AVENGERS: ENDGAME
1/2 PG-13, 181 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. “Avengers: Endgame” will, I suspect, offer fans gratification and maybe a welcome moment of respite. “Endgame” not only answers the cliffhanger of its predecessor — that puny $300 million 156-minute “appetizer” better known as “Infinity War” — but ties together the entire 22-film arc of the Marvel “cinematic universe,” begun with 2008’s “Iron Man.” Generous in humor, spirit and sentimentality, Anthony and Joe Russo’s “Endgame” is a surprisingly full feast of blockbuster-making that, through some time-traveling magic, looks back nostalgically at Marvel’s decade of world domination. This is the Marvel machine working at high gear, in full control of its myth-making powers and uncovering more emotion in its fictional cosmos than ever before. It was Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark (Iron Man) who kicked things off for the MCU, and it’s him who opens “Endgame” and most often takes center stage. — Jake Coyle, Associated Press
BREAKTHROUGH
1/2 PG, 114 minutes. Stonington, Westbrook. In the growing faith-based film industry, movies based on the true stories of medical miracles are ideal film fodder. They’re more accessible to mainstream audiences than Biblical tales or conservative-baiting political fiction, and in pitting faith against medical science, they present seemingly hard proof of the existence of God — or whatever mystical forces of the universe one might believe in. Based on a true story, directed by Roxann Dawson and written by Grant Nieporte, it’s one of the more authentically moving entries in the genre, powered by a gripping lead performance from “This Is Us” star Chrissy Metz. While the power of prayer is certainly praised, one can’t help but be truly struck by the power of a fierce mother who practically wills her son back to health. Metz stars as Joyce Smith, the proud mother of basketball-obsessed John (Marcel Ruiz), whom she adopted on a Central American mission trip with her husband, Brian (Josh Lucas). Mother and son are going through typical teenage angst and emotional growing pains while John tests out his freedom and questions his identity and roots. But there’s no mistaking this mother’s love, biological or not, when John suffers a catastrophic accident. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
CAPTAIN MARVEL
1/2 PG-13, 124 minutes. Through today only at Stonington. Still playing at Waterford, Westbrook. “Captain Marvel” is a plucky and pleasing, if predictable, excursion that burns brightly, if briefly. It’s a superhero character study that is bit of a feminist “Lethal Weapon,” a retro buddy cop charmer that drives home its female empowerment themes with needle drops of every popular hit by female-fronted 1990s rock bands. If only it weren’t also saddled with so much tremendously silly outer space alien mumbo jumbo. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
THE HUSTLE
H1/2 PG-13, 94 minutes. Niantic, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Con artists working the Riviera: Is there a comic premise more old-fashioned yet strangely hardy than that old thing? Certainly it has possibilities, even in 2019, which explains “The Hustle.” It’s a remake of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” (1988), with Steve Martin, Michael Caine and Glenne Headly, which in turn was a remake of the 1964 romantic farce “Bedtime Story” starring David Niven, Marlon Brando and Shirley Jones. Now we have Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson doing the uptown/downtown act in a female-driven reboot. The mark this time is a young, Zuckerbergian tech millionaire (Alex Sharp). “The Hustle” invents some new elements while relying heavily on set-ups from the earlier pictures. The primary screenwriter, Jac Schauffer, has every right to work her version the way she likes, and the way the project’s initiator, producer and costar Wilson, likes it. Well, it’s a dud. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
THE INTRUDER
1/2 PG-13, 102 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Directed by Deon Taylor with a cheeky sense of fun and deep knowledge of the genre, “The Intruder” is the kind of schlocky yet satisfying genre filmmaking that makes you jump and laugh at the same time. Starring Michael Ealy and Meagan Good as Scott and Annie, a couple of naive city mice making a go of country living, the film is a blend of sexy and scary with a nifty social metaphor to boot. Think of it like a reverse “Get Out,” where a young black couple battles the last gasp of white patriarchy that won’t go quietly into that good night. When Charlie (Dennis Quaid) bellows “get out of my house!” after his campaign of cajoling and creeping goes belly up, one can’t help but think of the rage expressed by the many who fear social and cultural change. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
H1/2 PG, 104 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. It’s got an adorable hero from an iconic media brand who is voiced by a proven box office master at snark. But, somehow, “Pokémon Detective Pikachu” never really gets arresting. A neutered Ryan Reynolds tries hard but can’t make this live action-meets-animated movie gel. It’s plodding and listless and really not funny or smart enough. Turns out, you can’t copy “Deadpool” tricks for the PG set. “Pokémon Detective Pikachu “borrows lightly from film noir crime dramas to create a mystery in a world where humans and Pokémon co-exist. A young man called Tim Goodman (the terrific Justice Smith) joins with Pikachu (Reynolds’ voice) to search for what happened to the man’s father, a missing detective. The movie’s best moments are those between the scenes, where the Japan-born creatures thrillingly share the same urban space as humans. Smith is very appealing as a son coming to grips with