Ratings based on four-star system.

‘The Last Airbender’
Rated PG
? 1/2
“The Last Airbender” tells the first part of the previously animated TV series’ story, in which the world’s kingdoms are built around fire, air, water and earth. Some Water Nation war orphans discover, frozen in ice, young Aang (Noah Ringer), the reincarnation of the Avatar, who can control the elements and restore harmony. This is a world containing a flying furry bison and no shortage of battles waged by hurling fireballs and blasts of wind at your opponent. Not since “Dune” has a fantasy franchise tripped all over itself trying this hard to please.

‘Toy Story 3’
Rated G
???
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.

‘Twilight: Eclipse’
Rated PG-13
??
“Eclipse” finds Bella (Kristen Stewart) inching closer to her decision to marry Edward (Robert Pattinson) and become a vampire, thus breaking the werewolf heart of Jacob (Taylor Lautner). The wolves and the vamps must unite to take on an army of vampiric “newborns.” Already, “Eclipse” has garnered praise as the best and most action-packed of the series — which I don’t understand. For me it’s ponderous and sloppily directed, and by far the most deadening when the dramatic necessity known as “talking” must be confronted, in between battles.

‘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.

‘Grown Ups’
Rated PG-13
??
“Grown Ups” is a sure thing — a film you feel as if you’ve seen before, and probably saw somewhere a second time, so why not another? When Adam Sandler’s beloved middle-school basketball coach dies, the Hollywood agent and his far-flung pals (a comedy who’s who of Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade and Rob Schneider) reunite for the funeral back in New England. There, at a lakeside cabin over the July Fourth weekend, the guys relive all their old adolescent pranks and pratfalls, while their families look on, smiling.

‘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.

‘Knight and Day’
Rated PG-13
?1/2
An outsize comedy thriller, “Knight and Day” stars Tom Cruise in his first summer action vehicle since “Mission: Impossible III” and Cameron Diaz as the one perpetually getting drugged and whisked away. Director James Mangold and a couple of movie stars can go only so far on fumes, and rely too heavily on an unGODly amount of computer-generated effects work flying around the actors’ heads. When the action’s pitched at such a ridiculous level of hyperbole, the laughs barely have enough oxygen to qualify as wheezes.

‘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.

‘Robin Hood’
Rated PG-13
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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.

‘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?
— Tribune Media Services