NEW YORK (CNS) -- For all its spells and incantations, the witchcraft-themed fantasy "The House With a Clock in Its Walls" (Universal) lacks magic. Though some of the humor works, the film makes little impression and registers as only passable entertainment.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- "A Simple Favor" (Lionsgate), director Paul Feig's glossy screen version of Darcey Bell's 2017 novel, is undeniably ingenious. Yet the dark doings, both past and present, that drive the plot of this lurid thriller involve repellent behavior that, while not exactly endorsed by Jessica Sharzer's script, is not condemned either. Instead, the taboo-breaking is treated as spice to lure jaded viewers.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- New TV shows mostly tend to fall into one of three categories: How did this ever get on the air? Not bad, but viewers have seen this kind of thing often. Looks promising. One comedy and two dramas premiering this fall conform to these designations.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- In 2014, Angelina Jolie helmed the often harrowing but ultimately uplifting fact-based drama "Unbroken." The film was based on Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling 2010 biography of Olympic runner-turned-war-hero Louis "Louie" Zamperini (1917-2014), "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption."
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Set in early 1980s Detroit, "White Boy Rick" (Columbia), a gritty fact-based slice of working-class life, is intended as a critique of hypocritical law enforcement officials and of excessively harsh sentencing.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- "The Predator" (Fox), that angry, and very hungry, monster from outer space, returns for its sixth film appearance and leaves predictable mayhem and bloodshed in its wake. The hideous fanged creature -- a "Yautja," to be precise -- first starred in 1987's "Predator," and most recently in 2007's "Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem." Apparently, there's a demand for yet another rampage, so the creature revisits Earth in search of, well, it's never quite clear.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- A crisis of faith can certainly serve as the basis for a compelling drama. In the case of the Evangelical film "God Bless the Broken Road" (Freestyle), though, the cards feel stacked, albeit for the right outcome, with the result that the protagonist's doubts themselves seem unconvincing.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Remember the proverbial admonition not to take candy from strangers? Well, that warning applies in spades to director Pierre Morel as he tries to hand out "Peppermint" (STX), a gory, over-the-top revenge fantasy that sets Jennifer Garner on the rampage.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- "The Nun" (Warner Bros.) is an ambitious undertaking with an immense budget and lush special effects. The apparent aim: to rank as the "That's Entertainment!" of Catholic-themed horror films. The movie doesn't, therefore, ask the audience for a whole lot other than attention to all the classic tropes of the genre.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Those on the lookout for an above-average thriller boasting both surprising plot developments and upright basic values will probably be pleased with "Searching" (Screen Gems). While it's handled discreetly, however, at least one of the many twists and turns taken by director and co-writer Aneesh Chaganty's gripping feature debut -- penned with Sev Ohanian -- places his film off-limits for most youngsters.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- A few flaws notwithstanding, "BlacKkKlansman" (Focus) represents an effective -- and, strange as it may sound, often entertaining -- look at the vicious racism lurking at the fringes of American life and perpetually aspiring to enter its mainstream.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- As scripted by Daniel Casey and directed by brothers Jonathan and Josh Baker, "Kin" (Summit), a gritty but somewhat intriguing crime thriller with an overlay of science fiction, explores shades of right and wrong via a road trip through seamy swaths of Rust Belt and rural America. It's a thoughtful film but one that can only be endorsed for a minority of grown-ups.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- For parents and comic fans weary of the adult nature of many modern superhero films, a safe refuge can be found in the "Lego DC Super Heroes" movies. Arch, colorful and free of violence and profanity, these animated direct-to-video adventures often offer what more self-serious comics-based titles don't, namely, fun.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- OK, so there's this experimental robotic war dog, very high tech, that's been developed for the military by an evil (of course) corporation. But, since it's not only being tested but (so we're to understand) tormented in the lab, it breaks free and wanders into the desert. There mild-mannered teen motocross racer Miles Hill (Alex Neustaedter) happens upon the creature, tames it and bonds with it.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Occasionally, as in "The Happytime Murders" (STX), filmmakers become enamored of the idea of foul-mouthed, sexualized puppets, as if no one had considered this idea before and there were some fresh, original way of going at this.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- From a moral point of view, "Eighth Grade" (A24), a low-key, moving blend of comedy and drama, is a bit of a paradox. As written and directed by Bo Burnham, this sly tour through all the horrors of early adolescence deals with sexuality in a manner that would normally prohibit endorsement for any but grownups.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- World War II movies are their own genre but not many film stories are told from the Jewish perspective. "Operation Finale" (MGM) corrects that lack, giving us a story, begun during the war but only finished years later.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The award for the most accurate film title of the year goes to "Crazy Rich Asians" (Warner Bros), a romantic comedy about, well, members of a certain ethnic group who are insanely wealthy.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The oft-repeated tale of a boy and his dog is as old as time -- or at least the last Ice Age, the intriguing setting for "Alpha" (Columbia). Director Albert Hughes, working from his own story, imagines how mankind discovered man's best friend -- its canine ancestor, the wolf -- some 20,000 years ago in southern Europe. He immerses the viewer in an extraordinarily vivid tableau, a primeval world where Cro-Magnon families struggled to survive against apocalyptic weather and savage creatures.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The plot of "Slender Man" (Screen Gems) is concisely summed up when Wren (Joey King), one of the creature's victims, screams, "He gets in your head like a computer virus!" Yeah, that's his entire reason for being, in fact. There's not a whole lot else to this horror movie based on the tall, faceless character in a dark suit introduced by his creator, Eric Knudsen, on the internet in 2009.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Forty-three summers ago (incredibly), Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" made moviegoers afraid to go in the ocean, for fear of getting bitten (or worse) by a great white shark. That trailblazing horror film is child's play compared to "The Meg" (Warner Bros.). Consider "Jaws" crossed with another Spielberg classic, "Jurassic Park," and you'll get the (very big) picture.
Read more