OPENING
40 Acres (R) R.T. Thorne’s science fiction-horror film is about a family of escaped Black slaves in 19th-century Canada trying to defend their territory from cannibals. Starring Danielle Deadwyler, Kataem O’Connor, Michael Greyeyes, Miclania Diaz-Rojas, Jaeda LeBlanc, Leenah Robinson, and Elizabeth Saunders. (Opens Friday)
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. (Opens Wednesday)
Malice (NR) This Chinese drama stars Zhang Xiaofei as a journalist investigating suspicious injuries at a nursing home. Also with Teresa Li, Huang Xuan, Mei Ting, Yang Enyou, Chen Yusi, Li Jiuxiao, Ai Liya, and Chen Chuang. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Metro in Dino (NR) This Hindi-language romantic film tells the interlocking stories of four couples in four different cities. Starring Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Roy Kapur, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Ali Fazal, and Sara Ali Khan. (Opens Friday)
Paranthu Po (NR) This Tamil-language musical stars Shiva as a man taking his son (Mithul Ryan) on a road trip. Also with Grace Antony, Anjali, Aju Varghese, Vijay Yesudas, Jess Kukku, and Balaji Sakthivel. (Opens Friday at AMC Grapevine Mills)
Thammudu (NR) Nithlin stars in this Telugu-language drama as a young man trying to protect his sister. Also with Swasika Vijay, Varsha Bollamma, Sapthami Gowda, Saurabh Sachdeva, and Laya. (Opens Friday)
3BHK (NR) This Indian drama stars Prabhu as a young man who watches his family seek to fulfill their dream of buying a house in the big city. Also with R. Sarathkumar, Devayani, Meetha Raghunath, Chaithra J. Achar, and Yogi Babu. (Opens Friday)
NOW PLAYING
Ballerina (R) Ana de Armas does a star turn in this spinoff from the John Wick series as a trained assassin who goes rogue when she sees a chance to avenge herself on the people who killed her father when she was a child. In doing so, she incurs the wrath of the Director (Anjelica Huston), who sends John himself (Keanu Reeves) to stop her. The series still sucks at world-building, and director Len Wiseman tries to turn this into another installment of his Underworld series by filming lots of raves with strobe lights popping. The action sequences remain strong as ever, though, with one fight sequence having our ballerina trying to detonate grenades in close quarters without hurting herself and a flamethrower duel that’s an exercise in wretched excess. De Armas’ feminine grace injects some freshness into the series. Also with Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Victoria Comte, David Castañeda, Waris Ahluwalia, Juliet Doherty, Ian McShane, and the late Lance Reddick.
Elio (PG) Deserves to be mentioned alongside Pixar’s other Latin-themed films Coco and Encanto, even if it’s the least of those. The Elio of the title is an orphaned 11-year-old boy (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) who’s obsessed with space aliens and spends hours drawing large signs that beg the little green men to come and get him. The movie’s good with the sort of alienation that drives people to give up on Earth and pin their hopes on more evolved alien beings, and Pixar’s trademark visual splendor is in full evidence when Elio is actually abducted by aliens who mistake him for Earth’s leader. It’s all cut with Pixar’s trademark sense of humor, too, but the film starts to lose its shape in its final third when Elio has to travel between Earth and space to avert an intergalactic war. The movie comes frustratingly close to greatness, but it’s better than the live-action remakes that Hollywood has in theaters now. Additional voices by Zoe Saldaña, Brad Garrett, Remy Edgerly, Jameela Jamil, Matthias Schweighöfer, Ana de la Reguera, Atsuko Okatsuka, Shirley Henderson, Brandon Moon, and Kate Mulgrew.
Final Destination: Bloodlines (R) I forgot how stupid these movies were. Kaitlyn Santa Juana stars as the granddaughter of a woman (played in flashbacks by Brec Bassinger) who saved hundreds of people’s lives in the 1960s, so the death curse takes all those decades to catch up with her progeny. The film is on a much larger scale than the previous films, especially depicting the disaster averted in the past. However, the Rube Goldberg contrived contraptions that kill the people are just as dumb as ever. The late Tony Todd gives one of his final performances as an old man who’s in line for the death curse, and his speech about the importance of enjoying life is the only thing here with any weight. Also with Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Alex Zahara, April Telek, Tinpo Lee, Max Lloyd-Jones, Rya Kihlstedt, Anna Lore, and Gabrielle Rose.
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.
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. (Opens Friday)
Kannappa (NR) Vishnu Manchu stars in this religious epic as a devotee of the god Shiva. Also with Mohan Babu, R. Sarathkumar, Madhoo, Mukesh Rishi, Brahmaji, Karunas, Mohanlal, Prabhas, Kajal Aggarwal, and Akshay Kumar.
Karate Kid: Legends (PG-13) The latest young talent to hit the series is Ben Wang as a teenage Beijing kung fu student who’s uprooted to New York City. The main plot should have been the one where he uses his skills to train the pizzeria owner down the block (Joshua Jackson) to come out of retirement as a prizefighter, but the film barely expends any effort transitioning to another plot where the boy has to learn from both Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) and Daniel-san (Ralph Macchio) to defend himself from karatekas in a city-wide martial-arts tournament. The movie’s attempt to find a unified field theory for martial arts may not work, but it’s still preferable to the xenophobia of the Ip Man series, and Wang (from TV’s American Born Chinese) has charisma to burn. He could carry his own installment of the series, if he was given a better story to work with. Also with Ming-Na Wen, Sadie Stanley, Wyatt Oleff, Aramis Knight, Ge Yankei, Marco Zhang, and William Zabka.
Kuberaa (NR) This Telugu-language thriller stars Dhanush as a homeless beggar who becomes rich by turning to crime. Also with Nagarjuna, Rashmika Mandanna, Jim Sarbh, Dalip Tahil, and Sayaji Shinde.
The Life of Chuck (R) Mike Flanagan has adapted Stephen King stories numerous times for TV with good results, but this take on one of King’s non-horror stories is pure glop. Told in reverse chronological order, this story concerns an accountant named Chuck at three stages of his life (Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, and Tom Hiddleston) as he bears tragedies and seeks his purpose in the universe. The first third of the film takes place during a mysterious apocalypse that wipes out life, and it’s filmed so soothingly that it’ll put you to sleep. There is a fun interlude when Hiddleston shows off his dancing skills, but this movie’s attempt to uplift you only achieves the opposite. Also with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Carl Lumbly, Mia Sara, David Dastmalchian, Harvey Guillén, Q’orianka Kilcher, Matthew Lillard, Rahul Kohli, Violet McGraw, The Pocket Queen, Kate Siegel, and Mark Hamill. Narrated by Nick Offerman.
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.
Materialists (R) Celine Song proves to be one of America’s most promising filmmakers with this film that appears to be a plush New York dating comedy but is actually much more hard-headed. Dakota Johnson portrays a professional matchmaker at a Manhattan agency who finds her own romantic life torn between a handsome private equity manager (Pedro Pascal) and her ex-boyfriend (Chris Evans) who’s a broke theater actor. This movie is as painfully conscious of money as any Jane Austen novel, and all of the leads give fine performances fueled by quiet desperation about their money or lack thereof. They’re set up for success by Song (Past Lives), who delivers some of the most exquisite movie dialogue you’ll ever hear as well as some funny jokes. When the heroine does choose love over money, it feels like a weighty decision informed by everything that has gone before. She refuses to treat this movie like a fun little throwaway, which is what makes this great. Also with Zoe Winters, Marin Ireland, Dasha Nekrasova, Emmy Wheeler, Louisa Jacobson, Eddie Cahill, Sawyer Spielberg, and John Magaro.
M3GAN 2.0 (PG-13) Too much, way too much. Allison Williams returns in this sequel to the 2023 hit as the inventor who must resurrect her killer robot doll (Amie Donald, with voice by Jenna Davis) in order to stop a more powerful killer robot (Ivanna Sakhno) who’s gone rogue after being developed by the U.S. government. Writer-director Gerard Johnstone has so many ideas about AI rising up to kill us that his sequel comes out overstuffed, overambitious, and overextended, with satire of libertarian billionaires and clueless feds jostling side by side with M3GAN’s transition to hero and emotional support for the inventor’s niece (Violet McGraw). It all leads to vast expanses of clotted exposition and sentimental crap about family. The Ukrainian newcomer Sakhno makes a good doll-like enemy, but this is well below the original’s concentrated power. Also with Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen van Epps, Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp, and Jemaine Clement.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (PG-13) This may not be Tom Cruise’s last outing as Ethan Hunt, but it does feel like a farewell to a franchise’s defining star. He has to reunite with his team members to capture the AI that is currently destroying the world. The result is unfortunately quite a disjointed movie in which Ethan appears to traverse the globe at the speed of light while awkward montages take in all the stars who have graced this series through the decades. The movie’s nostalgia kick does bring back Rolf Saxon as the CIA tech guy whom we haven’t seen since Ethan robbed his office in the original movie, and the stunts feature Cruise hanging off the wing of a biplane as well as a sequence in a sunken submarine that’s excellent suspense. It’s a better goodbye than Jason Bourne got. Also with Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Janet McTeer, Tramell Tillman, Mark Gatiss, Greg Tarzan Davis, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Katy O’Brian, Cary Elwes, and Angela Bassett.
The Phoenician Scheme (PG-13) Arid. Wes Anderson’s latest film stars Benicio del Toro as an incredibly unethical business mogul who dodges attempts on his life and bankruptcy while trying to pass on his business empire to an estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton) before she enters a convent. The apple-pie order of Anderson’s other films is here, but not the human emotion that distinguishes his best work. The filmmaker does try for relevance by having his business mogul use shady business tactics like Donald Trump’s, but that doesn’t add up to a coherent or a funny movie. Also with Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bryan Cranston, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Alex Jennings, Hope Davis, Rupert Friend, Steve Park, F. Murray Abraham, Willem Dafoe, and Bill Murray.
Sardaar Ji 3 (NR) Diljit Dosanjh returns for this third horror-comedy in the series as a ghost hunter who must battle a ghost in a British castle. Also with Neeru Bajwa, Jasmin Bajwa, Hania Aamir, Manav Vij, and Gulshan Grover. (Opens Friday)
Sinners (R) Ryan Coogler’s foray into Jordan Peele territory is wild and wildly original, even when it doesn’t make sense. Michael B. Jordan plays identical twins who return from Chicago to their Mississippi hometown in the 1930s to open a blues joint with their cousin (Miles Caton) who happens to be an otherworldly musician. Jordan gives two bracing performances as brothers with different jobs and temperaments, the Mississippi town is more layered than we usually see in Hollywood movies, and there’s a great sequence with the blues musician delivering a song so powerful that it opens a rift in time and space as well as attracting vampires. Coogler winds up with a few too many ideas in his intellectual stew, but it frames Delta blues in a wholly unexpected way and emerges as a worthy vampire movie. What other movie can say that? Also with Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Li Jun Li, Jack O’Connell, Lola Kirke, Jayme Lawson, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Peter Dreimanis, Omar Miller, Yao, Delroy Lindo, and Buddy Guy.
Sitaare Zameen Par (NR) A remake of the Spanish film Champions, this Indian sports film stars Aamir Khan as a basketball coach who must take over a team of autistic players as punishment for a DUI. Also with Genelia Deshmukh, Aroush Datta, Gopi Krishnan Varma, Vedant Sharmaa, Naman Misra, Rishi Shahani, Rishabh Jain, and Dolly Ahluwalia.
Thunderbolts* (PG-13) Several shades darker than your typical Marvel superhero movie, which is part of what distinguishes it from the pack. When the CIA director (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tries to take complete control of the U.S. government, a group of mercenaries in her employ (Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan) band together to stop her. The villain’s secret weapon is a mentally ill drug addict (Lewis Pullman) who can trap people in their worst nightmares. The film is wobbly on the subject of toxic masculinity and occasionally plays like a derivative of Everything Everywhere All at Once, but it sometimes achieves a power of its own. Pugh delivers a precisely pitched performance in the lead, and Louis-Dreyfus makes a terrific foil to her as someone who hides her lust for power behind her precious wisecracks. The Marvel series is morphing into something new, which is better than repeating itself. Also with Geraldine Viswanathan, Olga Kurylenko, Chris Bauer, Violet McGraw, and Wendell Pierce.
28 Years Later (R) The third installment of the series is a memorial to those who have died from the plague in real life, which turns out to be not quite enough to carry it. Alfie Williams portrays a 12-year-old boy growing up on an island off Britain’s coast where the people have remained uninfected, but when he hears about a doctor (Ralph Fiennes) who has survived on the big island, he takes his mother (Jodie Comer) to him to find out why she’s getting unexplained headaches and nosebleeds. The young Williams’ performance is good enough to make this work as a coming-of-age story. I just wish it worked better as a zombie movie, or as a setup for the next film in the series. This movie reunites director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, and it may be time for a fresh set of eyes on this series. Also with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Edvin Ryding, Stella Gonet, Chi Lewis-Parry, and Jack O’Connell.
Dallas Exclusives
Ice Road: Vengeance (NR) In this sequel to Ice Road Truckers, Liam Neeson reprises his role as a truck driver who encounters terrorists while traveling in Nepal. Also with Fan Bingbing, Bernard Curry, Mahesh Jadu, Grace O’Sullivan, Amelia Bishop, and Kaden Hartcher.
In Vitro (NR) Will Howarth co-writes, co-directs, and stars in this science-fiction thriller as a cattle rancher whose wife (Talia Zucker) makes an alarming discovery about his breeding methods. Also with Ashley Zukerman.
Off the Grid (R) Josh Duhamel stars in this thriller as an inventor who flees with his invention rather than have it turned into a weapon. Also with Peter Stormare, Greg Kinnear, María Elisa Camargo, Michael Papajohn, Ana Golja, and Ricky Russert.
