OPENING
Hridayapoorvam (NR) Mohanlal stars in this Indian comedy as a heart-transplant recipient who befriends the family of his donor. Also with Malavika Mohanan, Sangeeth Prathap, Sangita Mathavan Nair, Siddique, Lalu Alex, Meera Jasmine, and Basil Joseph. (Opens Friday)
Jaws (PG) The 50th anniversary re-release of the film that inaugurated summer blockbusters remains a compelling little thriller at heart. A police chief (Roy Scheider), a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss), and a gung-ho sea captain (Robert Shaw) have to team up to stop a great white shark preying on people off the coast of Long Island. Adapted from Peter Benchley’s novel, the film finds drama in between the well-staged shark attacks, as the men kill time by telling storie and finding out each other’s strengths and limitations. The film made director Steven Spielberg into a star, and it holds up quite well after a half century. Also with Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, and Peter Benchley. (Re-opens Friday)
Kosedhunga (NR) This Nepalese drama stars Niti Shah as a woman who returns to her village after marriage. Also with Saroj Khanal, Reecha Sharma, Prabin Khatiwada, Aaryan Sigdel, and Surakshya Panta. (Opens Friday at Cinepolis Euless)
Leaving Mom (NR) This drama stars Tuan Tran as a Vietnamese barber who seeks help from Korean relatives to take care of his dementia-suffering mother. Also with Jung Il-woo, Hong Dao, and Juliet Bao Ngoc Doling. (Opens Friday)
Lilo & Stitch (PG) Beyond the technical skill of integrating a CGI-generated Stitch (voiced by Chris Sanders) with live actors and scenery, this remake follows the animated original so closely that you wonder what the point is. Maia Kealoha portrays the little Hawaiian girl being raised by her older sister (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong) when the chaotically destructive space alien crash lands near her and she adopts the alien from the local animal rescue. Director Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On) makes it all seamless, but the familiar story beats aren’t any more moving now than they were in the 2002 original. The additions of Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen as the aliens trying to capture Stitch bring surprisingly little. Also with Tia Carrere, Courtney B. Vance, Amy Hill, Kaipo Dudoit, Jason Scott Lee, and Hannah Waddingham. (Re-opens Friday)
Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra (NR) Kalyani Priyadarshan stars in this Indian fantasy film as a woman who discovers that she has superpowers meant to fight evil. Also with Naslen, Sandy Master, Arun Kurian, Chandu Salimkumar, Dulquer Salmaan, Tovino Thomas, and Sunny Wayne. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Maa Jaye (NR) This Punjabi-language drama stars Jimmy Shergill as an Indian man who returns to India to visit his family. Also with Rehmat Rattan, Yograj Singh, Anita Meet, Bruce Pearl, and James Cronin. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Mukk Gyi Feem Dabbi Cho Yaaro (NR) This Punjabi-language comedy stars Seerat Mast, Sukhwinder Chahal, Mahesh Manjrekar, Anuj Nayak, Sukhwinder Raj, Santosh Gill, and Dheeraj Kumar. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Odum Kuthira Chaadum Kuthira (NR) Fahadh Faasil stars in this Malayalam-language comedy as a man reeling from being left at the altar. Also with Kalyani Priyadarshan, Revathi Pillai, Dhyan Sreenivasan, and Idavela Babu. (Opens Friday)
Param Sundari (NR) This Indian romantic comedy stars Sidharth Malhotra and Jahnvi Kapoor as a couple who come from different parts of India. Also with Sanjay Kapoor, Manjot Singh, Inayat Verma, Rajeev Khandelwal, and Karamveer Choudhary. (Opens Friday)
The Roses (R) Everyone is just horrible in this warmed over remake of The War of the Roses. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman star as a British couple living in America whose marriage comes apart when she becomes an internationally famous chef while he becomes an architect whom no one will hire. The British stars are alert enough to suggest that they don’t really want to be at each other’s throats, and there’s a fascinating subplot with their American friends (Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon) who are rampantly cheating on each other and seriously messed up in the head. Still, the British politesse in this story only seems to dampen things down instead of making everything funnier. The movie raises laughs in fits and starts, but never truly finds a groove. Also with Ncuti Gatwa, Sunita Mani, Zoë Chao, Jamie Demetriou, and Allison Janney. (Opens Friday)
