Crowe in "Robin Hood"

Sex and the City 2: B
(Sarah Jessica Parker, John Corbett, Cynthia Nixon) Facing difficult times at home in New York City, the girls (Parker, Nixon, Kristin Davis and Kim Cattrall) travel to Abu Dhabi, where Carrie bumps into old flame Aidan (Corbett). It’s a bit tedious and some of the jokes are forced, but writer/director Michael Patrick King has taken the franchise from discussing dating to discussing marriage and motherhood, and he always has something interesting to say. Rated R.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money: B
(Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed) Director Alex Gibney’s searing documentary about disgraced former lobbyist Abramoff shows how someone behind the scenes can heavily influence Congress and all of Washington, D.C. Some sections are a bit tedious and we don’t need Abramoff’s extensive background, but overall this is an alarming look at what really make politics tick, i.e. money, and how easily it corrupts. Rated R.

Shrek Forever After: C+
(Voices of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy) Bored with his domesticated home life, Shrek (Myers) yearns to once again be feared and left alone. And thanks to con-man magician Rumpelstiltskin (voice of Walt Dohrn), Shrek gets to enjoy being an ogre again for a few hours. But soon Shrek learns he’s been tricked into an alternate reality in which he never rescued Fiona (Diaz) from the tower. This isn’t as flat as the third film in the franchise, but the 3-D adds little and it doesn’t come close to the brilliance of the first film. Still, it’s charming and amusing throughout. Rated PG.

Robin Hood: D+
(Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Oscar Isaac) A legend is born as archer Robin Longstride (Crowe) defends the widowed Marian (Blanchett) and her village of Nottingham from the tyrannical King John (Isaac). There are also storylines involving Robin’s childhood, betrayals, love, etc., but this tedious bore of a movie is more about 12th century politics than it is a hero fighting for the everyman. Rated PG-13.

Letters to Juliet: C
(Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal) After an aspiring writer (Seyfried) answers a 50 year-old letter about lost love while on vacation in Verona, Italy, she soon finds herself on a road trip trying to find the letter writer’s (Redgrave) one who got away. Nice performances from Seyfried and Redgrave keep the sappy, melodramatic story afloat until it sinks into predictability. Rated PG.

Iron Man 2: C+
(Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow) Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man (Downey Jr.), must fend off the U.S. Senate and a rival weapons manufacturer (Sam Rockwell) who’s hired a presumed-dead Russian physicist (Rourke) to create a suit that would destroy Stark Industries. The action is exhilarating, but the story is all over the place. Not as good as the 2008 original. Rated PG-13.

A Nightmare On Elm Street: C
(Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara) Horror icon Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley) returns to Elm Street to murder teenagers in their sleep, which also kills them in real life. It’s an uninspired and lame attempt to restart the franchise, as the story lacks coherence and Haley takes the role way too seriously. Rated R.

The Back-Up Plan: C+
(Jennifer Lopez, Alex O’Loughlin, Michaela Watkins) When an aging single woman (Lopez) meets Mr. Right (O’Loughlin) on the day she’s artificially inseminated, their relationship follows an unusual trajectory. The movie deserves credit for taking an original approach to a romantic comedy, but even a nice performance from Lopez doesn’t make the movie funny enough to fulfill its promise. Rated PG-13.

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