At the Movies: ‘Playing for Keeps,’ ‘End of Watch,’ more

Gerard Butler plays a former sports star in romantic conflict with Jessica Biel in 'Playing for Keeps.' --Film District

OPENS TODAY

‘Playing for Keeps’ Zero stars
A former sports star (Gerard Butler) who’s fallen on hard times starts coaching his son’s soccer team as a way to get his life together. His attempts to become an adult are met with challenges from the attractive soccer moms who pursue him at every turn. Jessica Biel, Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Dennis Quaid co-star. (PG-13, 106 minutes)

LIMITED RELEASE

‘End of Watch’
Two police officers are marked for death after confiscating a small cache of money and firearms from the members of a notorious cartel during a routine traffic stop. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena star in this re-release playing in theaters again for awards consideration. At Consolidated Kapolei and Regal Pearl Highlands and Windward (R, 109 minutes)

‘I Do Bidoo Bidoo’ 1/2
A Filipino musical/romantic comedy featuring the songs of the pop band APO Hiking Society. A young couple’s plan to marry runs into problems due to their respective parents of different class backgrounds. At Consolidated Pearlridge (NR, 121 minutes)

‘A Late Quartet’ 1/2
Members of a world-renowned string quartet struggle to stay together in the face of death, competing egos and insuppressible lust. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken and Mark Ivanir star. At Consolidated Kahala (R, 105 minutes)

‘A Werewolf Boy’
A Korean fantasy melodrama about a teenage girl who befriends and attempts to civilize a feral boy she discovers on the grounds of a country house. At Consolidated Pearlridge and Ward (NR, 122 minutes)

NOW PLAYING

’24/7 in Love’
An anthology of romantic stories from the Philippines tied together through a woman trying to win concert tickets, featuring characters performing crazy antics for love’s sake. (NR, 130 minutes)

‘Anna Karenina’ 1/2
Tolstoy’s classic novel re-imagined by director Joe Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard, and largely set in a 19th-century Russian playhouse. Theatrics are at the heart of this adaptation. Keira Knightley’s Anna makes a very good case for the female fashion of the day and suggests a society woman both pampered and suffocated. Jude Law, as her steely but heartbroken cuckold of a husband, provides the film with its strongest emotional connection to the audience. (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune) (R, 84 minutes)

‘Argo’
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador. Ben Affleck directs and stars in this seamless blend of detailed international drama and breathtaking suspense, with just the right amount of dry humor to provide context and levity. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (R, 120 minutes)

‘Cloud Atlas’ 1/2
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry star in this bloated, pseudo-intellectual, self-indulgent slog through some notions that are really facile. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (R, 172 minutes)

‘The Collection’
Marcus Dunstan’s bloody sequel to his “The Collector” film mines the same torture subgenre of the “Saw” franchise, to which he and co-writer Patrick Melton were contributors. A man who escapes from the vicious grips of a serial killer is blackmailed to rescue a female hostage from the killer’s booby-trapped warehouse. The movie is as confounding as it is grisly, amounting to a pointless exercise in sadism. (Nicole Herrington, New York Times) (R, 82 minutes)

‘Dragon’
Kung fu star Donnie Yen plays a sinful martial arts expert who wants to start a new tranquil life, only to be hunted by a determined detective and his former master. Yen stages and battles through a trio of great brawls, resulting in one of the best movies of the genre in recent years. (Roger Moore, McClatchy Newspapers) (R, 114 minutes)

‘Flight’
Denzel Washington plays an airline pilot who saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling. This is a thrilling, engrossing and even darkly funny movie, anchored by a tremendous performance by Washington. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (R, 138 minutes)

‘Killing Them Softly’
Brad Pitt plays a professional enforcer who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-protected poker game. This is an incredibly stylish genre exercise set in the world of mobsters, junkies and lowlifes, but it’s also trying incredibly hard to be socially relevant by trying to prove that organized crime functions as its own capitalism. The heavy-handed message leads to the film’s downfall. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (R, 97 minutes)

