NOW SHOWING

OPENING FRIDAY

Flight (R, 139 min.) Heroic airline pilot Denzel Washington is caught in a troubling investigation. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Paradiso, Stage Cinema. The Man with the Iron Fists (R, 96 min.) The RZA directs an old-school fists-offury martial-arts action epic. Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Paradiso, Stage Cinema. Samsara (PG-13, 102 min.) In the tradition of the 1982 cult classic “Koyaanisqatsi,” this visually stunning documentary, shot over five years in 25 countries, presents a montage of life of Earth. Ridgeway Four. Wreck-It Ralph (PG) In the latest digitally animated Disney wonder, a lovable arcade game avatar (voiced by John C. Reilly) tries to escape his villainous programming. Imagine “Toy Story” transplanted inside a video game. CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Stage Cinema (in 3-D), Summer Quartet Drive-In.

SPECIAL MOVIES

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. Globe On Screen: Doctor Faustus (Not rated, 147 min.) A new production of Christopher Marlowe’s classic 1604 play about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil. 7 p.m. Thursday, Paradiso. Tickets: $12.50. Visit malco.com. Indie Memphis Film Festival: The 15th annual event continues through Sunday. See stories on Pages 4 and 12. Visit indiememphis.com. Lost Bohemia (Not rated, 77 min.) A documentary about the battle to save the studio apartments above Carnegie Hall, once home and workplace for Isadora Duncan, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Norman Mailer and others — including some less-celebrated artists who suddenly face eviction after having lived there for decades. 7 p.m. Thursday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Tickets: $8, or $6 for museum members. Visit brooksmuseum.org. The Metropolitan Opera: L’Elisir d’Amore (Not rated, 185 min.) An encore presentation of a recent performance of Donizetti’s comic masterpiece, filmed live onstage in New York. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, 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. 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 relevance to police procedure as “Madea’s Witness Protection.” Sinewy and shaven-headed, Matthew Fox overacts outrageously and adds a soupcon of camp entertainment value as “the Butcher of Sligo,” a “stimulus-seeking sociopathic narcissist” who leaves chopped-off literal ladyfingers in a glass bowl at a victim’s bedside; Edward Burns and Rachel Nichols are Cross’ attractive partners, who seem to have wandered off the set of a bad primetime cop show. Cross also has a picture-perfect family, which gives him an excuse to vow, re the Butcher: “I will meet his soul at the gates of hell before I let him take a person that I love.” The crooks also talk funny: “You the headshrinker, but you ain’t shrinkin’ nothin’ of mine,” boasts one miscreant, even as moviegoers’ sense their own brains shriveling. Directed by the usually

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