Run (PG-13) This science-fiction horror film stars Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh as a woman looking for a getaway in the woods when aliens invade the planet. Also with Marques Houston, Erica Mena, Erica Pinkett, Drew Sidora, Ken Lawson, and Obba Babatundé. (Opens Friday)
The Short Game (PG) Ben Krieger stars in this sports drama as a high-school golfer forced to make decisions about his family. Also with Mackenzie Astin, Owen Himfar, Katherine Cunningham, Tyler Lofton, Emma Parks, Brandon Potter, and Glenn Morshower. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Sundarakanda (NR) Nara Rohith stars in this Indian romantic comedy as a man who suffers from eternal bad luck. Also with Sridevi Vijaykumar, Raghu Babu, Ajay, Satya, and Virti Vaghani. (Opens Friday)
The Toxic Avenger (R) Peter Dinklage stars in this remake of Lloyd Kaufman’s horror film as a janitor transformed into a superhero who takes revenge on polluters. Also with Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood, Shaun Dooley, Sunil Patel, Macon Blair, and Lloyd Kaufman. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
The Bad Guys 2 (PG) Better than the first movie, actually. The gang (voiced by Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, Marc Maron, and Craig Robinson) has trouble landing jobs after getting out of prison, so a rival gang frames them for their own crimes and forces them to commit additional crimes to clear their names. The climactic sequence is a bit drawn out, but until then the movie has a nice time mocking tech billionaires who want to go into space and the tropes of heist movies, as well as a nice interlude at a lucha libre wrestling event. Mark this down as an above-average animated kids’ film. Additional voices by Danielle Brooks, Maria Bakalova, Zazie Beetz, Jaime Camil, Richard Ayoade, Lilly Singh, Alex Borstein, Omid Djalili, and Natasha Lyonne.
Eden (R) There’s still some juice in Ron Howard’s directing career. A director who historically has played it safe gives some due insanity to the true story of a German philosopher (Jude Law) who flees to an island in the Galapagos in 1929 to write a manifesto on how to remake society, only to attract a family of German settlers and a fake baroness (Ana de Armas) seeking to build a luxury hotel on the island. There are some good moments by Vanessa Kirby as the philosopher’s wife and Sydney Sweeney as the settler’s wife, but de Armas walks away with the acting honors as a con artist who has managed to delude herself into thinking she can manifest her real estate dream if only the people around her do what she says. The visuals are drab despite the beauty of the location (it was filmed in Australia), but the interplay of personalities who have been mistreated by the world works well enough. Also with Daniel Brühl, Jonathan Tittel, Toby Wallace, Felix Kammerer, and Richard Roxburgh.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (PG-13) Finally they made a pleasing movie about this group. The film plunks us down in the middle of the saga in the early 1960s, when Reed Richards and Sue Storm (Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby) discover that they’re pregnant and, not coincidentally, Galactus (Ralph Ineson) announces his intention to devour the Earth. Director Matt Shakman’s retro-futurist aesthetic distinguishes this from other Marvel superhero movies, and the same goes for the well-oiled banter among the Four (Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach fill out the team). To a surprising extent, this feels like a 1960s movie, albeit one with contemporary special effects. Even the cute robot sidekick (Matthew Wood) isn’t too objectionable, and the movie is unencumbered by story ties to the rest of the Marvel universe. Also with Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, and Natasha Lyonne.
