“The Last Mimzy”
*** A parcel from the future lands near the summer haven of David and Jo Wilder. In it, children Emma and Noah discover toys with amazing properties. A stuffed rabbit talks to Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn). A rectangular object allows Noah (local fella Chris O’Neil) to make things happen with his mind. The toys teach the children well. So well, the kids worry their folks (Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson) and threaten the nation’s security. Delightful, spirit-provoking “The Last Mimzy” borrows from but does not offend memories of “E.T” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Rainn Wilson and Kathryn Hahn are especially winning as Noah’s science teacher and his girlfriend. Full of winking intelligence, “Mimzy” imparts a slew of messages, most of them about human connection. But the movie isn’t an anti-tech fable. Science in the service of wonder can save a life and a world. And this pleasing, teasing family flick can vastly improve a day.|PG|125 minutes |Released today|Lisa Kennedy
“The Astronaut Farmer”
** 1/2 The whimsical Polish
brothers can’t decide if they want to make another quirky indie movie or a Disney-style family film with a lot of cheap jokes. Billy Bob Thornton plays Charles Farmer, a previously washed-out astronaut who is now building his own rocket in a barn and wants to take it into space. Faced with financial ruin and government intervention, he perseveres, threatening his close-knit family life. The movie feels stuck somewhere between profound and mundane.|PG|104 minutes |Released today|Michael Booth
“Shooter”
** 1/2 Hollywood takes on Stephen Hunter’s series of sniper-thrillers by reworking the novel “Point of Impact.” Mark Wahlberg does a believable turn as disgruntled super- shooter Bob Lee Swagger, called upon to serve his government once again in a double- cross assassination plot. Some of the best elements of Hunter’s novels are still here: paranoia about the corruption of power, a sense of impending doom. But director Antoine Fuqua tosses in a magazine-load of clichés as well. A middling entertainment.|R|110 minutes |Released June 26|Michael Booth
