ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

1/2 PG-13, 125 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic and Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Still playing at Stonington, Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon. One of the nicest things about “AntMan,” the 2015 origin story of the eponymous Marvel superhero, was its modesty and congeniality. : “Ant-Man” kept things light, its playfulness made all the more endearing by the boyish, twinkle-eyed persona of its star, Paul Rudd. Returning in the title role, Rudd brings those same exuberant values to bear on “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” which makes up in brio and adorability what it might lack in narrative complexity. The plot isn’t the thing in “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” The joys of the movie lie in its utterly gratuitous but amusing digressions, whether in the form of Rudd’s constant stream of witty asides, running gags involving close-up magic, Morrissey and the Russian fairy tale figure Baba Yaga, or a hilarious sequence involving a tiny Lang wearing a lostand-found sweatshirt in an elementary school that puts a similar sight gag in “Deadpool 2” to shame. — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

THE EQUALIZER 2

R, 120 minutes. Niantic, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook and Lisbon. You won’t usually find Denzel Washington in a movie sequel. He just doesn’t do them. Something about not wanting to repeat himself. So there must be something special indeed for him to break his own rule for “The Equalizer 2.” Fans of the first film will instantly know why Washington is drawn to the character of Robert McCall, a quiet middle-aged retired special-ops agent who fiercely believes in justice, likes to help others and dispenses the occasional lethal killing for those deserving. “We all have to pay for our sins,” he tells a group of very bad guys in the new, highly satisfying edition, before vowing to hunt each one dead. His only regret? He can kill them only once. “The Equalizer 2” reconnects many of the people behind the 2014 debut alongside the always-vital Washington — Antoine Fuqua returns to direct, as does writer Richard Wenk, and actors Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo. In the sequel, McCall is now a Lyft driver, selectively helping people he encounters. When a group of smarmy, cocky Wall Street types abuse an intern during a coke-fueled party, Washington drives her to the hospital and then returns to wreck vengeance, slicing one dude with his own luxury credit card and then taunting his bleeding victims with “I expect a five-star rating.” — Mark Kennedy, AP Entertainment Writer

THE FIRST PURGE

1/2 R, 97 minutes. Through tonight only at Stonington and Westbrook. Still playing at Lisbon. The latest “Purge” is an erratic, fairly absorbing and righteously angry prequel. It sets up scenarios in which African-American and Latino resistance fighters rebel against the dear white people exploiting them for bloody political gain. Honestly: There is no avoiding politics and messaging with that setup. When last we purged, two summers back with “The Purge: Election Year” (2016), our current president was a few months away from the White House. In various degrees of bluntness, screenwriter/director/executive producer James DeMonaco had a few things to say about the fear-mongering tactics that would ultimately put him there. Now, with a new DeMonaco script directed by second-time feature filmmaker Gerard McMurray, “The First Purge” imagines what went down, and why, with the initial 12-hour crimeand-murder spree allowing an angry, disenfranchised U.S. citizenry to blow off steam with zero consequences. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

GOTTI

H1/2 R, 105 minutes. Through tonight only at Westbrook.

From Massapequa to Manhattan, from his first mob hit in 1973 to his ascendancy as Mafia boss in the 1980s, to his continual beatdown of prosecutors’ cases to earn the nickname the Teflon Don, John J. Gotti became a celebrity followed by so many paparazzi it’s surprising none got whacked. That point is glossed over in favor of mob-movie clichés about honor, manhood, being a standup guy and all those other things that get tossed out the window the minute you order a hit on Paul Castellano. “Gotti” is a connect-the-dots disaster — the don’s greatest hits, so to speak — without discernible theme or cohesive narrative. — Frank Lovece, Newsday

