INCREDIBLES 2
R, 120 minutes. Opens Friday at Lisbon. You won’t usually find Denzel Washington in a movie sequel. He just doesn’t do them. 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. 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.” It takes him a scant 29 seconds to destroy the room full of rich snobs; he times it, naturally. PG, 118 minutes. Starts Friday at Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Still playing at Stonington, Westbrook. 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 WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM
dinosaurs make it from point A to point B, wherein point B serves as the jumping-off point for the inevitable and forthcoming “Jurassic World 3.” — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency
LEAVE NO TRACE
PG, 109 minutes. Through today only at Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Will, played by the long-underappreciated character virtuoso Ben Foster, has carried post-traumatic stress disorder home from his time in the military. There are no scenes of Mideast war slipped in here to give him a visible back story. 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. What looks like an ambitious season of camping in the woods gradually comes into focus as Will’s long-term commitment to raise his girl in a peaceful place far away from American society. — Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN