Opening
The Final Girls (PG-13) Taissa Farmiga stars in this horror-comedy as a woman who reunites with her deceased actress mother (Malin Akerman) when she’s magically pulled into a slasher movie that her mother starred in. Also with Nina Dobrev, Alexander Ludwig, Adam DeVine, Thomas Middleditch, and Alia Shawkat. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Freeheld (PG-13) Julianne Moore and Ellen Page star in this drama about a real-life New Jersey lesbian couple who sued their county for the rights to a terminally ill partner’s police pension. Also with Steve Carell, Michael Shannon, Luke Grimes, Dennis Boutsikaris, Skipp Sudduth, and Josh Charles. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
In My Father’s House (R) This documentary by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg (Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work) follows rapper Che “Rhymefest” Smith as he reunites with his estranged homeless father and tries to rebuild the family home with him. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Knock Knock (R) Keanu Reeves stars in Eli Roth’s horror film as a married man who finds his life in danger after trying to assist two women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) in need of help. Also with Colleen Camp. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Ladrones (PG-13) Joe Menendez’ sequel to Ladrón que roba a ladrón stars Fernando Colunga and Eduardo Yáñez as two thieves who try to engineer a heist to protect a farming community in the Dominican Republic. Also with Oscar Torre, Jessica Lindsey, Frank Perozo, Nashla Bogaert, and Miguel Varoni. (Opens Friday)
Pan (PG) Joe Wright’s prequel to the Peter Pan story stars Levi Miller as a 12-year-old Peter who makes his first trip to the place called Neverland. Also with Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, Garrett Hedlund, Adeel Akhtar, Nonso Anozie, Cara Delevingne, and Amanda Seyfried. (Opens Friday)
Peace Officer (NR) Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson’s documentary about Utah investigator “Dub” Lawrence, the founder of his state’s first SWAT team, who’s now trying to bring it down after the team killed his son. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Now Playing
Ant-Man (PG-13) The weakest Marvel movie since The Incredible Hulk. The film stars Michael Douglas as a scientist who secretly invents a suit that shrinks its wearer to insect size while keeping his or her strength, and Paul Rudd as a cat burglar he recruits to help him keep his former protégé (Corey Stoll) from weaponizing the technology. The movie isn’t funny, and Rudd’s performance is atypically off; he seems too nice to be a criminal. The villain is uninteresting, the shrinking is done without any sense of wonder, and the subplot involving the burglar’s young daughter (Abby Ryder Fortson) is sloppy sentimentalism. There are moments of visual wit here, but the storytelling and characterization aren’t up to the standards that Marvel has set for its comic book movies. Also with Evangeline Lilly, Bobby Cannavale, Anthony Mackie, Judy Greer, Michael Peña, T.I., David Dastmalchian, Martin Donovan, Hayley Attwell, John Slattery, and uncredited cameos by Sebastian Stan and Chris Evans.
Black Mass (R) Deeply ordinary, though it tries so hard to be very serious and important. Johnny Depp plays notorious Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, who bands together with his politician brother (Benedict Cumberbatch) and their childhood friend-turned-FBI agent (Joel Edgerton) to make Whitey a bureau informant. Depp is a sleek, vampiric killer here, but the rest of the high-powered cast has little to do besides try on their Boston accents. Director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) directs this thing tediously, cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi seems allergic to anything that looks good, and composer Junkie XL scores this like a Wagner opera. This thing aims for epic tragedy, yet its hero comes off looking like a deluded ninny for trusting in this group of gangsters. Also with Peter Sarsgaard, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Johnson, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, Julianne Nicholson, David Harbour, Corey Stoll, W. Earl Brown, Bill Camp, Juno Temple, and Adam Scott.
Etiquette for Mistresses (NR) Are all the Filipino movies as soapy as the ones AMC Grapevine Mills is getting in? I sure hope not. This drama based on a self-help book written by a self-proclaimed mistress to powerful men stars Kim Chiu as a girl fresh from the countryside (and fooling around with the future president’s husband) who falls in with a group of mistresses in Manila and tries to follow their advice on how to conduct herself as a kept woman. Everything looks as nice as a Nancy Meyers comedy, but the movie too often devolves into brain-rotting discussion of relationships. As for the comedy, let’s be charitable and say it’s too specific to its culture. If Filipino cinema is to be taken seriously, there must be progress. Also with Zoren Legaspi, Tirso Cruz III, Eddie Gutierrez, Cherry Pie Picache, and Helen Gamboa.
