GOING IN STYLE

welcomes his daughter’s boyfriend. “How long has this thang been going on?” Dean asks with forced emphasis on “thang.” But the warm welcome is only skin deep. A deeply bizarre atmosphere takes hold at the house, where all the hired help is black. They are a spooky, robotic bunch, with dead eyes and zombie-like demeanors that would have stood out even in “The Stepford Wives.” Something clearly is off, though Peele takes his time letting the mystery thicken. “Get Out,” produced by Jason Blum’s low-budget horror studio Blumhouse Productions, is serious, even sober in its horror. But its archness has moments of creepy levity. — Jake Coyle, Associated Press

GIFTED

1/2 PG-13, 101 minutes. Through today only at Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Still playing at Niantic, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. It often seems that Hollywood filmmaking trends too often to the “more is more” philosophy: more special effects, more stars, more spectacle. Alternatively, there’s the micro budget “less is more” of the indie scene. Like Goldilocks, you might be looking for something not more or less, but “just right.” “Gifted” is a rare example of the kind of mid-budget family dramedies that used to populate movie theaters but are now hard to come by. It even stars the class president of cinematic spectacle, Captain America himself. Chris Evans, putting down the star-emblazoned shield, demonstrates his chops beyond the “Avengers” universe in this exceedingly pleasant tale of a young prodigy and the uncle who encourages her to just be a kid. The story is an amalgamation of familiar story tropes and character types — the custodial courtroom drama, the precocious whizkid, the odd couple, unconventional parent-child relationship. It executes all of these elements very well, with a distinct sense of wry sweetness throughout, thanks to director Marc Webb, known for “(500) Days of Summer.” Evans anchors the film as Frank, opposite the preternaturally talented Mckenna Grace, already an industry vet at age 10, as his niece Mary. They share a cheerfully relaxed shaggy dog existence in Tampa, Fla., replete with boat trips, a one-eyed cat named Fred and a beloved neighbor, Roberta (Octavia Spencer). When Frank sends Mary to school, Roberta throws a fit. She’s worried that Mary will be discovered, and taken away. Mary’s not a mutant, but a math genius, which the film presents as a genetic gift from her mother, Diane. After Diane’s unfortunate demise, Frank has taken it upon himself to give his niece a real childhood, with friends and public school and pets, something Diane was denied by their overbearing and brilliant mathematician mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan), projecting her own unrealized dreams on her progeny. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service PG-13, 96 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic. Still playing at Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Though Zach Braff’s intermittently jaunty “Going in Style” is primarily a comedy, you watch it with a wistful eye; the irresistible trio at its center can’t help but remind us that they won’t be here forever. Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin (Freeman, the youngest, turns 80 this summer) were all acting in movies and television long before director Braff (“Garden State”) was even born, and the old-pro breeze they create here is something to be treasured. There’s a scene, late in the film, where the three swagger drunkenly through a park singing, and you wish Braff could have held on to the moment just a bit longer — and that every movie could, if only for a minute, find this sort of uncomplicated joy. That’s not to say that “Going in Style” is a masterpiece, or even especially good: Based (quite loosely) on the 1979 George Burns/Art Carney/Lee Strasberg film of the same title, it’s an agreeably generic mishmash of every old-guys-pull-one-last-heist movie you’ve ever seen. The plot — in which former steelworkers, longtime buddies and Brooklyn neighbors Willie (Freeman), Joe (Caine) and Al (Arkin) scheme to rob the bank that robbed them of their pension checks — is predictable from beginning to end, featuring at least one hole even deeper than Freeman’s famous voice. But Braff wisely makes the film short and snappy, keeps the aren’t-old-people-cute-whenthey-swear stuff to a minimum, and lets the fun that his actors are having shine through. I’m hoping that Freeman, Caine and Arkin all have plenty of movies — and meatier roles — in their futures. In the meantime, it’s a low-key pleasure to hang out with these guys, even in a movie that’s only just good enough. As with all great actors, they don’t only become friends with each other on-screen, but with us. — Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

KONG: SKULL ISLAND

PG-13, 120 minutes. Westbrook.

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts has said in interviews that he pitched “Kong: Skull Island” to Warner Bros. as “King Kong” meets “Apocalypse Now.” Working with an 84-year-old cinematic character, Vogt-Roberts has injected new life into the property by borrowing heavily from a Francis Ford Coppola New Hollywood classic that’s now 38 years-old. The result shows its influence — it could have easily been titled “Apocalypse Kong” — but it’s surprisingly fun and fresh. It’s only March, but with the one-two punch of “Logan” and now “Kong,” have blockbusters become great again? “Kong: Skull Island” takes place in 1973, when a motley crew of scientists, cartographers, a