The end is nigh

Say what you like (or dislike) about Harry Potter, but it’s important to an awful lot of people. During the course of seven books, J.K. Rowling created a story that felt familiar, even though you’d never read it before. The books were turned into a lucrative film franchise, whose final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out Friday, Nov. 19. Actually, that last part is only half-true—the film’s been broken into two parts, the second of which comes out next summer.

Part 1 not only assumes that its audience has read or seen (or both) all of the other installments to date (which isn’t particularly unreasonable); it also figures that its fans are so rabid that most of them watched the previous six films on DVD just last week. I’ve read the books and seen the films, but I hadn’t given myself a refresher, and I found myself wondering not who was who, but what, exactly, everyone was trying to do. Make no mistake, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is for the Potter faithful, and if you’re thinking of joining the club, this is the wrong place to start.

What I recall about the book, which I read when it came out, was that there was a long stretch that was painfully slow: Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) wandered about the English countryside, searching for horcruxes—magical devices containing bits of the soul of Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes)—as well as a way to destroy them amid the crumbling of the wizarding society they belong to. All of that takes place here, too, and it’s as slow and deathly as any paralyzing curse. And it has a very unfortunate dance sequence.

But it’s all because the entire film is merely a bridge, you see, to get us to the final movie, the epic battle of good-versus-evil, which, it turns out, I’m looking forward to. Despite it’s two-and-a-half-hour running time, it’s snail-like pacing and its bad habit of having characters tell you what has just happened rather than showing you, when Part 1 wrapped up, I would have been happy for another two or three hours, as long as we reached the conclusion.

OPENING

127 Hours: Danny Boyle changes pace once again. Instead of the frenetic energy of Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours is pretty much a one-man show, with James Franco playing Aron Ralston, a hiker forced to cut off his own arm to survive. See our feature on Page 20.

Galapagos: An IMAX look at the islands and the animals that made Charles Darwin famous. We’re most fond of the blue-footed boobie. At the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.

Leaving: Kristen Scott Thomas is in a loveless marriage with a successful doctor, so she fools around with a young ex-con working on their property.

Mademoiselle Chambon: A man falls for his son’s homeroom teacher, and the two do their best to keep their urges to themselves. You won’t be surprised to hear it’s in French.

The Milk of Sorrow: The journey of a Peruvian woman stricken with a pathological fear she got via her mother’s breast milk.

The Next Three Days: Russell Crowe stars in Paul Haggis’ new thriller about a man framed for a murder he didn’t commit. No, wait. It’s his wife that didn’t commit the murder, and he’s got to bust her out of jail and clear her. There’s a twist for you.

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard Von Bingen: Check out all the crazy stuff this medieval nun could do. Flying’s not on the list.

Today’s Special: An aspiring chef (The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi) is forced to take over his family’s restaurant after his dad has a heart attack.

ONE TIME ONLY

Dirt! The Movie: Despite the exclamation mark, this documentary about how we destroy the Earth’s soil is not, in fact, a musical. Screens at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the international House Great Hall on the UCSD campus. Free.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: Yeah, but where’s the best little whorehouse in San Diego? Presented by FilmOut at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the Birch North Park Theatre.

The Big Lebowski: Donny is out of his element at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

Exit Through the Gift Shop: Street artist / prankster Banksy’s documentary about a street-art documentary might be a prank, but it’s one of the funniest, most insightful films of the year. Screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s La Jolla branch.

Gary Yourosfky Live from Georgia Tech: Dude tries to convince college kids to go vegan. Maybe he’ll convince you, too. Screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, at Evolution Fast Food, 2949 Fifth Ave. in Bankers Hill.

Beyonce’s I Am: World Tour Concert: This one’s gonna be crazy. Um, crazy in love, that is. Screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, at Reading Gaslamp.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Sure, it’s different from Truman Capote’s book, and, sure, Mickey Rooney’s role would be considered racist by today’s stan dards.

