Special screenings
Cinemark Classic Series
7/2, 7/5, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Sun 2 p.m., Wed 2 & 7 p.m., $7.50-10.75. Theaters: ORL, SF, SP, ST
Cult Classic Happy Hour
7/5, Fight Club, 5:30 p.m., free. Millennium Fandom Bar, 900 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-405-0816.
Family Movie Night
Thu, sundown, free. 6/29, Pete’s Dragon (2016). 7/6, Jurassic World. Downtown Container Park, 707 Fremont St., downtowncontainerpark.com.
Hired Gun
6/29, music documentary, 7:30 p.m., $13-$15. Theaters: COL, ORL, SF, SP, ST, VS. Info: fathomevents.com.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
7/1, movie plus live cast and audience participation, 10 p.m., $10. Theaters: TC. Info: rhpsvegas.com.
Sci Fi Center
Mon, Cinemondays, 8 p.m., free. 7/1, The Toolbox Murders, Thriller: A Cruel Picture, 7 p.m., $5. 5077 Arville St., 855-501-4335, thescificenter.com.
Summer Movie Series
Wed, 11:30 a.m., free. 7/5, Sing. Fashion Show Mall, 3200 Las Vegas Blvd S., 702-369-8382.
New this week
Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey. Directed by Edgar Wright. 113 minutes. Rated R. The plot of Baby Driver, about a getaway driver looking to leave behind his life of crime, is nothing new, but the way that writer-director Wright tells that story is playful and virtuosic, making the movie into one long visual mixtape. It’s like a mediocre crime thriller crossed with several very good music videos. —JB
Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, DTS, ET, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS
Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst. Directed by Sofia Coppola. 93 minutes. Rated R. Coppola’s new adaptation of the 1966 Civil War novel focuses on the women of a Southern boarding school who take in a wounded Union soldier (Farrell). Coppola observes the self-destructive tendencies of young (or just immature) women without judgment or titillation, letting her top-notch cast convey the conflicting emotions. —JB
Theaters: DTS, GVR, SC
Voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda. 90 minutes. Rated PG. There’s a sense of tired obligation to the third movie in the animated series about reformed supervillain Gru (Carell), which runs barely 90 minutes and throws together a handful of haphazard storylines. Nothing in the plot carries much of an impact, despite the series of apparently momentous developments. —JB
Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DI, ET, FH, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS
Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Nick Offerman. Directed by Brett Haley. 93 minutes. Rated R. Elliott brings soul and sensitivity to the role of an aging actor trying to get his life together after being diagnosed with cancer. His romance with a much younger comedian (Prepon) is awkward and halting, and the other plot threads are even sketchier, although Elliott’s performance is consistently great. —JB
Theaters: COL, SC, SP
The House (Not reviewed)
Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas. Directed by Andrew J. Cohen. 88 minutes. Rated R. A suburban couple start an illegal casino in their house in order to pay for their daughter’s college.
Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, DI, ET, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX
Now playing
Mandy Moore, Claire Holt, Matthew Modine. Directed by Johannes Roberts. 89 minutes. Rated PG-13. A pair of sisters end up trapped in a rickety cage at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by deadly sharks, in this lean, suspenseful survival thriller. Occasional plot contrivances aside, most of the movie is tense and well-crafted, making great use of the murky depths surrounding the characters. —JB
Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DI, FH, ORL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS
Katherine Waterston, Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup. Directed by Ridley Scott. 122 minutes. Rated R. Like its predecessor Prometheus and Scott’s 1979 classic Alien, Covenant finds the crew of a deep-space vessel investigating a mysterious planet and discovering horrific monsters lurking there. Fassbender is fantastic as two unsettling androids, and while the movie focuses more on scares than on Prometheus’ philosophical questions, those scares are pretty effective. —JB
Theaters: SC, ST
Demetrius Shipp Jr., Danai Gurira, Kat Graham. Directed by Benny Boom. 140 minutes. Rated R. Star Shipp’s resemblance to late hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur is not enough to build a biopic around, and director Boom doesn’t have much else to offer, throwing together a Behind the Music-style series of events from Shakur’s life that provides little insight into him as a person or narrative shape to his career. —JB
Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, DI, ET, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, ST, TS, TX
Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario. Directed by Seth Gordon. 116 minutes. Rated R. The cheesy ’90s TV series about lifeguards gets adapted into a dreadful action-comedy. The lowbrow humor is lazy and repetitive, and the action scenes are flat-out terrible. The plot drags on for nearly two hours, and the characters aren’t even remotely as well-defined as their abs. —JB
Theaters: COL
Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton. Directed by Miguel Arteta. 83 minutes. Rated R. A Mexican immigrant massage therapist ends up at a dinner party with a right-wing billionaire, where they argue in a way that’s sometimes repetitive and awkward, but also reveals details about their backgrounds that inform their worldviews. The filmmakers have trouble wrapping up the thin story, but find political nuance in the process. —JB
Theaters: BS, DTS, GVR, SC, TS, TX
Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans. Directed by Bill Condon. 129 minutes. Rated PG. This live-action/CGI remake of Disney’s classic animated musical drains much of the charm from the movie, rendering expressive cartoon designs as hyper-detailed, antiseptic computer effects, bloating a simple fairy tale into a plodding narrative complete with dead parents and placing some of Disney’s most memorable songs alongside mediocre new compositions. —JB
Theaters: TC
Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay, Jaeden Lieberher. Directed by Colin Trevorrow. 105 minutes. Rated PG-13. Watts plays the single mother of two boys, one of whom (Liebeher) is an 11-year-old prodigy who writes a singular “book” that’s really a set of instructions. Revealing much more than that would ruin this ludicrous movie’s sole pleasure, which is the sheer brazen nuttiness of its screenplay. —MD
Theaters: DTS, GVR, VS
Voices of Miles Bakshi, Alec Baldwin, Lisa Kudrow. Directed by Tom McGrath. 97 minutes. Rated PG. This is a baffling, bizarrely misconceived animated movie about a baby dressed in a business suit and spouting corporate speak in the voice of Alec Baldwin. Some visuals are well-designed, and Baldwin gets in a few funny lines, but the plot is so weirdly off the mark that everything else is just background noise. —JB
Theaters: TC
Can We Still Be Friends? (Not reviewed)
Gerald Anderson, Arci Muñoz, Bryan Santos. Directed by Prime Cruz. 113 minutes. Not rated. In Filipino with English subtitles. A pair of friends-turned-lovers try to navigate their relationship after breaking up.
Theaters: VS
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Voices of Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms. Directed by David Soren. 84 minutes. Rated PG. This computer-animated movie, about two best friends (voiced by Hart and Middleditch) whose superhero creation comes to life, contains hand-drawn sequences and even a sock-puppet sequence. Rambunctious, but cheerfully clever—or at least cheerful—it contains fart jokes, but also a built-in critique and aesthetic appreciation of fart jokes. —JMA
Theaters: AL, BS, CH, COL, ORL, RR, SC, ST, TS, TX, VS
Voices of Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Armie Hammer. Directed by Brian Fee. 109 minutes. Rated G. The third movie in Pixar’s most blatantly commercial animated franchise finds race car Lightning McQueen (Wilson) losing ground to younger models. The world of anthropomorphic vehicles is still colorful and lovingly detailed, but the plot is slow-moving and dull, rehashing elements of the first movie. —JB
Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, COL, DI, FH, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul
Jason Drucker, Charlie White, Alicia Silverstone. Directed by David Bowers. 90 minutes. Rated PG. The fourth movie based on Jeff Kinney’s middle-grade books features an entirely new cast and a more vulgar, obnoxious tone, focused primarily on gross-out jokes. The plotting is still sitcom-level (this time, the Heffley family goes on a road trip), but the story barely fills out half the running time. —JB
Theaters: TC
Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Charlize Theron. Directed by F. Gary Gray. 136 minutes. Rated PG-13. The eighth movie in the endless, bizarrely popular action series about car-racing outlaws ups the stakes even further, with a world-ending plot by a villainous hacker (Theron) and a bunch of new characters. The story is convoluted and crowded and the action is completely antiseptic. —JB
Theaters: TC
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista. Directed by James Gunn. 136 minutes. Rated PG-13. After teaming up to save the galaxy in the surprise-hit previous movie, Marvel’s intergalactic superheroes are split up and set on various courses until they come together for the action-packed finale. If you liked the first movie, well, here’s more of it, only not as refreshing or original. —JB
Theaters: AL, COL, FH, RR, SF, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS
How to Be a Latin Lover (Not reviewed)
Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Rob Lowe. Directed by Ken Marino. 115 minutes. Rated PG-13. After getting dumped by his wife, a gold-digging lothario has to move in with his sister and her son.
