OPENING
Biker (NR) This Indian sports film is about a group of motorcyclists competing on the motocross circuit. Starring Sharwanand, Malvika Nair, Rajasekhar, Atul Kulkarni, and Dayanand Reddy. (Opens Friday)
Bonolota Express (NR) This comedy from Bangladesh is about a group of strangers whose secrets come out during a fogbound train trip. Starring Mosharraf Karim, Chanchai Chowdhury, Azmeri Haque Badhon, Labonno Chowdhury, Sariful Razz, Sabrin Azad, and Masha Islam. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Fantasy Life (R) Matthew Shear writes, directs, and stars in this comedy as an aimless young man who begins an affair with the older woman (Amanda Peet) who has hired him as a babysitter. Also with Alessandro Nivola, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, Jessica Harper, Holland Taylor, and Judd Hirsch. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
A Great Awakening (PG-13) This Christian historical drama is about the unlikely friendship between the British Methodist preacher George Whitefield (Jonathan Blair) and the deist Benjamin Franklin (John Paul Sneed). Also with Russell Dean Schultz, JT Schaeffer, Josh Bates, Carson Burkett, Stephen Foster Harris, and Daniel Stargel. (Opens Friday)
Neelira (NR) This Sri Lankan film is about the lives of soldiers serving in the country’s recent civil war. Starring Naveen Chandra, Roopa Kodayur, Rohit Kokate, Swathy Krishnan, Sidhu Kumarsen, Tharmeega Manimaran, and Mahesh Saini. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Raakaasaa (NR) This Telugu-language horror-comedy stars Sangeeth Sobhan as a tech worker who accidentally awakens an ancient evil in his village. Also with Nayan Sarika, Ashish Vidyarthi, Getup Srinu, Rajasekhar Aningi, and Vennela Kishore. (Opens Friday)
Rabb Da Radio 3 (NR) The third installment in this comic Punjabi-language family epic stars Simi Chahal, Nimrat Khaira, Satwant Kaur, Tarsem Jassar, and Vikas. (Opens Friday)
The Secret Between Us (NR) Michael Jai White stars in this drama as a pillar of his community whose buried secret comes to light. Also with Dominique Wilson, Destinee Monét, Lisa Arrindell, Laura Fairchild, Denzell Dandridge, and Tommy McNulty. (Opens Friday)
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (PG) The Mario brothers (voiced by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day) rescue Yoshi (voiced by Donald Glover) while Bowser Jr. (voiced by Benny Safdie) kidnaps Princess Rosalina (voiced by Brie Larson) in this sequel. While there’s entirely too much going on, this is still better than the first movie. The new voice talent gives the thing some new energy and the filmmakers inject some visual wit that wasn’t there in the original, such as interludes made to look like sock puppet theater and Japanese anime, as well as a casino whose gaming floor extends to the walls and ceiling. Some Mario-fied Minions make an appearance as well. There’s certainly worse stuff made for the little ones out there. Additional voices by Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy, Keegan-Michael Key, Issa Rae, Luis Guzmán, and Glen Powell. (Opens Wednesday)
Vaazha II: Biopic of a Billion Bros (NR) This Malayalam-language comedy is about four hellraising young men trying to find maturity and success. Starring Vijay Babu, Alphonse Puthren, Amith Mohan Rajeshwari, Vinayak Mali, Sudheesh, Nihal Nizam. and Hashir. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
NOW PLAYING
Aag Lagay Basti Mein (NR) This Urdu-language comedy stars Mahira Khan and Fahad Mustafa as a Pakistani couple who relocate to Dubai to make their fortune. Also with Tabish Hashmi.
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (PG) Daniel Roher’s documentary doesn’t tell me anything really new about AI, but it does clarify a lot of the issues that I had floating around in my head. His hand-drawn animation also helps make it quite entertaining. The Oscar-winning filmmaker (Navalny) interviews a lot of the big industry names in artificial intelligence — though Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are notable by their absence — and gives an even-handed look at both the potential benefits and dangers of the new technology while he himself discovers that his wife is pregnant and their son will have to navigate a world with AI in it. This is best viewed by neophytes who aren’t sure what AI is but are concerned about its effects, which I think is a lot of people. Starring Sam Altman, Yuval Noah Harari, Tristan Harris, Deborah Raji, Dario Amodei, Rocky Yu, Aza Raskin, Connor Leahy, Demis Hassabis, Randima Fernando, Karen Hao, Ilya Sutskever, Jason Matheny, Shane Legg, and Reid Hoffman.
Avatar: Fire and Ash (PG-13) Actually more interesting than the first two films, though that doesn’t make this good. Human being Spider (Jack Champion) gains the ability to breathe Pandora’s air, which only creates more problems because it makes him more attractive to the humans as a test subject. The best thing the series could do is kill off both Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who both were wearing out their welcome even before this movie. While this film is beset by many of the same issues as its predecessors, it at least introduces us to a new Na’vi clan who ally themselves with the humans to get their hands on Earth weapons. They make more interesting villains than any this franchise has had before, and their presence lets us know that the Na’vi are not just innocent victims. A better writer than James Cameron might make this world interesting yet. Also with Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Giovanni Ribisi, Jemaine Clement, David Thewlis, and Kate Winslet.
