Screen

Short takes: This week’s movie listings

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The Jungle Book
Josh Bell, Mike D'Angelo, Jeffrey M. Anderson

Special screenings

Art & Architecture in Cinema

4/21, Renoir: Revered and Reviled, 7 p.m., $13-$15. Theaters: COL, SF, SP, ST, VS. Info: fathomevents.com.

The Metropolitan Opera HD Live

4/16, Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux live, 9:55 a.m., $17-$25. 4/20, Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux encore, 6:30 p.m., $16-$23. Theaters: COL, ORL, SF, SP, ST, VS. Info: fathomevents.com.

Midnight Brewvies

Mon, movie plus popcorn, midnight, free. Elixir, 2920 N. Green Valley Parkway, Henderson, 702-272-0000.

Movie Night

Thu, sundown, free. 4/21, The Good Dinosaur. Downtown Container Park, 707 Fremont St., downtowncontainerpark.com.

Sci Fi Center

Mon, Cinemondays, 8 p.m., free. 4/16, Dead Friend, Macabre, 8 p.m., $5. 5077 Arville St., 855-501-4335, thescificenter.com.

Summerlin Film Discussion Group

4/15, Steve Jobs plus discussion, 2 p.m., free. Summerlin Library, 1771 Inner Circle Drive, 702-507-3866.

This Is Winter Jam

4/19, Christian music concert documentary, 7 p.m., $10.50. Theaters: COL, VS. Info: fathomevents.com.

Tuesday Afternoon at the Bijou

Tue, 1 p.m., free. 4/19, The Bigamist. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 702-507-3400.

New this week

The Adderall Diaries (Not reviewed)

James Franco, Amber Heard, Christian Slater. Directed by Pamela Romanowsky. 105 minutes. Rated R. A drug-addicted writer deals with a new romance and family turmoil while covering a high-profile murder trial.

Theaters: TS

Barbershop: The Next Cut (Not reviewed)

Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Regina Hall. Directed by Malcolm D. Lee. 112 minutes. Rated PG-13. The crew at Calvin’s Barbershop come together to help revitalize their neighborhood.

Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, DI, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX

City of Gold Three stars

Directed by Laura Gabbert. 96 minutes. Rated R. Gabbert’s documentary about renowned food critic Jonathan Gold is so ridiculously complimentary that it gets a bit tiresome, but in between the slavering interviews about Gold’s genius, the movie paints a vivid and entertaining picture of LA’s cultural diversity as represented in the small ethnic restaurants that Gold discovers and publicizes. —JB

Theaters: VS

Criminal Two stars

Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Gal Gadot. Directed by Ariel Vromen. 113 minutes. Rated R. Thanks to an experimental (and nonsensical) procedure, the memories of a dead CIA agent are implanted into the mind of murderous psychopath Jericho Stewart (Costner). After a fairly tense opening, the movie gets bogged down in an incoherent terrorism plot, along with absurdly sappy scenes of Jericho discovering human emotions. —JB

Theaters: AL, CH, DI, FH, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS

Everybody Wants Some!! Four stars

Blake Jenner, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Guzman. Directed by Richard Linklater. 117 minutes. Rated R. Linklater’s “spiritual sequel” to his 1993 classic Dazed and Confused (featuring none of the same characters or actors) is set in the summer of 1980, and observes, with rich humor and keen insight, the testosterone-fueled rivalries, competitions and hazing among a college baseball team in Texas. —MD

Theaters: DTS

Fan (Not reviewed)

Shah Rukh Khan, Waluscha de Sousa, Shriya Pilgaonkar. Directed by Maneesh Sharma. 142 minutes. Not rated. In Hindi with English subtitles. An obsessive fan takes his love of his favorite movie star too far.

Theaters: ST, VS

The Jungle Book Two and a half stars

Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley. Directed by Jon Favreau. 105 minutes. Rated PG. The latest Disney live-action remake of an animated classic is a fairly faithful retelling of its source material, about a young boy raised in the jungle. The tone is an awkward mix of savage jungle naturalism and cuddly animal antics, and there’s a sort of prefab blandness to the amazing photo-realistic CGI. —JB

Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DI, FH, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX

Theri (Not reviewed)

Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Amy Jackson. Directed by Atlee Kumar. 157 minutes. Not rated. In Tamil with English subtitles. A cop goes undercover to protect his late wife’s daughter from criminals.

