OPENING:
Addicted (R) Sharon Leal stars in this drama as a woman who jeopardizes her marriage and career for a series of extramarital affairs. Also with Boris Kodjoe, Tyson Beckford, William Levy, Tasha Smith, and Kat Graham. (Opens Friday)
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (PG) This adaptation of Judith Viorst’s book stars Ed Oxenbould as an 11-year-old boy whose entire family suffers horrendous luck on the same day. Also with Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Dylan Minnette, Kerris Dorsey, Sidney Fullmer, Bella Thorne, Donald Glover, Burn Gorman, Megan Mullally, Jennifer Coolidge, and an uncredited Dick Van Dyke. (Opens Friday)
Autómata (R) This futuristic science-fiction thriller looks great, but it’s really stupid. A shaven-headed Antonio Banderas plays a corporate investigator in a post-apocalyptic world who discovers evidence that the servant robots that his company makes might have gained self-awareness. Spanish director Gabe Ibáñez finds some spectacular desert locations, and his special-effects team does some great work making the robots look convincingly use-worn and low-tech. However, the script unearths nothing new from the much-mined topic of what separates humans from machines. Melanie Griffith’s cameo as a robotics expert is fairly disastrous, too. This belongs on the junk pile. Also with Dylan McDermott, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Tim McInnerny, David Ryall, and Robert Forster. Voice by Javier Bardem. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
The Canal (NR) Rupert Evans stars in this horror flick as a film archivist who suspects that a supernatural entity is living in his house. Also with Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Steve Oram, Hannah Hoekstra, and Kelly Byrne. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (R) This sequel to the 2009 Norwegian horror film stars Vegar Hoel as a man who returns to fight the Nazi zombies after surviving an initial attack. Also with Ørjan Gamst, Stig Frode Henriksen, Hallvard Holmen, Ingrid Haas, Jocelyn DeBoer, and Martin Starr. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Dracula Untold (PG-13) Luke Evans stars in this horror movie that re-imagines the 15th-century Romanian count as a man who agrees to be turned into a vampire to save his family from Turkish invaders. Also with Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Art Parkinson, Paul Kaye, Diarmaid Murtagh, and Charles Dance. (Opens Friday)
The Houses October Built (NR) Bobby Roe directs and co-stars in this horror film about a group of fans of commercial haunted-houses who run across the real thing. Also with Brandy Schaefer, Zack Andrews, Jeff Larsen, and Mikey Roe. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Meet the Mormons (PG) They’re just like you and me! Or at least that’s the impression this determinedly bland and upbeat documentary wants to leave. Blair Treu’s film crosses the globe to follow six racially diverse subjects who share the Mormon faith. They all come across as fine, upstanding people, and 92-year-old airplane pilot Gale Halvorsen has a way with words as he describes what it’s like to fly. Still, the portraits are skin-deep, with no one addressing why they’re drawn to their faith, let alone the aspects of Mormonism that continue to be so controversial. A documentary aiming to present Mormonism to the larger population is going to have to dig deeper. (Opens Friday)
Men, Women & Children (R) This ensemble drama by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) tracks the impact of technology and social media on an overprotective mother (Jennifer Garner), a sexually frustrated dad (Adam Sandler), and a teen with a gambling problem (Ansel Elgort). Also with Judy Greer, J.K. Simmons, Rosemarie DeWitt, Dean Norris, Dennis Haysbert, Olivia Crocicchia, Kaitlyn Dever, Elena Kampouris, Shane Lynch, and Will Peltz. Narrated by Emma Thompson. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Pride (R) Matthew Warchus’ drama tells the true story of a group of London gays and lesbians who raise money to support a Welsh community of striking coal miners in 1984. Starring George MacKay, Dominic West, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Ben Schnetzer, Jessie Cave, and Paddy Considine. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Pump (PG) Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell’s documentary explores the history of the oil industry. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
NOW PLAYING:
Annabelle (R) The creepy doll from last year’s The Conjuring gets a spinoff/origin story. Newlyweds Mia and John (Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton) are living peacefully waiting for their baby to be born when their neighbors are murdered and they themselves are attacked by their neighbor’s cultist daughter, Annabelle Higgins (Tree O’Toole). After the girl is killed, her spirit possesses a doll purchased for John by Mia, and soon after the birth of their daughter, terrifying things begin to plague the family. Though the movie builds suspense well, avoids some clichés (the husband, for once, is not a disbelieving idiot), and has a few decent scares, it feels too derivative of atmospheric ’60s and ’70s horror films, often taking too long to go nowhere. The scariest thing about it may be its certainly unintended resemblance to A Haunted House 2. Also with Tony Amendola, Brian Howe, Kerry O’Malley, and Alfre Woodard. –– Cole Williams
Bang Bang! (NR) Hrithik Roshan stars in this Indian remake of Knight and Day as a rogue agent whose adventures sweep up an unassuming bank teller (Katrina Kaif). Also with Danny Denzongpa, Jaaved Jaffrey, Pawan Malhotra, Parth Akerkar, Kishan Gohel, and Préity Üupala.
