Some reviews originate at newspapers that do not award star ratings; some movies are not screened in advance for critics. Ratings range from zero to four stars.
OPENING TODAY
“Furious 7” PG-13. Reviewed on 12C.
“Girlhood” Not rated. Reviewed on 12C.
“Hunting Ground” PG-13. Reviewed on 12C
“Queen and Country” R. Reviewed on 12C.
“Riot Club.” R. Reviewed on 12C.
“Seymour: An Introduction”PG. Reviewed on 4C
“Woman in Gold” PG-13. Reviewed on 12C.
continuing
Selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically:
“Chappie” Sci-fi adventure. R. Intelligence, artificial or otherwise, is one of the major casualties of this robot-themed action movie that winds up feeling as clunky and confused as the childlike droid with which it shares its name. Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver also star. (Justin Chang, Variety) 120 minutes
“Cinderella” Fairy tale. PG. In Disney’s new live-action “Cinderella,” director Kenneth Branagh reverently reimagines Charles Perrault’s fairy tale for a new generation the world over, spelling countless opportunities to exploit fresh interest in the story throughout the Disney universe. (Peter Debruge, Variety) 105 minutes
“Danny Collins” Dramedy. * * * R. The beginning of the new Al Pacino flick has a familiarity that teases contempt. Oh no, please, not another aging rock-star saga, not another post-midlife-crisis tale. And while director-writer Dan Fogelman’s movie is in many ways just that, hang with Danny on his conscience-cleansing sojourn. Because once the deeply flawed protagonist leaves behind his palatial digs in L.A. and age-inappropriate fiancée (Katarina Cas) for a New Jersey hotel room and an ill-advised visit to the adult son he’s never met, “Danny Collins” begins striking some sweet chords. Danny embarks on this adventure when his manager delivers a letter from John Lennon penned decades earlier. As son Tom, Bobby Cannavale is persuasive in his distrust. Jennifer Garner delivers a warm, intelligent performance as Danny’s more ambivalent daughter in law. The cast is amiable: As the no-nonsense hotel manager, Annette Bening is amusing as she looks askance at this ridiculous grown-up from behind her glasses. Christopher Plummer offers the first sign of an affecting journey with his modulated turn as Danny’s best friend and long-time manager. At the Mayan. (Kennedy) 105 minutes
“Get Hard” Comedy. * ½ R. Goofball Will Ferrell and the appealing, ascendant Kevin Hart are sure to survive the idiocy of this triple R-rated comedy about a fund manager sentenced to hard time who seeks out a black tutor in prison survival before he heads to the pen. Are there laughs? Some. At its SXSW premiere the movie was thrashed for its clumsy use of sexual and racial stereotypes. The running gag about prison rape is tired from the get go. And when the movie conflates sexual assault with gay sexuality, it opens itself up to cries of foul. If “Get Hard” feels like the smug effort of writers who feel above the current cultural frays that’s because it is. Written by Jay Martel and Ian Roberts, along with director Etan Cohen. Cohen co-wrote “Tropic Thunder” which famously features Robert Downey Jr.’s actor character choosing to do his role in blackface. (Downey pulled it off.) Roberts and Martel write for Comedy Central’s series “Key and Peele.” “But some of our best shows are black!” they’re likely bleating — alas, all the way to the bank. (Kennedy) 100 minutes
“Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” Documentary. Not rated. Siblings Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz bring their blistering trilogy of male domination in an Israeli family to a rewarding close with “Gett, the Trial of Viviane Amsalem.” In this expertly written, brilliantly acted film, Viviane struggles against her passive-aggressive husband and the rabbinical judges to legally end her marriage (a “gett” is a divorce document, obtainable in Israel only by going through religious courts), but the process takes years, thanks to a bias that keeps women shackled to their husbands. “Gett,” set entirely in the courtroom, judiciously alternates between scathing drama and bitter comedy. At the Chez. (Jay Weissberg, Variety) 115 minutes
“The Gunman” Action. R. Sean Penn’s veiny, sweat-glazed biceps are the most objectively impressive feature of this rote, humorless thriller, a distinctly unconvincing attempt to refashion the star, who also co-wrote and produced, as a middle-aged action hero. (Guy Lodge, Variety) 115 minutes
“Home” Children’s adventure. * * PG. In “Home,” the latest adventure from DreamWorks Animation, the misfit alien protagonist is called Oh (“The Big Bang Theory’s” Jim Parsons) simply because that’s the resigned reaction everyone has when he’s around. “Oh,” his brethren say with deep indifference at his desperate, over-the-top attempts to fit in and make friends. The film, adapted from Adam Rex’s beloved kids book “The True Meaning of Smekday,” tells the story of an isolated alien race — the Boov — who are consistently staging elaborate (albeit friendly) takeovers on planets throughout the galaxy as they run from an intergalactic enemy. Rihanna, Steve Martin and Jennifer Lopez also lend their voices. (Lindsay Bahr, The Associated Press) 112 minutes
“Insurgent” Dystopian sequel. * * ½ PG-13. A number of micro-stories were jettisoned from Veronica Roth’s 500-page second installment in her trilogy in order to make for a more fleet movie experience. And while “The Divergent Series: Insurgent” is shorter than the original — which introduced us non-readers to Tris Prior, a Divergent in a five faction, post-cataclysmic world — it is not better. The essential thematic tensions remain. How does one understand oneself within society’s many hierarchies and then be true to that self? When do we rebel? When do we seek allies? How do we love, forgive, push back against ourselves, our families, even “the one”?