Bunny!! (NR) Trấn Thành directs and co-stars in this Vietnamese psychological thriller about a podcaster (LyLy) who is drawn into a dangerous romance. Also with Pháo, Vĩnh Đam, Quốc Anh, Quỳnh Anh Shyn, Ngọc Nguyễn, and Pháp Kiều.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge (NR) Almost four hours long, and with enough double-crosses and action set pieces to make the time fly by. Ranveer Singh reprises his role as an Indian Sikh undercover agent who passes himself off as a Pakistani Muslim and takes control of Karachi’s criminal underworld by betraying and murdering his boss (Akshaye Khanna) before doing the same to rival gangs, the police, and ISI. Maybe the extended flashback detailing the hero’s journey from the military to prison to the spy trade could have been dispensed with, along with the nationalist crap about the greatness of Narendra Modi’s India, but writer-director Aditya Dhar has made a successful jumbo-sized crime epic. This isn’t as thoughtful or as good as The Godfather, but it’s worthy to be mentioned in the same breath. Also with Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Sara Arjun, Rakesh Bedi, Manav Gohil, Gaurav Gera, Danish Pandor, Bimal Oberoi, Danish Iqbal, Mustafa Ahmed, Udaybir Sandhu, Salim Siddiqui, Ashwin Dhar, Ankit Sagar, and Yami Gautam.
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (PG-13) Not quite the event that the filmmakers seem to think, though it still has value. Baz Luhrmann’s documentary consists of previously lost footage of Elvis Presley’s residency in Las Vegas, which he and his crew found while they were making Elvis. It’s hard not to wonder whether Presley is sweating because of his onstage exertions or all the drugs he was on at the time, and the audio clips from interviews with him don’t yield much insight into his ideas about music. You will nevertheless get to see him still looking and sounding fit while he covers his old hits as well as songs by the Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, and the Beatles. The performances stop short of electrifying, but they are good enough to make you understand why people flocked to the Vegas shows, and fans of the King of Rock and Roll will want to hear him perform through movie theater speakers.
GOAT (PG) A better sequel to Zootopia than the actual Zootopia sequel. This animated movie is about a goat (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) who wishes to play a form of full-contact basketball against much larger animals. The pixelated look of this movie gives it a grungier feel than most other Hollywood animated features, and the Black viewpoint further adds to this film’s uniqueness. I like how the basketball courts each have their own individual features that benefit the home team. The story is based on the life of NBA legend Steph Curry, who is cutely cast against type as the voice of a giraffe. It all makes this an animated sports movie worth cheering for. Additional voices by Gabrielle Union, Nick Kroll, David Harbour, Nicola Coughlan, Aaron Pierre, Jenifer Lewis, Patton Oswalt, Sherry Cola, Andrew Santino, Ayesha Curry, Eduardo Franco, Bobby Lee, Wayne Knight, Jelly Roll, and Jennifer Hudson.
Hoppers (PG) Maybe it doesn’t tug at the heartstrings like Pixar’s best movies do, but it’s funny enough that you won’t care. A 19-year-old college student (voiced by Piper Curda) discovers that her biology professor (voiced by Kathy Najimy) has developed a program to temporarily put human consciousness into realistic robot animals, so she uses it to talk to the animals and save a beloved forest glade from being demolished. She does point out that this is the plot of Avatar, but this movie is better thought out than Avatar because it recognizes how complicated the fight for environmental justice can become. This movie delivers on entertainment value better than most recent Pixar entries, making the kids laugh without talking down to the adults. That’s all the animation giant ever needed to do. Additional voices by Jon Hamm, Bobby Moynihan, Dave Franco, Eduardo Franco, Tom Law, Vanessa Bayer, Ego Nwodim, Melissa Villaseñor, Meryl Streep, and the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.
I Can Only Imagine 2 (PG) The sequel to the 2018 Christian music biopic continues the journey of MercyMe lead singer Bart Millard (John Michael Finley) as he takes his teenage son (Sammy Dell) on tour as well as terminally ill singer-songwriter Tim Timmons (Milo Ventimiglia). Even if you’re not familiar with the Millard family’s story, none of the plot developments here will be remotely surprising, as Bart works through his issues with his own deceased father while trying to parent a kid whose medical condition needs constant supervision. Ventimiglia provides some comic snap as a musician who’s embarking on his first nationwide tour as MercyMe’s opening act, but this boilerplate Christian drama is beyond saving. Also with Sophie Skelton, Arielle Kebbel, Trace Adkins, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, and Dennis Quaid.
The Pout-Pout Fish (PG) Based on Deborah Diesen’s children’s book, this animated film is about a gloomy fish (voiced by Nick Offerman) who has to save his home. Additional voices by Miranda Otto, Mark Coles Smith, Nina Oyama, Remy Hii, Jordin Sparks, and Amy Sedaris.
