COWBOYS & ALIENS
**
DIRECTED BY Jon Favreau
STARS Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford

Paul Dano, the twitchy oddball from Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood, plays the son of stalwart Harrison Ford in Cowboys & Aliens, and the collective thought grasping moviegoers nationwide will be that Shia LaBeouf suddenly doesn't seem that implausible as Indiana Jones's offspring. That's not meant to be taken as a criticism of this new picture — it's merely an observation, the sort that increasingly pops up to distract audiences from the fact that there's not much of interest going on during the second half of this hybrid of two genres beloved by Old Hollywood (Westerns) and New Hollywood (science fiction).

CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.
***
DIRECTED BY Glenn Ficarra & John Requa
STARS Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling

Just how likable is the new romantic comedy with the ungainly title of Crazy, Stupid, Love.? Likable enough that it survives not one but two absurd narrative coincidences that would cripple a lesser film. That's some pretty powerful mojo at work there, my friends.

CAPTAIN AMERICA
***
DIRECTED BY Joe Johnston
STARS Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving

Even moviegoers suffering from superhero burnout might want to stand up and salute Captain America, which doesn't match the excellence of X-Men: First-Class but ranks ahead of fellow summer stablemates Thor and Green Lantern.

By Matt Brunson

XANADU (1980)

*

(But probably **** if you attend with a bunch of bad-movie buffs)

DIRECTED BY Robert Greenwald

STARS Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly

For about 50 years, the musical was one of Hollywood's most reliable genres, from Busby Berkeley and Astaire-Rogers in the 1930s through Saturday Night Fever and Grease in the 1970s. But it took only a handful of megabombs to kill off the genre, which has only recently shown occasional signs of renewed life thanks to the likes of Hairspray. Among the Hall of Fame turkeys from that lethal period were Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Can't Stop the Music, The Apple and this ghastly achievement that has nevertheless spawned a smash Broadway adaptation as well as legions of devoted groupies.

By Matt Brunson

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 2
***
DIRECTED BY David Yates
STARS Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint

Right out of the gate, let's make it known that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 doesn't suffer a precipitous fall as many final chapters are wont to do. Nobody exiting the theater will be recalling sour memories of, say, The Matrix Revolutions or X-Men: The Last Stand or any other heavily hyped send-off that left the faithful feeling angry and betrayed. Rather, a series that has gotten it right since Day One has maintained its integrity and commitment to quality to the very end, and appreciative audiences will leave with a heady mix of jubilation and remorse.

Is that laying it on a bit too thick? You tell me. The adaptation of J.K. Rowling's first Potter novel hit movie theaters back in 2001; all told, there have been eight movies over an 11-year span, enough of a chunk of time to serve as the cultural touchstone for an entire generation (much as the original Star Wars trilogy was to mine). Even those of us ahead of the growing curve have taken pride in the pleasant manner in which the series leads — Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger — have sprouted from adorable little moppets to striking young adults. As for the supporting ranks, who among us hasn't thrilled at seeing the cream of the British film empire turn up in richly defined character roles, whether for one film (Kenneth Branagh) or for all eight (Maggie Smith)? (And don't fret about those who didn't make the cut: Most of them popped up in the Lord of the Rings saga.) We all have our favorite Potter lead (I always liked Hermione's spunk and smarts), favorite Potter ally (Robbie Coltrane's Hagrid, a perpetual delight), favorite Potter foil (Alan Rickman's wickedly played Severus Snape), favorite Potter student (Evanna Lynch's out-there Luna Lovegood), and so on.

Similarly, everyone has their favorite Potter film, and for many viewers, this final entry will be that movie. For me, the entire series works so well as a whole, as one continuously flowing entity, that it's difficult to single one out (forced to choose, I guess I'd go with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). To that end, this last chapter is no more and no less exciting than many of the past pictures, even if it does contain the climactic life-or-death match between Harry and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). To reach that point, we pick up where Deathly Hallows - Part 1 trailed off — with the death of a diminutive sidekick of Harry's — and continue with the three friends' quest to find the Horcruxes that will allow them to possibly defeat Voldemort. It's also revealed that Hogwarts is now under the control of Snape, with Dementors standing guard outside the castle perimeters. Harry knows that he has to break into the school, a mission that will ultimately provide some surprising answers to the many questions still plaguing him.

Oddly, this is the shortest Potter film of them all (130 minutes), which means that many regulars are only given a fleeting scene or two before being dismissed to their trailers. And while there's a beautiful moment at which to end the film — a magnificent shot, pulling up and away — it's followed by a finale that feels protracted and unnecessary (though I understand this was also in the book, so there it is). And one word of warning: Do not see this in needless 3-D, which darkens many of the scenes and often makes it hard to tell who's where doing what to whom. The first seven Harry Potter films looked just fine without this cash-grab gimmick, and there's no reason not to catch this latest installment under the exact same conditions.