Theaters: VS

Now playing

10 Cloverfield Lane Three and a half stars

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg. 105 minutes. Rated PG-13. A woman is held captive by a survivalist following a serious accident.

Theaters: AL, GVR, PAL, RR, SP, ST, TX, VS

45 Years Three and a half stars

Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James. Directed by Andrew Haigh. 95 minutes. Rated R. Rampling’s Oscar-nominated performance anchors a movie that is sometimes too understated for its own good. She plays one half of a married couple whose relationship is rocked by unexpected news on the eve of their 45th anniversary. Rampling’s reactions tell the story beautifully even when the filmmaking is a bit opaque.

Theaters: SC

The 5th Wave Three stars

Chloë Grace Moretz, Alex Roe, Nick Robinson. Directed by J Blakeson. 112 minutes. Rated PG-13. Teenager Cassie (Moretz) fights off an alien invasion and gets caught in a love triangle in the latest adaptation of a young-adult sci-fi novel series. The 5th Wave starts out as a rote survival narrative before taking a turn for the absurd with its central romance and the aliens’ nonsensical endgame. —JB

Theaters: Theaters: TC

Allegiant One and a half stars

Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels. Directed by Robert Schwentke. 121 minutes. Rated PG-13. The third installment in the dystopian sci-fi Divergent series, based on Veronica Roth’s YA novels, throws in a ton of new convoluted plot elements to justify continuing the story, but it never succeeds. Woodley remains a solid actor, but she’s defeated by the incoherent script and the surprisingly terrible special effects. —JB

Theaters: AL, BS, COL, FH, RR, SF, SP, SS, TS, TX

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Two stars

Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Jesse Eisenberg. Directed by Zack Snyder. 151 minutes. Rated PG-13. Starting with its ridiculous title, this superhero epic is bursting with overwrought self-importance, crammed with so many characters and incidents that it ends up horribly disjointed. All the empty bluster obscures how little actually happens in the power struggle among heroes Batman (Affleck) and Superman (Cavill) and villain Lex Luthor (Eisenberg). —JB

Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, DI, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS

The Boss Two stars

Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage. Directed by Ben Falcone. 99 minutes. Rated R. A disgraced business mogul (McCarthy) has to team up with her former assistant (Bell). McCarthy nearly exhausts herself carrying the movie on her own. There are a handful of funny moments, but they’re few and far between in a movie that never quite figures out what kind of joke it’s trying to make. —JB

Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, DI, DTS, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS

The Boy (Not reviewed)

Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell. Directed by William Brent Bell. 98 minutes. Rated PG-13. An American nanny is disturbed by her English employers’ “son”—a life-sized doll.

Theaters: TC

The Brothers Grimsby Three stars

Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong, Penelope Cruz. Directed by Louis Leterrier. 83 minutes. Rated R. Baron Cohen and Strong play brothers—not named Grimsby, oddly—who were separated during childhood; one grew up to be a lower-class cretin, while the other works as a top government assassin. Gross-out humor abounds, and sometimes goes too far, but the less repulsive sequences are often quite funny. —MD

Theaters: TC

Chongqing Hot Pot (Not reviewed)

Baihe Bai, Kun Chen, Hao Qin. Directed by Qing Yang. 94 minutes. Not rated. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Three restaurateurs accidentally tunnel into a neighboring bank vault and decide to take advantage of the opportunity.

Theaters: TS

Daddy’s Home Two stars

Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini. Directed by Sean Anders. 96 minutes. Rated PG-13. This reunion between Ferrell and Wahlberg (The Other Guys) finds both stars on autopilot, with Ferrell as a milquetoast, eager-to-please stepdad who feels threatened when his wife’s bad-boy ex (Wahlberg) comes to town. Their subsequent feud is predictable and unfunny, combining painful slapstick with uncomfortable gross-out jokes. —JB

Theaters: TC

Deadpool Three stars

Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein. Directed by Tim Miller. 108 minutes. Rated R. The long-in-the-works movie starring sarcastic, ultraviolent Marvel Comics anti-hero Deadpool (Reynolds) is vulgar, gory and self-aware. In between his dirty jokes and self-referential insults, Deadpool participates in a fairly familiar superhero origin story. Only about half the jokes land, but the enthusiasm of the production makes up for the rest. —JB

