Movie Stars

Public Enemies A disappointment from director Michael Mann, who tells the story of Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger without bothering to explain why. The fault’s not Johnny Depp’s - at this point, the actor is the definition of star power - but misguided camerawork and the lack of a story line. (143 min., R) (Ty Burr)

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 This remake of a 1974 drama about a hijacked subway train and the dispatcher (Denzel Washington) who tries to stop it is good, solid suspense as long as it stays in the tunnel. Once up top, director Tony Scott turns it into just another summer action film. (106 min., R) (Ty Burr)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Giant robots smash each other to rivets, the pyramids are reduced to rubble, fighter jets scream across the sky, and Megan Fox’s measurements are draped across the screen for maximum effect. Michael Bay directs; Shia LaBeouf stars. (150 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

The Ugly Truth Katherine Heigl in another diet-romantic comedy. She plays a TV news producer who accepts dating advice from the chauvinist Neanderthal (Gerard Butler) her station has just hired. The movie has embarrassingly limited ideas about both the sexes and sex. (97 min., R) (Wesley Morris)

Unmistaken Child A moving documentary about the selection of a Nepalese boy as the reincarnation of a revered Buddhist master. Filmmaker Nati Baratz observes dispassionately, with few resorts to voice-over narration and the like, and the results convey lasting mysteries and raise further questions. In English, Tibetan, Nepali, and Hindi, with subtitles. (102 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)

Up The new Pixar film is a loopy flyaway fantasy that’s hysterically funny if only to keep the darkness at bay. Less ambitious than “WALL-E ,’’ it tells of an old coot (voice of Ed Asner) and a young kid (Jordan Nagai) who journey by balloon-lofted house to a mythical South America where dogs talk and gooneybirds squawk. (96 min., PG) (Ty Burr)

Whatever Works Minor Woody Allen, based on a 30-year-old script about a Manhattan sourpuss (Larry David, channeling the director) and the Southern-fried youngster (Evan Rachel Wood) he marries. As Wood’s mama, Patricia Clarkson is a regally smutty joy, but the film’s thin and divorced from any reality. (92 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

The WindmillMovie A remarkable documentary about a deceased Harvard film professor named Richard P. Rogers that attempts to reconcile Rogers’s sense of personal, professional, and artistic malaise, which culminated in his decades-long attempt to make a film about his life. He left behind 200 hours of footage but no finished movie. One of his former students tries to make sense of it all. (95 min., unrated) (Wesley Morris)

An archive of movie reviews may be found at www.boston.com/movies.