At the Movies: ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid,’ ‘Total Recall,’ ‘Monsieur Lazhar’ and more

OPENS TODAY

‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days’
In the sequel to the popular adaptation of the children’s book series, school is out and Greg and his friend Rowley get into some unexpected trouble. Zachary Gordon and Robert Capron return to reprise their roles. (PG, 94 minutes)

‘Total Recall’ 1/2
In a remake of a 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, a factory worker begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led. Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel and Bryan Cranston star. (PG-13, 118 minutes)

LIMITED RELEASE

‘Monsieur Lazhar’ 1/2
At a Montreal public grade school, an Algerian immigrant is hired to replace a popular teacher who committed suicide in her classroom. While helping his students deal with their grief, his own recent loss is revealed. At Consolidated Kahala (PG-13, 94 minutes)

NOW PLAYING

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’
Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone star in the retelling of the origin of Marvel Comics’ famous and flawed superhero. About 10 years removed from the original movie trilogy, this “Spider-Man’ is its own distinct entity in terms of tone, characters, performances and visual effects, and mostly for the better. Andrew Garfield gives alter ego Peter Parker a slightly arrogant attitude, which give the whole movie a restless, reckless energy and a welcome sense of danger. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (PG-13, 136 minutes)

‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’
Faced with her father’s fading health and environmental changes that release an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs, a 6-year-old girl leaves her Louisiana delta community in search of her mother. The youngster Quvehzhane Wallis has a ferocity in her performance that belies her age, and the cinematography captures the humid and brackish scent of the delta. (Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle) (PG-13, 91 minutes)

‘Brave’
In this arresting and affecting movie from Pixar, a Scottish princess defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, she must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse. Featuring a truly independent female lead character, the movie never oversells its supernatural elements, and instead creates a completely plausible world where the ordinary, the surreal and the mythological all happily coexist. (Christopher Kelly, McClatchy Newspapers) (PG, 100 minutes)

‘The Dark Knight Rises’
Eight years on, a new criminal overwhelms Gotham City’s finest, and Batman resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy. In the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, the antecedent is the financial crisis, a much more muddled and less dramatic ongoing event, which makes for a movie that goes on and on. But the two things that keep the movie from being totally dismissed as overlong, overstuffed and tiresome are the director’s visual mastery and the development of the Catwoman character, as played by Anne Hathaway. (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle) (PG-13, 164 minutes)

‘The Deep Blue Sea’
In the performance of her career, Rachel Weisz plays the wife of a British judge who is caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot in this riveting story set in the 1950s. (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle) (R, 98 minutes)

‘Deranged’
A Korean horror film about a mutant parasite that carries a terrifying disease that becomes a nationwide epidemic, and a pharmaceutical salesman who searches for a cure for his family. (NR, 109 minutes)

‘I Wish’
A cheerful Japanese drama about two kid brothers separated by divorce where the youngest, hearing that a wish will be granted when two new bullet trains pass each other in opposite directions, hopes that his family will be whole again. (PG, 128 minutes)

‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’ 1/2
Manny, Diego and Sid embark upon another adventure after their continent is set adrift. Using an iceberg as a ship, they encounter sea creatures and battle pirates as they explore a new world. The movie’s 3-D sight gags work and the animation is better than ever. (Roger Moore, McClatchy Newspapers) (PG, 94 minutes)

‘The Intouchables’
After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caretaker. The filmmakers infuse their comedy with a subversive, playful tone throughout, resulting in a sweet but not saccharine affair that has made this French movie an international hit. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (R, 112 minutes)

‘Magic Mike’
Channing Tatum and director Steven Soderbergh tell the story of a male stripper who teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women and make easy money. Tatum is spot-on, conflicted and perfect in the lead role and he and the rest of the cast — particularly Matthew McConaughey — does most of the work in this very entertaining dramedy set in the sexy/seedy world of male exotic dancers. (Roger Moore, McClatchy Newspapers) (R, 110 minutes)

‘The Manzanar Fishing Club’ 1/2
A superb feature that ingeniously and warmly looks at a surprising chapter in the story of an internment camp in eastern California, as a group of Japanese-Americans do their best to fish for trout in the surrounding waters of the Eastern Sierra. (Tom Keogh, Seattle Times) (NR, 74 minutes)

‘Moonrise Kingdom’
Wes Anderson’s most grown-up film to date, it’s a warm and funny fable about kids on the cusp, as a pair of love-struck 12-year-olds run away together, causing a local search party to fan out and find them. (Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times) (PG-13, 94 minutes)

‘Sacrifice’
A riveting, unpredictable tale from Chinese master Chen Kaige is a historical drama about epic revenge as a power-hungry general wipes out his rival along with his entire family, save for one newborn. The infant is protected by the doctor who delivered him and raises him as his own, hoping to mold him into his own instrument of retribution. (David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle) (NR, 122 minutes)

‘Step Up Revolution’ 1/2
The next installment in the smash dance movie franchise, set against the colorful backdrop of Miami. The kids are lithe, limber and can’t act worth a lick, but that isn’t the point, as the movie exists only to display hard bodies in tribal vibration in 3-D. The dancing, however, is occasionally spectacular. (Steve Persall, Tampa Bay Times) (PG-13, 97 minutes)

