Below are Mini Reviews from Cineman Syndicate for two films opening on May 29, 2009.

UP. Arguably the best storytellers in the business, the gang at Pixar Studios offers their second brilliant movie in a row following last summer's WALL*E. The exploits of a grumpy widower (voiced by Ed Asner) and an eager eight-year-old might sound routine, but in the hands of director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) and company they become incredibly entertaining, able to put the whole family in a state of rapture punctuated by frequent laughter. The intrepid flick ventures to South America where an exotic bird, talking canines, and a dirigible figure into the fun. The first of Pixar's ten films made in 3-D, it will delight in any format. (PG) GREAT ANIMATED COMEDY-ADVENTURE. Director - Pete Docter;  Lead - Ed Asner;  Running Time - 90 minutes. Capsule review by John P. McCarthy.

DRAG ME TO HELL. Sam Raimi gets back to basics with this comic-horror yarn cast in the mold of his Evil Dead trilogy. When a loan officer refuses to give an elderly gypsy woman an extension on her mortgage payments, she finds herself cursed, destined to take a one-way trip to Hades in three days. The ensuing madness is of a feverish sort, with Raimi assuredly barreling from one creepy-amusing scenario to the next. By pivoting the story around fiscal solvency and the greed that drives the financial industry, he jolts the film with a measure of hot-button relevance that complicates sympathy for his seemingly doomed protagonist. (PG-13) GOOD HORROR. Director - Sam Raimi; Lead - Alison Lohman; Running Time - 96 minutes. Capsule review by Nick Schager.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CINEMAN SYNDICATE LLC