Singh’s suit draws little public reaction at TPC

OJ’s lawyers predict freedom

First Posted: 5/21/2013 42 &#8212; Brian Helgeland&#8217;s film is pretty much all you could hope for in a Jackie Robinson film biography. Minus the excitement, which given how well-known Robinson&#8217;s story is to baseball fans, is no cardinal sin. And the cast is more adequate than thrilling. PG-13 for thematic elements including language. 128 mins. 3 stars 
THE BIG WEDDING &#8212; Coarse, crude but often cute, this serves up the spectacle of its title and the bigger spectacle of four AARP-eligible Oscar winners cursing like sailors. A sex farce littered with f-bombs and c-words, it&#8217;s the filthiest (sounding) movie of the year so far. It also benefits from old pros Diane Keaton and Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams, all playing cynics conspiring or blundering into butchering the wedding of poor Missy (Amanda Seyfried) and Alejandro (Ben Barnes). R for language, sexual content and brief nudity. 90 mins. 2 and a half stars
THE CROODS &#8212; In this animated film, a prehistoric family embarks on a journey to find a new home after their cave is destroyed. In 3-D. PG. 92 mins. Three stars 
THE GREAT GATSBY &#8212; Jazzy, fizzy and often fun, Baz Luhrmann&#8217;s &#8220;Pretty Good Gatsby&#8221; takes F. Scott Fitzgerald&#8217;s Great American Novel out for a sometimes dazzling, always irreverent spin. The gauzy 3-D production design and superb leading players breathe life into the Jazz Age novel, but the director&#8217;s barely contained determination to Australianize, if not outright bastardize, &#8220;The Great Gatsby&#8221; is constantly at war with a book and a cast that scream &#8220;classic.&#8221; PG-13 for violent images, sexual content, smoking, partying and brief language. 143 mins. Three stars 
IRON MAN 3 &#8212; The finale to this trilogy of Marvel marvels, is the jokiest and cutest of them all. Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) gets a kiddie sidekick, for Pete&#8217;s sake. It&#8217;s also far and away the most violent, with a &#8220;Die Hard&#8221; body count, bombs and bullets, and Stark trash-talking evil henchmen about how he&#8217;s going to kill them. PG-13 for intense sci-fi action and violence and brief suggestive content. 130 mins. Two and a half stars
MUD &#8212; The story of a sympathetic fugitive who forges a bond with two teenage boys near a mighty river down South, &#8220;Mud&#8221; is shot through with traditional qualities of American literature and drama. Jeff Nichols&#8217; much-anticipated follow-up to his breakthrough second feature &#8220;Take Shelter&#8221; feels less adventurous and unsettling but remains a well-carpentered piece of work. PG-13 for violence, sexual references, language, thematic elements and smoking. 130 mins. 3 stars
PAIN & GAIN &#8212; Michael Bay&#8217;s true-crime caper lacks the visual-effects mayhem and sci-fi cacophony of his &#8220;Transformers&#8221; blockbusters, yet the movie uses all the shock and awe and noise and bluster the director has in his utterly unsubtle arsenal. There&#8217;s a story, screenplay, characters and wry mix of suspense and pitiable comedy to be had in the tale of three Florida bodybuilders (Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie) who blunder through kidnapping-extortion schemes like the Three Stooges on steroids. R for bloody violence, crude sexual content, nudity, language throughout and drug use. 129 mins. One and a half stars 
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES &#8212; This tells three overlapping stories that center on the legacies fathers leave their sons and the split-second decisions that can shape them. The title is the English translation of the Mohawk word for the film&#8217;s setting, Schenectady. It&#8217;s a fitting romanticizing of reality for the film&#8217;s characters, who all hope for something better than what they have. R for language, violence, teen drug/alcohol use. 140 mins. Three and a half stars
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS &#8212; Like fan-boy fiction on a $185 million budget, director J.J. Abrams&#8217; film is reverential, faithful and steeped in &#8220;Trek&#8221; mythology. It&#8217;s also an excessively derivative what-if rehash of themes and interactions that came before, most of the characters lesser copies and even caricatures of the originals. The scenario&#8217;s been hijacked and rejiggered from better &#8220;Trek&#8221; plots of decades ago, the best verbal exchanges lifted nearly verbatim from past adventures. In short, the new chiefs of Starfleet aren&#8217;t coming up with much to call their own. But they pile on the spectacle in a way that&#8217;s never been seen before. The action is top-notch, the visuals grand, though the movie&#8217;s needless conversion to 3-D muddies the images. PG-13 for intense sci-fi action and violence. 132 mins. Two stars

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