Category Archives: New In Theaters

Reviews of what’s out now

New In Theaters

Track Your Package?

1 Comment

Resident Evil

by Hope Madden

A lot of people seem curious to know what Zach Cregger is doing following up Weapons—one of the most revered horror films of the last decade—with the seventh installment in a horror video game movie franchise. By the looks of Resident Evil, having a blast is what he’s doing.

Rather than offer another badass on a mission story, Cregger’s episode, co-written with Shay Hatten (John Wick 3 & 4, Army of the Dead), enters the newly overrun Raccoon City with a hapless courier (Austin Abrams) tapped to run an important medical package to the Raccoon City General Hospital. Things go from bad to worse to much worse to oh my god no pretty quickly in an impressive series of set pieces showcasing body horror, carnage, mutants, goo, and more.

Cregger’s direction is fresh and fun, building dread and releasing it with bits of humor. He gives us some nifty first person shooter POV, but not enough of it to become tedious. The camera lingers when you don’t expect it to, and turns away when you really hope it will.

Cregger never takes the film too seriously, which is usually the downfall of any video game adaptation. But he absolutely embraces the video game-ness of the film, digging into the grossest and most disturbing elements of the game while rooting the mayhem in a character you can care about.

Resident Evil is frequently funny without falling into camp. Abrams, who was such a standout comic force in Weapons, delivers an ideal doofus to root for. John Walter Hauser has a fun expository sharing cameo, and Zach Cherry is also pretty funny.

It’s also pretty gross, fast paced, tremendously violent, and harrowing in a fun way.

The unhinged horror of it all won’t surprise those of us who saw Cregger’s 2022 feature Barbarian. He’s a horror guy. He knows horror and he has fun with it while still leaving some scars. Resident Evil isn’t going to win anybody an Oscar, but it’s a good time.   

New In Theaters

Sequel of the Witch

Leave a comment

Practical Magic 2

by Hope Madden

What made 1998’s Practical Magic so compelling? It was a beautifully filmed tale of a sad woman traumatized into dimming her light, a sister who shone, trauma be damned, and Aidan Quinn at his most swoon worthy.

Nearly 30 years later, somehow Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) is just now having to deal with daughters and their boyfriends. Practical Magic 2 reunites Bullock and Nicole Kidman (she who shone) as witchy sisters who have to navigate the next generation of the Owens curse. (When Owens women fall in love, their lovers are doomed to die horribly.)

Sally’s been hiding her witchiness again, for so long that her daughters have forgotten all about the family power. But now Kylie (Joey King) is in loooooove. And her boy Gideon (Blue Beetle’s Xolo Maridueña) is in danger, so she’s off to England with a black magic book and the goal to break the curse.

Bullock and Kidman, who’s here almost exclusively for comic relief this go-round, make for a fun Odd Couple. Bullock’s low-key comic timing is always sharp, though Kidman seems less sure footed in the comedic role. There are also moments when the pair’s humor feels out of place. They are in search of Sally’s missing and presumed in-peril daughter, after all.

Directed this time by Birdbox’s Susanne Bier, PM2 embraces the beautiful clutter, perfectly mussed long hair, and 90s fashion sensibilities of the original. It’s still a movie meant to showcase Bullock’s beauty, and it does.

The international intrigue feels rushed and telegraphed, and at no point are you unsure of the film’s outcome. And while the first film was split between each sister’s storyline, that made narrative sense because they were the two beloveds who were meant to come together. (Quinn was mainly delightful eye candy.)

The narrative has lost its balance with the two sisters together, one daughter/niece in peril, some aunts back at home. Plus, dudes as witches? Ew.

Great to see Diane Weist and Stockard Channing return, as dear as ever playing the aunties. And though there’s not a scene that stands up to the charm of the original, Practical Magic 2 is fine. It reminds you that sisters are awesome, long hair is too, Cool Whip is delicious, and there’s rarely a bad time for a margarita.

