Screen

Short takes: This week’s movie listings

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The big battle has finally arrived.
Josh Bell, Mike D'Angelo, Jeffrey M. Anderson

Special screenings

Art & Architecture in Cinema

3/31, Leonardo Da Vinci: The Genius in Milan, 7 pm, $13-$15. Theaters: COL, SF, SP, ST, VS. Info: fathomevents.com.

Cinemark Classic Series

Sun, 2 pm; Wed, 2 & 7 pm, $7-$10. 3/27, 3/30, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Theaters: ORL, ST, SF, SP, SC

Midnight Brewvies

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

Saturday Movie Matinee

3/26, 1 pm, free. Spring Valley Library, 4280 S. Jones Blvd., 702-507-3821.

Sci Fi Center

Mon, Cinemondays, 8 pm, free. 3/26, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar; The Rocky Horror Picture Show with live shadow cast; 8 pm, $10. 3/29, Scream Blacula Scream, 8 pm, $1. 5077 Arville St., 855-501-4335, thescificenter.com.

Tuesday Afternoon at the Bijou

Tue, 1 pm, free. 3/29, Once Upon a Time in the West. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 702-507-3400.

New this week

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

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: BS, COL, DTS, ORL, SC, SF, SP, TS

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, CAN, CH, COL, DI, DTS, FH, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, 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, CAN, CH, DI, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Three stars

John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, David Costabile. Directed by Michael Bay. 144 minutes. Rated R. Bay’s film about the 2012 Benghazi attacks eschews politics in favor of blowing stuff up, but the action gets monotonous over time. The portrayal of six paramilitary contractors who defended U.S. compounds has a tone of such extreme hero worship that it distorts the reality it’s meant to portray. —JB

Theaters: 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: TX

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, CH, COL, DI, FH, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX

The Bronze One and a half stars

Melissa Rauch, Haley Lu Richardson, Gary Cole. Directed by Bryan Buckley. 108 minutes. Rated R. The Bronze is the story of washed-up Olympic gymnast Hope (co-writer Rauch), a foul-mouthed, unpleasant, self-centered jerk whose existence still revolves around her 2004 bronze-medal win. Hope’s journey to becoming a better person is tiresome and obvious, and it’s hard to invest in the redemption of someone so patently awful. —JB

Theaters: ORL, SC, SP

Brooklyn Three and a half stars

Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson. Directed by John Crowley. 111 minutes. Rated PG-13. This 1950s-set drama, based on Colm Tóibín’s award-winning novel, is old-fashioned in its optimism about life for Irish immigrant Eilis Lacey (Ronan) as she starts over in New York City. Ronan brings Eilis to life in every small gesture and interaction. —JB

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: ST, TS, VS

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: AL, CAN, CH, COL, FH, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, 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: CH, COL, SC

The Finest Hours Three stars

Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Holliday Grainger. Directed by Craig Gillespie. 117 minutes. Rated PG-13. This true-life drama about a daring 1952 Coast Guard rescue is old-fashioned in both good and bad ways, with some hokey writing and performances, but also some solid suspense and excitement. Affleck is particularly good as the prickly but resourceful chief engineer on a stranded oil tanker. —JB

Theaters: TC

The Forest Two stars

Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney, Yukiyoshi Ozawa. Directed by Jason Zada. 93 minutes. Rated PG-13. Despite a setting (the Aokigahara forest in Japan, a notorious spot for suicides) with thematic potential, once concerned American Sara Price (Dormer) enters the woods in search of her missing twin sister, the movie turns into a generic haunted-forest story, with a series of banal jump scares and pale apparitions. —JB

Theaters: TC

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: ORL, PAL, RR, ST, TS, TX, VS

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

Hail, Caesar! Two and a half stars

Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich. Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. 100 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Theaters: SC

The Hateful Eight Two and a half stars

Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. 167 minutes. Rated R. Tarantino’s hyper-violent, hyper-talky Western takes place almost entirely inside a cabin during a blizzard on the Wyoming frontier. The increasingly bloody payoffs don’t quite make up for the sluggish first half, and Tarantino’s wordy dialogue has lost some of its charm, especially in its showy and often misguided use of the N-word. —JB

Theaters: TC

How to Be Single Two stars

Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann, Alison Brie. Directed by Christian Ditter. 110 minutes. Rated R. How to Be Single mashes several mediocre romantic comedies into one movie as it chronicles the dating lives of various single New Yorkers. The cast (especially Wilson) is up for anything, but the story arcs are formulaic, and the dialogue is full of clichés, with only occasional funny lines. —JB

Theaters: GVR, RR

Kapoor and Sons (Not reviewed)

Fawad Khan, Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt. Directed by Shakun Batra. 132 minutes. Not rated. In Hindi with English subtitles. Two estranged brothers reunite when their grandfather falls ill.

