CAPSULE REVIEWS OF FIRST-RUN MOVIES NOW PLAYING IN CALGARY THEATRES
22 Jump Street
Miraculously better than the first attempt to turn a 1980s teenthemed cop show into a comedy, this sequel to the spoof of TV’s 21 Jump Street starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill is steeped in self-awareness and Hollywood genre as it pokes fun at buddy bonding.
A Million Ways to Die in the West
Seth MacFarlane’s spoof of westerns is filled with gross-out gags and ironic commentary: It’s Blazing Saddles with a potty mouth. The gags don’t amount to much, but there are one or two laughs.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Marc Webb returns to direct, Stan Lee makes another cameo and Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man in an exercise in stock superhero moviemaking. New this time is Jamie Foxx as a dweeby electrical engineer who becomes the supercharged villain Electro.
Begin Again
Mark Ruffalo plays a burntout music executive who hits the bottom of the bottle, but he finds redemption when he hears the bird-like sounds of a young singer-songwriter played by Keira Knightley. The movie feels so canned, it grows irritating, but thanks to some decent scene work from Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, Ruffalo and co-star Catherine Keener, this corn dog covered in cheese proves palatable as summer junk.
Blended
Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore play single parents who wind up at the same African resort with their children. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Chris Evans reprises his role as the superhero in this action-laced spectacle that packs a political wallop. Steve Rogers discovers his agency has been corrupted, forcing him to question everything he once believed in.
Chef
It’s a combination of food porn and family drama from Jon Favreau, who plays a gourmet chef who gets tired of the corporate safety of restaurant cuisine and pursues his own muse in a food truck.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Probably the strongest of all the Apes movies, this prequel to the 1968 Charlton Heston classic pulls us into the transition period between the age of humans and the age of the genetically modified super chimp. At this point, humans are living in ghettos while the apes build cities under their leader, Caesar.
Deliver Us From Evil
Eric Bana stars as real-life NYPD detective Ralph Sarchie, a man who believes he encountered supernatural forces of evil while on duty in the Bronx.
Divergent
Shailene Woodley stars as Tris, a woman who has more than one talent, and is deemed ‘divergent’ — a threat to the natural order — in this dystopian bodice-ripper powered by teen angst and special effects. Thanks to Woodley’s presence, Tris emerges as believably vulnerable.
Earth to Echo
A lost and injured alien needs to get home in this startlingly familiar kids movie directed by Dave Green. Without any new terrain to explore, this blended remake of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Holes ends up feeling flat.
Edge of Tomorrow
Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt star in this action spectacle that explores the idea of going back in time to fight the same battle several times over in a bid to finally win an alien war.
The Fault in Our Stars
Shailene Woodley serves up a simple but memorable last supper in the role of Hazel Grace, the heroine from John Green’s novel about two teenage cancer patients who fall in love.
Godzilla
Gareth Edwards creates one of the best-looking monster movies in recent memory with this reboot of the radioactive mutant from Japan. But the script fails to develop the human characters and leaves a chunk of drama to computer-generated monsters.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson creates another pop-up book of a movie with this highly amusing, if altogether flattened, story of a hotel concierge who becomes embroiled in a family fight over money while world war erupts around him. Thanks to Ralph Fiennes’s perfection in the part of M. Gustav, this dark comedy finds human depth.
Heaven is for Real
Believers and non-believers are unlikely to have their views rattled by this non-confrontational tale of a boy who sees Jesus during an emergency appendectomy. Greg Kinnear plays the lad’s dad, a pastor whose faith is rattled by his son’s revelation. Based on the 2010 non-fiction book.
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The story of the human boy Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his trusted dragon resumes in this second instalment that offers just as many wonderful surprises as the first thanks to its molten heart, non-aggressive agenda and the cutest animated dragon ever.
The Immigrant
Marion Cotillard plays a young Polish woman who arrives in the United States at the height of Pro- hibition and is forced to become a prostitute at the hands of an unscrupulous opportunist played by Joaquin Phoenix. Despite the heavy, melodramatic tone created by dour director James Gray, the period production design is so seamless and complete, watching the film almost feels like stepping back in time.
Jersey Boys
Clint Eastwood’s steely-eyed direction brings an oddly clinical edge to this screen adaptation of the Broadway musical based on Frankie Valli’s musical career with the Four Seasons. Though Eastwood makes the period film look perfect, it’s caked in cliche.
The Lego Movie
A wild animated ride into the universe of the toy building blocks. A Lego piece (voiced by Chris Pratt) is chosen to thwart the evil president (Will Ferrell) who wants to control how Lego constructions are made.
Maleficent
Though the script is a little thin and the direction a little limp, Angelina Jolie has the screen presence to keep us spellbound as Maleficent, the villainess from Sleeping Beauty. Revising all the misogyny of the original, Jolie offers the backstory of a woman who was betrayed by love.
Million Dollar Arm
Jon Hamm stars as real-life sports agent JB Bernstein, a man who looked to India for the next baseball star. Despite some entertaining scenes and some solid work from the cast that also includes Alan Arkin and Lake Bell, this Disney movie gets stuck in a few sports ruts and fails to make a deep connection.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman
Director Rob Minkoff and writer Craig Wright update and expand the wonky 1960s animated shorts about a time-travelling, hyper-intelligent dog (Ty Burrell) and his adopted human son.
Neighbors
Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne are a young suburban couple who go to war with the next-door fraternity president (Zac Efron) and his posse of party animals. The result is an out-of-control comedy; its chief appeal is in its shaggy invention.
Obvious Child
Jenny Slate plays a comic who has a one-night stand and discovers, much to her chagrin, she is pregnant. Though entirely universal, the abortion story is still taboo, which makes Obvious Child brave from the very get-go, but also funny and heartbreaking thanks to some subtle writing from director Gillian Robespierre and a spunky turn from newcomer Slate.
The Other Woman
Nick Cassavetes directs this underwhelming comedy about three women who join forces to punish a sleazy Lothario. Thanks to an excellent performance from Cameron Diaz, the movie has teeth but Cassavetes reduces what could have been an interesting study of female relationships into formula.
The Railway Man
Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman star in this film adaptation of Eric Lomax’s memoir about his years in a Japanese PoW camp during the Second World War.
Rio 2
Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway reprise their vocal roles as two rare blue macaws who fall in love and move to Brazil to raise a family. When they hear reports of a wild flock in the Amazon, they set out to find their origins.
The Smurfs 2 (not reviewed)
The Smurfs team up with their human friends to rescue Smurfette, who has been kidnapped by Gargamel since she knows a secret spell that can turn the evil sorcerer’s newest creation — creatures called the Naughties — into real Smurfs.
Tammy
Melissa McCarthy co-wrote, produced and stars in this comedy directed by her husband, Ben Falcone — but it’s a comic misfire for the actress. She plays a loudmouth who loses her job and then finds her husband with another woman, so she takes off on a road trip with her grandma (Susan Sarandon).
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Michael Bay directs this fourth instalment that features a fugitive Optimus Prime and an evil black ops chief who wants to kill all robots, even the nice ones. The robots feel mechanical, but Mark Wahlberg brings humanity.
Turbo
Ryan Reynolds voices the character of Turbo, a little garden snail with big dreams of winning the Indianapolis 500. Without reinventing the kids’ animation wheel, director David Soren and his cast still come up with enough new turns to keep this underdog story from becoming summer roadkill.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Professor X realizes the only way to save humanity and mutants from sure destruction is to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) into the past to stop a weapon from being invented.