NEW YORK (CNS) -- Some rituals of childhood bonding are best left in the past. The cringe-inducing "Tag" (Warner Bros.) is a perfect example. The plot is loosely based on Russell Adams' Wall Street Journal article about 10 classmates (one of whom is now a priest) from Gonzaga Prep in Spokane, Washington, who found a way to keep a game of tag going into adulthood for more than 20 years.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Going only by its title, kids may mistake "Superfly" (Columbia) for the latest Marvel or DC Comics-based adventure involving a mutant. But the AARP set will recall director Gordon Park Jr.'s 1972 blaxploitation feature "Super Fly," perhaps best remembered today for Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack ("Freddy's Dead," etc.).
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- The first family of superheroes returns in "Incredibles 2" (Disney), the highly anticipated sequel to a much-loved 2004 animated film. Alas, the passage of time (a truly incredible 14 years) has not been kind. Despite Brad Bird's return as writer and director, "Incredibles 2" lacks the spontaneity, charm and style of its precursor (as well as the leading article from "The Incredibles").
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Imagine a mash-up of an intense family drama along the lines of 1980's "Ordinary People" and a foray into the occult like "Rosemary's Baby" from 1968 and you'll have a sense the unusual tone of "Hereditary" (A24).
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- First off, to answer everyone's question about "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" (Focus), the cheerful and reverent documentary about Fred Rogers, creator and host of the PBS stalwart "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood": Will it make you cry?
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Viewers who check themselves into the "Hotel Artemis" (Global Road) may wind up feeling like prisoners of their own device. Though this dystopian thriller, set in the near future, gets off to a stylish start, and features a couple of strong performances, by the time its hyperviolent conclusion is reached, gore and bone-crunching have replaced creativity.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- There's really no point to "Action Point" (Paramount). This chaotic, poorly crafted comedy -- a star vehicle for Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass" infamy -- amounts to little more than an endless succession of painful, supposedly amusing, pratfalls.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Superhero fans who rent or buy "Batman Ninja" (Warner Home Entertainment), the latest direct-to-video effort from DC Comics, should brace themselves. Chances are, it'll turn out to be unlike any movie of the genre they've ever seen.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Before he grew up to be Harrison Ford, intergalactic freebooter Han Solo was Alden Ehrenreich -- or so at least the folks behind "Solo: A Star Wars Story" (Disney), the pleasing but insubstantial latest addition to the blockbuster franchise, would have you believe.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- A second helping of excessively violent action with a side of foul-mouthed sarcasm is on offer in "Deadpool 2" (Fox), director David Leitch's follow-up to the 2016 original. Lost amid the mayhem is some potentially interesting ethical material as well as a few genuinely funny one-liners.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Can we please stop saying sex?" a character asks in the ensemble romantic comedy "Book Club" (Paramount). The answer, in a word, is no. In fact, there's hardly a line of dialogue in director and co-writer Bill Holderman's film, penned with Erin Simms, that doesn't contain an innuendo, a smutty pun or some other tiresome joke. A listless cat's visit to a veterinarian and the refurbishment of a motorcycle are both made the occasion for extended off-color wordplay, while the use of Viagra in ill-chosen setting results in a series of cringe-worthy visuals.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- "First Reformed" (A24) has quite a bit to say about religious belief, environmentalism, grieving, alienation, rage, the power of love and the corruption of religion by money and power.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Life of the Party" (Warner Bros.) turns out to be an especially poor choice of title for a campus-set comedy that is, essentially, lifeless. Flat and boring, the film also winks at -- though it doesn't display -- extracurricular bedroom activities.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Don't mess with Mom; that's the message of the less-than-credible and excessively violent thriller "Breaking In" (Universal). As it strains its tenuous premise, the film approaches a conclusion calculated to appeal to viewers' worst instincts.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- The real-life evil of abortion is blended with otherworldly and occult phenomena in the horror tale "Wraith" (Out Cold). The result is an earnest but flawed message movie. There is some originality to this story of the Lukens family -- dad Dennis (Jackson Hurst), mom Katie (Ali Hillis) and 14-year-old daughter Lucy (Catherine Frances) -- whose Victorian home in Neenah, Wisconsin, becomes the venue for some unwelcome supernatural activity. At least one of the spirits haunting them, a young girl, for instance, turns out to want to help, not hurt, the clan.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Veteran filmmaker Wim Wenders respectfully profiles the current successor of St. Peter in the well-crafted, sometimes moving documentary "Pope Francis: A Man of His Word" (Focus). Though Wenders also provides some narration, as his title suggests, he largely lets the pontiff speak for himself.
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