New In Theaters

Action Hank

Leave a comment

Runner

by George Wolf

When all the running is done, Runner ends up caught in a movie limbo that is very 2026. If this has gone direct to streaming, it would rate above average among some less than stellar action romps. But among big screen releases, the latest from Angel Studios feels more like a passable but forgettable reach.

And yes, entertaining in its 97 PG-13 minutes.

Alan Ritchson stars as Hank Marlowe, a former military badass who “doesn’t hurt people anymore.” He’s a got a haunted past, a one year sobriety chip and a job in Australia as a “runner” who can deliver important packages such as priceless parakeets to various clients and destinations.

So even though he’s not hankerin’ for some action, action finds Hank when Ben Bishop (Owen Wilson) arrives with a very valuable asset. It’s a human liver meant to save the life of a seven year-old girl, and Ben will be serving as chaperone on Hank’s mission of mercy.

The mission get messy when a cartel kingpin (Rodrigo Santoro) comes calling. Turns out the girl and the liver share a rare blood type with the kingpin’s mother, who has a surgeon on standby waiting to perform her own life saving surgery.

As you might guess, Hank’s vow of non-violence gets thrown out the window alongside plenty of henchmen and bad guys.

Director Scott Waugh – a former stuntman – choreographs some decent actions sequences that cater to Ritchson’s size, physicality and understated charisma. Wilson is on auto pilot as the awkwardly enthusiastic comic relief, with the script from Miles Hubley and Tommy White conjuring moments of good natured rapport among some common action comedy beats.

It’s all a bit familiar and silly, and definitely guilty of too many bland, off- brand needle drops. But Ritchson and Wilson make their mismatch work well enough, and the film finds a groove of goofy fun that actually seems respectful of its audience.

So while Runner might be punching above its weight class, Ritchson is the perfect hero to put up the dukes and blow up some stuff while Wilson is quick with a quip. It ain’t quite art, but it’s not another streaming pile of algorithm, either. And if that’ll do, then enjoy.

New In Theaters

We Were On a Break!

Leave a comment

The Sun Never Sets

by George Wolf

Buried deep in the guts of The Sun Never Sets is a movie we’ve seen plenty of times. It’s that amusing, sometimes zany rom-com where two impossibly attractive people slowly find their way to each to other. We know they’ll be together, it’s just a question of how enjoyable the journey will be.

And that can be a perfectly fine, easily forgettable time at the movies.

Joe Swanberg doesn’t make those movies. His stories are lived-in slices of humanity, often filled with easygoing humor, stellar performances and easily relatable characters who must navigate compelling pushes and pulls.

The Sun Never Sets has all of that, and it may be his finest film to date.

Dakota Fanning is simply fantastic as Wendy, a construction worker in Alaska whose two-year relationship with Jack (Jake Johnson, terrific) is suddenly at a serious crossroads. Jack is an older, divorced dad with two kids, and isn’t really interested in adding more wives or children.

He’s worried that Wendy will resent these choices as the years go by, so he insists she take a few months away from him, to “see what’s out there” and decide if she really wants Jack for the long haul.

Reluctantly, she takes that break, and ends up meeting her bad boy ex, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith, Saturday Night‘s Chevy Chase) who’s back in town as a charter pilot for tourists. Sparks are reignited.

And suddenly, Jack wants the break to be over. Imagine that.

Swanberg, doing triple duty as writer/director/editor, again sets a casual pace filled with authentic dialog that’s always propelled by a lovely, improvisational feel. The entire ensemble (also featuring Debby Ryan and Karley Sciortino) shines, each actor carving distinctly human characters amid oversized, Alaska-worthy fashions, a robust adult dating climate and the smell of salmon.

The Sun Never Sets is just a warm, funny, frisky delight. It’s a film that makes you feel you just hit town and are instantly accepted into a circle of friends involved in a juicy love triangle. You’ll get a kick out of where they take you, and where Swanberg leaves you.

Because the finale is something you won’t be expecting, even though you’ll leave the theater thinking you should have seen it coming early on.

Either way, you’ll probably be smiling.

New In Theaters

Inane Blacktop

Leave a comment

Idiots

by Matt Weiner

It took many years and a last-minute safe-for-work title change for Idiots to reach screens. Writer-director Macon Blair, always a welcome presence in front of the camera, has talked openly about the decade-plus and numerous cast changes to get his latest feature made.

That’s a lot of pressure for an antagonistic road comedy that follows two in-over-their-heads contractors who transport troubled teens to rehab centers. Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) is well-meaning and religious, with a genuine empathy for his passengers. Mark (Dave Franco), on the other hand, seems more likely to be the one in the backseat being escorted.

The pair gives the impression they would be outmatched in the best of circumstances, let alone trying to handle their latest charge. Sheridan Kimberley (Mason Thames) is a sociopathic son of hands-off billionaires eager to get him out of sight, out of mind, and in compliance with the latest legal deal to keep him out of prison.

Sheridan plots to turn Mark and Davis against each other and escape their custody, which sends the pair on a road trip from hell that ends up roping in a vengeful sex worker (Kiernan Shipka), celebrity-worshiping sycophants and a band of Soundcloud-rapping bounty hunters/kidnappers whose incompetence rivals only Mark and Davis.

For a crass hard-R comedy, there’s sadly only one scene that comes close to the gross goo-fest to be had in Blair’s more focused and self-assured Toxic Avenger remake. Idiots does the best it can do with the low budget, but more physical comedy would’ve helped distract from all the implausible character decisions and their incongruent philosophizing.

Idiots counts Danny McBride, Jody Hill and David Gordon Green among its executive producers. Whether or not they played a direct hand in day-to-day production, the comic sensibilities of the HBO mainstays behind shows like Vice Principals and Righteous Gemstones are firmly part of the film’s DNA. Blair’s story takes major tonal swings for a grossout comedy with few redeeming characters. Or any redemption at all. This works for lovable losers like McBride’s Kenny Powers or Seth Rogen and the elder Franco brother in Pineapple Express. It’s a difficult register to pull off across a feature-length comedy, though, and Blair’s uneven script doesn’t pick up the slack consistently enough. Still, though there’s something to be said for a comedy willing to be this nihilistic and … well, idiotic.

New In Theaters

Won’t You Say You Love Me Too?

Leave a comment

Buddy

by Hope Madden

If you ever watched the old Barney & Friends TV show and worried that a big dinosaur who loses his temper could easily kill a bunch of children, well, you and Casper Kelly both.

Kelly’s been making goofy horror for years: Adult Swim Yule Log, “Fun Size” from V/H/S Halloween, the “Cheddar Goblin” bit in Mandy. (That last one is genius, let’s be honest.) With Buddy, he takes us into the make-believe world of a kids’ TV show, trapped probably somewhere in the 1990s, starring a big, fuzzy, orange unicorn.

Freckle faced Freddy (Delaney Quinn) is the first to notice that something seems wrong with Buddy. Just a minute ago, Buddy was helping Josh (Luke Speakman) realize that he really did want to dance. Even though Josh was pretty clear that he did not want to dance.

But where is Josh? And why is Josh’s book all covered in blood?

Kelly mines the unwholesome within the wholesome thanks in large part to committed set design and spot-on child performances. Plus the voice talent is nuts. Keegan-Michael Key is Buddy, Patton Oswalt does the voice of a backpack named Strappy, and Michael Shannon voices a Howdy Doody style marionette.

Make believe set-up in place, Buddy jumps from TV land into the real world just long enough to hint at a larger tale.

Here Topher Grace (essentially playing Topher Grace) and Cristin Milioti (wonderful) are raising their two sons, but Mom feels like something is off. Wrong. Missing.

Kelly, writing with Jamie King, understands how to subvert TV logic, whether sit-com or live-action kid stuff. His instincts in the land of make believe are especially on-point. There’s something unsettling about those shows, dating back to Mr. Rogers and those terrifying puppets. Or Captain Kangaroo. What was his deal?!