But Audrey hepburn is just so damn cute as Holly Golightly. Screens at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, through Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Cinema Under the Stars in Mission Hills.

Light the Wick: This new extreme ski film premieres at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, at Porter’s Pub on the UCSD campus.

Micah Film Festival: The documentary film festival returns to Oceanside’s Crest Theater with three entries:

Holy Wars, Living in Emergency and Autism: The Musical. Proceeds go to worthy charities, and details can be found at micahfilmfest.org. It runs Friday, Nov. 19, through Sunday, Nov. 21.

If You Are the One: A Chinese romantic comedy about a wealthy, middle-aged man who returns home in hopes of finally finding a wife. Screens at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at the Little Theatre on the Oceanside MiraCosta College Campus.

The Baby Formula: A couple of women are so obsessed with having a baby that they find a way to create sperm from their own stem cells. Screens at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at the Center in Hillcrest.

Night at the Museum: Ben Stiller cashes in at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, at Agua Hedionda Lagoon Discovery Center in Carlsbad.

Repo! The Genetic Opera!: This futuristic organ-repossession rock opera with Paris Hilton will screen at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at 3925 Ohio Street in North Park and will include a performance from local shadowcasters Elective Surgery.

Spike & Mike’s New Festival of Animation: More highbrow than the standard sick and twisted stuff you’ve come to expect from the animation powerhouse, but just as entertaining. Screens at 7:15 and 9:15 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Michael Cera is the titular hero who must fight Ramona Flowers’ (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) seven evil exes to the death in order to date her. Screens at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, at the Central Library, Downtown.

Gringos Living in Tijuana: Katherine Sweetman’s documentary about the lives of seven Americans living south of the border. Screens at 3 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 21, at La Casa del Tunel Art Center in Tijuana.

Deep Down: Documentary about the cost of drilling for coal in one town in the Kentucky Appalachians. Screens at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22, at the Central Library, Downtown. Free.

Old School: There’s no school like the old school, especially when it comes to Will Ferrell’s films. Screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 24, at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Free.

Unstoppable: Should be called “Denzel Washington and Captain Kirk versus the Death Train.”

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer: Alex Gibney looks at what went wrong with the man who probably would have ended up in the White House and whether there were some larger forces at play in his undoing. Spitzer himself sits for a lengthy interview.

Cool It: A documentary about BjoLomborg, the scientist who was skeptical about global warming until just recently. Ends Nov. 18 at La Jolla Village Cinemas.

The Freebie: With their love life flagging, a good-looking couple (Dax Shepard and director / mumblecore stalwart Katie Aselton) decide to give each other one night off, no questions asked. Ends Nov. 18 at the Ken Cinema.

Morning Glory: Cutie Rachel McAdams is charged with saving a flailing morning show, even though her two hosts—Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford—hate each other.

Skyline: A big-budget, aliens-invading-Earth movie the studio chose not to screen for critics.

Due Date: Road-trip comedy stars Robert Downey Jr. as a guy desperate to get across the country, but the only way he can do it is by catching a ride with insane Zach Galifianakis. Directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips.

Fair Game: Naomi Watts is Valerie Plame and Sean Penn is Joe Wilson in this look at how CIA agent Plame’s identity was leaked to the press after husband Wilson authored a controversial op-ed in The New York Times. The acting’s good, but this should have come out years ago.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf: Tyler Perry adapts Ntozake Shange’s celebrated play with Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Loretta Devine and Macy Gray.

Stone: Convicted arsonist Edward Norton sends hot wife Milla Jovovich to seduce parole officer Robert De Niro in the hopes of getting out of prison sooner.

Journey into Amazing Caves: Which one goes up, stalactites or stalagmites? This one will screen Fridays at 7 p.m in the IMAX theater at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.

Megamind: A new 3-D animated flick with Will Ferrell as the misunderstood bad guy, Brad Pitt as the hero and Tina Fey as the funniest person in the room.