Everest (R) Not worth the IMAX upcharge, or even the regular admission price. This movie tells the story of the 1996 climbing disaster that killed six climbers on Mt. Everest, with Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal playing the heads of competing climbing parties that team up to get to the top. Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur made his bones with smaller action thrillers (2 Guns), but the larger canvas for this movie defeats him. The climbers look too similar to one another bundled into their parkas, and the director gives no sense of the unique dangers of Everest. Meanwhile, the relationships between climbers and wives back home (Robin Wright and Keira Knightley getting thankless roles) are straight soap opera. For a movie about the world’s biggest mountain, this feels small. Also with Josh Brolin, Sam Worthington, John Hawkes, Martin Henderson, Michael Kelly, Naoko Mori, and Emily Watson.
The Green Inferno (R) Look past all the graphic dismemberments and mutilations in Eli Roth’s latest horror film (a tall order, yes) and you’ll find a nifty satire lurking here. Lorenza Izzo stars as a New York City college student who travels with a bunch of fellow activists to save the Amazon rainforest, only to fall into the hands of a tribe of cannibals. Roth pays much more attention to character than other horror filmmakers, and relies much less on tired cinematic devices. This ranks with Cabin Fever and Hostel as his best works. Also with Ariel Levy, Aaron Burns, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Daryl Sabara, and Sky Ferreira.
Hotel Transylvania 2 (PG) Adam Sandler and crew return for this animated sequel, and the novelty has largely worn off. He voices Dracula, who frets over whether his mixed-blood grandson will turn out a vampire before he turns 5 and tries to ensure that this happens while his daughter and son-in-law (voiced by Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg) are in California. The animators come up with a few gags that raise a laugh, but the thing overall is dispensable. I shudder to think how tired this setup will be when Hotel Transylvania 3 rolls around. Additional voices by Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Molly Shannon, Fran Drescher, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Dana Carvey, Chris Kattan, Jon Lovitz, and Mel Brooks.
The Intern (PG-13) This instantly forgettable comedy returns to the land of Nancy Meyers, where the punchlines never land as smartly as they should, no one under 30 knows anything worth knowing, and everyone does everything in attractive rooms that give no sign of ever having been inhabited by people before. Robert De Niro plays a 70-year-old retiree who takes an entry-level job working for the founder of a thriving online fashion startup (Anne Hathaway) and winds up teaching her how to relax once in a while and be okay with her success. De Niro does fine understated work here, but Meyers’ material doesn’t repay his efforts onscreen or your efforts watching it. Also with Adam DeVine, Anders Holm, Andrew Rannells, Nat Wolff, Christine Scherer, Linda Lavin, and Rene Russo.
Jurassic World (PG-13) The dinosaurs are fascinating and the people are boring, but then, why should this be any different from the 1993 original? In this fourth film, the dinosaurs are housed at a well-established theme park that turns to genetically engineering new dinosaurs to keep attracting customers, and it’s up to a raptor handler (Chris Pratt) and a scientist (Bryce Dallas Howard) with two so-cute-you’ll-barf nephews (Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson) visiting the park to save everyone. Director/co-writer Colin Trevorrow is so busy shoehorning in references to Steven Spielberg’s original that he ignores how sexist this thing is. There’s no shame in Trevorrow’s inability to equal Spielberg’s flair, but the sense of wonder that pervaded his Safety Not Guaranteed is nowhere in evidence here. I was bored. Also with Irrfan Khan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Judy Greer, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, Lauren Lapkus, and B.D. Wong.
The Martian (PG-13) Very solid. Matt Damon stars in this science-fiction crowd-pleaser as an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars alone after his fellow crew members think he’s dead. While much of this movie (adapted from a novel by Andy Weir) focuses on his solitary efforts to keep himself alive and contact NASA, just as much is focused on the people back on Earth working to bring him home, which allows for many heroes instead of one. The weak character development largely wastes the talents of a deluxe supporting cast, but Damon is convincing as both a brilliant scientist and a guy who cracks jokes to deal with his predicament, and the movie has enough comic relief so that its 140 minutes pass smoothly. For director Ridley Scott, this is a badly needed jolt back to life and a heartening late-career triumph. Also with Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Aksel Hennie, Sebastian Stan, Sean Bean, Benedict Wong, Donald Glover, Mackenzie Davis, Eddy Ko, Chen Shu, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (PG-13) James Dashner’s dystopian YA novel would have been better if it had been adapted into a video game instead of a movie. If you were controlling the hero, you’d probably make smarter decisions than him, and a pixelated version of him would show more personality than the relentlessly uninteresting Dylan O’Brien. This sequel to last year’s hit continues the adventures of the teens who survived the maze. Director Wes Ball engineers a nice sequence when O’Brien and Rosa Salazar (a ghostly new presence here) flee the zombies up a half-toppled skyscraper, but this still comes off as a half-assed Hunger Games rip-off. Also with Kaya Scodelario, Ki Hong Lee, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Dexter Darden, Alexander Flores, Jacob Lofland, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Barry Pepper, Lili Taylor, and Patricia Clarkson.
Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (PG-13) In its fifth installment, the spy series is as implausible and as gripping as ever. Tom Cruise returns as superagent Ethan Hunt, who discovers the existence of a rival spy agency just as IMF is being dismantled. Director Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) is the latest to take over the series, and he engineers terrific action sequences involving a backstage assassination plot at an opera performance and a motorcycle chase down the highways of Morocco. As a British agent who has an in with the rival agency, Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson is a blazing addition to the series as well. It’s a fine piece of summer escapism. Also with Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Sean Harris, Tom Hollander, Jens Hultén, Simon McBurney, and Alec Baldwin.
The Perfect Guy (PG-13) Michael Ealy is well-cast in this thriller as a charming heartthrob who’s actually a murderous psychopath in disguise. Other than that, there’s little to recommend this buppie Fatal Attraction knockoff that stars Sanaa Lathan as a woman who ditches her commitment-phobic boyfriend (Morris Chestnut) for Ealy’s more assertive but crazy-ass lover. The movie sets the villain up as a security expert and hacker extraordinaire before letting that point go to waste. Lugubriously directed by David M. Rosenthal, this is about as disturbing as a yogurt that’s one day past its expiration date. Also with John Getz, Tess Harper, Kathryn Morris, Rutina Wesley, Holt McCallany, L. Scott Caldwell, and Charles S. Dutton.
Sicario (R) This sweaty, intense action thriller stars Emily Blunt as an FBI agent who volunteers for a task force to take down a Mexican drug cartel, only to find things getting murky real fast. The script’s cynicism about the War on Drugs is cheap and the periodic cutaways to a Mexican cop (Maximiliano Hernández) caught up in the carnage fail to humanize the collateral damage. Still, this is a better movie about the border relations than most, with French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve conjuring up hard-hitting action sequences and Blunt layering her toughness with amusement and gathering outrage at the moral compromises involved. The uneasy thrills here are the movie’s proudest achievement. Also with Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Victor Garber, Daniel Kaluuya, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Donovan, and Julio Cedillo.
Sleeping With Other People (R) A better romantic comedy than The Intern. Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie star as a serial cheater and a commitmentphobe who try to be platonic friends after hooking up in college and reuniting years later at a sex addicts’ support group. Writer-director Leslye Headland (Bachelorette) steers this clear of the traps of other romances and into some terribly funny set pieces, especially one where he teaches her how to masturbate herself using an empty Snapple bottle. Despite the raunchiness of the material, the two stars give this a twisted innocence that’s quite endearing. Also with Natasha Lyonne, Adam Scott, Andrea Savage, Jason Mantzoukas, Margarita Levieva, Adam Brody, Amanda Peet, and Katherine Waterston.
Southpaw (R) Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic, but this boxing drama is far less than that. He plays Billy Hope, an orphaned kid-turned-boxing champion who loses everything after his uncontrolled temper results in his wife (Rachel McAdams) being killed. Director Antoine Fuqua’s simplistic sense of drama is about as subtle as a right cross to the jaw, and about as much fun. Screenwriter Kurt Sutter gives us cliché after cliché, from the wise old trainer (Forest Whitaker) in a dingy gym to the cute kid (Oona Laurence) who needs to be saved to the redemptive title fight against the mouthy rival boxer (Miguel Gomez) who started it all. Gyllenhaal proves his range by playing this boiling rage case, but both he and we deserved a better vehicle than this movie that could have been made in 1935. Also with 50 Cent, Skylan Brooks, Victor Ortiz, Beau Knapp, Rita Ora, and Naomie Harris.
