“Pitch Perfect”
A college student (Anna Kendrick) finds herself hanging with the wrong crowd.
This movie about college a cappella groups isn’t sharp or flat. The script and cast are in such harmony in “Pitch Perfect,” it is definitely a Glee-ful hit.
As an added bonus, John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks are hilarious as former a cappella singers who now do the announcing and color commentary for the competition telecasts. There hasn’t been such a funny commentary team since “Best in Show.”
Grade: B+
“Total Recall”
A man tries to deal with an identity crisis.
Director Len Wiseman, the master of the “Underworld” movies and actress Kate Beckinsale’s husband, has shifted the film focus away from the psychological elements for a more physical approach. Once the film starts, it is a white-knuckle thrill ride that doesn’t offer too many chances to breathe.
Grade: B
“Trouble With the Curve”
An aging scout (Clint Eastwood) battles the new computerized baseball world.
This film is a by-the-numbers story of an aging professional baseball scout, played with cantankerous splendor by Clint Eastwood, and the daughter he’s kept at a distance, played with perfect perkiness by Amy Adams.
Grade: C
Also new
“Sometimes a Great Notion”: The Paul Newman film make its Blu-ray debut.
“Cuban Missile Crisis: Three Men Go To War”: A look at how John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust.
“The Good Doctor”: The story of what happens when medicine goes wrong. Orlando Bloom stars.
Rick Bentley, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.)
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