‘Ted’
The story of a man and his teddy bear, who comes to life as the result of a childhood wish. “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane gives voice to the stuffed animal and confidently makes his feature directing debut, which feels like a live-action, big-screen version of his popular animated TV show, complete with pop-culture references, inappropriate racial humor, flashbacks and non sequiturs. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (R, 106 minutes)

‘To Rome with Love’
Woody Allen’s latest film relates the lives of some visitors and residents of the Italian capital and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into. It has the usual overarching problems characteristic to his weaker films, such as problems of story, theme or character. It’s often inept, moment to moment. But as awful as this film is, it is, as an experience, not unpleasant. It’s a mess, but it’s Rome, and it’s still Woody Allen. (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle) (R, 102 minutes)

‘Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection’
A Wall Street investment banker who has been set up as the linchpin of his company’s mob-backed Ponzi scheme is relocated with his family to Aunt Medea’s southern home. As always, Perry targets his audience with feel-good subplots, this time about a struggling church and a wayward kid. The movie, unfortunately, is sloppily put together, even by Perry’s make-them-fast-and-cheap standards. (Rafer Guzman, Newsday) (PG-13, 114 minutes)

‘The Watch’ 1/2
Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade play suburban dads who form a neighborhood watch group as a way to get out of their daily family routines, only to find themselves defending the Earth from an alien invasion. This is strictly a formulaic comedy that banks on its familiar stars, and when it runs out of gas, introduces some fake sentiment. (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle) (R, 100 minutes)

ARTHOUSE

DORIS DUKE THEATRE

Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St., entry on Kinau Street (532-8768); $10 general, $8 museum members, tickets also available online at www.honolulumuseum.org:

HI Sk8 Films: A Hawaii Skate Film Series: ‘Defcon HI’ / ‘…to Alter Natives’ / ‘You Want to Wallie My Polejam?’
1 p.m. Saturday
Three shorts, including a drama set in Chinatown; Kale Ka’aikala’s extended montage shot on location on Maui, Oahu and Australia; and another about local legend Sean “Bedpan” Reilly and his pals.

‘Upper Case’ with shorts ‘Hindsight’ and ‘You Want to Wallie My Polejam?’
4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday
A collaborative feature shot on Oahu, along with two shorts, one in particular about the sights and sounds recorded through the eyes of a skateboarder over a nine-year period (end of series).

‘Music from the Big House’
1 and 4 p.m. Sunday, and 1 and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday
Rita Chiarelli, Canada’s Queen of the Blues, makes a pilgrimage to Angola Prison in Louisiana, and it results in a historic jailhouse performance with the inmates. (2010, 90 minutes)

MOVIE MUSEUM

3566 Harding Ave. (735-8771): $5 general, $4 members; reservations recommended:

‘Memories of Murder’
Noon, 2:15, 4:30, 6:45 and 9 p.m. today
In this police procedural set in 1986 South Korea, two backwater cops investigate a serial murder in a rural community. (2003, 132 minutes)

‘The Little Kidnappers’
Noon, 1:45 and 3:30 p.m. Saturday
When two young Scottish orphans are sent to live in Nova Scotia with their grandparents, the boys want a dog to keep them company, but instead find an unattended baby, which they care for in a shed. (1953, 90 minutes)

‘Travelling North’
5:15, 7 and 8:45 p.m. Saturday; and 12:30, 2:15, 4 and 5:45 p.m. Thursday
After their late-life marriage, a middle-age Australian couple moves to the countryside. Their life and tempestuous marriage is detailed. (1987. 93 minutes)

‘Our Beloved Month of August’
Noon and 7:45 p.m. Sunday
Neophyte director Miguel Gomes’ lengthy and deliberately chaotic hybrid of documentary and fiction set in the seasonal music festivals that permeate the heart of rural Portugal. (2008, 144 minutes)

‘The Red Chapel’
2:30, 4:15 and 6 p.m. Sunday; and noon and 8 p.m. Monday
Two Danish comics, one of them a spastic and both born in Korea, join the director on a trip to North Korea, where they have been allowed access under the pretext of wanting to perform a vaudeville act. (2009, 88 minutes)

‘A Bittersweet Life’
1:45, 3:45 and 5:45 p.m. Monday; and 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Kim Ji-woon’s violent and visually stylish thriller that shows how personal morality clashes with the ethical codes in the Korean mob, as an enforcer shadows the young mistress of his boss to see whether she’s been unfaithful. (2005, 114 minutes)

BODY & SPIRIT DOCUMENTARY FILM SERIES

Still & Moving Center, 1024 Queen St. (397-7678); $5:

‘Visions of a Universal Humanity’
6:30 p.m. Sunday
Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard presents positive future scenarios for humanity based on the latest scientific, social and spiritual realities. (2010, 75 minutes)

MONDAY MOVIE CAFE

TheVenue, 1146 Bethel St. (436-4326), $10:

‘DMT: The Spirit Molecule’
7 p.m. Monday
An investigation into the long-obscured mystery of dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a molecule found in nearly every living organism and considered the most potent psychedelic on earth. (2010, 75 minutes)