SPECIAL MOVIES

OPENING FRIDAY

Chasing Mavericks (PG, 116 min.) Jonny Weston stars as the late surfing legend Jay Moriarty (who died at 22 in a 2001 diving accident) in this film about Moriarty’s “quest to surf America’s most dangerous wave.” With Gerard Butler as real-life surf coach/guru “Frosty” Hesson. CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Paradiso, Stage Cinema. Cloud Atlas (R, 172 min.) “Matrix” masterminds Andy and Lana Wachowski join “Run Lola Run” auteur Tom Tykwer to direct a centuries-spanning epic of interconnectivity, adapted from the novel by David Mitchell. The all-star cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Susan Sarandon. Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Forest Hill 8, Paradiso, Stage Cinema, Studio on the Square. Fun Size (PG-13, 90 min.) A Nickelodeon comedy about a baby-sitting big sister (Victoria Justice) who loses her trick-or-treating brother on Halloween night. CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Palace Cinema, Paradiso, Stage Cinema. The Paperboy (R, 107 min.) A Miami reporter (Matthew McConaughey), a death-row killer (John Cusack) and an aging sexpot (Nicole Kidman) are among the participants in this lurid Southern Gothic drama from director Lee Daniels (“Precious”), working from a novel by Pete Dexter. Ridgeway Four. Silent Hill: Revelation (R, 94 min.) Why make a sequel to the 2006 chiller “Silent Hill”? Because its surreal supernatural shocks should look cool in 3D, that’s why. CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Summer Quartet Drive-In, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8 (in 3-D). 2 Days in New York (R, 96 min.) See review on Page ??. Ridgeway Four. Across the Frontlines: Ending the Nuba Genocide (Not rated, 90 min.) The world premiere of a documentary that follows Memphis-based human rights organization Operation Broken Silence as it investigates war-torn Sudan. 7 p.m. Thursday, Ridgeway Four. Tickets: $10. Visit operationbrokensilence.org. Born To Be Wild: The latest IMAX film is “an inspiring story of love, dedication and the remarkable bond between humans and animals” that focuses on efforts to reintroduce rescued elephants and orangutans into the wild. Narrated by Morgan Freeman. Runs through Nov. 16. IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 901-636-2362 for show times, tickets and reservations. British National Theatre: The Last of the Haussmans (Not rated, 180 min.) Julie Walters is an aging hippy matriarch who has abandoned the ashrams of her youth to hold court in a dilapidated Art Deco home where daylong drinking bouts and unwise infatuations are among the diversions. Filmed live onstage in London. 1 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Paradiso. Tickets: $20. Visit malco.com. The Imposter (R, 99 min.) An acclaimed documentary about a young Frenchman who convinces a grieving Texas family he is their missing son. 2 p.m. Sunday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Tickets: $8, or $6 for museum members. Visit brooksmuseum.org. Indie Memphis Film Festival: The 15th annual festival begins Thursday. See story on page ??. Visit indiememphis.com. Jesus Christ Superstar: UK Spectacular (Not rated, 180 min.) A massive new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera, filmed live at the 13,000set National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England. 7:3o p.m. Monday and Thursday, Paradiso. Tickets: $18. Visit malco.com. The Metropolitan Opera: Otello (Not rated, 210 min.) Verdi’s Shakespearean masterpiece, filmed live onstage in New York. 11:55 a.m. Saturday, Paradiso. Tickets: $20. Visit malco.com. To the Arctic Narrated by Meryl Streep, this journey to the top of the world follows a polar bear family as it adapts to its changing environment. Runs through March 8, 2013. Tickets $8.25; $7.50 senior citizens, and $6.50 for ages 3-12. IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 901-636-2362 for show times, tickets and reservations. Tornado Alley: Narrated by Bill Paxton, this IMAX film follows storm-chasing scientists as they track raging tornadoes. Through Nov. 16. Tickets: $8.25 ($7.50 for senior citizens), $6.50 for children ages 3-12; combo/ group tickets available. IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 901-636-2362 for show times, tickets and reservations. West of Memphis (R, 147 min.) The final two free screenings of producer Peter Jackson’s documentary investigation of the case against the West Memphis Three. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Paradiso, and 7 p.m. Thursday, Cordova Cinema. Visit westofmemphisfilm.com.