F1: The Movie (PG-13) The best auto-racing film ever made, especially if you see it in a theater with good speakers. Director Joseph Kosinski made you feel the speed and torque of the fighter planes in Top Gun: Maverick, and he uses those same skills to tell the story of a washed-up Formula One racer (Brad Pitt) who’s given one last shot to compete at that level by a desperate former racing teammate (Javier Bardem). The roar of the race cars is so intense that you may walk out exhausted from all the sound energy hitting your body. The subplots about our grizzled veteran mentoring a cocky young teammate (Damson Idris) and romancing his team’s technical director (Kerry Condon) don’t pull their weight, but the script delves deep into racing strategy, and the sound engineering and the cameras mounted on vehicles will make you feel like you’re there on race day. Also with Tobias Menzies, Kim Bodnia, Luciano Bacheta, Sarah Niles, Will Merrick, Callie Cooke, Samson Kayo, and Shea Whigham.
Freakier Friday (PG) At least this time it isn’t some stereotypical Asian lady making the body switch happen. The sequel to the 2003 Disney comedy has Anna (Lindsay Lohan) falling in love with a British chef (Manny Jacinto), but when their respective teenage daughters (Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons) detest each other, it’s once again time for body switching. This time there’s two switches, once again involving Anna’s mom (Jamie Lee Curtis), which makes it harder to keep track of who’s in whose body, but that would matter less if the scenes were funnier or if the plot points didn’t come so haphazardly and without logic. Lohan can still bring it and Butters displays some good comic timing, but after 22 years, you’d think the sequel would have better ideas. The only time the nostalgia pays off is at the end, when Anna reunites with her ex-bandmates (Christina Vidal Mitchell and Haley Hudson) and they perform songs from the first movie. Also with Chad Michael Murray, Vanessa Bayer, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Rosalind Chao, X Mayo, Lucille Soong, June DIane Raphael, Stephen Tobolowsky, Sherry Cola, George Wallace, Chloe Fineman, Elaine Hendrix, and Mark Harmon.
Highest 2 Lowest (R) Not always smooth, but often entertaining. Spike Lee’s remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low stars Denzel Washington as a wealthy music mogul who’s trying to regain control of his label when his teenage son (Aubrey Joseph) and the kid’s best friend (Elijah Wright) are kidnapped for ransom by an aspiring rapper (A$AP Rocky). It’s questionable how a villain who’s so angry and out of control could put together such a sophisticated kidnapping plot, but the film is worth it for Washington’s performance and some great action sequences like when the ransom drop is made and the kidnapper’s cohorts run the police into a Puerto Rican pride celebration in the streets. (This last features the late Eddie Palmieri performing.) It may be a minor entry in Lee’s canon, but it’s a worthwhile use of 133 minutes. Also with Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, John Douglas Thompson, Dean Winters, LaChanze, Rick Fox, Frederick Weller, Michael Potts, Wendell Pierce, and Ice Spice.
Honey Don’t! (R) It’s weird: The movie takes place in the present day, but all the cars, costumes, and other period trappings are from the 1950s. That’s just one of many puzzling things about Ethan Coen’s thriller. Margaret Qualley portrays a Bakersfield private detective investigating a series of deaths and disappearances related to a Christian cult leader (Chris Evans). Qualley fully embodies this self-possessed, hard-drinking gumshoe whether she’s talking to witnesses who aren’t forthcoming or having mind-blowing sex with a cop (Aubrey Plaza), but the plot has so many arbitrary twists that her authority is wasted. She and this character deserved a better film. Also with Billy Eichner, Lera Abova, Gabby Beans, Jacnier, Josh Pafcheck, Kale Browne, Bill Camp, Kristen Connolly, Talia Ryder, and Charlie Day.
How to Train Your Dragon (PG) Chalk up another live-action remake of an animated kids’ movie that I can’t see the point of. Mason Thames (The Black Phone) stars in this remake of the 2010 animated film as the Viking who discovers that his tribe have been slaughtering dragons for no good reason. Toothless the Dragon is now generated by CGI and never once convinces us that he’s a real animal, and none of the human actors (not even Gerard Butler, reprising his voice role from the original as the Viking chief) put forward a case that this needed to be fleshed out with human actors. The only good addition here is the joke about the origin of Hiccup’s Viking helmet. Also with Nico Parker, Julian Dennison, Gabriel Howell, Bronwyn James, Harry Trevaldwyn, Murray McArthur, Peter Serafinowicz, Ruth Codd, Naomi Wirthner, and Nick Frost.
