MOVIES

These are Maui Scene Editor Rick Chatenever's mini-reviews, excerpts of wire service reviews and previews provided by studios and other sources.

Opening Friday

"The Hurt Locker" R, 2:01, Kukui Mall 4.

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Paramount Pictures photo via AP
Agents Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio encounter mysteries and more in Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island.”

Co-leading the Oscar field with nine nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow) and Best Actor (Jeremy Renner), this taut Iraq War drama follows a unit of highly trained bomb-defusing experts in the streets of Baghdad. War is a drug for these latter-day cowboys with ice and adrenaline running in their veins. Renner's unforgettable portrayal and Bigelow's assured direction bring this misunderstood military engagement home in unsparing terms. Anthony Mackie, Brian Garaghty, Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes co-star in this knuckle-biter. It's gritty, but recommended.

"I Love You Goodbye" NR, running time N/A, Maui Mall Megaplex.

Winner of seven awards at the recent Manila Film Festival, this domestic drama from the Philippines revolves around a complicated romantic triangle. Laurice Guillen writes and directs a cast featuring Angelica Panganiban, Gabby Concepcion, Liza Lorena, Kim Chiu and Derek Ramsay, showing how misunderstandings can make love even more complicated than it normally is. In Filipino, Tagalog and English.

"Shutter Island" PG-13, 2:33, Kaahumanu 6 and Lahaina Wharf Cinemas.

Oscar-winning grand master of cinema, Martin Scorsese, reteams with his favorite superstar, Leonardo DiCaprio for this supernatural gothic suspense thriller. Adapted from Dennis Lehane's novel, it's set in the 1950s in a mental institution on a remote New England island where agent DiCaprio and his partner Mark Ruffalo are investigating the disappearance of a delusional and murderous patient who drowned her three children before being committed. As though the sinister forebodings and a big surprise at the end weren't enough, there's a hurricane going on, too. Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow and Michelle Williams co-star.

Still playing

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" PG, 1:44, ends tonight at Kaahumanu 6.

Picking up where their animated 2007 comedy hit left off, this one sends its rodent stars to high school. They get into cute trouble involving passing gas and shots to the crotch before having their little hearts stolen by their girl-group rivals in the school talent show, The Chipettes. Veteran Betty Thomas directs.

"A Single Man" R, 1:41, ends tonight at Maui Mall Megaplex.

Colin Firth's Best Actor nomination makes this drama mandatory viewing for all serious Oscar handicappers. He plays a gay English professor in Tom Ford's stylistic adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel set in the early '60s. Living in California in a state of quiet grief since his lover died, he hides his feelings and his loneliness under perfect demeanor while plotting his own suicide. Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult and Matthew Goode co-star, with Firth's great performance still haunting long after the film ends.

"Avatar" PG-13, 2:57, Maui Mall Megaplex (3-D, $3 surcharge per ticket),

With nine Oscar nominations after winning Golden Globes for best picture and best director, genius filmmaker and cinematic dictator James Cameron can lay claim to "king of the cosmos" with this dazzling and provocative $300 million sci-fi epic that's already topped $1 billion internationally. It's set on a distant moon of a faraway planet where the humans - or, rather, their avatar surrogates - interact with the locals, a graceful race of 12-foot-tall blue-skinned beings. Under the dazzling visuals and special effects is an allegory about the things technological societies do to indigenous cultures in the name of greed and progress. Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana lead the mixed-species cast, along with Sigourney Weaver (no stranger to outer space), Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi. Upping state-of-the-art to the next level with its amazing creatures and equally amazing 3-D effects, Cameron never lets his technology trump his storytelling, which is touching, instructive and inspiring, all at once. Recommended.

"Crazy Heart" R, 1:51, Kaahumanu 6.

Jeff Bridges is the front-runner for the best-actor Oscar after winning the Golden Globe for his portrayal of has-been country singer "Bad" Blake. Maggie Gyllenhaal lands her own supporting-actress nomination as the small town interviewer who gives Blake a last shot at redemption. Bridges does his own singin' and guitar playing (with another nomination for best song) in this wonderful performance that channels Kris Kristofferson, making its hero lovable despite his flaws and has everyone in the theater cheering him on. Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell co-star; Scott Cooper directs. Recommended.

"Dear John" PG-13, 2:03, Maui Mall Megaplex, Kukui Mall 4 and Lahaina Wharf Cinemas.

Bring hankies for this romantic weeper from "The Notebook's" Nicholas Sparks. Channing Tatum stars as a soldier who meets his soul mate (Amanda Seyfried) while he's on leave. Despite how perfect they are for each other, real life interferes, in the form of his distant father (Richard Jenkins) and the other man in her life (Henry Thomas). The story revolves around their letters over the years that test and prove the meaning of true love. Lasse Hallstrom directs.

"The Book of Eli" R, 2:13, Maui Mall Megaplex and Front Street Theaters.

Denzel Washington is the latest superstar to go roaming across a post-apocalyptic landscape in this action-adventure directed by the horror-show brother team of Albert and Allen Hughes. He plays an avenger with the last Bible on earth in his backpack, but who finds his shotgun and knife more handy to deal with the cannibalizing bandits now ruling things after a meteor strike and war 30 years earlier. Trouble ensues when Denzel wanders into a western town run by a ruthless Gary Oldman, who wants that Bible. Mila Kunis co-stars.

"Edge of Darkness" R, 2:12, ends tonight at Kaahumanu 6 and Lahaina Wharf Cinemas.

