NEW YORK (CNS) -- There are many knights but not much shining armor in the grim historical drama "The Last Duel" (20th Century). With a real-life conflict in 14th-century France serving as a portal through which director Ridley Scott, along with screenwriters Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, survey varied aspects of medieval European life, the emphasis is on the brutal and the bawdy.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- If, heaven forfend, unstoppable killer Michael Myers (currently James Jude Courtney) were a real person, he'd be on the verge of retirement age. Instead, of course, he's a disturbing fixture in popular culture and so, rather than being put out to pasture, he's hard at work in "Halloween Kills" (Universal).
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Daniel Craig's James Bond is a busy man in "No Time to Die" (MGM/United Artists), the actor's fifth big-screen outing as Ian Fleming's iconic spy. Below this hectic adventure saga's predictably glossy surface, however, lurk plot developments requiring careful discernment on the part of those viewers inclined to probe its underlying values.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- In the animated comedy "The Addams Family 2," the beloved characters from the imagination of Charles Addams are as creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky as ever, and the humor remains dark and macabre, but overall good-natured.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Given the schizophrenic nature of the title character, it's not surprising that "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" (Columbia) is two films in one. There's a raucous buddy comedy about an ordinary guy and his inner alien lizard struggling to coexist. And there's a loud action thriller with multiple villains, all worthy of the Marvel Comics source material.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Clint Eastwood directed and stars in the gentle, though naive, road movie "Cry Macho" (Warner Bros.). While believers will appreciate the occasional religious detail in the film, salty language and a briefly touched-on backstory about the sexual exploitation of a youngster make it unsuitable for kids.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Honesty, we're assured, is the best policy. For an object lesson in just how badly awry even a well-meaning ruse may go, viewers can consult the earnest musical drama "Dear Evan Hansen" (Universal).
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Considered artistically, director James Wan's "Malignant" (Warner Bros.) initially registers as a dreary horror tale but later perks up to become creatively creepy. As it does so, however, any sense of restraint with regard to the gore factor involved in its proceedings is abandoned and the bloodletting goes off the charts in a climactic rampage of slicing, dicing and dismemberment.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- A duo of flighty amateur crooks and an ill-assorted pair of law enforcers draw laughs in the fact-based caper comedy "Queenpins" (STX). Yet, while the film is amusing, it's also morally flawed. So careful discernment is required to separate the humorous wheat from the ethical chaff.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Sprightly wit paces the elegant martial-arts showdowns in director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton's Marvel Comics-derived adventure "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (Disney).
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