OPENING
Beyond Belief (PG) This Christian drama stars Carson Lueders as a teenage rock musician who’s inspired to run a marathon by a mysterious voice. Also with Debby Gerber, James C. Burns, Ryan Barnes, Libby Smallbone, Sophie Bolen, Sam Coffelt, and Sharon Oliphant. (Opens Friday)
Buddy (R) Casper Kelly’s horror-comedy stars Cristin Milioti as a woman who discovers a group of children trapped in a 1990s kids’ TV show with the deranged host (Keegan-Michael Key). Also with Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Clint Howard, Patton Oswalt, and Michael Shannon. (Opens Friday)
Colony (NR) The latest zombie movie by Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) is about a group of South Koreans trying to survive a zombie outbreak. Starring Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Kim Shin-rok, Shin Hyun-been, and Go Soo. (Opens Friday)
Coyote vs. Acme (PG) The subject of pre-release controversy, this partially animated film stars Will Forte as a lawyer who helps Wile E. Coyote sue the Acme Corporation for their defective products. Also with Lana Condor, John Cena, Tone Bell, Martha Kelly, P.J. Byrne, John Early, Kenneth Choi, and Luis Guzmán. (Opens Friday)
The Dog Stars (R) Ridley Scott’s postapocalyptic Western starts off well before losing its way. Based on Peter Heller’s novel, the film is set in the year 2035, some time after a global pandemic decimates the world’s population. Jacob Elordi plays a surviving airplane pilot who leaves the safety of his Colorado compound to investigate a faint radio signal coming from possible survivors in Grand Junction. The film survives for a while on the performances of the principal cast and the vistas of Denver being overgrown. However, Scott can’t strike the right balance between the action set pieces and the character bits, and the scene when our hero discovers the true nature of the people living in Grand Junction isn’t nearly as horrifying as it should be. Despite a stacked cast, the overall impact is mid. Also with Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, Ewen Bremner, James Craze, Sam Spruell, Sai Bennett, and Allison Janney. (Opens Friday)
Finding Emily (PG-13) This British romantic comedy stars Spike Fearn as a university student who accidentally mass-texts every girl named Emily at his school. Also with Angourie Rice, Sadie Soverall, Cora Kirk, Yali Topol Margalith, Kat Ronney, Isabella Laughland, Jack Riddiford, and Minnie Driver. (Opens Friday)
Idiots (R) The original title of this caper film was Shitheads. It’s an apt descriptor for almost every character here, including the two protagonists (Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr.), who take a job with a car service that drives rich kids to drug rehab. Their first passenger is a billionaire’s son (Mason Thames) and social-media influencer who’s willing to get them killed to avoid the clinic. Jackson makes a favorable impression as a devout Christian who’s trying to be professional, and Nicholas Braun is funny as a bad rap-metal musician who thinks he’s a werewolf. However, writer-director Macon Blair (who also shows up as one of our protagonists’ drug dealers) only achieves the comedic madness he’s aiming for once, in a set piece at a motel involving spiked sodas, a vaguely European stripper (Kiernan Shipka), and a bunch of coked-up grocery store managers who want to kill someone. Elsewhere, the hijinks aren’t crazy enough. Also with Killer Mike, Grace Junot, Lee Eddy, Lynn Wanlass, Melanie Loren, Najah Bradley, and Peter Dinklage. (Opens Friday)
Just Play Dead (R) This thriller stars Samuel L. Jackson as a criminal who plans to fake his own death and frame his cheating wife (Eva Green) for the murder. Also with Eoin Macken, María Pedraza, Jason Fernández, Nicole Ansari-Cox, and Jordi Borràs. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
The King of Cannabis (NR) Sixx King’s drama stars Luis Guzmán as a marijuana trafficker who initiates a push to legalize the drug. Also with Alimi Ballard, Charles Malik Whitfield, Ptosha Storey, and John Fogarty. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Late Fame (NR) Based on Arthur Schnitzler’s novel, this drama stars Willem Dafoe as an obscure poet whose work suddenly acquires a circle of followers late in his life. Also with Greta Lee, Jake Lacy, Graham Campbell, Edmund Donovan, Welker White, Luca Padovan, William Hill, and Clark Johnson. (Opens Friday in Dallas)
Legend of the White Dragon (R) Jason David Frank stars in this fantasy film as a mystical warrior seeking to reclaim his powers. Also with Aaron Schoenke, Jason Faunt, Rachele Brooke Smith, Mark Dacascos, Andrew Bachelor, Cerina Vincent, and the late Michael Madsen. (Opens Friday)
Madame in Saigon (NR) This Vietnamese drama is about a nightclub owner (Hong-Anh) seeking to gain more power in the capital’s nightlife in the 1960s. Also with Thanh Hang, Luong The Thanh, Kim Hau, Van Mai Huong, and Jake Le. (Opens Friday)
Toxic (NR) This gangster movie stars Yash as a criminal navigating Goa’s underworld after India’s independence. Also with Kiara Advani, Nayanthara, Huma Qureshi, Tara Sutaria, Rukmini Vasanth, and Sanjeeda Sheikh. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (NR) This Malayalam-language romantic comedy stars Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju as a couple with a significant age difference. Also with Sangeeth Prathap, Dhyan Sreenivasan, Roshan Shanavas, Vinay Forrt, and Suresh Krishna.
