‘Beauty and the Beast,’ more.
‘Beauty and the Beast’
When you’re remaking a beloved story — and you’re the people who told it the first time — how do you find something there that wasn’t there before?
Maybe you don’t have to.
Disney’s latest live-action redo of an animated classic, “Beauty and the Beast” hews, per Disney’s model, closely to the 1991 original.
Emma Watson is Belle, the independent young woman who takes her father’s place as a prisoner of the Beast, played by Dan Stevens. The other characters you also know: the blustery Gaston (Luke Evans), in pursuit of Belle; Belle’s eccentric father (Kevin Kline); and the Beast’s enchanted staff, including Lumiere, the candelabra (Ewan McGregor), Cogsworth, the clock (Ian McKellen), and Mrs. Potts, the teapot (Emma Thompson).
Directed by Bill Condon, “Beauty and the Beast” is getting mostly, but not universally, positive reviews. USA TODAY critic Brian Truitt gave it 3 stars, saying it “actually improves upon” the original by “embracing its musical-theater nature and adding depth to a familiar narrative.” “Beauty and the Beast” is rated PG for some violence and frightening images. It runs for 129 minutes.
‘The Belko Experiment’
If you’re dreading going to work in the morning, remember it could always be worse: You could be working for Belko.
In the workplace horror movie “The Belko Experiment,” American employees at a corporation in Bogotá find themselves in lockdown mode and told by a voice over the intercom that the only way they will make it out is to kill their three coworkers — and, if they don’t, six others will die.
Seeing it at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, Variety’s Dennis Harvey liked it: “As a self-aware guilty pleasure, ‘The Belko Experiment’ may not quite seize greatness, but it does give it a playful squeeze.”
“The Belko Experiment” is rated R for pervasive violence and gore, language, and some strong drug use. It runs for 88 minutes.
‘The Sense of an Ending’
The past is never really past, a fact that drives “The Sense of an Ending.”
Based on Julian Barnes’ novel, “Ending” tells the story of a septuagenarian (Jim Broadbent) who learns he has been willed the diary of an old school chum. The wrinkle: The woman who has it (Charlotte Rampling), with whom both he and his old mate had a relationship with, won’t give it up.
Along the way, we learn what happened between those three, and how it lingers.
Associated Press critic Jocelyn Noveck gave “Sense of an Ending” 3 stars, saying the movie is “interested in getting us to simply think about how we remember that past, and how much we edit along the way.”
“The Sense of an Ending” is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, a violent image, sexuality and brief strong language. It runs for 108 minutes.
‘Land of Mine’
One of this year’s Oscar nominees for best foreign-language film, “Land of Mine” tells the grim tale of young German soldiers — boys, really — who, as prisoners of war at the end of World War II, were sent to the Danish coast to remove the landmines their armies planted in the ground.
Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday gave it 4 stars, calling it an “instant classic”: “Both grimly naturalistic and infused with classical values at their most thoughtfully composed, ‘Land of Mine’ is epic but deeply intimate; elegant but tough.”
“Land of Mine” is rated R for violence, some grisly images and language. It runs for 101 minutes, and is in German, Danish and English, with English subtitles.
‘My Life as a Zucchini’
Another week, another Oscar-nominated animated feature finally makes it to Milwaukee screens.
The latest, “My Life as a Zucchini,” is a stop-motion animated tale from France about a boy (who wants to be called Zucchini) trying to make his way in a world with sadness and cynicism, but also with friends who have his back.
Boston Globe critic Ty Burr gave it 31⁄2 stars: “The movie’s surprisingly dark for its genre, which is why the emotional payoff becomes so satisfying as the story works its way back toward the light.”
“My Life as a Zucchini” is rated PG-13 for thematic elements and suggestive material. It runs for 68 minutes, and is showing in a dubbed-in-English version and in French with English subtitles.