Project Hail Mary (PG-13) Based on Andy Weir’s novel, this science-fiction movie is entertaining enough for the price of admission and maybe even an upcharge to a premium format. Ryan Gosling portrays an astronaut who travels to a star light-years away to find a solution to why our sun is dying. He meets an alien being whose world is facing the same problem with its sun. Gosling spends a great deal of time talking to himself, partly because his character is trying to keep from going insane from the solitude and partly because he has trouble communicating with the alien, but if any actor can make this assignment look easy, it’s Gosling. The filmmaking team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie) drills down into the trial-and-error that goes into the characters’ scientific work and manages to find both humor and beauty in the vastness of space. The movie earns its uplift because of the way the two life forms are willing to collaborate to save their civilizations. Also with Sandra Hüller, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, Priya Kansara, Orion Lee, and Lionel Boyce. Voices by James Ortiz and an uncredited Meryl Streep.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (R) The sequel was never going to equal Grandma’s splattery and hilarious death in the first movie, but I was still hoping for more. Samara Weaving reprises her role from the original, being placed in a new game with her estranged sister (Kathryn Newton) as they try to avoid being killed by representatives of four families from different countries vying for control of the world. Newton is a nice addition, as is Sarah Michelle Gellar as one of the rich people hunting them, and the movie does have a funny fight scene between two women who have both been pepper-sprayed. Even so, the thriller plot keeps stopping to hash out some uninteresting buried issues between the sisters, and the comedy set pieces are neither as effective nor as frequent as the original’s. The movie really missed a trick not using the Jackson 5 song that shares its title. Also with Elijah Wood, Shawn Hatosy, Nestor Carbonell, Kevin Durand, Olivia Cheng, Antony Hall, Dan Beirne, Varun Saranga, Masa Lizdek, Nadeem Umar-Khitab, Maia Jae, Juan Pablo Romero, and David Cronenberg.
Reminders of Him (PG-13) This sleep-inducing adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel offers considerably less entertainment value than either It Ends With Us or Regretting You. Maika Monroe stars as an ex-convict released from prison after her driving while high results in a traffic accident that kills her boyfriend (Rudy Pankow). She returns to her hometown in Laramie to see the daughter (Zoe Kosovic) whom she gave birth to inside, only to fall for her ex-boyfriend’s best friend (Tyriq Withers). Withers holds up his end, but Monroe’s idea of playing someone traumatized and grieving is to deliver a bunch of flat line readings. Also with Lauren Graham, Lainey Wilson, Monika Myers, Nicholas Duvernay, Jennifer Robertson, and Bradley Whitford.
Scream 7 (R) Can this series die already? This latest installment is certainly bad enough to kill it. Neve Campbell returns as Sidney Prescott, who has moved to a new small town and opened a cafe when a new Ghostface claiming to be original movie killer Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) targets her teenage daughter (Isabel May). Writer-director Kevin Williamson’s script is witless, and this new town has cops who disappear for long stretches without any explanation. The same goes for Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), to the point where I started to think she was the killer. Nostalgia is all this series has left. At least Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega got out of this. Also with Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Anna Camp, Joel McHale, Mckenna Grace, Celeste O’Connor, Sam Rechner, Asa Germann, Kraig Dane, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Timothy Simons, Ethan Embry, Mark Consuelos, Scott Foley, Laurie Metcalfe, and David Arquette.
They Will Kill You (R) A mess, but better than either Scream 7 or Ready or Not 2. Zazie Beetz stars in this comic horror film as an ex-convict who takes a job as a maid at a Manhattan hotel, only to discover that the staffers and guests plan to offer her up as a human sacrifice to Satan in exchange for eternal life. The Russian director/co-writer Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die?) continues to show a flair for bloody slapstick in his fight sequences, one of which has our heroine locking herself in a closet in front of the bad guys, who look at each other and wonder what she just accomplished. The cool visuals and humor don’t make up for the way the movie runs out of story and invention well before its gory climax. Also with Patricia Arquette, Tom Felton, Myha’la, Paterson Joseph, Chris van Rensburg, and Heather Graham.
undertone (R) There’s less to this fascinating experiment than meets the ear. Nina Kiri portrays a podcaster who deals with audio footage of possibly supernatural phenomena when she starts hearing weird noises inside the house where she’s caring for her terminally ill mother (Michèle Duquet). First-time filmmaker and podcaster Ian Tuason shot this movie inside his actual childhood home in Toronto, but the personal resonances don’t come through, and the story has too many loose ends hanging and interesting thematic notes that go unexplored. However, given that it was inevitable that we would have a horror film about people making a podcast, he does squeeze more out of the setup than you might expect. Voices by Adam DiMarco, Jeff Yung, Keana Lyn Bastidas, Sarah Beaudin, and Ari Millen.
Dallas Exclusives
Marc by Sofia (PG-13) Sofia Coppola’s documentary profiles fashion designer Marc Jacobs.
13 Days, 13 Nights (NR) This French drama is about the Afghan soldiers guarding the French embassy in Kabul during the Taliban’s takeover. Starring Roschdy Zem, Lyna Khoudri, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Sina Parvaneh, Yan Tual, and Fatima Adoum.