The Brink of War (PG) This historical thriller is about a 1988 nuclear disarmament summit between Ronald Reagan (Jeff Daniels) and Mikhail Gorbachev (Jared Harris). Also with J.K. Simmons, Aya Cash, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Vladimir Kulich, Branka Katic, Tim Dutton, and Hope Davis.
The End of Oak Street (PG-13) A better dinosaur movie than any of the Jurassic World films, though it could have been better still. Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway star as Detroit parents in 1982 whose suburb is mysteriously zapped back in time 200 million years, forcing them to barricade themselves inside their house to avoid being eaten. Writer-director David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) contributes more than a few pleasing formal elements, from the slow reveal of the neighborhood’s fate to a one-take shot of the parents running crossways to get an allosaurus away from their kids. It’s a shame that Mitchell consistently cheaps out when it comes to the family issues here. In making too many compromises for the popcorn crowd, he makes this like one of Steven Spielberg or J.J. Abrams’ lesser efforts. Also with Maisy Stella, Christian Convery, Jordan Alexa Davis, Emily Kuroda, Anne Gee Byrd, and P.J. Byrne.
Insidious: Out of the Further (PG-13) Somebody pull the plug on this franchise. This installment of the series stars Amelia Eve as a dental hygienist and single mother whose visions indicate an ability to bring objects and even entire demons back from the next world. It takes more than an hour for anything to actually happen in this movie, as new director Jacob Chase cycles through one tedious jump scare after another. If you are afraid of being in a dentist’s chair, this movie might possibly have some real scares in store for you. Then again, maybe not. The glut of innovative original horror movies we’ve seen this summer only make this look hopelessly passé. Also with Lin Shaye, Sam Spruell, Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Island Austin, and Joseph Lopez.
Irumudi (NR) This Telugu-language action-thriller stars Ravi Teja as a recovering alcoholic who takes a spiritual journey to atone for his misdeeds. Also with Priya Bhavani Shankar, Baby Nakshatra, Swasika Vijay, Sai Kumar, and Ajay Ghosh.
The Magic Faraway Tree (PG) Based on Enid Blyton’s novel, this fantasy film stars Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy as parents whose children discover a magical land after they move to the countryside. Also with Nicola Coughlan, Nonso Anozie, Phoenix Laroche, Billie Gadsdon, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Simon Farnaby, Claire Keelan, Jessica Gunning, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Lenny Henry, Simon Russell Beale, Michael Palin, Jennifer Saunders, and Rebecca Ferguson. Voice by Judi Dench.
Minions & Monsters (PG) The series goes all cinephile, which turns out to be a pretty good thing. The Minions (voiced by Pierre Coffin) wash up in Hollywood in the 1920s and become silent-film stars before the advent of sound film ruins their careers as actors. The setup allows the filmmakers to engage in all manner of references to movies from that time period, as well as acknowledge that the Minions owe much of their comedy to the stylings of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. Next to those, the halves of the plot involving most of the Minions looking for another supervillain and a small group of them trying to make their own movie are both rather pallid. It’s still cleverer than the Scary Movie reboot, and a perfect introduction to silent movies for your kid. Additional voices by Christoph Waltz, Allison Janney, Jesse Eisenberg, Trey Parker, Zoey Deutch, Phil LaMarr, Bobby Moynihan, Jeff Bridges, and George Lucas.
