Movies

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This article was published 02/07/2015 (4076 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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RESULTS

Bandwidth. 14A. 105 minutes.

As romantic comedies go, it doesn’t get more unconventional than Results, depicting a freewheeling love triangle with Cobie Smulders at the apex as a no-nonsense personal trainer, Guy Pearce as an Aussie fitness guru and Kevin Corrigan as a flabby shlub who wanders into the fitness club requesting a makeover that will at least allow him to “take a punch.” The result is offbeat fun in a genre that desperately needs it. *** 1/2

 

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MAGIC MIKE XXL

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, McGillivray VIP, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 116 minutes.

Mike (Channing Tatum) has retired from the male stripping gig until a convention — and a reunion with his old touring buddies — draws him back into the fleshy fun.

 

TERMINATOR: GENISYS

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, Polo Park Imax, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 126 minutes.

This fifth Terminator movie riffs on James Cameron’s first two films in the series, re-imagining the 1984 meeting of Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), her would-be saviour from the future Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) and, of course, the metal man of the title (Arnold Schwarzenegger). The film pretends the last two Terminator movies never happened — a good thing — and reconfigures timelines so elaborately, it will have nerds scurrying for their blackboards to make sense of it all. The result is a weirdly playful reboot that makes good use of the aged Arnie, but doesn’t approach the awesome invention of the movies to which it pays homage. ** 1/2

 

STARTING FRIDAY

I AM BIG BIRD: THE CARROLL SPINNEY STORY

Cinematheque. G. 85 minutes.

A documentary portrait of the Muppet puppeteer who has given life to those most enduring of Sesame Street characters, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, for close to half a century.

 

SUITE FRANÇAISE

Bandwidth. Subject to classification. 107 minutes.

A lonely Frenchwoman (Michelle Williams), separated from her husband owing to the war, begins a dangerous romance with the German soldier (Matthias Schoenaerts) who has taken up residence in her mother-in-law’s house.

 

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The following movies have been previously reviewed by Free Press movie critic Randall King, unless otherwise noted.

 

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

Grant Park. PG. 119 minutes.

This new adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel stars a radiant Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdene, a woman who strives for independence in Victorian England, even as she is pursued by three suitors, a farmer (Matthias Schoenaerts), a respected landowner (Michael Sheen), and a volatile soldier (Tom Sturridge). Hardy’s source material could have facilitated an overheated costume melodrama but director Thomas Vinterberg opts for a cool, classic, yet contemporary rendition anchored by Mulligan’s subtle performance. *** 1/2

 

INSIDE OUT

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

This Pixar animated feature creates anthropomorphized emotions to show the psychological workings at play when 11-year-old Riley moves with her mom and dad to a new home in San Francisco. Amy Poehler voices a joyous Joy and Lewis Black is on the nose as Anger, but you have to especially respect the portrayal of Sadness (voiced with a tender comedic touch by Phyllis Smith), not as a negative or bad character but as a necessary member of the emotional team. She’s an effective repudiation of a dominant feel-good culture that would love to see her medicated out of existence. ****

 

INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 3

Towne. 14A. 98 minutes.

This prequel toggles between the supernatural crisis of a teen (Stefanie Scott) haunted by a malevolent spirit after trying to contact her dead mother, and a seasoned psychic Elise (Lin Shaye) as she attempts to abandon the spirit-world business after one too many terrifying encounters. The chief spectre is referred to as “the man who can’t breathe” and the whole film is a little wheezy when it comes to trotting out the elements that enlivened past Insidious entries, such as startling, aged, scary faces and figures popping in and out of the frame with physics-defying impunity. ** 1/2

 

JURASSIC WORLD

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, McGillivray VIP, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 125 minutes.

