‘Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore’
Rated PG
?
“Cats & Dogs” is the latest movie to be unnecessarily converted to 3-D, which means that if mom and dad want to take the kids to see the fur fly this weekend, they’re going to pay a surcharge to receive absolutely nothing of value in return. This sequel is better than the original, but so is a rabies shot. It’s a send-up of James Bond spy flicks with cats and dogs joining forces to thwart hairless cat Kitty Galore (Bette Midler) and her diabolical plans to rule the world. The result is cute, but audiences are better off waiting for the DVD release.

‘Charlie St. Cloud’
Rated PG-13
?1/2
This is the tale of a college-bound sailing phenom, Charlie (Zac Efron), whose brother, Sam, 11, is killed by a drunk driver. Charlie’s life derails; he cancels plans to attend Stanford and becomes a hermit groundskeeper at the cemetery where Sam is buried. Supernatural things happen there, like Sam showing up with his baseball glove and ball in hand. Eventually, Charlie’s onetime sailing rival Tess (Amanda Crew) shows up to gum up the works. Unfortunately, this supernatural melodrama, much like its story, is icky.

‘Despicable Me’
Rated PG
?? 1/2
An agreeable jumble, the animated feature “Despicable Me” sells its 3-D in ways you wouldn’t call sophisticated or witty. With a heavy Slavic dialect, Steve Carell voices the “Me” of the title, a sallow-complexioned baddie named Gru, who plans to steal the moon by way of a “shrink ray.” Along the way he grapples with his mother (Julie Andrews) and his nemesis, Vector (Jason Segel). The film finds its heart when Gru adopts three adorable orphan girls, and it’s by taking the “heart” part just seriously enough, that this movie saves itself from itself.

‘Dinner for Schmucks’
Rated PG-12
? 1/2
This remake of a French farce has a lot of funny people going for it. In it, a wealthy businessman hosts a monthly soiree for which his employees must bring an idiot to dinner, and the best idiot wins. Tim (Paul Rudd) feels conflicted about this, but into his life (and off the front of his car) bounces a pluperfect dolt, played by Steve Carell. While cast members like Jemaine Clement and Zach Galifianakis play well, this schmucked-up American edition does the chortling for us and then scolds us for laughing. Or, in my case, not.

‘Eat Pray Love’
Rated PG-13
??
It is easy to watch “Eat Pray Love,” the pretty, languid film adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling journal of self-discovery. Director and co-adapter Ryan Murphy’s film will likely do the trick for a good percentage of those who loved Gilbert’s memoir. The movie has the advantage of getting more fun as it goes. Manhattan travel writer Liz, played by Roberts, gets up the nerve to leave her flaky husband and travel through Italy, India and Bali in search of fulfillment, fun and food.

‘The Expendables’
Rated PG-13
??
The cinematic equivalent of Ribfest, Sylvester Stallone’s “The Expendables” is all gristle and meat. The Expendables are mercenaries, and good ones. Most of the action takes place in the tiny, fictional South American island nation of Vilena, where the lads (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham and company) have been hired by a shadowy CIA sort (Bruce Willis in a cameo featuring a cameo-within-a-cameo from Arnold Schwarzenegger) to take out a dictator. Is it fun? Sort of. But it shoulda coulda been a ton of fun.

‘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.

‘Inception’
Rated PG-13
3 stars
This elegant brain-bender affirms the prodigious imagination and clout of writer-director Christopher Nolan. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Dom Cobb, works as an “extraction” expert, able to enter someone’s subconscious and purloin valuable information for a fee. The plot, I suspect, will not matter much to people interested in diving into Nolan’s rich, sleek series of collapsing surfaces. Oh, well. “Inception” may not be the ultimate trip, but Nolan’s filmmaking intelligence places him among our most persuasive contemporary fantasists.

‘The Kids Are All Right’
Rated R
4 stars
“All right” doesn’t begin to describe it. “The Kids Are All Right” is wonderful. Doctor Nic (Annette Bening) and her longtime partner, Jules (Julianne Moore), have two teenagers from the same sperm donor. When the kids make contact with the donor behind the moms’ backs, Mark Ruffalo’s easygoing restaurateur Paul shows up to stir this family’s pot a bit. Bening and Moore have never been looser on screen, and Ruffalo is the perfect foil. Writer-director Lisa Cholodenko weds simple technique to complex and satisfying comedy-drama.

‘The Other Guys’
Rated PG-13
21?2 stars
A frustrating movie, albeit one with a lot of laughs, “The Other Guys” stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as New York Police Department desk jockeys who get a chance to transform themselves into high-risk, maximum-destruction superstars, chasing down a Bernie Madoff-type scam artist and destroying half their city in the process. While the filmmakers have overloaded the narrative, stretching it 20 minutes beyond its practical use, Ferrell is enough of a real actor to sell the stupidest stuff with the straightest of faces.

‘Predators’
Rated R
2 stars
“Predators,” plural, starts well and ends poorly. For a while, it’s a worthy successor, opening with a motley multinational crew of thugs dropping from the sky, having free-fallen from places unknown — Adrien Brody’s growling mercenary; Topher Grace’s befuddled physician; Laurence Fishburne’s wily survivalist — an impressive cast worth having in your killer-monster movie any day. Soon enough, they run into that old familiar dreadlocked monster with infrared vision (and a few other species of beastie as well!), but when the film reaches its midpoint, it sputters.

‘Ramona and Beezus’
Rated G
2 1?2 stars
If a film of such unfashionable gentleness fares indifferently or worse at the box office, it’ll only encourage the studios in the direction of the coarse, the obvious and the “Shrek.” But if “Ramona and Beezus” does find an audience, its success can be framed as brand loyalty to author Beverly Cleary’s children’s books. As Ramona, Joey King establishes plausible push-pull chemistry with Selena Gomez’s Beezus, whose popularity and hair-care preoccupations contrast with her little sister’s roughhousing. Sandra Oh is terrific as an elementary school teacher who enjoys her orderly ways.

‘Salt’
Rated PG-13
3 stars
“Salt” isn’t trying to reinvent anyone’s wheel. It’s quick (under 90 minutes minus credits) and, like the condiment whose name it shares, director Phillip Noyce’s run-like-hell thriller starring Angelina Jolie satisfies a basic human taste — something to go with the popcorn. I liked it. It knows what it’s doing. Jolie plays a supertough superspook confronted one day with a Russian defector who accuses her of being a sleeper agent in the employ of Russians dreaming of old-school world domination. Thus begin the running and the chasing.

‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’
Rated PG-13
3 stars
This is a different kind of comic book-based movie, and not just because it’s funny first and everything else second. Director and co-writer Edgar Wright understands the appeal of the original Bryan Lee O’Malley graphic novels where Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) meets a New York transplant named Ramona Flowers, a tough babe in black leather who says he can date her if he vanquishes all seven of her “evil exes.” With epic battles and a successful satiric too-muchness, the film is raucous, impudent entertainment.

‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’
Rated PG
2 1?2 stars
In “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” loosely based on the Mickey Mouse segment in “Fantasia,” Nicolas Cage plays Balthazar, a good sorcerer who can live forever and is trying to protect modern-day New York City and environs from the ravages of bad sorcerers played by Alfred Molina and Alice Krige. Once Balthazar presses young Dave (Jay Baruchel) into apprenticeship, the duo and Molina shoot fire-jets and balls of energy at one another’s heads. All in all, this latest Disney live-action feature isn’t bad as these things go.

‘Step Up 3D’
Rated PG-13
3 stars
Entering NYU, Moose finds himself torn between two worlds, one respectable and relatively dance-free, the other filled with “b-boys, tickers, tappers, voguers and poppers.” The movie is like watching a musical from the early ‘50s but in 3-D, combining hip-hop battles with numbers paying homage to old-style classics. This movie is ridiculous. Of course. But it boasts a generous exuberance and, as entertainment products go, it’s surprisingly sweet. It requires only that you set your expectations correctly and that you don’t go into it with a grudge against dance on screen.

‘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.

‘Twilight: Eclipse’
Rated PG-13
2 stars
“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.
— Tribune Media Services