Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Directed by: Tim Burton Starring: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Samuel L. Jackson, Judi Dench, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Chris O’Dowd, Terrence Stamp Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of fantasy action/violence and peril Tim Burton’s newest film (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children) features neither Johnny Depp nor Helena Bonham Carter, and doesn’t even have Danny Elfman doing music. His normal level of kookiness is also somewhat absent. To top things off, he stuck his foot in his mouth during a recent interview and said some pretty racist stuff. Folks trying to decide whether to see “Miss Peregrine’s” will need to weigh not only considerations of book adaptation and tone, but also whether his remarks affect their comfort with paying to see his film. All of this aside, the film is pretty good. The book it’s based on is very popular, and fans of the book will need to be okay with major changes between page

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The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Haley Bennett, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Peter Sarsgaard Rated: PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material “The Seven Samurai” is hands-down one of the best samurai movies ever made. When John Sturges helmed “The Magnificent Seven,” a remake of it as a Western back in 1960, he created one of the best Western movies ever made. Antoin Fuqua and his cast work hard to make the remake-of-the-remake as superlative as its predecessors, but the pieces don’t quite come together enough. It’s good, but it left me wanting to watch the other two rather than to rewatch the new one. This is a good movie, but nowhere near as good as it wants to be. The general story is the same: a small town is being terrorized by bad guys,

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Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad

Directed by: David Ayer Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jay Hernandez, Joel Kinnaman, Jared Leto Rated: PG – 13 for sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language Where Marvel Comics landed square into their standard tone with “Iron Man,” DC Comics seems to be casting about. After a handful of increasingly gritty films, we’re now presented with “Suicide Squad,” which tries very hard to be both gritty and funny. That’s probably a necessity, in some ways – if you’re going to have a handful of supervillains as your protagonists, you need some humor or nobody’s going to empathize with them. “Suicide Squad” succeeds on some levels, but not on others, and whether someone likes it or not is largely dependent on which elements are most important to them. The squad of the title is the brainchild of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). Her plan: the US government uses imprisoned

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Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters

Directed by: Paul Feig Starring: Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey Rated: PG-13 for supernatural action and some crude humor The new “Ghostbusters” film has been polarizing since it was first announced. It reboots the classic franchise, but with four women as the titular characters – a casting choice that enraged at least as many people as it thrilled. Like most comedies, if you go into the theater expecting to hate it, it isn’t going to win you over. It’s not “Citizen Kane,” it’s a popcorn movie. A good popcorn movie, but still too light and fluffy to win over any naysayers. If, on the other hand, you’re excited (or at least willing to be excited) about it and you enjoy lightweight summer flicks, you’ll probably be pleased. Former friends Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristin Wiig) and Dr. Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) have gone their separate ways since Erin left

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Now You See Me 2

Now You See Me 2

Directed by: Jon M. Chu Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman Rated: PG-13 for violence and some language 2013’s “Now You See Me” was a top-notch, fun blend of magic shows and a heist movie. Directed by Louis Leterrier (“The Transporter), it was a romp of a film, packed with cleverness, intrigue, and Robin-Hood stage magicians scamming bad people. The sequel, “Now You See Me 2,” brings back almost everyone from the first film, and wisely doesn’t try to recreate the rest of its predecessor. It’s still a stage-magic heist movie, but this time the magicians are desperate and on the run, and the bad people hold most of the cards. It’s a fun movie – not as good as the first film, but definitely a solid sequel. A note: if you haven’t seen the first film, the setup for the sequel has massive

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X-Men: Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse

Directed by: Bryan Singer Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp, Evan Peters, Rose Byrne Rated: PG-13 for sequences of violence, action and destruction, brief strong language and some suggestive images “X-Men: Apocalypse” lives up to its name, giving us an enormous spectacle that’s going to be hard to top. There are a great many characters, much bigger special effects, and a massively more powerful villain than in the recent X-Men films. If you want to maximize the bang for your buck and like Bryan Singer’s other X-Men work, this is the way to go. The film opens in ancient Egypt, where an aged, blue mutant (Oscar Isaac) is in the process of transferring his consciousness to a new body. Things don’t go quite as planned, and he winds up trapped far below ground, unconscious. After a rather clever opening credits

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Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War

Directed by: Anthony and Joe Russo Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner Rated: PG-13 for extended sequences of violence, action and mayhem We’re 12 films in and there are plenty more to come from Marvel Studios. The latest, “Captain America: Civil War,” is ostensibly a Captain America film, but it’s really more of a third Avengers movie. It takes the events of “Marvel’s The Avengers” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and shows us the logical fallout: the world is freaked out. As a result, the UN uses the collateral damage in the battles of New York and Sokovia as an excuse to rein in the Avengers. Naturally, our protagonists react in a variety of ways, and wind up fighting each other. As is made obvious in the publicity materials for the film, the protagonists line up roughly

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The Huntsman: Winter’s War

The Huntsman: Winter’s War

Directed by: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith, Alexandra Roach. Rated: PG-13 for fantasy action violence and some sensuality. If you saw 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman,” it should be pretty easy for you to decide whether to see the new film “The Huntsman: Winter’s War.” It’s not really a seqel, it tells a parallel story with some of the same characters. As with the first movie, there’s a lot to like and a lot to dislike – and they’re pretty much all the same things as in the first film. If you didn’t see the first film, there’s not a whole lot to enjoy about this one except the visuals, which are admittedly pretty stunning. “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” is separated into two stories. The first centers on Freya (Emily Blunt), sister of Ravenna (Charlize Theron) – the evil queen from the

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10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane

Directed by: Dan Trachtenberg Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr. Rated: PG-13 for thematic material including frightening sequences of threat with some violence, and brief language Films like “10 Cloverfield Lane” rely heavily on the audience not knowing more than the point of view character, so this review will avoid spoilers. Whether you’ll think this is a good movie or not depends heavily on what merits you use to judge it. There are some plot holes and the ending has drawn thoroughly mixed reactions, but the acting is superb, the cinematography is solid, and the tension just keeps cranking up. Our point of view character is Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who wakes up after a car accident to find herself chained to the wall in a small concrete room. The room turns out to be part of an underground bunker belonging to Howard (John Goodman), who says he rescued her. He and

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2: The Sword of Destiny

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2: The Sword of Destiny

Directed by: Woo-Ping Yuen Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Harry Shum Jr., Jason Scott Lee Rated: PG-13 for martial arts violence and brief partial nudity When “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” came out in 2001, it introduced director Ang Lee to American moviegoers and popularized Chinese martial-arts films in the western world. Now, fifteen years later, we get a sequel based on the same series of books. Famed action choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, who handled the elaborate fights on the original film (as well as the Matrix movies and others), is directing. If you want to see amazing fight sequences with elaborate and beautiful wirework and choreography, you must not miss “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of Destiny.” Folks who loved the first film more for its story and tone than its swordwork may be disappointed. The only character to return from the first film is the reserved and powerful Shu Lien (Michelle

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