Ratings based on four-star system.
‘Agora’
Not Rated

??
Set in the 4th century in Roman-controlled Alexandria, “Agora” has everything except real drama. While Christian unrest swirls around Rachel Weisz, who plays a “pagan” astronomer — a sexy librarian, without the specs — she must contend with two disparate suitors. One, played by Oscar Isaac, has money and class; the other, her doting slave (Max Minghella), feels the tug of dead-end lust. In the end, “Agora” leaves you with a sensation of having spent a couple of hours with an epic-worthy woman, played by a superb actress — without really getting to know what made her tick.

‘Date Night’
Rated PG-13
??1/2
“Date Night” is a product substantially inferior to the material routinely finessed by stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey, on their respective hit TV shows, into comic gold. A married couple leave the kids with a sitter and hit Manhattan for dinner. In an effort to be seated at a trendy restaurant, they claim another couple’s vacated reservation, leading to mistaken-identity trouble. The script is weak, but the actors keep saving this one, including James Franco and Mila Kunis, whose only scene is a memorable one.

‘Get Him to the Greek’
Rated R
???
Extremely raunchy, this film is also very funny. Written and directed by “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” director Nicholas Stoller, “Get Him to the Greek” follows Aaron (Jonah Hill), a record-company gofer charged with flying to London to fetch a substance-infested rock star on the wane, played by Russell Brand, for a comeback concert at LA’s Greek Theatre. Hill and Brand make a swell odd couple, and the film is a good, rude commercial comedy, one that is unexpectedly sincere in its exploration of the ways in which boy-men will be boy-men.

‘Iron Man 2’
Rated PG-13
??1/2
“A passable knock-off”: That’s how the obscenely rich but heartsick industrialist played by Robert Downey Jr. characterizes the electro-weaponry wielded by his adversary (Mickey Rourke) in “Iron Man 2.” Much of this scattershot sequel to the 2008 smash feels like a passable knock-off as well. Here and there, director Jon Favreau’s diversion takes us back to the considerable satisfactions of the first “Iron Man,” but “Iron Man 2” has a harder time with matters of story clarity and momentum.

‘Jonah Hex’
Rated PG-13
??
“Jonah Hex” is the latest DC Comics title to reach the screen. The film’s scenario sticks to 1876, focusing on Jonah’s (Josh Brolin’s) quest to kill the insane yet rather dull terrorist played by Malkovich, because he’s the one who burned his family alive and then branded Jonah with a terrible branding iron. But here’s how you know Josh Brolin has become a movie star: this film may not be much with him, but without him? Perish the thought. Perish it, throw an ax in its heart, then burn it to a crisp.

‘Just Wright’
Rated PG
???
Audiences may be stunned by the genuine display of niceness in this romantic comedy. Queen Latifah plays a physical therapist who has two months to rehab the man she secretly loves, the nicest guy the NBA, played by Common, after a knee injury threatens to derail his career. Director Sanaa Hamri deftly preserves the heart of this film. The reason “Just Wright” works is simple. It finds ways to let familiar characters move around inside a familiar premise like living, breathing, likable human beings.

‘Letters to Juliet’
Rated PG
???
Amanda Seyfried stars in this enjoyable rom-com as Sophie, a bright-eyed girl on vacation with her single-minded fiance in Verona, Italy. Here, centuries ago, Romeo met Juliet. Today lovelorn letters to the tragic heroine are left at a sacred spot. When Sophie replies to a letter written fifty years earlier, its author Claire, a remarkable Vanessa Redgrave, returns to Verona where the two join forces to scour the countryside for Claire’s long-lost Italian beau. It ain’t Shakespeare. But it’s no “Bounty Hunter” either.

‘Marmaduke’
Rated PG
?1/2
“Marmaduke,” the comic strip about life with a 200-pound Great Dane, earns a dull but harmless big-screen comedy aimed at the youngest moviegoers. Voiced by Owen Wilson, this canine narrates and chats up his fellow members of the House-pet Kingdom thanks to digital assistance, moving from Kansas to Southern California with his family: “Dr. No” (Lee Pace, not funny), Dr. No’s wife (Judy Greer, given nothing funny to do) and their “two-legger” children. SoCal turns out to be “like high school, for dogs,” complete with dog park cliques, bullies and, of course, dog surfing.

‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’
Rated PG-13
??1/2
Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of movies based on video games. This film, which is moderately entertaining chaos, follows Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), a street urchin adopted by the king, as he battles to keep a magical, time-shifting dagger out of enemy hands. A blessedly exuberant performance by Alfred Molina as an ostrich race promoter (!) enlivens a product you might otherwise forget.