Jurassic World: Rebirth (PG-13) More like stillbirth, actually. The series has a new director and a bunch of new stars, and yet it’s still tedious enough to make the last three movies seem like roller-coaster rides by comparison. Scarlett Johansson plays a private contractor who helps get a team of scientists into a dinosaur-populated island for biological samples that could be turned into life-saving medications, only to run into a family stranded there after their boat is sunk by other dinosaurs. Director Gareth Edwards (The Creator) makes the dinosaurs look real enough, but neither the characters nor the action set pieces are memorable in any way. Also with Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Manuel García-Rulfo, David Iacono, Luna Blaise, Audrina Miranda, Bechir Sylvain, Niamh Finlay, Ed Skrein, and Rupert Friend.
The Naked Gun (R) A reminder of why this comedy subgenre died in the first place. Liam Neeson portrays Frank Drebin Jr., investigating a murder linked to a tech billionaire (Danny Huston). There are a few scenes that hit, like the one when an infrared camera makes it appear that Frank is into all kinds of weird sex, but the gags that misfire far outnumber the ones that work, and neither Neeson nor Pamela Anderson as Frank’s love interest have the deadpan style of this comedy down. It’s never a good sign when the jokes in the final credits are funnier than the ones in the movie itself. Also with Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Cody Rhodes, Busta Rhymes, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Priscilla Presley, and an uncredited Dave Bautista.
Ne Zha 2 (NR) This movie became one of the highest-grossing films in world history before anyone had seen it outside of China, and now you can get an idea about why. Our heroes from the 2019 animated film (voiced by Crystal Lee) are reincarnated and sent to protect Chentang Pass from dragons of the sea, who have betrayed the humans. Like the original, this sequel is a not-always-steady mix of action and humor, and there are serious issues with the pacing of this 148-minute epic. However, the set pieces are pretty spectacular, as armies of demons invade the seacoast, clouds of angel-like demon hunters fly overhead, characters visit the next world and gain additional powers, and farcical battles against beavers and deer take place. For all its flaws, this is worth seeing for its aesthetics and the box-office history that it made. Additional voices by Aleks Le, Vincent Rodriguez III, Rick Zieff, Robert Clotworthy, Grace Lu, Fred Tatasciore, Eric Bauza, and Michelle Yeoh.
Nobody 2 (R) The sequel to the 2021 thriller partially but not completely fixes the original’s issues. Bob Odenkirk returns as a hit man who takes his family on a vacation to a water park in Wisconsin, only to discover that smugglers and crooked cops have taken over the surrounding town. Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes for Us, The Shadow Strays) takes over the sequel and brings some personality to the action sequences, but he consistently leaves dramatic material on the table regarding the hero’s teenage son (Gage Munroe) emulating his violent behavior and his wife (Connie Nielsen) knowing about his business. It feels like there’s a better, longer version of this movie that got left on the cutting room floor. Also with Christopher Lloyd, RZA, John Ortiz, Colin Hanks, Lucius Hoyos, Paisley Cadorath, and Sharon Stone.
Primitive War (NR) This fantasy film is about a group of Vietnam War soldiers who encounter dinosaurs while searching for a missing platoon. Starring Tricia Helfer, Ryan Kwanten, Nick Wechsler, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Ana Thu Nguyen, Lincoln Lewis, and Jeremy Piven.
Relay (R) The performances are the strength of this cerebral New York-set thriller about a research scientist (Lily James) who fears for her life after discovering malfeasance by her corporate bosses and turns to a messenger (Riz Ahmed) to ensure her safety. The messenger uses a relay service intended for the deaf and hard of hearing to guarantee that communications between him and his clients are kept confidential, and director David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) deftly follows the strategies that the hero uses to keep himself anonymous to everyone and get paid. Ahmed is stellar as a Muslim alcoholic who does this as a way to make amends, and his soulfulness is needed in a film where his conversations are all through third parties. It works, somehow. Also with Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald, Matthew Maher, Jared Abrahamson, Pun Bandhu, Eisa Davis, and Victor Garber.
