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13 Going on 30
DIRECTOR: Gary Winick
CAST: Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, Andy Serkis, Kathy Baker, Phil Reeves
SYNOPSIS: After hurting a pudgy but sweet boy's feelings, a self-centered 13-year-old girl, thanks to a sprinkling of "wishing powder," falls asleep, only to wake up 17 years later, understandably astonished at what she sees in the mirror. Now a fashion magazine editor, she is dating a hunky hockey player and seems to have the life she always wanted as a child, but she finds she must seek out the nice boy she hurt to make things right.
WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall gave it a C. "The most interesting thing about 13 Going on 30 is that it's a young male's fantasy being sold as a young female's fantasy." But teen critic Billy Norris, who reviewed it for the Times XPress page, gave it a B. "I was not expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. It captured that fairy-tale spirit that Freaky Friday had. It was a fable with a moral at the end, and that was really nice," he wrote.
MPAA RATING: PG-13; sexual situations, brief drug references
RUNNING TIME: 97 min.
Hidalgo
DIRECTOR: Joe Johnston
CAST: Viggo Mortensen, Zuleikha Robinson, Omar Sharif, Louise Lombard, Adam Alexi-Malle, Said Taghmaoui, Silas Carson, Harsh Nayyar, J.K. Simmons
SYNOPSIS: Pony Express courier (Mortensen) and his faithful horse join a high-stakes race in Saudi Arabia. Inspired by a supposedly true story.
WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times reviewer Philip Booth gave it a B, writing "Grand desert-country vistas, attentive period detail and reaction shots of the five horses playing the titular sorrel-and-white mustang trump the wobbly human performances in Hidalgo."
MPAA RATING: PG-13; violence
RUNNING TIME: 136 min.
The Reckoning
DIRECTOR: Paul McGuigan
CAST: Paul Bettany, Willem Dafoe, Gina McKee, Brian Cox
SYNOPSIS: A charismatic priest in 1380 England leaves a grim church after dallying with a married parishioner and joins a traveling troupe of actors. At a remote village, he hears of the death of a young boy, and sets out to discover who really killed him.
WHAT WE SAID: Booth gave it a B: "Mix a medieval period piece with a murder mystery, and the combo comes off as intriguing . . . The Reckoning nevertheless is ultimately unsatisfying, as both Middle Ages drama and whodunit."
MPAA RATING: R; sexuality, violent images
RUNNING TIME: 106 min.