Capsule reviews of this week’s movies

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This article was published 21/07/2016 (3397 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The Secret Life of Pets

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G. 86 minutes.

This animated comedy examines what goes on among the pet population when the humans aren’t looking. Basically a pet version of Toy Story, this animated adventure from some of the Despicable Me and Minions crew is not particularly original. Its broad comedy and hyperactive pacing don’t leave much room for Pixar-style pathos, and the animation is an aggressive hodgepodge of stylized characters and realistic environments. But boring it ain’t. ★★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

 

STARTING FRIDAY

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

Grant Park, McGillivray, Polo Park. 14A. 91 minutes.

Aging hedonists Edina and Patsy (Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley) go on the lam after being accused of accidentally killing Kate Moss in this feature film spinoff of the beloved British TV series.

 

Ice Age: Collison Course

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G. 95 minutes.

Scrat the panicky squirrel is somehow responsible for a catastrophe in outer space that threatens the world in this aren’t-we-done-yet? franchise entry.

 

Kabali

Grant Park. Subject to classification. 153 minutes.

This Tamil-language gangster film stars Rajinikanth as an aged crime boss obliged to protect his business and family from violent interlopers.

 

Lights Out

Polo Park, St. Vital 14A. 81 minutes.

Based on a chilling horror short of the same title (check it out on YouTube), this thriller about a single mom (Teresa Palmer) haunted by a shadow-dwelling spectre disputes the parental wisdom that says there’s nothing lurking in the darkness that isn’t there in the light.

 

Star Trek Beyond

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 122 minutes.

Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise gang are stranded on a distant planet when the Enterprise is as good as destroyed. Simon Pegg, who stars as Scotty, co-wrote the script which purports to live up to its title and take the franchise in a new direction, as opposed to the slavish Wrath of Khan rehash that was Star Trek Into Darkness.

 

 

NOW PLAYING

The BFG

Polo Park. G. 118 minutes.

Steven Spielberg directs this adaptation of a beloved Roald Dahl book about a plucky orphan (the winning Ruby Barnhill) who finds herself in the benign clutches of a Big Friendly Giant (a game-changing motion-capture performance by Mark Rylance). The late screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who penned E.T. for Spielberg, did not quite succeed in giving a solid film structure to Dahl’s source material, but one can’t deny the visual delights of this doggedly episodic film, especially in Rylance’s beautiful, beatific performance as the titular behemoth. ★★★1/2 (Reviewed by Randall King)

 

Central Intelligence

McGillivray, Polo Park. PG. 108 minutes.

Robbie, a bullied nerd in high school, grows up to be a lethal spy (Dwayne Johnson) who drafts his one friend, Calvin (Kevin Hart), to participate in a deadly caper. In the role of a physical powerhouse with nerdly teen obsessions, Johnson does make for a uniquely weird action hero, and Hart pings off that weirdness with the instinctive expertise of a Pong master. But notwithstanding his character’s obvious man-crush on Calvin, director-co-screenwriter Rawson Marshall Thurber stops short of making Robbie gay, a choice that might have elevated the film’s satiric value beyond that of just another studio summertime action-comedy.★★1/2 (Reviewed by Randall King)

 

The Conjuring 2

Polo Park. 14A. 134 minutes.

In this sequel to the 2013 hit, married demonologists (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) travel to England and get more than they bargained for when investigating the case of a young girl apparently possessed by a malevolent spirit. Director James Wan goes light on the gore and heavy on the bumps in the night and creepy children’s toys. The results are uneven and overlong but still nicely crafted and satisfyingly scary. ★★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

 

Finding Dory

Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G. 97 minutes.

This sequel to the 2003 Pixar hit Finding Nemo sees Marlon and Nemo accompanying forgetful blue tang Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) on her own journey to track down her forgotten parents. The plot is a tad redundant, but there’s lots of fun to be had courtesy of Dory’s friendship with a grumpy octopus (Ed O’Neill) committed to his own mission to move to a nice, safe Cleveland aquarium. The animation is gorgeous, of course, which compensates for a plot turn that too frequently tips the fish scales into melodrama. ★★★1/2 (Reviewed by Randall King)

 

Ghostbusters

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 117 minutes.

