NOW IN THEATERS
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: THE MOVIE
Beloved sitcoms don’t often make great movies — filmmakers seem to feel the need to raise stakes and expand scenery when taking shows to the big screen, though the source of the original charm usually comes from its smaller scale. Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is no exception. The plot revisits the feckless British fashionista duo of PR maven Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) and magazine editor Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) as they confront dire financial straits — they can’t afford champagne, and Patsy’s reduced to swigging Chanel No. 5. When Edina appears to accidentally kill Kate Moss at a fashion party, the twosome flee to the French Riviera to evade authorities and seek benefactors. The comic chemistry between Saunders and Lumley is as rollicking as always, and the film is unrelenting in its depiction of two shallow women who refuse to age gracefully, but the plot is overcooked and pointless, as are most of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos from British celebs and fashion luminaries. Fans of the series may be left longing for the episodic structure of a half-hour in Edina’s house; fortunately, reruns are on Hulu. Rated R. 90 minutes. Violet Crown. (Molly Boyle)
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart have starred in several buddy comedies each, but they’ve never done one together — until now. Hart plays Calvin, a man who looks up an old classmate named Bob Stone on Facebook. Back in school, Bob was overweight and teased. Now he looks like The Rock, and he’s a CIA agent. When the mismatched friends reunite, they get drawn into some international-espionage shenanigans. Rated PG-13. 114 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
THE FALLEN IDOL
In one breathtaking stretch in the late 1940s, Carol Reed made a string of classic thrillers that equal or better the best of Hitchcock. They are Odd Man
Out (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948), and The Third Man (1949). This one, about an ambassador’s son (Bobby Henrey) who idolizes the embassy butler (Ralph Richardson) and gets him in a heap of trouble while trying to protect him, has been rediscovered as a lost gem in the last decade. It has restored some of the stature of Reed as well. Not rated. 95 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Jonathan Richards)
FINDING DORY
Outside of the Toy Story franchise, Pixar Animation Studio’s sequels have been fairly uninspired trips through familiar territory, and this follow-up to the 2003 smash
Finding Nemo is no exception. It centers on Dory, the forgetful blue fish voiced by Ellen DeGeneres. In a rare instance when Dory’s memory works properly, she recalls that her family lives in the Monterey area and sets out to find them, aided by old friends such as the clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence). The animation is colorful, there are some inventive bits, and an octopus named Hank (Ed O’Neill) nearly steals the show. It’s basically a beat-for-beat remake of the first film, which will please kids more than adults, and attempts to muster fresh energy never quite take off. Rated PG. 103 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14. (Robert Ker)
GHOSTBUSTERS
Those who agonized that this summer’s all-female
Ghostbusters reboot would bring shame upon the franchise can rest easy — or they can stay home and miss out on all the fun. Helmed by director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids), the film stars Abby (Melissa McCarthy) and Erin (Kristen Wiig) as feuding scientists who are eventually united by their mutual love for ghost hunting. They’re joined by a couple of relative newcomers: the madcap Kate McKinnon as weirdo engineer Dr. Jillian Holtzmann, and Leslie Jones as Patty, a brassy MTA worker with an encyclopedic knowledge of New York history. Chris Hemsworth amusingly fills in as the team’s brawny but dumb blond secretary, who is shamelessly objectified by the entire squad. The first half crackles with the cast’s electricity, but too much CGI and multilayered action elements weigh down the finale. But the jokes (often seemingly at the expense of the movie’s sexist detractors) are fast and furious, many of the scares are genuinely eerie, and it’s easy to sit back and enjoy the mindless adventure in time-honored summer-movie fashion. Rated PG-13. 116 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Molly Boyle)
HILLARY’S AMERICA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
If you’re of the opinion that a Donald Trump presidency might be bad for the country, then conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza (2016: Obama’s America) is here, tin-foil hat in hand, to assure you that a Clinton presidency would be much worse. This is the first documentary D’Souza has made since he became a convicted felon (he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law but blames Obama for the whole mess), and he is madder at Democrats than ever before. Rated PG-13. 100 minutes. Regal Stadium 14. (Not reviewed)
HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE
Ricky Baker (newcomer Julian Dennison) is a very bad egg. We have this on the authority of his child welfare officer, Paula Hall (Rachel House). The movie opens with Paula delivering the pudgy, sullen thirteen-year-old into the hands of his last-chance foster family, the remote bush-dwelling farm couple Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and her husband, the grumpy old Hec (Sam Neill). But circumstances result in Ricky running away. He gets hopelessly lost and is found by savvy woodsman Hec. But Hec is injured, and the two have to hole up in the woods while he heals. The authorities assume kidnapping and worse, and a massive manhunt ensues for Hec and Ricky. The bulk of the movie follows as the two traverse the New Zealand bush. All this is in the inventive hands of Kiwi writer-director Taika Waititi. It’s the well-worn story of the gradual, grudging bonding of a curmudgeon and a kid, but told with a deep reservoir of charm and surprise. Rated PG-13. 101 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Jonathan Richards)
ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE
It’s now been 12 years since the original Ice Age film and four since Ice Age: Continental Drift, and the series is still going strong despite the fact that Americans are no longer terribly passionate about it (the last one did so-so stateside). The rest of the world, however, made the last film a smash and still loves that animated mammoth (Ray Romano), sabertoothed tiger (Denis Leary), and sloth (John Leguizamo), so the franchise keeps marching on. This time, their adventures find them up against a meteor on a crash course with the planet. Rated PG. 94 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. Screens in 2-D only at Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
THE INFILTRATOR
Bryan Cranston plays a federal agent in 1986 who goes undercover as a money launderer to take down a Colombian drug organization. As he becomes close with a top lieutenant in the drug ring (Benjamin Bratt), he must navigate a minefield of potential problems, and his cover is constantly at risk of being blown. Diane Kruger and John Leguizamo portray his fellow agents. Rated R. 127 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; Violet Crown. (Not reviewed)
KAILI BLUES
Chen (Chen Yongzhong) is man with a criminal past, now a doctor on a mission to make up for past misdeeds by caring for his abandoned nephew. In the hands of first-time writer and director Bi Gan, Chen’s travels into rural China become a poetic journey that weaves its way through past and present, revealing aspects of China’s history and culture and Chen’s own past and future in dreamlike fashion. The film boasts one of the longest tracking shots in recent memory, mind-bogglingly choreographed and lasting more than 40 minutes. Kaili Blues observes people in their humble surroundings in a natural way, with a cast of mostly nonprofessionals. It’s a film of self-discovery, self-sacrifice, and possibility, as mysterious as it is beautiful, even if its meaning is elusive. This is one to be talked about. Not rated. 113 minutes. In Mandarin with subtitles. The Screen. (Michael Abatemarco)
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN
Director David Yates helmed the last four Harry
Potter films and brings the same attention to detail to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ literary legend in this thoroughly entertaining tale of Tarzan. The title character (Alexander Skarsgård), having acclimated to London life, is coaxed into returning to the jungle, where he finds a Belgian mining company threatening both the human and animal communities. From there, it’s all pulpy adventure with vine-swinging, trainhopping, ape-fighting, alligators, shirtless men, and damsels in distress. The delightful supporting cast includes Christoph Waltz as a mustache-twirling villain and Samuel L. Jackson as an American gunfighter, all of whom are decked out in imaginative period costumes. While the script could have used another draft, the romance is undercooked, and some of the editing jumps around in weird ways, this stuff is all forgivable in a movie meant for simple, swashbuckling escapism. Rated PG-13. 109 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher. (Robert Ker)
LIGHTS OUT
This horror film appeals very literally to people’s fear of the dark, centering on a spirit who only appears when you turn out the lights and who gets closer and closer every time you flick that switch. Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) discovers that her little brother (Gabriel Bateman) is being haunted by this creature, which also stalked her at a young age. She uncovers a dark chapter in her mother’s past — and part of it might not be done with the family. Rated PG-13. 81 minutes. Regal Stadium 14; DreamCatcher; Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)
MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES
Zac Efron and Adam Devine play two brothers who manage to ruin every event they attend with their awful behavior. To prevent them from ruining their sister’s wedding, their parents make them bring dates. The plan backfires when the women (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) turn out to be wilder than their escorts. Rated R. 98 minutes. DreamCatcher. (Not reviewed)
THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS: YO-YO MA AND THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, thoroughly charismatic and introspective in this documentary, unites musicians from all over the world (with a particular emphasis on the Middle East and Asia) as the Silk Road Ensemble. This engrossing film highlights Ma along with other musicians, including Chinese
pipa player Wu Man and Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor — and ties it together with outstanding photography, crisp editing, and predictably wonderful music. Rated PG-13. 96 minutes. Center for Contemporary Arts. (Robert Ker)
OUR KIND OF TRAITOR
The latest film adaptation of a John le Carré spy novel stars Ewan McGregor as Perry, a teacher who meets Dima (Stellan Skarsgård), a powerful member of the Russian mob, while on vacation. Dima, wishing to become an informant for the British government in exchange for sanctuary, gives Perry a list of names to pass along to MI6. The list contains people involved in money laundering, including politicians throughout the United Kingdom. Soon, Perry finds himself entangled in both sides of the conspiracy. Rated R. 107 minutes. Regal DeVargas. (Not reviewed)
THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS
In structure, the latest entry in the summer animation sweepstakes is Toy Story adapted to domestic animals. What mischief goes on when the humans aren’t around? What adventures do these lovable critters get up to? But Pets never rises to the Toy Story level of imagination. The first part of the movie is content to imagine the shenanigans your four-legged pals might actually be involved in when you close that door. But there are 90 minutes to fill, and before long, we’re off to car chases, physical mayhem, and all sorts of reptiles and birds of prey, led by a rogue bunny who has it in for humankind. There are some undeniably funny moments but also long stretches where you can check your watch or make mental grocery lists. The movie is voiced by an all-star cast led by Louis C.K. and Kevin Hart. Remember when animated features provided employment for poor anonymous working stiffs in Hollywood? What kid really cares if the cat is Lake Bell or the falcon is Albert Brooks? Rated PG. 90 minutes. Screens in 2-D only at Regal Stadium 14; Regal DeVargas; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Jonathan Richards)
STAR TREK BEYOND
So far, 2009’s Star Trek (first in the current franchise) and now Star Trek Beyond (number three) disprove the “rule” that any Star Trek franchise’s evennumbered films are better than the odd-numbered ones. The crew of the USS Enterprise launch a rescue mission to the planet Altamid only to find themselves caught in an ambush. When alien tough guy Krall (Idris Elba) ransacks the Enterprise searching for a component of an ancient bioweapon he plans to use against the Starbase Yorktown, the crew abandons ship and they find themselves trapped on Altamid. Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock), Karl Urban (Doctor “Bones” McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Lieutenant Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), and the late Anton Yelchin (Chekov) all reprise their roles. Star Trek Beyond balances the action with more character development, intrigue, and internal conflicts than the previous films. Fans new and old should appreciate this episodic entry for its focus on beloved characters and a more original plot than the previous film, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness. Rated PG-13. 122 minutes. Screens in 3-D and 2-D at Regal Stadium 14. Screens in 2-D only at Regal DeVargas; Violet Crown; DreamCatcher. (Michael Abatemarco)
YARN
Author Barbara Kingsolver contributes a narrative voice-over about the fundamental nature of wool in this documentary homage to knitting and crocheting. Yarn follows female fiber artists from Poland, Iceland, and Japan as they push past what they consider to be a sexist bias in the art world against any medium associated with handicrafts, a bias strong enough to cause some of them to leave their home countries and seek acceptance elsewhere. Not rated. 76 minutes. Jean Cocteau Cinema. (Jennifer Levin)