Film Clips: The Soul Surfer keeps truckin’ and for some The Music Never Stopped

OPENING FRIDAY
ARTHUR (PG-13) In a remake of the beloved Dudley Moore/Liza Minelli comedy, British wastrel Russell Brand plays a spoiled, boozing rich boy who faces the loss of his fortune unless he marries a woman he doesn’t love (Jennifer Garner). In an inspired bit of casting, Dame Helen Mirren reprises the butler role played by Sir John Gielgud.

HANNA 3 stars (PG-13) Saorise Ronan plays a teenage girl raised in seclusion by a fugitive intelligence agent (Eric Bana) to be a super-assassin. Atonement director Joe Wright helms this eccentric espionage tale that plays like a Snow White or Sleeping Beauty fairy tale with the trappings of a Bourne Identity thriller. With Cate Blanchett’s conniving spymaster serving as the wicked stepmother, Hanna includes some heavy-handed symbolism and decidedly unmenacing bad buys, but Ronan’s stranger-in-a-strange-land performance keeps the film from spinning out of control. - Curt Holman

KILL THE IRISHMAN (R) This crime drama depicts the career of Danny Greene (“Rome’s” Ray Stevenson), an Irish-American mob boss and FBI informant who tries to take over the Cleveland underworld in the 1970s. The supporting cast includes such tough guys as Vincent D’Onofrio, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer.

THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED (PG) Based on the case-study “The Last Hippie” by real-life Dr. Oliver, this sentimental drama chronicles the relationship between father and son, Henry and Gabriel. Gabriel suffers from cerebral trauma and loses his ability to make new memories which throws him into a time-warp where the past, future, and present all become one. Through trial and error, his father finds that Gabriel is most responsive to 1960s Rock and Roll. Through music, they create a new relationship.

SOUL SURFER (PG) When sharks attack, teenage surfer Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb) loses her left arm. Unwilling to give up her love for the water, she learns to surf with one arm and eventually becomes a pro surfer.

WHEN WE LEAVE (NR) The German entry in this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this drama from director Feo Aladag explores the problem of “honor killings” through the lives of a Turkish family living in Germany.

YOUR HIGHNESS 3 stars (R) In this raunchy spoof of fantasy epics, Danny McBride plays Thaddeus, the jealous, layabout brother of dashing Prince Fabious (James Franco), who reluctantly goes on quest to rescue the prince’s fiancé (Zooey Deschanel) from a nasty wizard (Justin Theroux). From the director of the pot comedy Pineapple Express, Your Highness gets a lot of mileage by setting off f-bombs and contemporary drug jokes in a Princess Bride-style setting. Too many scenes and ideas lack comedic payoff, but the cast is game and it’s fun to see Your Highness skewer the kind of hero’s journey tropes that seemingly every Hollywood movie slavishly obeys these days. — Holman

DULY NOTED
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE (1985) Robert Englund reprised his role — for the first time — of sweatered boogeyman Freddie Krueger in this sequel to Wes Craven’s trippy slasher flick that tends to get upstaged by the franchise’s third and fourth installments. Splatter Cinema. Tue., April 12, 9:30 p.m. Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce De Leon Ave., $8-$12. 404-873-1939. www.plazaatlanta.com

SENIOR YEAR (NR) If you’ve followed the “Tiger Mother” controversy you might be particularly interested in this documentary about how Chinese high schoolers handle the pressures of their annual college entrance exams. Independent Chinese Cinema. Free-$7. Sat., April 9, 8 p.m. Rich Theatre, High Museum, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-5000. www.high.org.

YOKO ONO: REALITY DREAMS (NR) Film Love, Emory University and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center present a five-night series of experimental films by Yoko Ono, with and without John Lennon, including “Smile” and “Bed-In.” March 25-April 8. The Plaza Theatre, Emory University and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. http://www.frequentsmallmeals.com/OnoLennon.htm