A Nightmare on Elm Street (R)
Freddy Kruger (Jackie Earle Haley), the quintessential bump in the night, is now even darker and more ghoulish, tormenting the dreams of a group of small town students until they are afraid to fall asleep. Still, between screams, it has all become too familiar.
2 shells
Iron Man 2 (PG-13)
High energy, high-tech sequel to the first blockbuster has billionaire inventor (Robert Downey Jr.) being pressured to share his technology with the military, while fighting off a freelance assassin. With Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke.
4 shells
Letters to Juliet (PG)
While her Italian recipe-obsessed fiancé (Gael Garcia Bernal) ignores her on their Tuscan holiday, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) finds a 50-year-old letter Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) wrote and, following local custom, posted on a wall in Verona. With Claire’s grandson (Christopher Egan), Sophie helps her find her great lost love (Franco Nero). Main ingredient — schmaltz.
1 shell
Prince of Persia:The Sands of Time (PG-13):
Disney’s and Jerry Bruckheimer’s (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) film based on a videogame, has Dastan (a buff Jake Gyllenhaal) trying to prove he’s innocent of murdering the king. Add a magic dagger that can reverse time, a landslide, an ostrich race, a city under seige, romance, and the talents of Ben Kingsley and a villanous Alfred Molina. Still, it’s steady-as-she-goes formulaic.
2 shells
Robin Hood (PG-13)
Ridley Scott’s serious take on 12th Century history and politics in the grim, humorless prequel version of Robin Hood (Russell Crowe). Even teamed with a feisty feminist Lady Marion (Cate Blanchett), there is more intellectualizing than action. With Max von Sydow, Eileen Atkins.
2 ½; shells
Sex and The City 2 (R)
Sex, shoes, flash, fashion, a free luxury vacation in Abu Dhabi, and Liza Minnelli. Poor married Carrie, mother Charlotte, career driven Miranda, and menopausal Samantha having to deal with the trials of the privileged, gifted, and fair.
2 shells
Shrek Forever After (PG)
In this fourth version, Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) has an animated, 3D midlife crisis. When Shrek makes a deal with the devil, Rumpelstiltskin, borrowing from Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life,” we see things as they might have been if everyone’s favorite ogre never existed. Fun, funny, and touching.
5 shells