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, COL, DI, SC, TX

The Lady in the Van Two and a half stars

Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, Roger Allam. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. 104 minutes. Rated PG-13. Smith plays an irascible but lovable homeless woman in this genial, banal adaptation of Alan Bennett’s autobiographical stage play. Smith’s eccentric, van-dwelling Mary and Jennings’ fussy Alan form an unlikely friendship, learn important life lessons and have a few predictably wacky misunderstandings along the way. —JB

Theaters: COL, VS

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

Love Is Blind (Not reviewed)

Derek Ramsay, Solenn Heussaff, Kean Cipriano. Directed by Jason Paul Laxamana. 120 minutes. Not rated. In Filipino with English subtitles. A woman takes a love potion to make her crush see her as more attractive than she is.

Theaters: ORL, VS

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

The Other Side of the Door (Not reviewed)

Sarah Wayne Callies, Jeremy Sisto, Logan Creran. Directed by Johannes Roberts. 96 minutes. Rated R. Attempting to contact her dead son, a woman inadvertently summons an evil spirit.

Theaters: PAL, TX

The Perfect Match (Not reviewed)

Terrence J, Cassie Ventura, Paula Patton. Directed by Bille Woodruff. 91 minutes. Rated R. A womanizer starts a casual fling and then realizes he wants something more.

Theaters: RP, SP, ST, TS, TX

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: BS, 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: BS, GVR, ORL, SC

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: BS, TX

Risen One and a half stars

Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth. Directed by Kevin Reynolds. 107 minutes. Rated PG-13. This ridiculous religious drama makes Jesus’ resurrection into a plodding procedural, led by Fiennes as a Roman tribune looking for the supposed messiah’s dead body. The movie is dull and drab and fails at both historical dramatization and religious inspiration. —JB

Theaters: DI, FH, SF, ST, VS

Spotlight Four stars

Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams. Directed by Tom McCarthy. 128 minutes. Rated R. Director and co-writer McCarthy’s drama about the Boston Globe reporting on the Catholic Church molestation scandal applies the same meticulous attention to detail as the Globe writers did in their reporting. The stars manage to turn sitting and listening into riveting drama, and the acting is powerful in how subdued it is. —JB

Theaters: COL, SC

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Three and a half stars

Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver. Directed by J.J. Abrams. 135 minutes. Rated PG-13. The long-awaited seventh movie in the space-opera series is a carefully crafted brand extension with a familiar story and some appealing new characters. Everything about it seems calculated to entertain the widest audience possible, and for the most part, it succeeds. —JB

Theaters: BS, GVR, RR, SC, TC, TS

Triple 9 Three stars

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie. Directed by John Hillcoat. 115 minutes. Rated R. This thriller begins with an exciting, superbly crafted heist sequence, setting up expectations that the rest of the movie mostly fails to meet. There are a lot of shifting alliances and double-crosses among the movie’s cops and criminals, but following the opening sequence, mild interest is the best the movie can manage. —JB

Theaters: ST, VS

Where to Invade Next Three stars

Directed by Michael Moore. 119 minutes. Rated R. Moore’s latest documentary sees him travel to numerous European countries in order to “invade” them, stealing their best ideas to bring back home to the U.S. Despite a lack of balance in his arguments, it’s his best film in years, largely because it’s constructive rather than just a litany of complaints. —MD

Theaters: SC

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: BS, COL, DTS

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, VS

The Young Messiah (Not reviewed)

Adam Greaves-Neal, Sean Bean, David Bradley. Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh. 111 minutes. Rated PG-13. Exploring the early life of Jesus Christ, starting at age 7.

Theaters: ORL, SF, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS

Zoolander 2 Two stars

Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz. Directed by Ben Stiller. 102 minutes. Rated PG-13. Stiller and Wilson return as moronic supermodel Derek Zoolander and his rival/best friend Hansel, but this sequel to the 2001 comedy is disappointingly slapdash, with a plot even more nonsensical than the original, performances that fail to capture what made the characters entertaining, and a cavalcade of celebrity cameos in place of jokes. —JB

Theaters: COL, TC

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, DI, FH, GVL, 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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