Theaters: RR, SHO, SS, ST, VS

Demolition Two and a half stars

Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. 100 minutes. Rated R. This drama about a wealthy widower (Gyllenhaal) connecting with a melancholy single mother (Watts) features solid performances but is far too contrived and self-important. The movie loses sight of its characters’ unique emotions in its strained efforts to turn one man’s grief into a grand statement about human existence. —JB

Theaters: AL, COL, RR, ST, TS, VS

Eddie the Eagle Two stars

Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Jo Hartley. Directed by Dexter Fletcher. 105 minutes. Rated PG-13. The creators of this heavily fictionalized biopic have molded the underdog sports story of unlikely Olympic ski jumper Michael “Eddie” Edwards (Egerton) into a sappy, contrived, self-consciously wacky family comedy. It’s phonier and more manipulative than the prefab backstory video packages that air during the actual Olympics. —JB

Theaters: SC

Eye in the Sky Two stars

Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman. Directed by Gavin Hood. 102 minutes. Rated R. This military thriller aims to be a complex examination of the moral consequences of drone warfare, but its stakes (with a cute little girl put in the crosshairs of a British-American military operation targeting a terrorist cell) are so lopsided that it might as well be examining the moral consequences of puppy-kicking. —JB

Theaters: BS, CH, DTS, FH, GVR, ORL, SC, SP, TS

God’s Not Dead 2 (Not reviewed)

Melissa Joan Hart, Jesse Metcalfe, David A.R. White. Directed by Harold Cronk. 121 minutes. Rated PG. A high school teacher become the center of controversy after discussing Jesus in her classroom.

Theaters: AL, BS, COL, FH

Gods of Egypt One and a half stars

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Gerard Butler. Directed by Alex Proyas. 127 minutes. Rated PG-13. The gods in Gods of Egypt might as well be superheroes or cyborgs for all their connection to actual mythology, and the movie itself is a cacophony of garish special effects and loud, blustery action. It’s a simple quest story that gets muddled with various side missions and a thoroughly confusing climax. —JB

Theaters: ST, TC

The Good Dinosaur Three stars

Voices of Raymond Ochoa, Jack Bright, Frances McDormand. Directed by Peter Sohn. 100 minutes. Rated PG. Pixar’s long-in-the-works animated movie is gorgeous to look at, and it’s solid, pleasurable entertainment for kids. But it’s only slightly more sophisticated than the similarly themed Ice Age movies, with a straightforward story about a young dinosaur conquering his fears while on a quest through the wilderness. —JB

Theaters: TC

Hardcore Henry Two and a half stars

Haley Bennett, Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky. Directed by Ilya Naishuller. 96 minutes. Rated R. See what it’s like to execute dozens of faceless bad guys in this hyperactive action flick, which duplicates the restricted point of view (and the body count) of a first-person-shooter video game. Director Naishuller started out making music videos, and his style is exhilarating—for about five minutes. Then it gets exhausting. —MD

Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, COL, DI, FH, ORL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS

Hello, My Name Is Doris Three stars

Sally Field, Max Greenfield, Tyne Daly. Directed by Michael Showalter. 94 minutes. Rated R. Although the scenario of a lonely older woman (Field) awkwardly crushing on her much younger co-worker (Greenfield) could be played for cruel laughs, the filmmakers don’t mock Doris even when she’s thoroughly embarrassing herself. The movie ends up part cringe comedy, part melancholy meditation on aging. —JB

Theaters: CH, COL, SC

I Saw the Light Two stars

Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Cherry Jones. Directed by Marc Abraham. 123 minutes. Rated R. Hiddleston is in fine form as legendary country musician Hank Williams, but this rote, tiresome biopic places too much emphasis on its subject’s boozing and womanizing and shows virtually no interest in his singular talent. Olsen is a highlight as Williams’ ambitious, long-suffering first wife. —MD

Theaters: VS

Ki & Ka (Not reviewed)

Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Swaroop Sampat. Directed by R. Balki. 126 minutes. Not rated. In Hindi with English subtitles. A young married couple defies accepted gender roles in Indian culture.