In 2-D, 3-D, IMAX 3-D. (Kennedy) 115 minutes
“It Follows” Horror. R. When director David Robert Mitchell appeared on the indie scene in 2010 with “The Myth of the American Sleepover,” few would have guessed that his next project might be a horror movie. And yet, as follow-ups go, “It Follows” makes perfect sense, applying what worked best about that debut — namely, its haunting evocation of adolescent anxiety and yearning, set against the backdrop of an atmospheric Michigan suburb — to a far more commercial genre. From the opening scene, a disoriented young woman stumbles out into the street of an otherwise peaceful tree-lined neighborhood trying to avoid a threat only she can see. The next morning, the girl’s corpse is found. As bogeymen go, Mitchell’s monster is both intuitive and impossible to comprehend. The pic’s malevolent shape-shifter can take the form of anyone. The only certainty seems to be that it won’t stop until you’re dead. And once you’re dead, it will go after the person who “gave” it to you. (Peter DeBruge, Variety) 107 minutes
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” Spy movie. R. “Kingsman: The Secret Service” brings the irreverence back to the British spy genre, offering a younger, streetwise variation on the 007 formula. Based on Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’ 2012 comic-book series, Fox’s franchise-ready one-off at first poses as a more teen-friendly option, before taking a hard turn. But the film also reserves the right to go gonzo in its final stretch, and while there’s sure to be an outcry from some corners over the turning-point scene, no one can contest that the finale distinguishes it from other spy-movie knockoffs. (Peter Debruge, Variety) 129 minutes
“The Lazarus Effect” Horror. PG-13. For reasons never made entirely clear, romantically entangled scientific researchers Frank (Mark Duplass) and Zoe (Olivia Wilde) have spent several years at a California university getting closer and closer to their ultimate goal: resurrecting the dead. At least, that’s what Frank hopes to achieve by hooking up various deceased animals, including a pig and a dog, to an elaborate machine and injecting them with a fancy resuscitation serum. (Geoff Berkshire, Variety) 83 minutes
“Run All Night” Irish mob thriller. R. Someday the mobsters, petty thugs and crooked cops of the world will finally get it through their thick skulls that you should never, ever mess with Liam Neeson’s family — not that audiences have reason to complain in the meantime, so long as they keep getting action pictures as straightforward and robustly satisfying as “Run All Night.” In his third and arguably most effective partnership with director Jaume Collet-Serra, the 62-year-old Neeson puts his world-weary killer instincts to good use as an aging Brooklyn hit man trying to protect his estranged son. (Justin Chang, Variety) 114 minutes
“The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” Aging comedy. * * * PG. Having established a winning communal vibe at the rundown, charming Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur, India, young proprietor Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel) wants to expand. Turns out the Brit pensioners that populate his hotel (and the 2012 sleeper hit) like it too much to leave. At the Esquire. (Kennedy) 122 minutes
” ’71” Belfast war zone. R. The Troubles have rarely been more troubling onscreen than they are in ” ’71,” a vivid, shivery survival thriller that turns the red-brick residential streets of Belfast into a war zone of unconscionable peril. Wringing every sweat-bead of tension from its fiercely concentrated narrative, acclaimed TV director Yann Demange’s debut feature covers one night in the life (and potential death) of a young British soldier stranded by his unit in a riot-blasted IRA stronghold at the zenith of the Northern Ireland nationalist conflict. At the Sie FilmCenter. (Guy Lodge, Variety) 99 minutes
“What We Do In the Shadows” Comedic horror. * * * R. You’ve got to love a thing to skewer it as well Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement do in their delightfully silly vampire mockumentary. The film’s writers, directors and stars lovingly impale bloodsucker mythology with the sharpened stick of comedy. At the Mayan. (Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post) 86 minutes
“The Wrecking Crew” Rock documentary. PG. “The Wrecking Crew,” a nostalgia-drenched rockumentary, is a hugely entertaining treasure trove of witness-at-creation anecdotes and enduringly potent ’60s pop hits. Stuffed with samplings of golden oldies, the movie is an irresistible treat for viewers old enough to recall the era when acts like the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher, the Association, Nancy Sinatra and the Monkees loomed large on AM radio-station playlists. But even younger folks more attuned to streaming their favorite music may be fascinated by director Denny Tedesco’s examination and celebration of the title subjects, a loose-knit group of largely unknown session musicians who supplied the defining licks and backbeats on legendary recordings. At the Mayan. (Joe Leydon, Variety) 92 minutes