And Quinn guarantees you’ve emotionally invested, which is a rarity in such Midnight Movie fare. Kelly pushes the limits of the idea with a running time just over 90 minutes, but Buddy is a real unicorn. The film is clever, funny, gory, and surprisingly moving.

New In Theaters

On the Road Again and Again and Again

Leave a comment

It Ends

by George Wolf

Just in case Backrooms was too abstract about the anxieties plaguing Gen Z right now, It Ends arrives to hammer the point home more directly. Writer/director Alex Ullom’s feature debut is a well-constructed metaphor for a timely existential dread, with a slam-bang setup fueled by one early kickass jump scare.

Four twenty-something friends pile in a trusty four-door and head out. They’re laughing, talking and trusting their GPS until driver Tyler (Michael Cole) suspects that something doesn’t seem right.

He’s correct.

One wrong turn has trapped them on a never-ending backroad through the woods, where stopping for even a few minutes can be deadly. Don’t worry about the gas gauge, bathroom breaks or starvation, Ullom sees those questions coming. Instead, worry about how Tyler, Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth) and James (Phinehas Yoon) will try to deconstruct this road trip rubric, and what they’ll learn as the miles add up.

If you’re thinking Exit 8, understandable, but that game offered a finish line that these drivers can only dream of.

They’re fresh out of college, and now they’re just facing an endless road of toil and frustration, managing a few fleeting moments of joy while they hang on to the hope that one day they might find salvation.

What kind of life is that?

Horror movies have always reflected generational fears, and this particular anxiety continues to resonate as an anchor for psychological torment. After that first act blast of terror, Ullom settles into a groove of introspection and gloom, with his four talented actors elevating a script that is a bit light on character development.

The important thing is, we believe these people are friends, and for the most part, their reactions to the situation (and, by extension, what it represents) seem genuine. The road only gets bumpy in act three, when Ullon seems desperate to reach a feature length runtime, spinning his wheels a bit before hitting us with his Rod Serling-esque finale.

It Ends still leaves a well-earned mark. It’s more proof that horror can be trusted to these talented young storytellers, and the future is looking scary good.

New In Theaters

Attention Frightened Shoppers

Leave a comment

Colony

by Hope Madden

Before filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho thrilled and devastated in equal measure with his 2016 zombie masterpiece Train to Busan, he scared us with its animated prequel (Seoul Station). The filmmaker book a break from the undead after the underwhelming Busan sequel Peninsula, turning to religious horror and crime thrillers.

And while his latest, Colony, is not technically a zombie movie because the ravenous hordes are not, in face, undead, you should still steer clear of their mouths.

Colony is sort of REC meets Dawn of the Dead, but with a hive mind, a little 28 Days Later, a touch of The Thing, and a lot of mucous.

Professor Se Jeong (Jun Ji-Hyun) attends a conference that detours to chaos when a disgruntled scientist unleashes a biochemical that mutates the affected into a zombie-like mob with a single consciousness. As SWAT quarantines the building, which is attached to a mall, Se Jeong must try to deliver Patient X to the rescue team for use as a vaccine against infection.

The film seems to have a lot on its mind: the surveillance state, contagion anxiety and lockdown trauma, disinformation and vaccines, even a very polite form of fascism. And at just over 2 hours, you’d think Colony might have mined those ideas a little more powerfully.

Instead, it hints at these, mainly borrowing pretty liberally from films that dug in deeper. Nor does Yeon develop the emotional connections that has me bawling every time I watch Busan, although solid performances help the characters draw your empathy.

Still, the filmmaker injects an intriguing element with the communication aspect—the infected being able to share information, even see what each other sees. And his precisely choreographed bloody, gory, gooey action mayhem is again on point.

Colony won’t shred your nerves or emotions the way Train to Busan did, but maybe it’s unfair to expect Yeon to meet that high water mark. It’s a mainly clever, well staged and quick paced action horror.  