Monsters: Low-budget sci-fi romance about a reporter escorting an American tourist through an alien-infested Mexico. Um, that’s aliens as in outer space.

My Dog Tulip: Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave and Isabella Rossellini lend their voices to this low-key, animated tale of a man and his dog. Ends Nov. 18 at La Jolla Village Cinemas.

The Girl Who Kicked the hornet’s Nest: The vast conspiracy at the heart of Steig Larsson’s books might be a little far-fetched, but this makes for a nice conclusion to the adventures of Lisbeth Salander. At least until the Hollywood remake.

Saw 3D: Puzzles just get trickier when you’re having severed limbs poked at you.

Conviction: Hilary Swank stars as Betty Ann Waters, who spent almost 20 years trying to prove her brother (Sam Rockwell) didn’t commit the murder he went to jail for. Moving story, predictable film.

Hereafter: Is Clint Eastwood pondering his mortality? Possibly—his new movie looks at what happens when we die, and it does so through three disparate storylines. There’s the French journalist who sees the afterlife as she barely survives a tsunami, the British boy pining for his brother and Matt Damon, who plays a psychic who hates the fact that he can talk to the dead.

Howl: The filmmakers try to put Allen Ginsberg’s landmark poem into context by presenting James Franco as the young poet and re-creating publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti obscenity trial.

Inside Job: Matt Damon narrates Charles Ferguson’s exhaustive documentary about which people, exactly, were responsible for the recent global finance crisis.

Paranormal Activity 2: Because one just wasn’t enough.

Jackass 3-D: Shit is flying in 3-D. Literally.

Nowhere Boy: A portrait of an adolescent John Lennon, played by Kick-Ass’ Aaron Johnson. turns out all he needed was love.

Red: Action-comedy starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and, best of all, Helen Mirren, as retired spies some young whippersnappers are trying to kill.

Waiting for “Superman”: You may not agree with all of Davis Guggenheim’s (An Inconvenient Truth) assertions about education, but you should watch his new documentary, because it’s a discussion we need to have. Ends Nov. 18 at Hillcrest Cinemas.

Life as We Know It: Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel are polar opposites forced to move in together and take care of an orphaned baby girl. We’re guessing it all works out.

Secretariat: Thoroughly family-friendly PG version of how one of history’s most famous racehorses got his start.

The Social Network: David Fincher’s new film about the early days of Facebook is more entertaining than 99.9 percent of status updates.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: It’s been 23 years since Oliver Stone told us that greed was good. Yes, Gordon Gecko is back, but he’s almost extraneous, as green energy Wall Streeter Shia LaBeouf dukes it out with sleazy megatrader Josh Brolin. It’s simplistic and sporadically entertaining.

Easy A: Emma Stone finally gets a starring role in this about-face turn on The Scarlet Letter. She’s Olive, a non-promiscuous high-schooler who gets a reputation for being easy—and proceeds to use it to get ahead.

The Town: Ben Affleck directs himself (not a euphemism). He’s a Boston thug torn between bad-guy buddy Jeremy Renner and Blake Lively, a bank manager he once stuck up (also not a euphemism). Oh, and FBI man Jon Hamm is hot on his trail (still no euphemism).

Mao’s Last Dancer: Bruce Beresford directs this biopic of Li Cunxin, who was chosen by the Chinese government to become a world-class ballet dancer.

Inception: Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to The Dark Knight is epic, complex and beautiful. In short, it’s the stuff that dreams are made of. 

The Ultimate Wave Tahiti: The latest IMAX entry at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park follows super surfer Kelly Slater as he does his thing on some massive waves.

Hubble: Leonardo DiCaprio lends his pipes to this IMAX film, which uses CGI and real footage to take a close look at saturn’s rings. Just stay away from Uranus. At the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: The camp classic continues its ongoing run, Fridays at midnight at La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas.