Baby Mama ***
SNL alums Tina Fey and Steve Martin, and current mainstay Amy Poehler, all shine in this chuckler about a career-driven woman with baby fever and the free-spirited gal she hires as her surrogate. After working to become vice president for Round Earth Market, 37-year-old Kate Holbrook (Fey) suddenly finds herself aching for a baby. But a fertility doctor says that her chances of conceiving are one in a million, and the adoption waitlist appears endless. Kate turns to a high-end surrogacy business and is soon introduced to the vibrant and immature Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler), who agrees to carry her baby. The odd-couple pairing of Kate and Angie leads to a cavalcade of laughs thanks to a baby-proofed apartment, Kate's incessant oversight and a wry doorman (Romany Malco).
Rated: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and a drug reference 1 hours, 36 minutes.
--Tyler Hanley (Reviewed April 25, 2008)

The Counterfeiters ***1/2
Oscar's Best Foreign Film winner plays the concentration-camp drama to dynamic effect. Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) is a counterfeiter extraordinaire, a Russian Jew who's the best in the business. False passports and documents are all in a day's work until Sorowitsch's confidence gets the better of him and the Nazis come calling, sentencing him to the Sachsenhausen labor camp in Berlin. The Germans amass a large crew of Europe's most skilled laborers at Sachsenhausen -- graphic artists, printers, copper engravers, etc. -- with the concept of forging their own English pounds and American dollars and destabilizing those economies by flooding their markets with bogus bucks. Supporting the Nazi war effort is inconceivable but cooperation, and survival, is the inmates' psychological trump card. An ethical tug of war is the crux of the camp's infrastructure as the prisoners battle one another for moral high ground while struggling with harsh conditions and the day-to-day reality of exhaustion and malnutrition. There's not a lot of fresh ground to cover, but what there is is crafted with exacting detail and fervor.
Rated: R for violence, profanity and nudity. In Russian and German with English subtitles 1 hours, 44 minutes.
--Jeanne Aufmuth (Reviewed March 7, 2008)

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! ***
Blue Sky Studios' ("Ice Age," "Robots") production of "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who!" is a wonderfully faithful adaptation and expansion of the Seuss universe. Horton, a good-natured elephant (voiced by Jim Carrey), takes a sudden interest in the well-being of a speck of dust, or rather the world of Who-ville that exists on the speck. But Horton's newly discovered world is in jeopardy when the most bitter kangaroo in recent film history (voiced by Carol Burnett) becomes bent on destroying what she deems a non-existent menace that "has those kids using their imagination." Meanwhile, on the speck, the mayor of Who-Ville (voiced by Steve Carell) is struggling to convince his town that a giant invisible elephant may be the savior of their world. Blue Sky has expanded Seuss' drawings into a rich, three-dimensional Seussiverse. "Horton" redeems the Seuss film franchise with a moving tale that has something for every-sized Who.
Rated: G 1 hours, 26 minutes.
--Douglas DeVore (Reviewed March 14, 2008)

The Forbidden Kingdom **1/2
Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) is an action-obsessed youth who treks to a pawnshop in hopes of expanding his collection of kung-fu flicks. When thugs try to rob the elderly shopkeeper (Jackie Chan), Jason takes the shop's prized possession: a fighting staff that once belonged to China's legendary Monkey King (Let Li). The staff transports Jason to ancient China, where he must return it to the kingdom atop Five Element Mountain, thereby freeing the land from the sadistic Jade Warlord. Jason is joined along the perilous road by Lu Yan (Chan), a skilled fighter and playful drunk; Silent Monk (Li), a warrior led by faith and quiet resolve; and Golden Sparrow (newcomer Yifei Liu), a woman with a personal vendetta against the Jade Warlord. Together, the quartet sets out to rescue the Monkey King. Li and Chan shine -- but "Forbidden Kingdom" is dull.
Rated: PG-13 for sequences of martial arts action and some violence 1 hours, 53 minutes.
--Tyler Hanley (Reviewed April 18, 2008)

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day ***
Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is a full-blown failure as a governess: scalding the porridge, losing her young charges in local parks, etc. The nanny service refuses to recommend her, so as a last resort Miss Pettigrew nips a business card off the matron's desk and presents herself at the doorway of one Delysia Lafosse (the enchanting Amy Adams). Delysia isn't looking for a nanny, per se, and there's not a rugrat in sight. Instead the flighty and flirty ingenue is casting about for a proper social secretary to make sense of her hectic agenda. Miss Pettigrew to the rescue! As Delysia flutters through things Cinderella-style, Pettigrew deftly cuts a swath through her jumbled social clutter. Pettigrew also endures an unexpected makeover while skillfully choreographing the hazards of Delysia's romantic roundelay in a manner both madcap and merry. The farce frays a bit at the edges as it telegraphs unmistakable idealisms, a tidy set-to of boy-meets-girl and girl-reserves-the-right-to-equivocate. A spare little trifle, clean and sweet.
Rated: PG-13 for some nudity, language and mature themes 1 hours, 32 minutes.
--Jeanne Aufmuth (Reviewed March 7, 2008)

Smart People **
With his face puckered into a permanent scowl, Dennis Quaid lumbers through the part of Lawrence Wetherhold, an angry, self-absorbed literature professor at Carnegie Mellon whose most recent academic tome can't find a publisher. Ellen Page wisecracks her way through "Juno"-like dialogue as his college-bound daughter Vanessa. Her older sibling (Ashton Holmes) lives in the university dorms and snarls at his emotionally distant father every chance he gets. And Thomas Haden Church seems to have wandered "Sideways" into the role of Chuck, the down-on-his-luck-but-likable loser who moves in with his widowed brother. Novelist Mark Poirier's first script features underwritten parts that display a typical male film fantasy: the younger woman who inexplicably falls for the older man. Twice. "Smart People" offers some amusing moments and dialogue exchanges. It's not the worst film currently in theaters -- nor is it one to recommend.
Rated: R for language, brief teen drug and alcohol use, and for some sexuality 1 hours, 35 minutes.
--Susan Tavernetti (Reviewed April 11, 2008)

Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) ***1/2
"Under the Same Moon" puts human faces on immigration woes. Adrian Alonso plays 9-year-old Carlitos with the perfect balance of childhood charm, big-hearted spirit and wisdom beyond his years. Every Sunday Carlitos excitedly waits for the pay phone to ring. It's the lifeline that connects him, living in Mexico, with his mother Rosario (Kate del Castillo) who works in East L.A. and sends the family $300 each month. Carlitos lives in a vibrant Mexican village with a loving grandmother (Angelina Pelaez) and the saucy "La Coyota" (Carmen Salinas) who refuses to put the young boy into harm's way, despite his pleas to let a novice (America Ferrera) smuggle him across the border. The death of his grandmother changes everything. With a handful of savings and a return address ripped off a letter from his mother, Carlitos sets off to find her. Tense moments alternate with funny incidents. Even when Carlitos seems most lost, you'll know exactly where this movie is headed. And nothing is more satisfying than the moment when the precocious little boy and his devoted mother are under the same moon, in the same place.
Rated: PG-13 for some mature thematic elements. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. 1 hours, 49 minutes.
--Susan Tavernetti (Reviewed March 21, 2008)