Straight Outta Compton (R) Musical thrills and good timing carry this rickety biopic over its many rough patches. F. Gary Gray’s bio details how Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), and Ice Cube (played by the rapper’s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr.) came together to form N.W.A. in the 1980s. The movie glosses over the group’s casual misogyny and homophobia, and the latter half sags as the music stops and the rappers’ life stories get turned into soap opera. Still, the young cast perform thrilling cover versions of N.W.A.’s greatest hits, and the recent wave of police shootings of unarmed black men have put the country in just the mood to hear “Fuck Tha Police” right now. Also with Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Marlon Yates Jr., R. Marcos Taylor, Keith Stanfield, and Paul Giamatti.
Veteran (NR) Hwang Jung-min stars in this Korean crime thriller as a seasoned Seoul police detective who tries to bring down a business conglomerate princeling (Yoo Ah-in) who preys on poor people and is, unfortunately, very good in a fight. Director Ryoo Seung-wan (The Berlin File) isn’t as famous as some of his compatriots, but he knows his way around thrillers like these, cutting the action sequences with effective slapstick comedy. Hwang negotiates the action and comedy equally well, and the brutal fistfight in a crowded Gangnam district is a satisfying end to this piece of entertainment. Also with Yoo Hae-jin, Jeong Man-shik, Jeong Woong-in, Jang Yoon-ju, and Oh Dal-su.
The Visit (PG-13) The best movie M. Night Shyamalan has made in years, and maybe his (intentionally) funniest one ever. Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould play siblings whose weeklong visit to stay with their estranged grandparents (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) at their Pennsylvania farm turns more and more disturbing each night. The found-footage approach gives a peppier rhythm to Shyamalan’s stately filmmaking, enough of the gags land to sustain you during the non-scary parts, and even the trademark Shyamalan plot twist pays off satisfyingly. Hope for Shyamalan’s career lives again. Also with Kathryn Hahn and Celia Keenan-Bolger.
The Walk (PG) Never quite as mythical as it thinks it is. Robert Zemeckis’ film dramatizes Philippe Petit’s 1974 stunt when he strung a cable across the roofs of the World Trade Center towers and walked across it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays Petit, and while he shows off his acrobatic skills and his French, he never quite finds a way into the drive that made the wirewalker attempt such a dangerous trick. The visuals are nice and the movie pays tribute to the Twin Towers without turning mushy, but it’s too boilerplate to achieve the blinding power and beauty that it seeks. Also with Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale, Ben Schwartz, Steve Valentine, and Ben Kingsley.
War Room (PG) If your husband abuses you, lock yourself in a room and pray until God makes him stop. That’s the advice that this movie gives out, and it is so jaw-droppingly awful that I almost admire it. Priscilla C. Shirer plays a realtor who’s counseled by an all-wise elderly seller (Karen Abercrombie) about dealing with her cheating, possessive, wealthy husband (T.C. Stallings). Director/co-writer Alex Kendrick tells women in the audience to be good little submissive wives in such a patronizing way that he makes Tyler Perry look enlightened by comparison. For all its blather about God, this movie writes domestic abusers a blank check. I can’t think of anything worse that any recent movie has done. Also with Beth Moore, Alena Pitts, Tenae Dowling, Michael Jr., and Jadin Harris.
Dallas Exclusives
Goodnight Mommy (R) This Austrian horror film stars Elias and Lukas Schwarz as twin brothers who no longer recognize their mother (Susanne Wuest) after she gets cosmetic surgery. Also with Hans Escher.
Meet the Patels (PG) Ravi Patel stars in his own documentary about his family’s efforts to arrange a traditional Indian marriage for him.
Mississippi Grind (R) The directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson, Sugar) make this drama about two professional gamblers (Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds) who try to win back what they’ve lost in the casinos of the South. Also with Alfre Woodard, Sienna Miller, Analeigh Tipton, Susan McPhail, James Toback, and Robin Weigert.
Northern Soul (NR) Elliot James Langridge and Josh Whitehead play two teenagers in 1970s northern England whose lives are changed by the discovery of African-American soul music. Also with Antonia Thomas, Jack Gordon, James Lance, Ricky Tomlinson, Christian McKay, Lisa Stansfield, and Steve Coogan.