Even through the 3-D fog, the visual effects are obviously up to the generally high standards, but as is always the case with this franchise, the interaction among the characters is so compelling that technical artistry places second when tracking this series' merits. More than ever, Radcliffe is asked to take control of the screen as his boy wizard faces his own demons before finally facing Voldemort, and the talented thespian is up to the task, holding nothing back in an ofttimes ferocious performance. Fiennes again oozes reptilian menace, while Rickman remains a high point as he deftly handles the saga's most complex role.

Beginning as a magical mystery tour for kids and ending as a mature saga about solidarity and sacrifice, the Harry Potter film franchise has spent a decade entertaining global audiences of all ages. Its run may be over, but like family-film classics from the past, this is one series that's almost certain to hold future generations equally spellbound.

By Matt Brunson

HORRIBLE BOSSES

DIRECTED BY Seth Gordon

STARS Jason Bateman, Charlie Day

Two-thirds of a funny movie, Horrible Bosses takes its irresistible premise an admirable distance before pulling a Wrong Way Corrigan and heading in an alternate direction, away from true comic inspiration and toward convention and compromise. Still, there are plenty of laughs to be mined, and in the genre of ribald male-bonding flicks, it won't cause a hangover like The Hangover Part II.

By Matt Brunson

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON
*
DIRECTED BY Michael Bay
STARS Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Stating that Transformers: Dark of the Moon is better than 2009's infamous Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a futile declaration best left for mathematicians to ponder, as only they might care to take the time to calculate the minuscule percentage that was necessary for this to emerge, uh, superior to its predecessor.

2007's Transformers contained enough flashes of warmth, emotion and workable humor to catch many critics off guard, but all that goodwill dissipated with the release of the first sequel, which one scribe — oh, yeah, me — described as "the filmic equivalent of a 150-minute waterboarding session." This latest franchise filler is just as soulless, cynical and stupid (and five minutes longer!), with director Michael Bay no longer even pretending to care about anything but breaking his own box office records.

Featuring the summer's second rewriting of U.S. history (the concept was better handled with X-Men: First Class's Cuban Missile Crisis episode), this film reveals that the real reason the astronauts landed on the moon back in 1969 was to check out an alien construct (hence the title) that turned out to be tied into the long-running intergalactic battle between the Autobots (good Transformers) and Decepticons (bad Transformers). After much exposition (culminating in a sellout appearance by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin), the plot carries us to the present day, where the nerdy Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) again has an only-in-the-movies supermodel-esque girlfriend, Carly (played by Victoria's Secret supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, replacing Megan Fox as the requisite sex object). Sam's mother (Julie White) disturbingly surmises that her son must have a big schlong in order to land such hot girlfriends, while his father (Kevin Dunn) is concerned that he has no job. He finally acquires one, working for an eccentric CEO (John Malkovich); Carly, meanwhile, is employed by a wealthy slug (Patrick Dempsey) whose mere presence makes Sam jealous. But this boy has no time for such high-school hijinks, as he soon discovers that the Decepticons have returned with another plan to take over our world. Before long, Sam soon finds himself fighting alongside other returning characters (Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro) plus one newcomer (Frances "Are you fucking kidding me?" McDormand), as well as the Autobots: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide, Sleepy, Bashful and Dopey.

Bay's fascistic tendencies aren't quite as pronounced as in the last installment (though there is an appearance by Fox a-hole Bill O'Reilly as himself), but there isn't anything this man won't do for the sake of arousing himself, be it an establishing shot of Carly that solely captures her 3-D-enhanced ass or a scene in which a little girl unknowingly plays tea party with a disguised Decepticon who then leaps up and murders her mom and dad. From start to finish, it's a miserable viewing experience, and the robot slugfests are once again incoherent and endless.

So why is Dark of the Moon better than Revenge of the Fallen? Two reasons. First, there's an Inception-like sequence (right down to similar music) involving a folded building that's pretty cool. And second, unlike its predecessor, there are no shots of Transformer testicles.

By Matt Brunson

LARRY CROWNE

DIRECTED BY Tom Hanks

STARS Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts

Larry Crowne opens with Tom Hanks' title character taking so much grinning-idiot pleasure in his job at a retail box store (he's even cheerful when wiping a kid's vomit off the mechanical horse out front) that we momentarily suspect the actor has elected to revive Forrest Gump in an unauthorized sequel. But no, Larry Crowne is just that kind of guy — jovial, hardworking, uncomplaining — which makes it a shocker (at least to him) when he's downsized by a group of corporate caricatures (in a wretched scene played partly for nonexistent laughs) who state that his lack of education makes him expendable in modern-day America.