Superman (PG-13) The best Superman movie from this century. David Corenswet takes over the title role, as Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) leads a social-media crusade to have Superman treated as an illegal alien. Luthor is reimagined for our time as a libertarian billionaire who feels small and insignificant against the Man of Steel’s superpowers, and a highly dysfunctional trio of superheroes calling themselves the Justice Gang (Nathan Fillion, Edi Gathegi, and Isabela Merced) makes a funny foil to Superman. Writer-director James Gunn doesn’t make the most memorable action set pieces here, but he is willing to use fight sequences in an unorthodox way, like when Clark Kent and Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) have an earnest conversation about their relationship while the Justice Gang silently battles a kaiju in the distance. The surprising subplots and the grounding in current events makes this welcome. Also with Skylar Gisondo, Wendell Pierce, Beck Bennett, María Gabriela de Faría, Sara Sampaio, Zlatko Buric, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Mikaela Hoover, Sean Gunn, Frank Grillo, Anthony Carrigan, Alan Tudyk, Michael Rooker, Pom Klementieff, Angela Sarafyan, Bradley Cooper, and uncredited cameos by Milly Alcock and John Cena.
Together (R) The best piece of body horror since The Substance wouldn’t work nearly as well if its lead actors weren’t married to each other, or if they weren’t so well-versed in playing scenes for laughs. Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a couple who move to a big house in the countryside and find that their bodies are fusing together. Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks makes his directing debut and displays some uncanny talent, as in a cavern that appears to be alive as it starts the process of our couple losing their individuality. The actors, too, find humor in the horrifying situation. The final shot is a joke that misfires, but this unique horror film is the best argument I’ve ever seen in favor of staying single one’s whole life. Also with Damon Herriman.
Trust (R) This thriller aims to use the ugliness of Sophie Turner’s offscreen divorce for its thrills, but it fails on every level. The Welsh actress portrays a Hollywood sitcom star who flees the city for an Airbnb in the countryside after her social media accounts are hacked to reveal an unsavory affair with her co-star (Billy Campbell). He sends a hitman to her location at the same time that a group of stupid thieves stumble onto the property and decide to rob it. An ungodly amount of time has the heroine trapped in a utility room that is flooding. This wants to be a modern-day update on Panic Room, and it falls very far short. Also with Rhys Coiro, Peter Mensah, Forrest Goodluck, Gianni Paolo, and Katey Sagal.
Weapons (R) Disquieting. Zach Cregger’s horror film is about a Pennsylvania town where 17 schoolchildren suddenly vanish on the same night, and the community turns on itself for lack of any explanations, starting with the third-grade teacher (Julia Garner) who taught all the missing kids. It all plays like Eddington in that it only takes one unforeseen event to make these civilized people ready to kill each other in the street, but this movie’s inchoate violence makes it more powerful, like a finely honed urban legend. Cregger’s comedy background also brings some unexpected humor to the proceedings, but he also implies that the trauma here will roll on for generations until the town is engulfed in one giant trauma bond. Also with Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, June Diane Raphael, Sara Paxton, Luke Speakman, Clayton Farris, and Justin Long.
Dallas Exclusives
Dongji Rescue (NR) This Chinese historical thriller is based on the real-life story of a group of fishing villagers who rescued more than 300 British prisoners of war after their Japanese ship was sunk in World War II. Starring Zhu Yilong, Wu Lei, Ni Ni, Yang Haoyu, Chen Minghao, Ni Dahong, and Kevin Lee.
We’re Not Safe Here (PG-13) Solomon Gray’s horror film stars Hayley McFarland as a woman who returns from her disappearance altered. Also with Sharmita Bhattacharya, Caisey Cole, and Margaret Wuertz.
What We Hide (NR) This thriller stars McKenna Grace and Jojo Regina as sisters who hide their mother’s dead body for fear of being separated by the foster care system. Also with Forrest Goodluck, Dacre Montgomery, Malia Baker, Fernanda Andrade, and Jesse Williams.
