THE HURRICANE HEIST

1/2 R, 100 min. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. There’s no question the undisputed winner in the new comedy “Game Night” is the generally dependable Rachel McAdams. The infectious, energetic and unfiltered exuberance she brings to the role of the super competitive Annie — one of a group of best friends who get together on a regular basis to play parlor and board games — turns what was little more than an extended episode of a television comedy series into more of a winning effort. Annie and her husband, Max (Jason Bateman), have had a monopoly on the weekly game night battles that range from charades to Scrabble. The other regulars include Ryan (Billy Magnussen), the single member of the group who picks his game partners based on the ease he thinks he can bed them and not their knowledge of Stratego. That changes when he’s joined by the very smart and savvy Sarah (Sharon Horgan). Rounding out the group are the fun-loving Kevin (Lamorne Morris) and Michelle (Kylie Bunbury). — Rick Bentley, Minn. Star-Tribune

GRINGO

R, 110 minutes. Through tonight at Niantic. Still playing at Stonington,Westbrook, Lisbon. A mild-mannered middle-management PG-13, 100 minutes. Starts tonight at Lisbon. Starts Friday at Westbrook. Some treasures do wash ashore in the incredibly ridiculous but entertaining “The Hurricane Heist,” directed by action-schlock auteur and “The Fast & the Furious” OG Rob Cohen. Written by Scott Windhauser and Jeff Dixon from a story by Anthony Fingleton and Carlos Davis, the script lends itself to inadvertent camp: there’s not a shred of irony or subtext, every character states their motivations up front, and the hurricane-inspired set pieces are completely insane. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency

JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

PG-13, 118 minutes. Through tonight only at Westbrook. Still playing at Lisbon. Twenty-two years later — and many leaps forward in video game and movie technology — comes a sequel to “Jumanji.” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” a souped-up follow-up to the 1995 film starring Robin Williams, also shares as its source the surreal 1981 picture book by writer and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg, about siblings who open a board game that brings jungle animals careering through their house. The new film, directed by Jake Kasdan, is a genuine hoot and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is smarter and more humorous than the first movie, and its digital effects — which include stampeding albino rhinos and mountain-scraping aerobatics — are far snazzier, as one would expect. It also delivers a message, geared to teens, about overcoming their insecurities to participate fully in life, without pounding the lesson into the ground. The film’s stars — Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan — are darn near impossible to dislike. — Jane Horwitz, The Washington Post

PETER RABBIT

1/2 PG, 93 minutes. Lisbon, Westbrook. Hollywood studios have recently been pillaging the literary canon of beloved children’s literature, digging up fodder for animated feature films. The best of these, like the “Paddington” movies, successfully meld nostalgia with modern and exciting filmmaking, while the more questionable ones, like the recent “Ferdinand” adaptation, manage to muddle the source material with too many pop songs and dirty jokes. The new “Peter Rabbit” adaptation manages to land right in the middle — the animation technology is top-notch, but the gentle spirit of Beatrix Potter’s books is subsumed into a chaotic, violent mayhem, manically soundtracked to the day’s hits. Will Gluck directs and co-wrote with Rob Lieber this adaptation of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” the story of naughty rabbit Peter (James Corden), who can’t help but snack from Mr. McGregor’s garden. This version ups the ante significantly in the Garden Wars, especially when Mr. McGregor (Sam Neill) dies, and his fastidious nephew Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson) comes to Windermere. Thomas, hoping to sell off his uncle’s property to fund his own toy shop, finds the “vermin” have moved in. And in fact, the anthropomorphized, clothes-wearing wildlife of this country village have hosted quite the produce-fueled rager in the McGregor home. The photorealistic animation by Animal Logic is truly breathtaking, especially in the first few moments of the film. But those whiz-bang tracking shots are all put in service of a shockingly savage and brutal war between Peter and his crew (Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-Tail, Benjamin Bunny) and the fussy Thomas. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency

RED SPARROW

R, 139 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. With her bottle-blonde locks, facility with a knife and dour Eastern European playground, Jennifer Lawrence’s “Red Sparrow” is seemingly the 2018 version of Charlize Theron’s “Atomic Blonde.” But that’s where the comparisons end. While the 1980s Berlin-set “Atomic Blonde” was a violent, colorful, sexy and darkly absurdist film, Russian spy thriller “Red Sparrow,” directed by Francis Lawrence, is epic, methodical and unfortunately plodding, jettisoning thrills for a stultifying moodiness. The film is based on the novel by retired CIA spook Jason Matthews, who racked up over three decades of experience in the field. In the story of “Red Sparrow,” poor but politically connected ballerina Dominika (Lawrence) is drawn into a shadowy spy world by her high-ranking SVR officer Uncle Vanya (Matthias Schoenaerts) when her dance career is ended with a “Showgirls”-style sabotage. He uses her as bait for one of his targets, and with a dead businessman’s blood on her skin and no way to support herself or her ailing mother, she accepts his offer to train as a “Sparrow” — spies who use sex and seduction to psychologically manipulate and collect information from their targets. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency

THE POST

PG-13, 115 minutes. Westbrook. “The Post” goes against the contemporary Hollywood grain. Propulsive major studio cinema made with a real-world purpose in mind, it’s a risky venture that succeeds across the board. Prodded into existence by Steven Spielberg, one of the few filmmakers capable of making the studio system do his bidding and of persuading major players such as Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks to go along with him, “The Post” takes on a particularly counterintuitive subject. That would be The Washington Post’s 1971 role in publishing what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret 47-volume, 7,000-page Department of Defense study of the war in Vietnam that exposed all manner of official prevarications and outright lies extending over the terms of four presidents. “The Post” is the rare Hollywood movie made not to fulfill marketing imperatives but because the filmmakers felt the subject matter had real and immediate relevance to the crisis both society and print journalism find themselves in right now. When Spielberg recently told the Hollywood Reporter, “I realized this was the only year to make this film,” he was speaking to what he saw as the immediate need for a project that in effect commandeers yesterday to comment on today. “The Post” showcases the value of newspapers hanging together and holding government accountable for deception even in the face of possibly crippling financial pressures. — Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

THE SHAPE OF WATER

1/2 R, 123 minutes. Through tonight only at Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Niantic and Madison Art Cinemas. Still playing at Lisbon. The Oscar-winning “The Shape of Water” is a sexy, violent, preposterous, beautiful fantasy, co-writer and director Guillermo del Toro’s most vivid and fully formed achievement since “Pan’s Labyrinth” 11 years ago. Set in 1962, the story del Toro fleshed out with co-writer Vanessa Taylor marries “Creature from the Black Lagoon” to “Beauty and the Beast,” referencing all sorts of other movies. Yet this one is its own being. It’s exquisitely detailed and period-accurate when it wants to be, and a gorgeous fabrication when the emotions and the underwater Cloud Cuckoo-Land romance, nutty but sincere, require another side of del Toro’s imagination. We’ll talk about the casting (in the neighborhood of perfect) in a moment. First, the premise. Sally Hawkins is Elisa, the mute janitor who, we’re told, was rescued from a river as a foundling. She bears two deep scars on her neck, the ones rendering her speechless. Elisa works the midnight shift at a government research center somewhere in Baltimore. A new “asset” has been brought in for examination: He, or It, comes from the Amazon, has gills for breathing, legs for walking, and wide, sideways-blinking eyes. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

THE STRANGERS

R, 85 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. A family staying in a secluded mobile home park for the night are visited by three masked psychopaths, to test their every limit.

THOROUGHBREDS

R, 92 minutes. Starts tonight Lisbon. Still playing at Madison Art Cinemas. Originally written as a play, writer-director Cory Finley’s impressive, coolly controlled debut feature drops us into a fine fat vat of privilege, where young lives of quiet, moneyed desperation are being lived on the edge. Lily is the “normal” one, living with her mother and her stepfather, eyeing some rich college prospects. Years ago Lily was best friends with Amanda; more recently, Amanda has become troubled, and after the mutilation of a prized horse, she has burrowed deeper into herself. Arrangements are made, and Lily and Amanda reunite, uneasily, with Lily as Amanda’s tutor. Lily’s stepfather is a control freak with crushed ice in his veins and, in film noir terms, he’s just asking for a fatal comeuppance. The “normal” girl is appalled at the “abnormal” girl’s plan to dispatch the stepfather, but “Thoroughbreds” complicates those labels as the plot snakes its way toward violence. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

R, 115 minutes. Through today only at Niantic. Still playing at Westbrook, Lisbon. “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” is the 21st century answer to “Fargo.” “Billboards” director/writer Martin McDonagh uses the same kind of cinematic formula as the Coen brothers did in their Oscar-winning film of combining a compelling story with boldly stereotypical characters and seasoning it all with dramatic heat and dark comedy to make his movie. Frances McDormand won an Oscar for her work in “Fargo” and just won one for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” McDonagh’s film focuses on the efforts by a grieving mother, Mildred Hayes (McDormand), to get the local police to work harder on solving the gruesome death of her daughter. After