‘Robin Hood’
Rated PG-13
???
Ridley Scott’s updated prequel to the outlaw legend brings “Gladiator”-like intensity to Sherwood Forest, reestablishing Russell Crowe’s Robin and Cate Blanchett’s Lady Marion as the linchpins to key Middle Ages historical events. Audiences had better keep up with the frenetic battle sequences, because when Scott storms a castle, he wants you to feel the danger and the thwwwunnnch of the arrow entering flesh. Ultimately, this new “Robin Hood” provides no revelations, but remains a satisfying, large-scale genre movie.

‘Sex and the City 2’
Rated R
2 stars
While Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) are off to Abu Dhabi for more fashion, flings and Cosmopolitans, this franchise’s pre-sold fan base might respond to this second installment with, “Oh … You four again.” Many fans of the series will enjoy this wallow, just as they turned out for the first feature, although I wonder if anyone on the planet, including writer-director Michael Patrick King, honestly believes “Sex 2” makes the most of its running time.

‘Shrek Forever After’
Rated PG
2 stars
Dreamworks seems bored with the ogre who laid the golden egg. “Shrek Forever After,” the fourth film in the lucrative franchise, barely tampers with the Shrek formula (one-liners, flatulence jokes, pop tunes) and not enough to breathe life into the exhausted series. Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers), feeling buried under the celebrity and the diapers, makes an unwise trade with a wizard named Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) and is sent back to a time before he was actually born.

‘Solitary Man’
Rated R
3 stars
A modest but juicy character study of a horn dog in winter, “Solitary Man” stars Michael Douglas as the self-destructive hedonist, slouching toward redemption. Douglas plays Ben Kalmen, who to his old Boston college, where the daughter (Imogen Poots) of his lover (Mary-Louise Parker) is thinking of studying. It’s not hard to see where this quasi-incestuous road trip is headed. Still, with a smart script and a talented cast, it’s a pleasant surprise about an unpleasant guy brought to life by an ingratiating paradox, a movie star who has turned into a wily character man.

‘Splice’
Rated R
3 stars
This crafty new thriller features Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as genetic engineers and lovers who successfully create a new hybrid creature out of DNA from various species. Naturally, the experiments go too far, creating “Dren,” a thing that’s partly human (she’s female), but with some various other horror genre features like a tail with a deadly stinger; legs like a dinosaur; and an accelerated life cycle. The film doesn’t deliver “the usual” and is provocative in its eerie violence.

‘The A-Team’
Rated PG-13
2 1/2 stars
This film, yet another 1980s artifact blown up for a 21st Century audience, is a perpetually frenetic and (surprise!) frequently entertaining time-killer. With Liam Neeson (Hannibal) at the helm, this bombastic bunch gets re-imagined as Special Forces ops working in Baghdad during the troop draw-down. Directed for maximum visual fragmentation in the action sequences by Joe Carnahan, the movie ultimately gits ‘er done, though with increasingly less interesting approaches to its story.

‘The Karate Kid’
Rated PG
2 1/2 stars
“New” being relative, the new version of “The Karate Kid” — which relies on the heart and cheery bloodthirstiness of the original — was shot on location in China. The old material has been successfully reworked to showcase Jaden Smith (Dre), a cool, unflappably stoic young performer. With Jackie Chan co-starring in “Pat” Morita’s old role, this reprise stays true to the original with its training montages and storytelling basics, faithfully adhering to Chan’s telling line, “Fight hard, earn respect, boys leave you alone.”

‘The Killers’
Rated PG-13
1 star
“The Killers,” which I saw with a restful, smallish crowd late Friday morning, brings up a lot of intriguing questions, such as: Haven’t we seen the oh-my-gosh-my-spouse-is-secretly-an-assassin-but-you-know-a-nice-one routine once too often? And: Why isn’t this movie a comedy with a little action, instead of a wobbly action movie with an occasional stab at comedy? And: Does this film set some sort of record for fewest extras employed?

‘Toy Story 3’
Rated G
3 stars
If “Toy Story 3” had sprung, Slinky Dog-like, from any creative think tank besides Pixar, it might be considered a classic. As is, it’s a good sequel. Young Andy is heading off to college, and the long-neglected toys are headed for the attic. After mistakenly getting thrown to the curb as trash, the gang — cowboy Woody, spaceman Buzz Lightyear, cowgirl Jessie, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and the rest of the principals — has to bust out of the day care center in which they find themselves. Make no mistake: This Disney/Pixar release represents a franchise taken seriously by its custodians.
— Tribune Media Services