The Boxtrolls (PG) Not as dark or deep as Coraline or ParaNorman, but this stop-motion animated movie continues the winning streak for the studio responsible for all three films. Based loosely on Alan Snow’s Here Be Monsters!, the movie centers on a boy named Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright) who must find a way to make peace between the underground-dwelling creatures who raised him and the humans hunting them down. Neither Eggs nor the boxtrolls are particularly interesting, but writers Irena Brignull and Adam Pava bring sophisticated wit to this kids’ movie, and the animators match them with some inventive action sequences and a great, disgusting gag about the villain (voiced by Ben Kingsley) and his lactose intolerance. This is excellent light family entertainment. Additional voices by Elle Fanning, Jared Harris, Toni Collette, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, Nick Frost, and Simon Pegg.
Dolphin Tale 2 (PG) If you or your kids are having trouble sleeping, here’s a nice cure. Nathan Gamble returns for this sequel to the 2011 film as a kid growing up near a water park that needs to find a companion for its amputee dolphin or risk being shut down. Nothing that happens here comes as any sort of surprise, and the jokes will have trouble making a 2-year-old laugh. Save your money for a trip to the aquarium. Also with Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, Cozi Zuehlsdorff, Harry Connick Jr., Charles Martin Smith, and Kris Kristofferson.
The Drop (R) Tom Hardy and the late James Gandolfini are the best reasons to see this thriller. They play a couple of mobbed-up bar owners whose lives spin out of control when some armed robbers steal the cash that the Mafia has been holding in their bar for safekeeping. Belgian director Michaël Roskam (Bullhead) lets the actors dictate the pace, and Gandolfini vividly plays a gangster gone to seed who’s simmering with rage without ever quite losing control. Still, it’s Hardy’s clenched, off-speed performance that winds up keeping the beat here and giving clues to his character’s soul. It’s the last screen role for the late Gandolfini, and it’s a fitting sendoff. Also with Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Michael Aronov, Morgan Spector, and Ann Dowd. –– Steve Steward
The Equalizer (R) Denzel Washington re-teams with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua for this reboot of the 1980s TV series that plays a bit too much like other Denzel thrillers of late. He plays a former CIA hitman suffering from OCD and insomnia who pisses off the Russian mob when he takes retribution on a pimp who brutally beats an underage prostitute (Chloë Grace Moretz). The early scenes between Washington and Moretz are well-played, so it’s a shame when she leaves the movie. (Where does she go?) Fuqua tries for elegance and brutal efficiency in depicting the hero’s killings (accomplished, as in the TV show, without a gun), but those qualities aren’t in this director. This isn’t really bad. It’s just stuff we’ve seen before. Also with Marton Csokas, David Harbour, Haley Bennett, David Meunier, Johnny Skourtis, Alex Veadov, Bill Pullman, and Melissa Leo.
Gone Girl (R) This movie tastes like death, and I mean that in a good way. David Fincher’s complex, black-as-the-grave murder mystery stars Ben Affleck as a man who becomes the publicly demonized prime suspect when his wife (Rosamund Pike) disappears. Gillian Flynn adapts this from her own bestselling novel and writes like a seasoned veteran, while Fincher expertly tightens the screws. Supporting actors (Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, and Carrie Coon especially) give tasty performances, and composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provide a fearsomely detached score. Both Fincher’s nihilism and Affleck’s talent for playing flawed, self-loathing guys receive a great showcase in this movie that flatly dismisses the illusions peddled by romantic movies. Also with Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Fugit, David Clennon, Lisa Banes, Missi Pyle, Emily Ratajkowski, Boyd Holbrook, Lola Kirke, Scoot McNairy, and Sela Ward.