Set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, the theme park is now a 10-year-old success story until corporate suits force the park’s operations manager (Bryce Dallas Howard) to create a genetic hybrid monster, to the consternation of a raptor trainer (Chris Pratt) who must try to save the day. In its scale and visual effects, it feels like a proper sequel to Jurassic Park, except the characters are thin and the first film’s critique of scientific hubris just gets lost in the rote blockbuster action. ***

 

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Polo Park, St. Vital. 14A. 121 minutes.

In this reboot from director George Miller, Tom Hardy assumes the role of Max Rockatansky, the post-apocalyptic road warrior originally played by Mel Gibson. Max finds himself aligned with a warrior woman (Charlize Theron) on a mission to fight her way through hordes of bloodthirsty scavengers to return to her homeland. This is the third mega-franchise entry to come down the pike this year, but demonstrating his mastery of screen action, 70-year-old Miller shows ’em how it’s done. ****

 

MAX

McGillivray, Polo Park. PG. 111 minutes.

A Belgian shepherd dog used by the military in Afghanistan is sent back to America to a family struggling with their own personal loss from the war. If director Boaz Yakin wasn’t so quick to push the patriot buttons of his intended audience, this would have represented a welcome return of the old-fashioned canine melodrama in the vein of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. ** 1/2

 

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL

Grant Park. PG. 105 minutes.

High school senior Greg (Thomas Mann), happy to make film parodies with his friend Earl (RJ Cyler), is obliged to visit a classmate (Olivia Cooke) battling cancer, a relationship that blossoms as her condition gets more serious This could have been a heavy teen melodrama in the vein of The Fault in Our Stars, but the film hews closer to reality with characters that can’t always articulate their feelings and don’t always know how to do the right thing. *** 1/2

 

THE SALT OF THE EARTH

Cinematheque. PG. 110 minutes.

Co-directors Wim Wenders and Juliano Salgado collaborate on a gorgeous, ambitious documentary portrait of photographer Sebasti£o Salgado, who has spent 40 years travelling the world and bearing witness to some of the major events of our recent history, a devastating journey that leads to his latest redemptive project, a tribute to the planet’s beauty. ****

 

SAN ANDREAS

McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG. 115 minutes.

Dwayne Johnson is a Los Angeles Fire Department chopper pilot obliged to rescue his womenfolk (Carla Gugino as his estranged wife and Alexandra Daddario as his daughter) when a massive earthquake tears California apart. Notwithstanding all the digital mayhem, San Andreas has a soothing subtextual message in this age of global warming and ongoing toxic pollution, that tells audiences that no matter how horrific the disaster may be, humans aren’t to blame for the environmental chaos herein. A more appropriate title might have been San Andreas: It’s Not Our Fault. **

 

SPY

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 120 minutes.

Melissa McCarthy is a CIA analyst who must go undercover when her fellow agents are compromised on a mission to stop a deadly arms dealer (Rose Byrne). The spy spoof featuring an unlikely secret agent is practically a genre unto itself, but in that crowded field, writer-director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) wisely deploys McCarthy as a real, original and occasionally hilarious Bond wannabe. *** 1/2

 

TED 2

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, McGillivray, McGillivray VIP, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A. 116 minutes.

In this sequel to the rude 2012 comedy, John (Mark Wahlberg) and his titular toy bear/”thunder buddy” Ted (voiced by director Seth MacFarlane) go to court to fight the law when Ted is declared “property.” It’s good for some frequent, guilt-inducing laughs even if the movie’s satiric message — slavery is bad — is a bit of a no-brainer. ***

 

TOMORROWLAND

Towne. PG. 130 minutes.

A teenage science geek (Britt Robertson) discovers a conduit to a fantastic future world, but needs to enlist a disillusioned scientist (George Clooney) to help her unlock its mysteries in this Disney adventure from director Brad Bird (The Incredibles; The Iron Giant). Narratively awkward, Tomorrowland practically jumps the rails before it has properly begun. But when it gets back on track, it not only delivers the fun ride we expects from a Disney fantasy, but also a rare piece of family entertainment that warrants a discussion afterwards. *** 1/2