‘Life of Pi’ 1/2
Ang Lee’s latest film is about a young man who survives a disaster at sea and is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor, a fearsome Bengal tiger. This is gorgeous, ruminative, soulful, provocatively entertaining and the most artful use of digital 3-D technology to date. (David Germain, Associated Press) (PG, 127 minutes)

‘Lincoln’
As the Civil War continues to rage, America’s president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield and as he fights with many inside his own Cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves. Steven Spielberg’s splendid film stars Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role, and is less a biopic than a political thriller, a civics lesson that is energetically staged and alive with moral energy. (A.O. Scott, New York Times) (PG-13, 149 minutes)

‘The Man with the Iron Fists’ 1/2
Wu-Tang Clan rap leader RZA makes his debut as a director-leading man in this epic story of warriors, assassins and a lone outsider hero in 19th-century China who must unite to destroy the clan traitor who would destroy them all. It’s a goofily entertaining movie, if also lunatic, slipshod, absurdly violent, horribly acted (despite the presence of Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu), and borderline incomprehensible. (Ty Burr, Boston Globe) (R, 96 minutes)

‘Pitch Perfect’ 1/2
A college freshman is cajoled into joining her school’s all-girl singing group, with the Bellas taking on their male rivals in a campus competition. This is a frothy, funny, dizzy and derivative farce stuffed with comic caricatures, hilarious one-liners and blessed with a cast that’s up to a little song-and-dance. (Roger Moore, McClatchy Newspapers) (PG-13, 112 minutes)

‘Red Dawn’
A group of teenagers looks to save their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers. Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas and Josh Hutcherson star in this unnecessary remake of the 1984 original, a vigorous but pointless exercise. (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle) (PG-13, 114 minutes)

‘Rise of the Guardians’
The latest project from DreamWorks Animation is about a group of immortal beings who team up to protect the innocence of children around the world when an evil spirit launches an assault on Earth. It’s an attractively designed but overly busy and derivative mishmash of kid-friendly elements. (Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter) (PG, 97 minutes)

‘The Sessions’
A man stricken with polio who wishes to lose his virginity contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest. John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy star in this life-affirming story about the goodness in people’s hearts, and the humor and compassion and love we are capable of. (Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer) (R, 95 minutes)

‘Skyfall’
In the latest James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig, Bond’s loyalty to his boss M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, Agent 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. This movie is a mixed bag. Some of it is terrific and some of it is spectacular. It succeeds in restoring the Bond saga to life, delivering all the kinetic satisfaction of a taut action thriller with a mature sophistication rare in blockbuster films. (Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune) (PG-13, 143 minutes)

‘The Thieves’
The Korean box office smash tells the story of experienced criminals, each with an agenda, who band together to steal a prized diamond from a Macau casino vault. Comparisons to such ensemble capers as “Ocean’s Eleven” are inevitable, but this movie carves its own niche with moments of romance and stylish mayhem mixed with a more emotionally conflicted, winner-take-all sensibility than its American counterpart. (Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times) (NR, 135 minutes)

‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2′
It’s the final chapter of the Gothic tween fantasy/romance story, and the franchise finally embraces its own innate absurdity with a gleefully over-the-top conclusion. After the birth of Renesmee, the Cullens gather other vampire clans to protect the child from a false allegation that puts the family in front of the Volturi. This movie is entertaining in a totally nutso way. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (PG-13, 115 minutes)

‘Wreck-It Ralph’ 1/2
The latest Disney animated feature is about a video game villain who wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives. The studio takes a page out of Pixar’s well-worn playbook and ends up with a screwball farce with a novel setting and more edge than your average Disney ‘toon. (Roger Moore, McClatchy Newspapers) (PG, 108 minutes)

SPECIAL

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Marathon
11 a.m. Saturday, Consolidated Ward Titan XC, and 11:15 a.m. Saturday, Regal Dole Cannery RPX; $30
In anticipation of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Peter Jackson introduces his extended director’s cuts of “The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers” and “Return of the King.” (PG-13, 737 minutes)

