Below are Mini Reviews from Cineman Syndicate for four movies opening on Friday, August 14, 2009. 

DISTRICT 9. Set in South Africa, this flick is among the year's best and an instant sci-fi classic. Combining elements of Alien and City of God, the apartheid allegory follows an official from a private security firm who's put in charge of relocating thousands of extraterrestrials, dubbed "prawns," from a Johannesburg refugee camp. The cat-food-loving creatures have been quarantined for over twenty years while their disabled spaceship hovers over the city. The special effects are terrific and don't overwhelm the harrowing story, which is surprisingly emotional. You needn't be a science-fiction aficionado to find the experience, produced by Peter Lord of the Rings Jackson, utterly exhilarating. (R) GREAT SCI-FI ACTION. Director - Neill Blomkamp; Lead - Sharlto Copley; Running Time - 111 minutes. Capsule review by John P. McCarthy

THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD. Jeremy Piven (Entourage) smears his egotistical, condescending yet strangely motivational comedic persona all over the character of a car salesman who agrees to move a lot full of automobiles during the July 4th weekend. Director Neal Brennan slaps together a raucous comedy that adheres to the one-joke-pony structure that has fueled big-screen Saturday Night Live projects – think The Ladies Man or A Night at the Roxbury. Except the talent is stronger and so are the jokes. If anything, Brennan tries too hard to maintain the thin plot. The Goods is better when it's goofing its way off the page, which it often does. (R) GOOD COMEDY. Director - Neal Brennan; Lead - Jeremy Piven; Running Time - 90 minutes.  Capsule review by Sean O'Connell

PONYO. Credit Disney for taking a risk and releasing an English-language version of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki's animated tale. They hired prominent voices and mounted a decent marketing campaign. Alas, the cartoon is a tad too bizarre for American sensibilities, not least because it comes close to sexualizing five-year-old children and, at minimum, burdens them with too much adult responsibility. A narcoleptic fish with magical powers befriends a little boy and decides to become human, going so far as to inundate the lad's seaside town to help make it happen. The spawn of a nautical wizard and a goddess, Ponyo is a fish-out-of-water in more ways than one. (G) BORING ANIMATED ADVENTURE. Director - Hayao Miyazaki; Lead - Cate Blanchett; Running Time - 100 minutes. Capsule review by John P. McCarthy

THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE. Over the centuries, writers have thought of countless ways to complicate romance. Few have been as difficult to fathom as the one Audrey Niffeneger devised for her tear-jerking novel. At least that's how this adaptation, which is saved by casting, makes it seem. Rachel McAdams plays a girl who falls in love with a man (Munich's Eric Bana) who disappears at random, leaving behind a pile of clothes and arriving wherever and whenever in his birthday suit. An advanced science degree might help decipher what's going on with the space-time continuum. A grade-school education is sufficient to grasp the essence of the story. Loss stings, no matter what the calendar says. (PG-13) FAIR ROMANCE. Director - Robert Schwentke; Lead - Rachel McAdams; Running Time -104 minutes. Capsule review by John P. McCarthy

COPYRIGHT 2009 CINEMAN SYNDICAT LLC.