Theaters: TC
Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Kelvin Harrison Jr. Directed by Trey Edward Shults. 97 minutes. Rated R. This post-apocalyptic horror movie, about an uneasy alliance between two families hiding out in an isolated house, is long on creepy atmosphere and short on plot details. That lack of clarity can be frustrating, but it’s frustrating—and terrifying—for the characters as well, and Shults puts the audience right alongside them. —JB
Theaters: ST
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou. Directed by Guy Ritchie. 126 minutes. Rated PG-13. The latest retelling of the King Arthur legend awkwardly combines Lord of the Rings-style large-scale fantasy filmmaking with pseudo-historical grit and director Ritchie’s own hyperactive, motormouthed style perfected in his early crime movies. The movie is one long, drawn-out origin story to set up a franchise that no one asked for. —JB
Theaters: TC
Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts. 118 minutes. Rated PG-13. After gathering a motley crew for a trip to the previously uncharted Skull Island, the movie wastes little time in revealing its giant ape title character, delivering near-constant action on an island filled with brilliantly rendered monstrosities. Its social commentary, however, is mostly used just as superficially as its overqualified cast. —JB
Theaters: TC
Lowriders (Not reviewed)
Demian Bichir, Gabriel Chavarria, Theo Rossi. Directed by Ricardo de Montreuil. 99 minutes. Rated PG-13. A teenager in LA gets involved in low-rider car culture and ends up torn between his upstanding father and his criminal brother.
Theaters: TC
Kate Mara, Ramón Rodríguez, Bradley Whitford. Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. 116 minutes. Rated PG-13. The true story of a Marine dog handler who gained national attention for her efforts to adopt her bomb-sniffing dog after its retirement is inspirational enough on its own. But the movie’s more grounded, somber elements are much more effective than its emotional arcs, which eventually take over the story. —JB
Theaters: GVR, SC, ST
Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella. Directed by Alex Kurtzman. 107 minutes. Rated PG-13. The attempted launchpad for a cinematic universe based on Universal’s classic monster characters gets things off to a poor start, ineptly mixing action, horror, humor and world-building. Cruise is out of place as a roguish American soldier cursed by an evil ancient Egyptian princess, and the title character isn’t much of a threat. —JB
Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, COL, FH, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS
Rachel Weisz, Sam Claflin, Holliday Grainger. Directed by Roger Michell. 106 minutes. Rated PG-13. Based on a novel by suspense maven Daphne du Maurier, this thriller set on a 19th-century English country estate has all the ingredients for a Gothic potboiler. But Claflin is bland as a young man obsessed with his late cousin’s widow, and the story is more sedate than haunting. —JB
Theaters: SC
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Michael Sheen. Directed by Joseph Cedar. 118 minutes. Rated R. Gere plays the title character, a sort of political and corporate gadfly whose actual profession and skills are never quite clear. A lot about Israeli writer-director Cedar’s movie is never quite clear, and the filmmaker’s oddball style only adds to the disjointed feel of the story. —JB
Theaters: SC
Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard, Alec Baldwin. Directed by Eleanor Coppola. 92 minutes. Rated PG. Lane plays a movie producer’s wife who gets her groove back on a road trip through France with her husband’s business partner in this tepid, tedious romantic comedy. Coppola’s debut narrative feature (at age 80!) has all the dramatic tension of a catalog spread, with stilted dialogue and a nonexistent plot. —JB
Theaters: GVR, VS
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Johnny Depp, Brenton Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario. Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. 129 minutes. Rated PG-13. The fifth movie in the series initially based on a Disney theme-park ride features legendary pirate Jack Sparrow (Depp) on a quest for Poseidon’s trident. The plot is convoluted and interminable, and Depp stumbles and mumbles his way through another performance as Jack, who’s lost all of his irreverent charm. —JB
Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DTS, FH, ORL, SF, SP, SS, TS, TX
Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Kate McKinnon. Directed by Lucia Aniello. 101 minutes. Rated R. A group of college friends reunite for a bachelorette party, where things go increasingly wrong, starting with the accidental death of a stripper. The comic material is subpar, with a plot that goes in circles and runs out of momentum halfway through, only to turn into a half-hearted thriller in its final act. —JB
Theaters: AL, BS, GVR, ORL, RR, SC, SF, SP, SS, TS, TX
Voices of Demi Lovato, Danny Pudi, Jack McBrayer. Directed by Kelly Asbury. 89 minutes. Rated PG. The little blue creatures return to their fully animated roots in this story about lone female Smurf Smurfette discovering a hidden village of Smurf ladies. Lots of slapstick humor and lessons about tolerance ensue, but there’s not nearly enough story for 90 minutes, and the animation is functional and uninspired. —JB
Theaters: TC
Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Laura Haddock. Directed by Michael Bay. 148 minutes. Rated PG-13. Just getting through Bay’s fifth Transformers movie makes for an exhausting endeavor. Once again, the plot is byzantine and inane, the characters are superfluous and barely one-dimensional, the comic relief is painful and the acting is almost entirely perfunctory. The fate of the world is at stake (again), but none of it means anything. —JB
Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DI, ET, FH, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS
Tubelight (Not reviewed)
Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Zhu Zhu. Directed by Kabir Khan. 136 minutes. Not rated. In Hindi with English subtitles. Family drama set in a small town in India during the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
Theaters: VS
Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen. Directed by Patty Jenkins. 133 minutes. Rated PG-13. Set during WWI, this solo adventure for the iconic DC superhero is a step forward for DC’s movie universe. Gadot plays Wonder Woman with an appealing sense of integrity and compassion. The movie never reinvents the superhero origin story, but it hits all the familiar beats with enthusiasm and style. —JB
Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, DI, DTS, ET, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS
JMA Jeffrey M. Anderson; JB Josh Bell; MD Mike D’Angelo
Theaters
(AL) Regal Aliante
7300 Aliante Parkway, North Las Vegas, 844-462-7342 ext. 4011
(BS) Regal Boulder Station
4111 Boulder Highway, 844-462-7342 ext. 269
(CAN) Galaxy Cannery
2121 E. Craig Road, North Las Vegas, 702-639-9779
(CH) Cinedome Henderson
851 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson, 702-566-1570
(COL) Regal Colonnade
8880 S. Eastern Ave., 844-462-7342 ext. 270
(DI) Las Vegas Drive-In
4150 W. Carey Ave., North Las Vegas, 702-646-3565
(DTS) Regal Downtown Summerlin
2070 Park Center Drive, 844-462-7342 ext. 4063
(ET) Eclipse Theaters
814 S. Third St., 702-816-4300
(FH) Regal Fiesta Henderson
777 W. Lake Mead Parkway, Henderson, 844-462-7342 ext. 1772
(GVR) Regal Green Valley Ranch
2300 Paseo Verde Parkway, Henderson, 844-462-7342 ext. 267
(GVL) Galaxy Green Valley Luxury+
4500 E. Sunset Road, Henderson, 702-442-0244
(ORL) Century Orleans
4500 W. Tropicana Ave., 702-889-1220
(PAL) Brenden Theatres at the Palms
4321 W. Flamingo Road, 702-507-4849
(RP) AMC Rainbow Promenade
2321 N. Rainbow Blvd., 888-262-4386
(RR) Regal Red Rock
11011 W. Charleston Blvd., 844-462-7342 ext. 1756
(ST) Century Sam’s Town
5111 Boulder Highway, 702-547-1732
(SF) Century Santa Fe Station
4949 N. Rancho Drive, 702-655-8178
(SHO) United Artists Showcase
3769 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 844-462-7342 ext. 522
(SP) Century South Point
9777 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-260-4061
(SC) Century Suncoast
9090 Alta Drive, 702-869-1880
(SS) Regal Sunset Station
1301-A W. Sunset Road, Henderson, 844-462-7342 ext. 268
(TX) Regal Texas Station
2101 Texas Star Lane, North Las Vegas, 844-462-7342 ext. 271
(TS) AMC Town Square
6587 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-362-7283
(TC) Regency Tropicana Cinemas
3330 E. Tropicana Ave., 702-438-3456
(VS) Regal Village Square
9400 W. Sahara Ave., 844-462-7342 ext. 272