“Mamma Mia!”
** 1/2 RATING | Fans of the ABBA musical will likely bring a happy sense memory of the play with them into the multiplex. That will be all they need to be off and humming along to this story of a daughter on the cusp of marriage, her mother and the three men who may be her father. Those hoping to be wowed by what is a tantalizing, grown-up cast — Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Christine Baranski — are in for choppier waters. But you can’t accuse Streep and company of not being super troupers. They sing. They dance. Only too often, it seems like exertion when play should be the thing. Instead theater director Phyllida Lloyd has made “the play the thing.” One of the three creators of the onstage smash, Lloyd has little sense of cinema’s less-is- more powers. Not to say she’s delivered a dud or a dirge. Far from it. It’s just that “Mamma Mia!” feels like a souvenir program: something to revive the feelings you had watching the stage performance. PG-13. 1 hour, 48 minutes. Lisa Kennedy
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”
** RATING | The third installment in the kin-of-Indy franchise finds the son of explorer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) on his own archaeological dig in China in search of the tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Alex (Luke Ford) is tempting a disaster in digging for him. If the emperor (Jet Li) is revived and his army of terra-cotta warriors called forth, well, you know the action-fantasy drill. PG-13. 1 hour, 51 minutes. Lisa Kennedy
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