Arts & Entertainment

Movie Reviews: 'Now You See Me,' 'After Earth,' 'Epic' and More

Movie reviews and movie times for theaters across Marion and Cedar Rapids. Let Patch help you decide what you're going to see this weekend. Movies to choose from include "Scary Movie 5", "Jurassic Park 3D" and more.

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Movie information aggregated from MovieFone.com  and the Huffington Post.

Now You See Me

"At the start of "Now You See Me," a magic-themed heist movie with a high-powered cast including Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson, you really want to believe. The idea is fresh, the introductory scenes enticing... But then the dialogue turns formulaic, the plot gets increasingly hard to follow – even a film about magic needs an underlying logic – and character development seems to come to an utter halt, with interesting possibilities left unexplored." Full review.
Popular Stories Joceln Noveck, Associated Press

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After Earth
"I hoped desperately that Shyamalan could arrest the descent that began with 2004's The Village (or earlier, if you hated 2000's Unbreakable). Instead, we have After Earth, a listlessly written, lackadaisically executed story which can't seem to do much more than march through its preordained paces." Full review. Zaki Hasan, The Huffington Post

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Epic "Epic isn't quite destined for the “Again, again!” re-watchability of some of the Pixar classics, but for a satisfying explosion of color on a lazy summer day, it does the trick." Stephan Lee, Entertainment Weekly.

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Fast & Furious 6 "Everyone involved at last seems to understand that the mode here is comic. Previous entries suffered from self-important glumness that gummed up the fun whenever the cars weren’t racing." Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice. Full Review

"Justin Lin strives to approximate something like Ocean's Eleven for petrosexuals, but testosterone outweighs wit and cleverness at every turn in Chris Morgan's starched script." Chris Cabin, Slant Magazine. Full Review

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The Hangover Part III "You should stick around for the end credits because there's a Helms sight gag that's absolutely priceless. The movie could've used more laughs like that one." Entertainment Weekly. Full Review

"Nothing about this rote exercise feels remotely fresh. It's a re-tread of the 2009 original, sans the inspired lunacy." Claudia Puig, USA Today. Full Review

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Star Trek Into Darkness "The film is densely plotted, occasionally bordering on the convoluted, but the clarity and inventiveness of the direction keeps the drama and the action constantly percolating." Slant Magazine. Full Review

"Spectacular special effects, superbly crafted action sequences, plenty of humor and terrific performances render it a cut above most summer blockbusters." Claudia Puig, USA Today. Full Review

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The Great Gatsby "Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is the first must-see film of Hollywood’s summer season, if for no other reason than its jaw-dropping evocation of Roaring ’20s New York — in 3-D, no less." Lou Lumenick, New York Post. Full Review

"The acting is really good, particularly Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby. But boy, with a running time of nearly 21/2 hours and a near-constant bombardment of visual overstimulation, it’s exhausting." Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic. Full Review

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Iron Man 3
  • Run Time: 130mins.
  • Starring: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr.
  • Director: Shane Black
  • Trailer
"Besides rehabbing a hero who overcomes anxiety to save the world and defeat the terror-industrial complex by the simple matter of cloning his body armor, the movie proves that there’s still intelligent life on Planet Marvel. As you’re propelled out of the theater on IM3′s hydraulic lift of pleasures, you’re likely to say, “That is how it’s done.” Richard Corliss, Time.

"Given the keys to the franchise and a role in the writing, Black has massively upped the verbal sparring and kept the broad inventiveness of comic-book malleability in mind. “I’m a mechanic,” Stark says to the boy in a moment of self-doubt. That’s 100% Black, that line, a tidy code of craft, and the jitters pass." Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York.

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Any of these spark your interest? Galaxy 16 in Cedar Rapids has most of these and Collins Road Theatres also has several choices.

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