Identity Thief R
When his credit suddenly goes south, middle-aged Sandy (Jason Bateman) learns his identity has been stolen. He tracks down the culprit 2,000 miles away in Miami. She's Diana (Melissa McCarthy), living high on the hog. The cops have neither the staff nor the inclination to bring her in, but having seen a picture of a chubby, seemingly harmless lady, Sandy decides to save himself by capturing Diana and bringing her back to face the music. Sandy can't know that Diana is nobody's fool and that she doesn’t give up easily.
Positioned as an adult comedy meant to show off McCarthy's unique, bawdy talent, the actress does her best to steal this movie with her one-dimensional character. (Lisa Miller)
Tales of the Night Not Rated
Tired of splashy Hollywood animated features with their retread stories, tired jokes and look-alike computer graphics? Tales of the Night by French director Michel Ocelot offers something entirely different with animation resembling paper cutouts—black silhouettes moving against colored and patterned backdrops through a series of stories set in Tibet, Africa, the Caribbean and medieval Europe. Love conquers monsters, whether they take dragon or human form in Ocelot’s young adult stories. Tales of the Night is out in a DVD/Blu-ray package but is also being screened in Milwaukee at the Festival of Films in French. (David Luhrssen)
1 p.m., Feb. 17, UWM Union Theatre.
Warm Bodies PG-13
Warm Bodies is the newest undead romance for teens. Nicholas Hoult portrays a zombie unable to remember his name. Eight years into the plague, he remembers only his first initial, "R," and that his former best friend (Rob Corddry) is his zombie pal. Though R attacks and eats people, he's attracted to zombie-hunter Julie (Teresa Palmer), and so saves her from a zombie attack. Normally speechless, R begins grunting, and then speaking to Julie before discovering that his feelings for her have caused his undead heart to beat again. Well on the road to regaining his human form, Julie returns R's love, but she can't persuade her dad (John Malkovich), who leads a zombie-killing militia, that zombies can be cured. Working from Isaac Marion's young-adult novel, director Jonathan Levine delivers this post-apocalyptic, but unexpectedly lighthearted spin on Romeo and Juliet. (L.M.)
