“EXPORTING RAYMOND”
(PG, 2011, Sony Pictures)
Anyone more than a little familiar with “Everybody Loves Raymond” knows that it wasn’t an easy sell, nor was it an immediate hit. But if series creator Phil Rosenthal still has nightmares about the trials of selling “Raymond” to American television audiences, his attempts to do it all over again in Russia — nearly from scratch, with a Russian cast, Russian crew and Russia-fied translations of “Raymond’s” scripts — will leave those bad dreams in the dust.
“Exporting Raymond” follows the year-plus-long process in pretty workmanlike fashion, but that’s all it needs to do. The immense cultural divide between the two countries, and the lengths to which that divide goes to humble and eventually demoralize Rosenthal while he watches his creation go through a wringer he doesn’t understand, provides all the material the film needs to fuel itself the whole way though.
“THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED”
(PG, 2011, Lions Gate)
The good news for Dianne and Henry (Julia Ormond and J.K. Simmons)? After a roughly 20-year separation, they’ve found their son Gabriel (Lou Taylor Pucci). The bad news? A brain tumor, while benign, has left him with an unusual case of amnesia.
Before you dismiss the premise as trite or assume it’s condemned to drown in a sea of melodrama, know first that “The Music Never Stopped” is based on the true story of how the use of music — music Gabriel loved and Henry associated with their fallout — built a bridge in Gabriel’s mind that let him make memory connections that otherwise were lost to him.
“Music” gets its feet wet with regrets about a past that can’t be changed and relationships that can’t fully be repaired, but its lively embrace of these methods — and the separate effects they have on Henry and Gabriel — keep it miles away from downer territory.
“RIO: TWO-DISC PARTY EDITION”
(G, 2011, Fox)
To borrow a little “Peter Pan” wisdom, all of what happens in “Rio” has happened before, and it will all happen again. Perhaps there will never be another character exactly like Blu, a domesticated exotic bird whose kidnapping gives him a taste of the wild life while his owner frantically searches for him during a whirlwind first trip to Rio de Janeiro.
But the brief history of computer-animated movies is saturated with characters who share a distressingly high amount of common ground with Blu, his owner, and the legion of other birds, animals and humans they meet along the way. “Rio’s” story is a who’s who of safe choices and even the fish-out-of-water premise was done better mere weeks earlier in “Rango.”
None of this is to suggest “Rio” is anywhere near bad: Blu and his friends are a generally likable bunch, the movie is visually vibrant, and it’s never at a loss for energy.
As a kids movie that’s strictly for kids, it’s as safe a bet as all the safe bets it makes. But “Rio” has no aspirations to be anything beyond exactly what you expect it to be, so don’t go in expecting too much.
