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Tom Brady may have seven Super Bowl rings, but that’s nothing compared to the latest team against whom he’s facing off, the winningest group of legends perhaps ever assembled. Just take a look at the stats: first up, Jane Fonda, with two Oscars, seven Golden Globes and two Tony Awards under her belt. Next, Lily Tomlin, boasting six Emmys, two Tonys and a Grammy; and Sally Field, coming in hot with two Oscars, two Emmys and two Globes. Rounding out the team is the EGOT herself, Rita Moreno. Count ’em: Oscar, Grammy, Tony, two Emmys and a Golden Globe for good luck. This fearsome foursome star in “80 for Brady,” a tale about a group of octogenarian football fans and a wild weekend at the Super Bowl. 1:38. 2 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
‘80 FOR BRADY’:
‘ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA’: Paul Rudd is back as Scott Lang/ Ant-man, as is secondbilled Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne/ Wasp. Second-billed implies a certain portion of the action and the talking, but Lilly is practically mute in “Quantumania,” and you keep waiting for some explanation for this. A curse? A character grudge we’ll eventually find out about? Aside from the occasional boilerplate (“I’ve got a read on Scott!”), Hope’s strictly sideline material. The plot this time sends Scott, Hope, Hope’s brilliant and nicely coifed parents (Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas) and Scott’s enterprising and socially conscious daughter,
Cassie (Kathryn Newton), into the sub-universe of Quantumville. “Quantumania” also introduces the scowling, fearsome, highly screenworthy revolutionleading warrior, Jentorra,
portrayed by Katy O’brian. She’s a beast, the best kind, and ready for anything. Even when the film itself isn’t much of anything. 2:05. 2 stars. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
‘CREED III’: For “Creed” star Michael B. Jordan, stepping behind the camera for his directorial debut in “Creed III” is following in the very famous footsteps of the original star of the franchise — Sylvester Stallone. After the critical success of “Rocky,” for which he wrote the screenplay, Stallone took over directing duties from John G. Avildsen, directing “Rocky II,” which became a box-office smash, cementing Stallone as an unlikely action-star auteur. There’s a meta element to Jordan’s move behind the camera that’s mimicked in Adonis Creed’s journey in the screenplay by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin. Adonis, aka Donnie (Jordan), has hung up the gloves and moved into a
promoter role, supporting the championship aspirations of Felix Chavez (played by pro boxer Jose Benavidez), and spending time with his family, wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and daughter Amara (Mila Davis-kent). The domestic challenges — finding his purpose outside of the ring, reckoning with the history of his relationship with his adopted mother (Phylicia Rashad) and learning to express himself with his wife — are fairly standard issue and not all that compelling beyond what the actors bring to the role. Where “Creed III” really starts to stir to life is in the introduction of Jonathan Majors as a figure from Donnie’s dark and violent childhood. 1:56. 3 stars.
— Katie Walsh
‘JESUS REVOLUTION’: “Jesus Revolution” focuses on the Jesus movement that took place in Southern California in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Jon Erwin co-directs with Brent Mccorkle,
the writer of “I Can Only Imagine,” the pair working from a script by Erwin and Jon Gunn adapted from a book by Greg Laurie and Ellen Vaughn. Laurie is, in fact, the subject of “Jesus Revolution,” played by Joel Courtney. But the film, which is part biopic, part period piece depicting a larger movement, juggles three different subjects while trying to tell the story of the Jesus movement, including Laurie, Laurie’s mentor, Chuck Smith, played by Kelsey Grammer, and hippie evangelist Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie). Unfortunately, despite the interesting history, the film itself is a dry, scattered slog, neutered of all the thorny, contradictory details of the real story. 2:00. 1 ½ stars. — Katie Walsh
‘KNOCK AT THE CABIN’:
“Knock at the Cabin” is a real load — 100 lugubrious minutes of what is intended as steadily mounting dread and apocalypse prevention
seminar. It’s frustrating because writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has made seriously good films and some that go splat. With every new Shyamalan project, moviegoers have a way of holding out hope based on his best efforts and the luck of the draw. This one comes from the 2018 Paul Tremblay novel “The Cabin at the End of the World,” and there are moments when the adaptation by Shyamalan, Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman — the filmmaker wrote his version based on Desmond and Sherman’s script — feels as if it might be getting somewhere, albeit slowly. The acting’s quite good. But there is more to filmmaking and storytelling than what the actors can do. 1:40.
1 ½ stars. — Michael Phillips
‘MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE’:
There’s no denying that there is before “Magic Mike” and there’s after “Magic Mike.” One can even point to a specific inflection point in Steven Soderbergh’s
2012 male stripper drama that was lightly culled from star Channing Tatum’s experiences in an “all-male revue”: the scene in which Tatum, as the aforementioned Mike, performs a solo number to Ginuwine’s “Pony” as Cody Horn’s Brooke looks on from the crowd. It’s not just the hypnotic fluidity of Tatum’s hips and torso, but the way that Soderbergh cuts back to Brooke, our gaze becoming her gaze, her frown offering dramatic irony to the visual splendor that is Tatum’s body in motion. This final installment finds Soderbergh and Tatum toying with audience expectations to disappointing results. There are a few flashes of the original magic, but it’s lacking in the energy that made the first two movies a thrill. After the cultural reset of “Magic Mike,” this last dance just doesn’t bring the heat. 1:52. 2 stars. — Katie Walsh
‘PALM TREES AND POWER LINES’:
An older man cajoles a young girl into his truck late one night. “Don’t murder me,” she scoffs, oblivious to the other, more insidious threats that he may represent. It’s a classic “stranger danger” setup presented by Jamie Dack in “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” her directorial debut, which she co-wrote with Audrey Findlay. Dack and Findlay’s screenplay, about the relationship between the young girl, 17-year-old Lea (Lily Mcinerny), and the older man, 34-year-old Tom (Jonathan Tucker), masterfully lays out the situation, with every red flag and warning sign obvious, but situates the audience within Lea’s naive subjectivity so well that when she gets in the truck, we understand why. 1:50. 3 stars. — Katie Walsh RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.