Arts & Entertainment

Movie Reviews: 'Don Jon,' 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2' and More

Movie reviews and movie times for theaters in the Marion and Cedar Rapids area, including, "The Family," "Prisoners" and "Battle of the Year." Let Patch help you decide what you're going to see this weekend.

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Movie information aggregated from moviefone.com

Don Jon
Reviews:

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Johansson gives one of her best performances as the bossy, gum-chewing Jersey girl determined to change Jon into her image of a romantic hero. Tony Danza and Glenne Headly are hilarious as Jon's parents. Gordon-Levitt proves he can act, write and direct with equal dexterity. Full Review

David Edelstein, New York Magazine (Vulture): The movie is a broad ethnic comedy, but there’s nothing broad about the wicked-smart way it’s executed. Full Review

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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2

Sandie Angulo Chen, Moviefone: "With the original, I was too upset that it was nothing like the classic children's book I loved reading to my children to give into the clever story line. But now that I know not to expect an adaptation at all, I was able to enjoy the sequel and think parents will feel for Mr. Lockwood as he tries to help his son Flint, and let's be clear, those little food-animals are just too cute to resist." Full review.

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Prisoners


Reviews

The New Yorker - Prisoners, despite its gathering anxiety, has some of the pleasures of ordinary thrillers. But Villeneuve, who previously directed “Incendies,” does volatile scenes without exaggeration; parts of the movie are exceedingly violent, though the violence isn’t “fun”— it makes you wince. Full Review

The Guardian - In his first English language film, Quebeçois director Denis Villeneuve has produced a masterful thriller that is also an engrossing study of a smalltown America battered by recession, fear and the unrelenting elements. Full Review

Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review when you get home and tell your neighbors how it was!

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Battle of the Year


Reviews

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The New York Daily News: B-boys become B-men under the tutelage of Josh Holloway — known to TV viewers as Sawyer from “Lost” — in the latest 3-D dance competition movie, “Battle of the Year.” Full Review.

Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review when you get home and tell your neighbors how it was!

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The Family

  • Run Time: 110 Mins.

  • Starring: Robert De Niro , Michelle Pfeiffer , Tommy Lee Jones , Dianna Agron , John D'Leo

  • Director:  Luc Besson

  • Trailer

    • Reviews:

    Robert De Niro – wait for it – in the role of a mobster. Now there's an original idea. In The Family, not to be confused with De Niro's roles in GoodFellas, The Godfather: Part II, The Untouchables, Casino, Once Upon a Time in America, Analyze This, Analyze That (go on, make your list), De Niro plays Giovanni Manzoni, a mob snitch. For ratting out his own wiseguys back in Brooklyn, Giovanni is put in the witness protection program, dragging along his real family, wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), daughter Belle (Dianna Agron) and son Warren (John D'Leo). After working their way through the States, then Paris and now remote Normandy, the Manzonis are pretty fed up with their lot in life, which means living in fear that the mob will catch up with them at any time.-Rolling Stone Read more

    The Family is a fish-out-of-water/buddy comedy/Mob flick. But most of all, it's a missed opportunity.

    The bad pacing, humorless scenarios and repetitive gags (** out of four; rated R; opens Friday nationwide) undercut the few inspired moments, most of which hinge on the chemistry between Robert De Niro's Mob boss and Tommy Lee Jones' FBI agent. USA Today. Read More

    Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review when you get home and tell your neighbors how it was!

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    Insidious: Chapter 2

    Reviews

    Can we just say this about director James Wan? If you like horror films and you notice he’s directed a horror film, make the investment and see it.

    Wan helmed 2010′s “Insidious,” a movie that cost $1.5 million to make and went on to earn over $97 million — and it wasn’t just because of a clever marketing campaign. The guy knows how to manipulate a horror audience. And so, here we are with “Insidious: Chapter 2.” - ABCNews Full Review

    With his last helping of old-fashioned ooga booga, “The Conjuring,” still scaring up business in a few hundred theaters, James Wanreturns with two more hours of seat-clenching scares in “Insidious: Chapter 2,” a modestly scaled and highly pleasurable sequel to Wan’s low-budget ($1.5 million) 2011 smash that should have genre fans begging for thirds. Indeed, with a clever coda that suggests how this franchise might easily continue even without. - Variety.com See Full Review

    Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review when you get home and tell your neighbors how it was!

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    Riddick

    Having been left for dead in more ways than one after the critical and commercial failure of 2004’s “The Chronicles of Riddick,” Vin Diesel’s futuristic fugitive Richard B. Riddick gets his lean, mean, R-rated mojo back for “Riddick,” an improbable but very enjoyable sequel that recaptures much of the stripped-down intensity of Diesel and director David Twohy’s franchise starter “Pitch Black.”  ~ Scott Foundas, Variety See Full Review

    If only audiences, like the title character in Riddick (* out of four; rated R; opens Friday nationwide), were equipped with luminescent extra-vision eyeballs. Then it might be possible to muddle through the dark and incoherent action scenes. But to the ordinary naked eye, characters and landscape look bathed in dusty milk chocolate. It's often impossible to tell who's fighting whom or who's been devoured by a space alien. Not that it's really worth pondering.

    Not only is this third installment in the series tedious, grisly and inane, its star, Vin Diesel, plays a ridiculous amalgam in the title role. He's a killing machine with a heart of gold, a malevolent mush-ball who plays fetch with alien critters. ~Claudia Puig, USA Today See Full Review


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    The Butler

    "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

    Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review when you get home and tell your neighbors how it was!

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    We're The Millers

    "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

    Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review when you get home and tell your neighbors how it was!

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    Any of these spark your interest? Wynnsong 16 in Johnston will be playing all these movies.

    Check out the Moviefone widget for showtimes and additional theater locations.

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