Lin, who also directed part three, 2006’s “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” piles on the mind-bogglingly elaborate chase scenes and set pieces. But you’ve seen a lot of these sorts of stunts in the previous movies. 107 min. Rated PG-13
