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Directed by: Patrick Hughes Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, Glen Powell, Kellan Lutz, Antonio Banderas Rated: for violence including intense sustained gun battles and fight scenes, and for language There’s a new Expendables movie out, catching the end of the summer action movie wave. “The Expendables 3” is the latest in a series of films that are a blend of homage to and in-jokes from classic 80s action flicks. Sylvester Stallone knows what he’s good at, and that is turning out action movie storylines and then one-lining his way through them. If you like that sort of thing, “The Expendables 3” will probably be right up your alley. “The Expendables 3” has a fairly standard “old enemy proves to still be alive, so protagonist must track him down and arrest/kill him” plot. The story isn’t why you see a movie like

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Starring: Scarlett Johanson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked Written and Directed by: Luc Besson Rated: R for strong violence, disturbing images, and sexuality Suspension of disbelief, the willingness to overlook things that aren’t real or possible, is a vital part of enjoying almost any fictional movie. Superheroes, action stars, mad scientists, they all do things we know aren’t possible in the real world. Some movies require you to suspend your disbelief a little harder – to accept the idea that two guys in their early thirties can pass as high school students, for example. Then there are films like “Lucy,” the latest from Luc Besson (whose work as a writer, director, and producer includes some of the best action films of the last three decades). These films require you to suspend your disbelief hard enough to ignore actual, existing scientific facts being not just ignored, but actively turned on their heads. The basic premise

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Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Paxton, Noah Taylor Directed by: Doug Liman Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and brief suggestive material There’s a situation almost anybody who plays enough video games has experienced, where you have to keep doing the same thing over and over, trying new ways to survive a difficult level and failing. “Edge of Tomorrow” plays off this, mashing up the classic sci-fi alien invasion trope with a “Groundhog Day” style of an eternally looping day. Future-soldier Cage (Tom Cruise) dies not long after hitting the beach in a massive attempt to end an overwhelming alien invasion once and for all – and then wakes up the day before and has to do it all over again. Eventually he knows the day like some of us know levels in “Super Mario Bros”: run this far, jump, go up, go down, etc. Once he

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Directed by: Robert Stromberg Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Sam Riley, Sharlto Copley Rated: PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images A delightful villain is a must-have for a good fairytale story, and Disney’s old, animated “Sleeping Beauty” had one of the greats – Maleficent. Now, Disney is turning the familiar tale on its head and retelling the story from the evil fairy’s point of view. Rather than the green-faced villain we know and love, we are presented with young fairyMaleficent, a strong and protective figure in the fairy kingdom. She’s kind and a bit naïve, especially when it comes to humans. When an older Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) falls for her human friend Stephan (Sharlto Copley), she puts her trust in someone undeserving. When Stephan betrays her for his own ends, she retreats into her homeland, conjuring a gigantic wall of thorns to separate the fairy and human

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Directed by: Bryan Singer Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklege, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan Rated: PG- 13 for sequences of intense sci-fi violence and action, some suggestive material, nudity and language Comic book fans are no strangers to “retcon” – short for “retroactive continuity” – that device long used by the major comic book publishing houses (among others) to change the events of past publications. Retconning is far more common than “rebooting” a franchise, which is what most moviegoers are used to. Consider the Spider-Man films of the last fifteen years: three from Sam Raimi starring Tobey Maguire, then five years later, “The Amazing Spider-Man” with Andrew Garfield. These weren’t sequels, they just ignored the previous films and started over. The X-Men films have taken a different approach, creating prequels when “X-Men: The Last Stand” left things in a problematic state (several characters dead, and possible storylines from

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Directed by: Wally Pfister Starring: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy Rated: PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, some bloody images, brief strong language and sensuality “Transcendence” is one of those films that wants to be thoughtful and profound and leave the audience questioning their interpretation of the film. Unfortunately, it’s more likely to leave the audience questioning what the hell they just saw. Not only does it get wrong some science so basic even your average cell phone user will spot the problem, it makes us doubt every single character’s interpretation of events without giving us the knowledge we need to sort out who’s right. The story starts with a post-apocalyptic Berkeley. Max Waters (Paul Bettany) searches for the home of his friends Will and Evelyn Caster (Johnny Depp and Rebecca Hall) and narrates for us the tale that started five years earlier, when anti-AI terrorists blew up several labs

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