‘Wonderstone’ makes magic, ‘K-11’ locks up and ‘Stoker’ is strange in theaters

Among the new movies that were released Friday, March 15 in theaters throughout the Valley are a comedy in which Steve Carell plays a magician, a new twist on the women-in-prison exploitation genre and the new drama from director Chan-wook Park.

‘The ABCs of Death’

This anthology film is comprised of 26 individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet and given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death. (NR - 129 minutes)

You know that your anthology film is a failure when its best chapter was helmed by an amateur filmmaker whose short was selected by popular vote in an online competition. “T is for Toilet” is one of only two shorts featured in “The ABCs of Death” that are even remotely worth watching (the other one being “D is for Dogfight”). The other 24 of them range from pointlessly disgusting to simply pointless and nothing more - absent of any of the guilty pleasure that you typically get from watching such scenes in an ordinary horror flick with an actual plot. Playing exclusively at the FilmBar. (Grade: F)

‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’

Steve Carell plays a magician who splits from his longtime stage partner (Steve Buscemi) after a guerrilla street magician (Jim Carrey) steals their thunder. By spending some time with his boyhood idol (Alan Arkin), he looks to remember what made him love magic in the first place. (PG-13 - 100 minutes)

“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” is definitely fun but it is far from magical. The movie’s strengths lie squarely with its likeable cast members - namely Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey, any one of whom would be more than enough to entertain an audience. Therefore, seeing all three in the same place is trick worth watching in and of itself. However, the material - though it starts strong and finishes fabulously - meanders in the middle and does not provide the motion picture’s three shining stars the right resources to transform this amusing magic wand into a boisterous bouquet of flowers. (Grade: C)

‘K-11’

Goran Visnjic plays a record producer who comes around after binging on drink and drugs and finds himself in a section of the Los Angeles County Jail reserved for homosexuals, which is ruled by a transsexual named Mousey (Kate del Castillo). Playing exclusively at Harkins Valley Art. (NR - 100 minutes)

“K-11” is trashy, disconcerting and unscrupulous - the three key ingredients of the women-in-prison exploitation genre that was popularized back in the 1970’s. In fact, writer/director Jules Stewart - mother of “The Twilight Saga’s” Kristen Stewart - adds a unique spin to the format, using characters that are actually gay, transsexual and transgender men, thereby augmenting the already alarming aspects of it all. Having said that, Stewart sometimes slips off either side of the thin line that separates seriousness from camp and some story elements in the movie are a bit muddled but this is certainly a piece of scandalous cinema. (Grade: B)

‘Stoker’

Mia Wasikowska plays a friendless young woman who becomes increasingly infatuated with her uncle (Matthew Goode) who, having moved in with her and her emotionally unstable mother (Nicole Kidman), may have ulterior motives. Playing exclusively at Harkins Camelview 5. (R - 98 minutes)

“Stoker” is a poetically perverse motion picture. The new drama, which was directed by Chan-wook Park and written by Wentworth Miller - yes, the same Wentworth Miller who starred in FOX’s groundbreaking television series “Prison Break” - breaks down the barriers of abnormality but it does so with literary refinement. In other words, it uses allegories and symbols to tell its story of savagery and strangeness. Having said that, the flick does take a tad too long to get to its explanatory backstory. But when it does, the floodgates are opened so wide that the viewer nearly drowns in its depravity. (Grade: B)