Capsule reviews: `The Soloist' and added films

Capsule reviews of films aperture this week:

"Earth" — It's fundamental, cycle-of-life being that happens all day, every day, year-round, worldwide. Seasons change. Animals accord bearing and die. They drift to acquisition food. Some are hunters, some are hunted. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly — sunrise, sunset. But all these basic, accustomed occurrences are photographed and edited with such arresting scope, accuracy and adeptness in the documentary "Earth," you'll feel as if you're acquirements about them for the aboriginal time. And for the accouchement who are the targets of abundant of this material, "Earth" offers bright ball with, thankfully, a not-too-heavy-handed bulletin about the perils of climate change. The admission from the Disneynature label, directed by Brits Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, follows three breed of mothers and babies over a year — arctic bears in the Arctic, elephants in Africa's Kalahari Desert and bulge whales abreast the Equator — with a array of amazing creatures alloyed in between. Narrator James Earl Jones provides the all-important gravitas to accompany these majestic images, and the account composed by George Fenton and performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is appropriately across-the-board and grand. Abounding of the aeriform shots — of beach dunes and waterfalls, of caribou traveling beyond the arctic or birds demography flight adjoin a adventurous dusk — will booty your animation away. Yet the added affectionate images will accomplish you wonder, how'd they do that? G. 89 min. Three and a bisected stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Cine Critic

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"Fighting" — Channing Tatum has the able attendance as a able-bodied ascent to distinction in New York City's underground angry circuit, yet he, Terrence Howard and their casting mates are ashore in a dull, cliche-sodden ball during the abounding moments back someone's anchor isn't abutting with addition else's jaw. Administrator Dito Montiel's followup to his debut, "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," has a annoyed old apriorism as an underdog (Tatum) finds a astute but beggared coach (Howard) to booty him to the big time and a nice new adherent (Zulay Henao) to accommodate him affecting support. Yo, Rocky! The forgettable calligraphy drowns in arid dialogue, including breathless monosyllabic scenes area Tatum and Howard assume to appoint in a blurred duel. But you don't go to see a cine alleged "Fighting" for the patter. You go for the fisticuffs, and Montiel delivers with some awful bare-knuckle rows that should amuse fans' bloodlust. But while Tatum has an absorbing physique, he's so acutely outclassed by the accomplished boxers and martial-arts experts he goes up adjoin that his success creates a austere believability gap for the movie. PG-13 for acute action sequences, some female and abrupt able language. 105 min. Two stars out of four.

• David Germain, AP Cine Writer

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"The Soloist" — Inspiring, accordant and real, the adventure of Nathaniel Ayers — a schizophrenic but berserk accomplished Juilliard-trained cellist active on the streets of burghal L.A. — captivated Los Angeles Times readers in 2005. The actuality that columnist Steve Lopez didn't aloof avoid him like best bodies would — that he not alone batten to Ayers but befriended and wrote acutely about him — added to the abrupt altruism of the tale. "The Soloist" takes all those innately agreeable capacity and turns them into what is about a made-for-Lifetime movie, admitting one busy by Oscar winners and nominees. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Lopez, with Jamie Foxx arena adverse him as Ayers. Wunderkind Brit Joe Wright ("Pride & Prejudice," "Atonement") is the director, alive from a calligraphy by Susannah Grant ("Erin Brockovich"). On paper, you can see how this activity had above affiance (and it was initially was appointed to appear out at the acme of prestige-movie division aftermost year, alone to be bumped to pre-summer). In execution, it's an awkward mix of abrasive burghal visuals and bathetic sentiments in which alike actors the ability of Downey, Foxx and Catherine Keener assume to accept had adversity award nuance. PG-13 for thematic elements, some biologic use and language. 116 min. One and a bisected stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Cine Critic

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"Tyson" — He wants your heart, he wants to eat your children. But Mike Tyson additionally has a acute side, one he candidly reveals in James Toback's documentary. Actually, calling it a documentary suggests abounding choir and sources accidental to acrylic an objective, counterbalanced account of the larger-than-life above fighter. You won't see that here. Instead, you get carpeting Tyson and annihilation abroad — an continued monologue, a stream-of-consciousness couch confessional — which makes for arresting viewing. (Toback does accommodate footage of adolescent Tyson as a baby-faced contender, as able-bodied as the abominable child-eating animadversion directed at Lennox Lewis and, of course, that little adulation crumb on Evander Holyfield's ear.) We already knew he was a built-in showman and a airy force, but "Tyson" additionally reveals him as a accustomed cheat and an amateur decidedly able of affecting introspection. He still gets abashed up abounding years after abandoning the afterlife of his admired trainer and mentor, Cus D'Amato. But he additionally describes Desiree Washington — the woman whose abduction allegation landed him in bastille for three years — as "that abject barbarian of a woman." Will the absolute Mike Tyson amuse angle up? Apparently he's all these bodies and added and he's not abashed to appearance them to you — and that mix of alternation and vulnerability accomplish Tyson, and "Tyson," blood-tingling viewing. R for accent including animal references. 88 min. Three stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Cine Critic