New In Theaters

I’m Not Looney, I’m Just Drawn That Way

Leave a comment

Coyote vs. ACME

by Hope Madden

Three years after Warner Brothers shelved Coyote vs. ACME for a tax write off, the delightful live action/animation hybrid finally hits big screens this week.

My interest hardly needed nudging after last year’s surprisingly entertaining The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. The fact that Coyote vs. ACME is about a soulless corporation willing to sacrifice cartoons because of its greed only increased its appeal. I love a good “art imitates life” story.

And this one did not disappoint. Will Forte is Kevin Avery of the injury law firm Avery, Jones, and Maltese—the first of about a billion nods to the brain trust that created the nearly century-old Looney Tunes. Kevin makes a living helping cartoon characters settle disputes with ACME for a couple hundred per case of backfiring rocket skates, anvil incidents, and whatnot.

Then Wile E. Coyote walks into Kevin’s office with a bottomless knapsack full of whatnot and suddenly Kevin’s facing a case that might be bigger than he even wants to deal with.

Kevin’s nemesis, ACME Corp’s slick talking attorney Buddy Crane (John Cena), offers a sweet settlement, but Mr. Coyote’s having none of it.

Coyote vs. ACME delivers a classic legal thriller punctuated with laughs and loving nods to animated history. Director Dave Green and a writing team led by Samy Burch (May December) follow in Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s footsteps in more ways than one. The filmmakers’ Looney Tunes love runs deep, and their knack for sight gags is as on-point as their instincts with a David vs. Goliath storyline.

It’s a smart script, and Forte, Cena, and P.J. Byrne (as Cena’s assistant) are a riot. Coyote vs. ACME never aims for the heights of Roger Rabbit (which was, let’s be honest, essentially a brilliantly disguised Chinatown for a new generation), but it doesn’t try to.

Green’s film celebrates generations of animated history with love and skill while it tells a story that’s relevance is as timeless as the Looney Tunes.

New In Theaters

Trickery, Trees & Tomato Sauce

Leave a comment

The Magic Faraway Tree

by Hope Madden

“The magic of childhood is always forgot, but this is the story of one who did not.”

So begins The Magic Faraway Tree, director Ben Gregor’s fantasy about unplugging the family and rediscovering magic.

Tim Thompson (Andrew Garfield) is the one adult still searching for some joy, maybe even magic, for his family. When his wife Polly (Claire Foy) quits her corporate job (and the family immediately loses the corporate apartment and car), Tim has a grand idea. They’ll move to the country, live off the land and make pasta sauce.

Garfield’s a brilliant fit as the emotionally available dad, ready to make friends with a rooster and play Gregorian chants for his tomato plants. Tim and Polly’s kids fare less well without their devices, until they find a giant magic tree and make friends with the mainly friendly fae folk who live therein.

These folk include a fairy (Nicola Coughlan), a pixie (Hiran Abeysekera), and a saucepan man (Dustin Demri-Burns). What?

Writer Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2) adapts one of Enid Blyton’s beloved old books to tell a good story, but it’s caught in a trap. The fantastical elements are fun and brightly colored, but not nearly as interesting as the family drama.

This is partly a testament to the talent of the cast. Both Foy and Garfield are routinely wonderful but rarely does either get to play a loving parent and spouse finding silly ways to be with their family. Both seem to truly enjoy the work.

The child actors (Billie Gadsdon, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, and Phoenix Laroche) charm scene after scene. The crux of the drama falls on Bennett-Cardy, and she handles it beautifully.

Rebecca Ferguson, however, is criminally underused as the villainous Miss Snap. This is part of the trouble. The film gives more space to the non-magical side of the story, which leaves the magical portion feeling underfed.  

It’s unfortunate that Gregor couldn’t find a more whimsical balance for the film, or simply streamlined the fae adventure to a more precise, if smaller, supporting side plot. Instead, the family drama feels like a full film often weighed down by a shapeless, overly busy but under developed side quest.