"You have to decide if you're up on the cross or driving in the nails," says Mel Gibson in this new cop thriller. He plays a Boston detective on the trail of the murderers of his 24-year-old daughter (Bojana Novakovic) in this gritty saga that leads him into realms of corporate and political corruption. Ray Winstone and Danny Huston co-star and Martin Campbell directs. Looking and acting his age, Gibson's "Lethal Weapon" volatility has given way to weariness - but he still finds moments of charisma to keep things interesting.

"From Paris with Love" R, 1:50, Maui Mall Megaplex and Front Street Theaters; ends tonight at Kukui Mall 4.

John Travolta returns to his old "Pulp Fiction" stomping grounds playing a wisecracking CIA agent mentoring the more dapper Jonathan Rhys Meyers through a bloody campaign to save politicians from ruthless terrorists. "Taken's" Pierre Morel directs the action-packed carnage through the City of Light.

"Legion" R, 1:40, ends tonight at Kaahumanu 6.

Paul Bettany plays the archangel Michael in this allegorical horror-thriller set in a remote diner. After God decides that humans have fallen short of His plans for them and decides to start over, it falls to the archangel and the strangers in the cafe - Dennis Quaid, Adrianne Palicki Charles S. Dutton, Tyrese Gibson and Lucas Black - to ward off a legion of supernatural dark angels intent on wiping out humankind. Scott Stewart directs.

"Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" PG, 2:14, Maui Mall Megaplex and Front Street Theaters.

Harry Potter's probably not looking over his shoulder, but Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) is the new kid in a similar line of work. Rick Riordan's novel resets ancient Greek mythology in modern Manhattan, where Percy (short for Perseus) is a typical teen who happens to be the demigod son of human mom Catherine Keener and god of the sea Poseidon (Kevin McKidd). Also along for the mythological ride are Steve Coogan as Hades, Pierce Brosnan as the centaur and Uma Thurman as the snake-haired Medusa. Veteran Chris Columbus directs the high-minded family fun; Ray Winstone, Rosaria Dawson, Jake Abel, Serinda Swan, Joe Pantoliano and Melina Karakaredes co-star.

"Sherlock Holmes" PG-13, 2:23, ends tonight at Maui Mall Megaplex.

"Iron Man," Robert Downey Jr. won a Golden Globe for reinventing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's evergreen Victorian detective. With Jude Law as Dr. Watson and Guy Ritchie directing, Downey adds funny stuff to the brainy deductions, poking fun at Victorian propriety along the way. Rachel McAdams rounds out the merry band as the brilliant detective's elementary distraction. There's cleverness galore, especially in the testy relationship between eccentric Holmes and Watson, although it often gets lost under the bombastic action and unrelenting special effects.

"The Spy Next Door" PG, 1:47, Kaahumanu 6.

The spy is Jackie Chan, and his name is Bob Ho and that's probably as much as grown-ups need to know about this family comedy that has him trying to babysit his girlfriend's three challenging children for a few weeks. Bob is supposedly a mild-mannered pen importer until one of the kids hacks into his computer, setting off a slapstick crisis with his Russian counterpart. George Lopez and Billy Ray Cyrus co-star, Brian Levant directs.

"The Tooth Fairy" PG, 1:55, Kaahumanu 6.

Dwayne Johnson is one action-hero secure enough to put on wings and a tutu and star in a movie with "fairy" in the title. He plays an ice hockey player whose nickname stems from knocking opponents' teeth out. Imagine his surprise when he gets transported to Fairyland, a realm presided over by Julie Andrews, who presses him into service as an actual tooth fairy. Ashley Judd co-stars in this family-friendly comedy directed by Michael Lembeck that showcases Johnson's easy with with light comedy.

"Valentine's Day" PG-13, 2:20, Kaahumanu 6, Kukui Mall 4 and Front Street Theaters.

Boasting more A-list stars per frame than any romantic comedy since "Love Actually," this one interweaves couples of all ages through overlapping storylines. Arriving right on time for the Hallmark holiday and topping this week's box-office charts are Ashton Kutcher, Jessical Alba, Jennifer Garner, Patrick Dempsey, Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace, Emma Roberts, Carter Jenkins, Taylor Swift, Shirley MacLaine, Hector Elizondo, Bryce Robinson, Jamie Foxx, Kathy Bates, Eric Dane, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Biel, George Lopez, Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts. Talent, not to mention egos, like that, call for a master director - namely Garry Marshall, who made many of them stars in the first place. It would have helped to have a writer up to the stars' level to give them more to work with than lame lines, sitcom situations and surprises you can see coming from a mile away.

"When in Rome" PG-13, 1:45, Maui Mall Megaplex.

Kristen Bell steps into the role usually played by Katherine Heigl in this opposites-attract romantic comedy. She plays an ambitious New Yorker in Rome for her sister's wedding. Not believing in love herself, she still manages to ignite the interest of an eclectic bunch of suitors including Will Arnett, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard and Danny Devito and Josh Duhamel. You know which one is Mr. Right from the trailers, but there are still laughs to be had. Anjelica Huston and Alexis Dziena co-star; Mart Steven Johnson directs.

"The Wolfman" R, 1:57, Maui Mall Megaplex, Kukui Mall 4 andLahaina Wharf Cinemas.

Trying to get back on more equal footing with all the vampires on screen these days, Benicio Del Toro, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt inject some new blood into werewolf lore. Taking inspiration from Lon Chaney Jr.'s original horror film, Del Toro plays a wayward aristocrat turned into a hairy, fanged beast by an unfortunate encounter. Joe Johnston directs.