Moana (PG) As with too many other live-action Disney remakes, the studio rushed in with this without pondering why they were doing it. Catherine Laga’aia takes over the role of the Polynesian princess, and she has a fine voice. Even that, though, doesn’t register as an improvement on the animated 2016 original, which is too fresh in our minds to need a remake. If Disney can’t be bothered with rethinking its remakes, why should you bother paying for a ticket, and why should I bother writing it up? Also with Dwayne Johnson, John Tui, Frankie Adams, Eric Scanlan, and Rena Owen. Voice by Jemaine Clement.
Mutiny (R) Pretty bad. The latest Jason Statham thriller has him as a corporate security guy in Thailand who’s framed for his boss’ murder and stows away on a cargo ship that turns out to be smuggling human beings. The pacing is slack, the plot is full of holes, and Statham himself looks disengaged from what’s happening. This is director Jean-François Richet’s follow-up to Plane, and it doesn’t have anything like that movie’s energy or attention to character. The only thing distinguishing this from all the other movies where Statham shoots a bunch of people is that this is worse. Also with Annabelle Wallis, Roland Møller, Ramon Tikaram, Chaneil Kular, Arnas Fedaravičius, Lee Charles, Simon Kluth, Jason Wong, and Adrian Lester.
Never Stop Chasing (NR) Ken Cole’s documentary follows storm chaser Reed Timmer as he tracks America’s most powerful tornadoes.
The Odyssey (R) Not free of flaws, but a cogent modern interpretation of Homer’s epic poem. As you might guess, this epic needs the biggest screen you can find so that you can properly appreciate its natural vistas and visual set pieces like the boat steering between Scylla and Charybdis. Writer-director Christopher Nolan is too scrupulous when it comes to the violence in the epic poem; more blood would have brought home the movie’s point that Odysseus (Matt Damon) won the Trojan War by violating sacred values and is trying to restore them. Some of the actors in this cast laden with A-list stars do get lost, but Anne Hathaway finds the rage beneath Penelope’s regal exterior and Lupita Nyong’o pulls off an impressive double role as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Instead of a turgid homework assignment, this earns its epic status thanks to Nolan’s contemporary angle on the story. Also with Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, James Remar, Mia Goth, Corey Hawkins, Bill Irwin, Benny Safdie, Jovan Adepo, Logan Marshall-Green, Will Yun Lee, Ryan Hurst, Shiloh Fernandez, Rafi Gavron, and Travis Scott.
Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie (PG) Our adorable pups carry out more rescue missions while the mayor (voiced by Ron Pardo) gets out of prison and hatches more evil schemes with his cat minions. Lather, rinse, repeat. The new installment does take place on an undiscovered island populated by dinosaurs and one dog (voiced by Hayden Chamberlain) who has learned to tame the big reptiles. It isn’t enough to engage newcomers to the series or viewers over the age of 8. Anyone older than that will probably be happier with The End of Oak Street for their dinosaur fix. Additional voices by Carter Young, Rain Janjua, Mckenna Grace, Fortune Feimster, Jameela Jamil, Terry Crews, Bill Nye, Meredith MacNeill, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, and Jennifer Hudson.