NOW SHOWING

Alex Cross (PG-13, 102 min.)

½ Tyler Perry trades Madea drag for the shoulder holster and scowl of a genius police psychologist-detective, but this movie couldn’t be any sillier if the title sleuth pursued the story’s sadistic professional killer in a gray wig and granny panties. A merger of late-period Charles Bronson brutishness with Perry’s signature Lifetimelevel bathos, the latest James Patterson adaptation — Morgan Freeman played Cross in two earlier, otherwise unrelated films — is pure pulp nonsense, with about as much realism and relevance to police procedure as “Madea’s Witness Protection.” Directed by the usually reliable Rob Cohen (“The Fast and the Furious”). CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Palace Cinema, Paradiso, Stage Cinema, Studio on the Square, Summer Quartet Drive-In. The Amazing Spider-Man (PG-13, 136 min.) Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone. Bartlett 10. Arbitrage (R, 100 min.) Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and indie beauty Brit Marling star in a drama about a desperate hedgefund manager. Ridgeway Four. Argo (R, 120 min.) Inspired by the unlikely true story of the secret rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran in 1980 (while 52 of their less fortunate colleagues were held hostage by militants in the American embassy), this is an entertaining and intelligent suspense film, with a commitment to quality and what might be called self-consciously purposeful content that is typical of the producing team of George Clooney and Grant Heslov (“The Ides of March,” “Good Night, and Good Luck”). Sporting a vintage Chuck Norris/porn star mustache and hairdo, increasingly confident director Ben Affleck stars as real-life CIA “exfiltration” specialist Tony Mendez, who concocts a rescue plan that requires the Americans to pose as sciencefiction movie producers scouting locations in the Middle East; his collaborators include a smart-aleck veteran movie producer (Alan Arkin) and Oscar-winner John Chambers (John Goodman), the makeup artist for “Planet of the Apes.” CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Palace Cinema, Paradiso, Stage Cinema, Studio on the Square. Atlas Shrugged: Part II (PG-13, 112 min.) Paul Ryan, the wait is over: Here’s the conclusion of producer and fitness-equipment magnate John Aglialoro’s Ayn Rand adaptation. Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8. The Bourne Legacy (PG-13, 125 min.) Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz. Bartlett 10. Brave (PG, 101 min.) The latest from Pixar. Bartlett 10. The Campaign (R, 85 min.) Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis. Bartlett 10. The Dark Knight Rises (PG13, 165 min.) ½ Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway. Bartlett 10. End of Watch (R, 109 min.)

A sort of pulp-cinema Joseph Wambaugh, writerdirector David Ayer (“Training Day,” “Harsh Times,” “Street Kings”) returns with another vivid and gritty inner-city slice-of-life police drama; Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8. The Expendables 2 (R, 103 min.) ½ Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham. Bartlett 10. Frankenweenie (PG, 88 min.) Director Tim Burton expands his comic, career-defining 1984 short horror-movie homage into a Disney feature film that retains the original’s black-and-white palette but replaces its flesh-and-blood actors with the puppety figures of the painstaking stop-motion animation process. In theory, this technique — which, in essence, invests inanimate objects with apparent life — is ideal for a story about an earnest boy scientist (voiced by Charlie Tahan) who resurrects his beloved dead dog, Sparky; however, the “unreal” nature of stopmotion encourages Burton to indulge his more bizarre whims, so that almost everybody in the story’s suburb of “New Holland” — the name justifies the presence of a windmill, for a finale borrowed from James Whale — is some sort of flat-headed Frankenstein or hunchbacked Igor, which makes the appearance of a repaired and reanimated pet less shocking than it ought to be. Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso, Stage Cinema. Here Comes the Boom (PG, 105 min.) ½ More pabulum for moviegoers who can’t be bothered to chew even the softest food for thought, courtesy of Happy Madison Productions, the Gerber of motion picture companies. Likable Kevin James stars as slovenly Scott Voss, a Boston high-school biology teacher and ex-wrestler who