CHEAP SEATS
Capsule reviews of second-run films now showing at Calgary theatres
Argo
Ben Affleck’s thriller recasts the 1979 Canadian rescue of U.S. hostages in Iran as a U.S.-led caper. He stars as a CIA agent who smuggles the Americans out disguised as Canadian filmmakers. The Bourne Legacy
½
Jeremy Renner is a government agent who has been genetically altered to be stronger. Naturally, the government wants to kill him, and the film is a long chase.
Brave
A spectacularly rendered fable about a young Scottish princess (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) who rejects her mother’s plans for her.
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell’s sprawling novel turned into an ungainly film. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and others play multiple roles in an ambitious sci-fi extravaganza.
Frankenweenie
Tim Burton and screenwriter John August create a dark fairy tale about a kid and his quest to reanimate his beloved bull terrier.
Here Comes the Boom
A middle-aged science teacher tries to save his failing school’s music program by entering a mixed-martial arts fight to raise $50,000.
Hotel Transylvania
Adam Sandler lends his vocal talents to this story of a vampire who runs a hotel for monsters, where he can keep his daughter
safe from the outside world. The House at the End of the Street ½ A low-cal psychological thriller about single mom Elizabeth Shue and teenage daughter Jennifer Lawrence, who move into a house next door to a place where a horrific murder took place. Ice Age: Continental Drift
Manny, Diego and Sid are back for another round of extinctionthemed hijinks.
Looper ½ Rian Johnson’s twisty fantasy stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an assassin of the future who kills people who are sent back in a time machine — until his future self (Bruce Willis) arrives as his target. The Man with the Iron Fists
(not reviewed) An adventure set in rural China about a blacksmith who must defend his village, starring Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu.
Not screened for critics in ad- vance, but read the review in Saturday’s paper.
ParaNorman ½ An expertly designed stop-motion animated film about a boy who sees the dead, particularly the witches who were hanged 300 years earlier.
Seven Psychopaths ½ Colin Farrell plays a screenwriter seeking inspiration, which he finds in his friends — who are all cuckoo. Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell play the buddies while Woody Harrelson plays a Mob boss.
Sinister Ethan Hawke stars in this horror film about a writer of truecrime books who moves his family into a house where a horrific murder took place.
Taken 2 ½ Liam Neeson reprises the role of father and former secret agent after Albanian bad guys who abduct his ex-wife and set sights on his daughter. The action is cartoonish without being entirely computer-generated.