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“Fast & Furious Presents:
Hobbs & Shaw” 1/2
PG-13, 2:15, action
This agreeable, casually vicious double act of a $200 million ode to fossil fuel heightens the transatlantic trash talk between former adversaries, now uneasy partners in world-saving: Dwayne Johnson’s ex-Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs, representing America, and Jason Statham’s reformed criminal and perma-snarler Deckard Shaw, representing Britain. The villain — a cyber-genetically enhanced brute with superb dramatic instincts and a lovely way of tossing off boilerplate — is played by Idris Elba. And Vanessa Kirby — as Shaw’s “hot spy lady” sister — is the primary reason the film rises above pure formula and borderline-contemptible familiarity. — Michael Phillips
“The Lion King” 1/2
PG, 1:58, animation
I don’t know how they did it. But Disney’s pristine, photorealistic rendering of its animated original is a step forward technologically and three steps back every other way. It represents a new high and a new low in Disney’s ongoing recycling program. Beyonce voices the adult Nala, and delivers the new song “Spirit.” She’s fine. Of course she’s good. Donald Glover is the adult Simba — also fine, also no surprise. They keep their material honest, and you wish you didn’t know the material quite so well. The new music helps, a little, but the movie is a karaoke act, re-creating the original movie’s story beats beat-by-beat-bybeat. — Michael Phillips
“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”
R, 2:41, comedy-drama
A brotherly bond exists between actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), who is also Dalton’s driver, assistant and handyman. Dalton lives in Benedict Canyon, next door to director Roman Polanski and his pregnant wife, the actress Sharon Tate. The year is 1969. Dalton’s glory days have fallen away to insecurity, alcohol and a general disdain for hippie culture and the so-called New Hollywood. Where does he fit in? Cleverly, director Quentin Tarantino twirls the fictional material plausibly around the facts and eerie inhabitants of the Spahn ranch, and the otherworldly, zonked-out denizens of the Manson family. — Michael Phillips
“Spider-Man: Far From Home”
PG-13, 2:15, sci-fi/action
Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man is a charming, nimble, physical presence in a film that goes out of its way to salute the visual effects armies that have made the Marvel universe what it is today. Peter Parker goes on a European tour with classmates, including the sullen, brainy, charismatic MJ (Zendaya). But Peter must rewrite his itinerary and work through his insecurities, at the orders of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Our boy joins forces with the newbie superhero, known as Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), to save Earth from the Elementals. The movie’s somewhat risky conception of its true adversary comes down to a trippy, large-scale illustration of “illusion tech.” —
Michael Phillips
“Toy Story 4”
G, 1:40, animation
In a simple stroke of do-it-yourself genius, “Toy Story 4” introduces a pip of a character made out of a spork, named Forky. He has been created by little Bonnie, whose fraught first day of kindergarten provides the highly relatable starting point of this enormously winning sequel. Fished out of the trash by Woody (Tom Hanks, better than ever), Forky (voice by Tony Hale) initially knows nothing beyond an impulse to return to the garbage from whence it came. The narrative deals with various challenges of letting go, and learning to move on, and when to remind yourself that — as we know from Arthur Miller — there’s “a universe of people outside, and you’re responsible to it.” — Michael Phillips
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