Spa Weekend (R) The cinematic equivalent of a champagne mimosa left out in the sun for four hours. Michelle Buteau, Anna Faris, and Leslie Mann play overworked and overstressed mothers and childhood best friends who book a weekend getaway at a beach resort, only for their chaotic long-lost Australian friend (Isla Fisher, particularly charmless) to crash the proceedings. Writer-directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore come from the Bad Moms movies, but here their comic hijinks are simply loud, annoying, and unfunny. It’s as if the filmmakers assembled these four actresses who have all been better elsewhere and expected something hilarious to happen. It didn’t. Also with Tim Ross, Robert Coleby, Felix Williamson, Dominic Ona-Ariki, Diana Glenn, Ali Basoka, and Erika Heynatz.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (PG-13) Peter Parker (Tom Holland) endures some growing pains in this flawed movie that nevertheless will cure your Marvel fatigue. In a new reality where everyone has forgotten his identity, Peter has to deal with the fritzing of his superpowers, a new villain who can take control of people’s minds, and trying to re-connect with his former friends MJ and Ned (Zendaya and Jacob Batalon). Peter’s team-up with the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is a terrific one, as Peter finds himself trying not to become Frank Castle while turning Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) away from the dark side. The shape of the movie defeats director Destin Daniel Cretton, but the story elements get Peter out of a holding pattern and set up the future Avengers movie quite nicely, as Peter realizes that continuing his crime-fighting by himself will lead to him becoming angry and lonely. Also with Mark Ruffalo, Florence Pugh, Liza Colón-Zayas, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, Olivia Booth-Ford, Marvin Jones III, Billy Clements, and Marisa Tomei. Voices by Keith David and Naomi Watts.
Super Troopers 3 (R) Broken Lizard’s comedy remains a taste that I have yet to acquire. The Vermont state troopers here try to adapt to new technology while Thorny (Jay Chandrasekhar) tries to prevent the wedding between his sister (Hannah Simone) and his fellow officer (Kevin Heffernan). There is a funny slapstick bit when the prospective groom eats a lobster despite a lethal shellfish allergy and forces everybody to stick him with an EpiPen. The movie at least recognizes that the guys have gotten older, but fails to do anything funny with that. Also with Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske, Paul Soter, Andrew Dismukes, Nat Faxon, Sakina Jaffrey, Iqbal Theba, Marisa Coughlan, Jon Rudnitsky, Chace Crawford, Lynda Carter, and Brian Cox.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (R) A trip and a half. Jane Schoenbrun’s hallucinatory and intensely beautiful horror pastiche stars Hannah Einbinder as a 29-year-old queer filmmaker who’s given the opportunity to reboot a 1990s slasher movie franchise and meets the woman (Gillian Anderson) who starred in the original film and then quit show business. A solid half-hour of the film is given over to footage from the original movie, and Schoenbrun’s skill shows both here and in the main story, especially an opening credits montage showing the franchise degenerating from cultural sensation to Razzie-winning joke. The movie works as a lesbian romance, a satire on the film industry, and a meta-commentary on horror movies that’s sophisticated enough to make the Scream series look childish. Schoenbrun’s mix of 1990s nostalgia and camp is dizzying stuff. Also with Jack Haven, Eva Victor, Amanda Fix, Hunter Dillon, Quintessa Swindell, Zach Cherry, Patrick Fischler, Arthur Conti, Jess McLeod, Sarah Sherman, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Dylan Baker.
Toy Story 5 (PG) The latest installment in the series is all about Jessie the Cowgirl (voiced by Joan Cusack), which helps make it one of the best. With Bonnie (voiced by Scarlett Spears) getting a new tablet (voiced by Greta Lee) as a gift, the toys see a future of neglect, and their attempts to get rid of it end up calling Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) out of retirement and transporting both Jessie and Bullseye back to her old home, now occupied by a new girl and another set of toys. Conan O’Brien injects a ton of energy and poop jokes as an outdated device designed to potty-train toddlers, but the movie’s success hangs on Jessie discovering the impact she made on her previous owner and coming to terms with the fact that kids will always outgrow their toys. Additional voices by Tim Allen, Bonnie Hunt, Annie Potts, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Ernie Hudson, Matty Matheson, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Kristen Schaal, Tony Hale, Melissa Villaseñor, Alan Cumming, Keanu Reeves, and Bad Bunny.
Dallas Exclusives
Alterity (NR) Johnny Remo’s horror film is about a group of ghost hunters who discover a government secret in an abandoned shopping mall. Starring Emi Curia, Bryan Eubank, Kelvin Hodge, Lucas Hart, Brittney Rae, and Jeremy Sumpter.
The Run (NR) This postapocalyptic thriller stars Callan Mulvey as a smuggler trying to protect a runaway teen (Charlotte Maggi). Also with Felix Cameron, Taylor Wiese, Tim Phillipps, Joe Romeo, and Nicholas Hope.