This reboot of the ‘80s supernatural comedy skews feminine with the team consisting of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon taking on a plague of ghosts haunting New York City. Director Paul Feig found a way to make it work (notwithstanding the trolls who hated the film before it was even completed). The standout performance here is the magnificently unhinged McKinnon, licking her chops and spouting streams of quasi-scientific gibberish. ★★★1/2 (Reviewed by Katie Walsh)

 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

McGillivray. PG. 101 minutes.

Defiant city kid Ricky gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside where he unexpectedly feels at home with his new foster family including cantankerous Uncle Hec (Sam Neill). When a tragedy strikes that threatens to ship Ricky to another home, both he and Hec go on the run in the bush as a national manhunt ensues in this comedy from director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows), who casually blends entertainment and emotional resonance creating something both site-specific and universal. ★★★★ (Reviewed by Kenneth Turan)

 

Independence Day: Resurgence

Polo Park. PG. 120 minutes.

Twenty years after Will Smith sucker-punched an alien invader, director Roland Emmerich is back with an incoherent, overlong and unnecessary sci-fi action sequel. As a now-unified Earth prepares to fight off a bigger but duller outer-space threat, Emmerich blows more stuff up, with the help of the returning cast members Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum and Brent Spiner, along with some generic younger additions, including Liam Hemsworth, Jessie T. Usher, Maika Monroe and Angelababy. (Smith chose not to re-up, and his charisma is much missed.) The aliens might have had two decades to prepare, but the slovenly script seems to have been thrown together in a day or two, and without the original’s sense of escapist fun or fresh use of special effects, the sequel’s destructo CGI spectacle feels hollow. ★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

 

The Legend of Tarzan

Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 110 minutes.

Yet another cinematic go-round for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ape-man pulp hero, starring Alexander Skarsgard as the loin-clothed one, torn from his new home in Victorian England to save his wife Jane (Margot Robbie) from the machinations of a Belgian envoy (Christoph Waltz) intent on enslaving the African populace of the Congo. The story of Tarzan is one of the greatest adventures ever told and, doubtless, it’s difficult to duplicate on the big screen and keep things believable. That said, this wasn’t a bad try. Skarsgard is a solid actor and certainly physically trained enough to look like a guy who swings from trees and battles apes. But he approaches the role as if Tarzan was a stoic and unfeeling character, without a sense of humour, which isn’t the same thing as being a strong character. It’s the film’s biggest flaw. ★★★ (Reviewed by Tony Hicks, San Jose Mercury News)

 

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A. 99 minutes.

A pair of disaster-prone brothers (Zac Efron and Adam DeVine) attempt to find a couple of nice girls to take to their sister’s wedding in Hawaii, except the gals they find (Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick) turn out to be lady reprobates on the make. On this wildly uneven roller-coaster ride, the lows far outweigh the highs. ★★ (Reviewed by Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service)

 

Our Kind of Traitor

Grant Park. 14A. 108 minutes.

A Russian money launderer (Stellan Skarsgard) asks a vacationing couple (Ewan McGregor and Naomie Harris) to help him defect to Britain, a proposition that turns out to be trickier than expected. Based on the 2010 novel by John le Carré, this film version is just confused. Does it want to be an action movie? A psychological thriller? A murky morality tale about global capitalism? It succeeds at none of these things but pulls off a few fascinating sequences, thanks mostly to Skarsgard’s bear-hugging charisma as an unusually sympathetic thug. ★★★ (Reviewed by Alison Gillmor)

 

The Purge: Election Year

Polo Park. 14A. 109 minutes.

The third entry in the Purge series sees a U.S. senator (Elizabeth Mitchell) with presidential aspirations attempting to end the annual 12-hour period of lawlessness only to find herself trapped on the streets of Washington with only her head of security (Frank Grillo) standing between her and certain death. The wacko Halloween-on-steroids style of the trilogy is amplified, and some of the set pieces seem simply provocative, rushing by in morbid vignettes. If these films are overtly political, Election Year is even more so. The message here about racial and economic inequality is relevant and accessible, but not necessarily revelatory, if you’ve been paying attention. ★★★★ (Reviewed by Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service)