NOW PLAYING
“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”
PG, 1:58, family
Angelina Jolie in the title role is fun to watch, and in this follow-up to 2014’s “Maleficent,” Michelle Pfeiffer plays the icy Queen Ingrith, whose slinky side-eye line delivery screams that she’s up to something. It’s fun watching Pfeiffer and Jolie out-diva each other over a spiky family dinner, but for the most part, the film keeps them apart. Too much happens, all the time in this film. It’s a little bit “A Princess Bride,” and a lotta bit “FernGully,” with heavy metaphors for violent colonialization and the genocide of native people under a greedy, fascist government laced throughout. The messages are important; if only they didn’t come wrapped in this goofy, chaotic package. — Katie Walsh
“Joker”
R, 2:02, drama
As Arthur Fleck, a perpetually humiliated, bullied and marginalized Gotham City clown for hire dreaming of a career in stand-up comedy, Joaquin Phoenix regards himself in a makeup mirror until a tear rolls down his whiteface cheek. The movie, directed by and co-written by Todd Phillips, honors his pain by being one. For a while “Joker” (an origin story for the “Batman” villain) gets by on sheer morbidity, saving its most explicit bursts of violence for the final third. Except for one murder committed off-screen, everybody this proto-Joker kills has it coming. His killings are emotionally and even morally justified in the filmmaker’s eyes. You’d be an idiot to bring kids to this. — Michael Phillips
“Zombieland: Double Tap”
R, 1:39, comedy-horror
Nobody asked for it, but this sequel has its moments. It arrives 10 years after the first one and moves from D.C. to what’s left of Elvis Presley’s Graceland. Rosario Dawson swaggers into frame as a new character, Nevada; and Zoey Deutch joins the ensemble as Madison, who scores a surprising number of laughs off a weary “Legally Blonde” stereotype. Everyone on screen is good enough to do this sort of thing in their sleep, which isn’t to say Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone laze through the assignment. The first “Zombieland” remains director Ruben Fleischer’s best movie by a mile; this one acknowledges the familiarity of it all. — Michael Phillips
“The Addams Family”
PG, 1:27, animation
The Addams might look, talk and act darker and weirder than most, but what makes them the weirdest is they’re a loving, tightknit family: Gomez (voiced by Oscar Isaac) is smitten with his wasp-waisted wife, Morticia (Charlize Theron), and both are invested for their children, Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard), and their extended families. There are some good gags about Wednesday’s unique methods of rebellion, and Nick Kroll brings an inspired vocal performance to Uncle Fester. But the real inventiveness lies in a perky home and garden TV host, Margaux (Allison Janney), who sets her sights on gentrifying the Addams’ neighborhood. — Katie Walsh
“Gemini Man”
PG-13, 1:57, thriller
One job away from retirement after 70-plus killings, Henry Brogan (Will Smith) takes aim at his latest government-sanctioned target, a bioterrorist on a bullet train in Belgium. Director Ang Lee’s handling of this sequence puts us in good hands; the violence is more suggested than blasted. Our hero quickly learns he has been hung out to dry by his U.S. agency. “Gemini Man” takes its title from a super-secret cloning project overseen by a steely Agency official (Clive Owen), who has raised the cloned Henry from childhood. He is fully computer-animated. The movie’s an easy watch, but the writing feels like a digitally animated approximation of the real thing. — Michael Phillips