Theaters: VS

Kung Fu Panda 3 Three stars

Voices of Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, J.K. Simmons. Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni. 95 minutes. Rated PG. This time around, kung fu panda Po (Black) must master the traditional Chinese concept of ch’i in order to take down a mystically powered bad guy. At this point, there’s really nothing new to discover in a KFP movie, but it’s still nice to see old friends every so often. —JB

Theaters: BS, SC

London Has Fallen One and a half stars

Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman. Directed by Babak Najafi. 99 minutes. Rated PG-13. As the lone badass protecting the president from a massive terrorist attack, Butler isn’t funny enough to handle the screenplay’s lame quips, and isn’t relatable in any other way. Otherwise, there’s bad CGI explosions and Oscar-nominated actors with barely any dialogue, as well as Freeman as the vice president. —JMA

Theaters: BS, COL, PAL, SC, SHO, SP

Meet the Blacks (Not reviewed)

Mike Epps, Gary Owen, Zulay Henao. Directed by Deon Taylor. 90 minutes. Rated R. A parody of The Purge movies, with an African-American family targeted after moving to the suburbs.

Theaters: BS, CAN, PAL, SC, TS, TX

Midnight Special Three and a half stars

Michael Shannon, Jaeden Lieberher, Joel Edgerton. Directed by Jeff Nichols. 112 minutes. Rated PG-13. The first half of Special, starring Shannon as a man trying to protect his mysteriously powered son, is like a Hollywood sci-fi thriller with the exposition taken out. Eventually, writer-director Nichols fills in enough details to make for a satisfying climax, while leaving things vague enough not to undermine the earlier ambiguity. —JB

Theaters: CAN, COL, RR, SC, SP, TS

Miracles From Heaven (Not reviewed)

Jennifer Garner, Martin Henderson, Kylie Rogers. Directed by Patricia Riggen. 109 minutes. Rated PG. A young girl is miraculously cured of a chronic disease following an accident.

Theaters: BS, CH, COL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SS, TS, TX

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 Two stars

Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Elena Kampouris. Directed by Kirk Jones. 94 minutes. Rated PG-13. Fourteen years after the original surprise hit, Toula (Vardalos) and her overbearing, stereotypical Greek-American family return for more cheesy, predictable sitcom-level hijinks. What once had a certain unique perspective has become just another tired brand extension with no reason to exist other than to exploit its audience’s nostalgia and goodwill. —JB

Theaters: AL, CH, COL, DTS, FH, ORL, RP, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, VS

Race Two and a half stars

Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons. Directed by Stephen Hopkins. 134 minutes. Rated PG-13. Biopics don’t come much more conventional than this rote, formulaic account of the early life and career of Olympic track and field star Jesse Owens (James), most famous for winning four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Director Hopkins renders it all in broad strokes, with a bland, TV-movie flatness. —JB

Theaters: SC

The Revenant Three stars

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. 156 minutes. Rated R. DiCaprio makes his bid for Oscar glory as Hugh Glass, a real-life fur trapper and frontier guide who trekked 200 miles across unforgiving terrain when he was left for dead after being mauled by a bear. As a survival tale, it’s gripping entertainment; as a revenge saga, it’s largely empty. —MD

Theaters: COL, SC, TC

Ride Along 2 Two stars

Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, Olivia Munn. Directed by Tim Story. 100 minutes. Rated PG-13. Hart tries not to be annoying and Cube tries to look like he wants to be there, and they actually partially succeed, but not all the time. The major laughs are at the expense of Hart, and the action/chase scenes, courtesy of director Story, are a choppy, lazy mess. —JMA

Theaters: TC

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Three and a half stars

Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman. Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. 105 minutes. Rated R. Fey finds a perfect middle ground between sarcasm and vulnerability as war correspondent Kim Baker, reporting from Afghanistan in the early ’00s. WTF isn’t a political movie, and it smartly balances its wider concerns with Kim’s personal journey, which never comes across as phony or self-important. —JB

Theaters: SC

The Witch Four stars

Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie. Directed by Robert Eggers. 90 minutes. Rated R. Set in 1630, Eggers’ Sundance sensation turns the 17th century itself into a place of horror, using archaic dialogue lifted verbatim from historical documents. The film terrifies not with hackneyed jump scares, but with a dark vision of a world so divorced from our own that it might as well be another planet. —MD

Theaters: ST

Zootopia Three and a half stars

Voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba. Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore. 108 minutes. Rated PG. Disney’s latest animated feature is a winning, gorgeously animated story about anthropomorphic animals living in relative harmony in a bustling metropolis. The team-up between a police officer rabbit and a small-time criminal fox provides a thoroughly engaging mystery with some satisfying twists and turns. —JB

Theaters: AL, CAN, CH, COL, FH, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, 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

(PAL) Brenden Theatres at the Palms

4321 W. Flamingo Road, 702-507-4849

(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

(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

(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

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