Film Clips: This weekend’s movie openings and more October 15 2010

Age is but a number for returning veterans Wood Allen, Helen Mirren and Johnny Knoxville.

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  • Photo by Keith Hamshere © 2010 Mediapro & Gravier Productions, Inc., Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
  • Freida Pinto and Josh Brolin in “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”

OPENING FRIDAY
JACKASS 3D (R) Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of reckless kamikazes return for another round of pranks, stunts and gross-outs, which this time promise to hurl body parts — and possibly bodily fluids — at the audience.

NOWHERE BOY 3 stars (R) In the late 1950s, a precocious Liverpudlian teenager named John Lennon (Aaron Johnson) discovers the joys of rock and roll while contending with tensions between his frees-spirited, erratic biological mother (Anne-Marie Duff) and the harsh but stable aunt who raised him (Kristin Scott Thomas). The film doesn’t shy away from rock-biopic clichés and Johnson looks little like Lennon, but it presents an intriguing story and portrait of the times, so we’d enjoy following the story even if we didn’t know anything about The Beatles. — Holman

RED 2 stars (PG-13) AARP meets 007 when Bruce Willis plays a retired covert operative who teams with other senior citizen spies (played by Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren) to untangle a murderous conspiracy. Mary-Louise Parker turns a nothing role as Willis’ shanghai’d girlfriend into a modest comedic showcase, but the film’s initial energy dissipates after about an hour. The pleasures of seeing Dame Helen Mirren firing massive weapons only takes you so far. — Holman

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER (R) Writer-director Woody Allen downshifts into Serious Drama mode in this London-set film about adultery and desire among several married couples. Anthony Hopkins plays an aging intellectual who dumps his longtime wife for a young floozy, while Josh Brolin and Naomi Watts both contend with flirtatious temptations.