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION

PG, 97 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. It’s all about the zing. If you are not up on monster speak, the term zing refers to what happens once in the life of a vampire, mummy, werewolf, etc. It’s that moment when they know they have found the one true love in their life. In the case of “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation,” Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) learns it’s possible to zing more than once as he meets the new once-in-a-lifetime love of his life during a monster sea cruise. While Drac-

ula zings again, this third offering in the offbeat look at the world of ghouls and monsters doesn’t come close to having the same zing as the first or second offering. It’s fun, and director Genndy Tartakovsky (“The Powerpuff Girls”) knows how to keep the action moving because of all his work in television animation, but the change of approach when dealing with Dracula coupled with the setting switch leaves the production just a little light on zing. — Rick Bentley, Tribune Content Agency

INCREDIBLES 2

PG, 118 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. After his highly successful feature film “The Incredibles” picked up the Oscar for best animated film in 2004, director/writer Brad Bird (“Iron Giant”) said he would make a sequel once he had the right idea. It’s been 14 years, and Bird finally has hatched an idea that resulted in the follow-up to the tale of the superhero family. Bird should have spent a little less time pondering what to do with the Parr family. Because while “Incredibles 2” is a fun family film, the multiple storylines Bird has woven through the production often get tangled. A little more simplicity would have lifted “Incredibles 2” from good to the incredible status of the first film. — Rick Bentley, Tribune Content Agency

JURASSIC PARK: FALLEN KINGDOM

1/2 PG-13, 128 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. The best thing “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” has going for it is director J.A. Bayona, who takes a mediocre script by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow and directs the living daylights out of it. This installment may have merely shallow ideas, but it’s easy to be distracted in the moment by the verve and style “The Orphanage” auteur brings to the beloved dino franchise. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency

LEAVE NO TRACE

PG, 109 minutes. Madison Art Cinemas. The admirably restrained director Debra Granik, whose work is so straightforward it’s eccentric, deals with a troubled veteran and his 13-year-old daughter living off the grid. Will, played by the long-underappreciated character virtuoso Ben Foster, has carried post-traumatic stress disorder home from his time in the military. What we learn about him comes from the way he interacts with his daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, a luminous New Zealand-born discovery with a flawless American accent). Will and Tom are a solid team as they collect water, grow their own food, gather mushrooms, fold up and relocate their tents and practice guarding against unwelcome arrivals like hungry animals. The authorities don’t enter their lives until they are discovered by a jogger and caught for the minor crime of living on public land. Returned to society and interviewed by social services, they’re treated with genuine concern and touching compassion. It’s against fundamental rules to raise a child Will’s way, even though Tom’s case worker is stunned at how well he has educated her. Will’s mental condition is studied, and father and daughter are allotted residence in a commune operated by a lumberman who takes Will on his staff to cut Christmas trees. Tom is puzzled, then intrigued by meeting a boy her own age for the first time, and she finds the idea of having a roof over her head intriguing. But renegade Will has difficulty dealing with being confined indoors. It’s our privilege to weigh Will’s uncomfortable reaction to humanity (which we see here at its best; absolutely no one is less than kind to this family) and Tom’s fawn-like openness and curiosity around others. This is a family love story of surprising power and depth. — Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

MAMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN!

PG-13, 114 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Stonington, Waterford, Lisbon and Westbrook. Welcome back to the magical island of Kalokairi, a sun-strewn rocky outcropping in the azure Aegean Sea, a land where white people can only express themselves with the music of Sweden’s most enduring musical group, ABBA. The sequel/prequel hybrid “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” arrives a decade after the bonkers filmed adaptation of the stage musical “Mamma Mia!” Vehicles for ABBA’s songs, the films perfectly reflect the music: guileless, emotionally raw and unabashedly cheesy, wrapped in miles and miles of colorful synthetic fabric. This many lovelorn ABBA songs requires quite a story into which to shoehorn the tunes, and “Mamma Mia!” tripled down on love lost and found with three spurned lovers, Bill (Stellan Skarsgård), Sam (Pierce Brosnan) and Harry (Colin Firth), returning to Kalokairi for the wedding of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who hoped to find her father. Now, she’s accepted all three men as adopted dads, and she’s reopening the hotel after her mother’s death. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

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