The Met Live in HD: ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’
12:55 p.m. Saturday, Regal Dole Cannery; $30
The Metropolitan Opera’s unforgettable production of Verdi’s ancient Egyptian drama stars Liudmyla Monastyrska as the enslaved Ethiopian princess caught in a love triangle with the heroic Radames (Roberto Alagna) and the proud Egyptian princess Amneris (Olga Borodina). (NR, 240 minutes)

Hana Hou Picture Show: ‘The Breakfast Club’
7 and 10 p.m. Wednesday, Consolidated Ward Titan XC; $10.25 general and $9 seniors and children
John Hughes’ influential 1985 coming-of-age movie about a group of mismatched high school students who meet while serving detention, where they pour their hearts out to each other and discover how they have a lot more in common than they thought. (R, 97 minutes)

Directed by Ron Fricke, 'Samsara' travels across the globe to document, global wonders with spectacular imagery, from natural wonders to disaster zones. --Freestyle Digital Media

ARTHOUSE

DORIS DUKE THEATRE

Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St., entry on Kinau Street (532-87680); $10 general and $8 museum members (tickets also available online at www.honolulumuseum.org)

‘Swan Lake’ from the Royal Ballet, London
1 and 6 p.m. Sunday ($25, $20 museum members)
Considered the greatest of all Romantic ballets, Tchaikovsky’s haunting music heightens the steps of prima ballerina Zenaida Yanowsky, with choreography by Marius Petipa. (180 minutes, with two intermissions)

‘Baraka’
1 and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Director Ron Fricke calls this a cinematic “guided meditation,” shot in 25 countries on six continents that unites religious ritual, the phenomena of nature and man’s own destructive powers. (1992, 96 minutes)

‘Samsara’
1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday
Fricke’s long-awaited follow-up to “Baraka,” it’s another nonverbal documentary shot on 70mm and filmed in numerous global locations, focusing on sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites and natural wonders. (2011, 102 minutes)

MOVIE MUSEUM

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

‘Like Dandelion Dust’
Noon, 4 and 8 p.m. today
A well-off couple’s life is jolted when the biological parents of their adopted son attempt to reclaim their child. (2009, 104 minutes)

‘Hope Springs’
2 and 6 p.m. today; and noon, 1:45, 7 and 8:45 p.m. Sunday
Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones play a long-married couple who attend an intense, weeklong counseling session to work on their relationship. (100 minutes)

‘Inside Out’
Noon, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1:45, 3:30, 5:15 and 7 p.m. Thursday
A South African actress finds herself stranded in a rural white community, where she’s asked to direct the local nativity play and she insists on casting local blacks as well as whites. (2000, 98 minutes)

‘Fugitive Pieces’
4 and 6 p.m. Saturday; and noon, 2 and 8 p.m. Monday
A orphaned child escapes from Poland during the Holocaust and first heads to Greece before coming of age in Canada. (2007, 104 minutes)

‘Wondrous Oblivion’
3:30 and 5:15 p.m. Sunday, and 4 and 6 p.m. Monday
Set in 1960s South London, a Jewish lad learns the finer points of the game he loves, cricket, from his Jamaican neighbor. Delroy Lindo and Sam Smith star. (2003, 101 minutes)

‘Flying Lessons’
Noon and 8:45 p.m. Thursday
Two Italian boys — one Jewish and the other an ethnic Indian — take a much-dreamed trip to India, which is not what they expected at all. (2007, 100 minutes)

MONDAY MOVIE CAFE

TheVenue, 1146 Bethel St. (436-4326); $10, $5 students

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry’
7 p.m. Monday
A documentary that chronicles the infamous Chinese artist and activist as he prepares for a series of exhibitions while getting into an increasing number of clashes with the government. (94 minutes)

SPECIAL SCREENING

Interisland Terminal, 691 Auahi St. (interislandterminal.org); $5 suggested donation

‘Coast Modern’
7 p.m. Thursday
A walking tour through the world of West Coast modernist architecture and the homes, with their nature-inspired spaces, that have become their legacies. Featured Hawaii artist John Koga will participate in a post-screening Q&A session.