Screen

Short takes: This week’s movie listings and reviews

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X-Men: Apocalypse
Josh Bell, Mike D'Angelo, Jeffrey M. Anderson

Special screenings

As I Am: The Life and Times of DJ AM

6/1, documentary plus filmmaker Q&A, 8:30 p.m., $7-$10.50. Theaters: PAL. Info: djamdoc.com.

Dive-In Movies

Mon, 7:30 p.m., $5, free for hotel guests. 5/30, Jaws. Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan, 702-698-7000.

High Desert International Film Festival

5/26-5/29, feature films and shorts, awards, more, times vary, $3 per screening, passes $150. Pahrump Nugget & Lakeside Casino, Pahrump, hdiff.net.

Las Vegas Classic Film Theater

Classic, indie and arthouse films, times vary, $5 per screening. 5/28, Gulliver’s Travels (1939), noon; The Limping Man (1953), 2:30 p.m. 5/29, The Wizard of Oz (1925), noon. 5/30, Battleship Potemkin, 3:30 p.m. 5/31, The Contender (1944), 3:45 p.m. Baobab Stage, Town Square, 702-369-6649, baobabstage.com.

Midnight Brewvies

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

Movie in the Park

5/27, The Good Dinosaur, 8 p.m., free. Whitney Park, 5712 Missouri Ave., 702-455-8531.

Movie Night

Thu, sundown, free. 5/26, The Princess and the Frog. 6/2, Lilo & Stitch. Downtown Container Park, 707 Fremont St., downtowncontainerpark.com.

Outdoor Picture Show

Sat, 7:30 p.m., free. 5/28, Up. The District, 2225 Village Walk Drive, Henderson, 702-564-8595.

Saturday Movie Matinee

5/28, 1 p.m., free. Spring Valley Library, 4280 S. Jones Blvd., 702-507-3821.

Sci Fi Center

Sun, Game of Thrones viewing party, 7:15 p.m., free. Mon, Cinemondays, 8 p.m., free. 5/28, The Rocky Horror Picture Show with live shadow cast and open participation, 10 p.m., $10. 5077 Arville St., 855-501-4335, thescificenter.com.

Tuesday Afternoon at the Bijou

Tue, 1 p.m., free. 5/31, Li’l Abner. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 702-507-3400.

New this week

Alice Through the Looking Glass Two and a half stars

Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Sacha Baron Cohen. Directed by James Bobin. 113 minutes. Rated PG. This sequel to Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland has much of the same design, strange makeup effects and funny performances, but it doesn’t have Burton, and it lacks the element of surprise. The effects-driven storytelling can’t overcome a general sense that no one cares. —JMA

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

A Bigger Splash Two and a half stars

Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, Dakota Johnson. Directed by Luca Guadagnino. 125 minutes. Rated R. A recovering rocker (Swinton), her filmmaker boyfriend (Schoenaerts), her record-producer ex (Fiennes) and his newly discovered daughter (Johnson) convene at an Italian seaside villa. Everyone is harboring secrets, but director Guadagnino isn’t in any hurry to reveal them, and as a result the movie is often completely inscrutable, albeit visually striking. —JB

Theaters: BS, COL, SC

Love & Friendship Three and a half stars

Kate Beckinsale, Xavier Samuel, Chloë Sevigny. Directed by Whit Stillman. 92 minutes. Rated PG. Stillman’s adaptation of an early Jane Austen novella stars an excellent Beckinsale as Lady Susan Vernon, a beautiful and self-absorbed high-society widow whose favorite pastime is playing with others’ affections. Lady Susan is an entertaining sociopath, and Stillman’s screenplay is full of bone-dry humor and some hilarious one-liners. —JB

Theaters: COL, DTS, ORL, SC, SP, TS

X-Men: Apocalypse Two and a half stars

Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Oscar Isaac. Directed by Bryan Singer. 144 minutes. Rated PG-13. The latest adventure of the mutant superheroes reintroduces familiar characters in slightly new forms, and spends far too much time on set-up. World-ending villain Apocalypse (Isaac) is ridiculous and ineffective, and the overstuffed cast pushes too many new and/or reimagined characters to the margins. Even the big action climax is underwhelming. —JB

Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DI, DTS, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, 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. Despite the title, this isn’t a sequel to 2008’s Cloverfield, but it’s a thriller with similar themes. Winstead and Goodman are both strong as two people hiding in a bunker after what appears to be the apocalypse. Director Trachtenberg keeps the tension high, filming mostly in a handful of cramped spaces. —JB

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: TC

AmeriGeddon (Not reviewed)

Spencer Neville, Marshall Teague, Diane Ladd. Directed by Mike Norris. 90 minutes. Rated PG-13. A group of survivalists fight back after a United Nations force takes over the U.S. and institutes martial law.

Theaters: SC

The Angry Birds Movie Two stars

Voices of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride. Directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly. 97 minutes. Rated PG. The movie version of the mega-popular mobile game (about birds being flung at pigs via slingshot) attempts to create a story around a series of basic, repetitive actions. The explanations are both boring and largely nonsensical, and expanding the game into a cohesive, family-friendly movie proves too difficult a task. —JB

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

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: 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: ST, TC

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: ST

Captain America: Civil War Three stars

Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson. Directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo. 147 minutes. Rated PG-13. Civil War sets up a battle between factions of superheroes led by Captain America (Evans) and Iron Man (Downey), who disagree on whether the Avengers should submit to government oversight. The story’s deeper meaning takes a backseat to a cluttered narrative (overstuffed with Marvel characters) and some rousing, well-crafted action sequences. —JB

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

Compadres (Not reviewed)

Omar Chaparro, Joey Morgan, Erick Elias. Directed by Enrique Begne. 101 minutes. Not rated. A former cop and a hacker plot revenge on a crime lord.

Theaters: TC

The Darkness (Not reviewed)

Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Morrison, Lucy Fry. Directed by Greg McLean. 92 minutes. Rated PG-13. A family returns from a Grand Canyon trip with a supernatural entity after them.

Theaters: COL, PAL, TS, TX

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: TC

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: SC

The Huntsman: Winter’s War Two stars

Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt. Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. 114 minutes. Rated PG-13. The Snow White-free sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman adds a second evil queen (Blunt) and a warrior love interest (Chastain) for the huntsman (Hemsworth), but never comes up with an interesting story. Much of Winter’s War looks garish and plastic, with its style ripped off from other, more popular fantasy franchises. —JB

Theaters: GVR, 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, FH, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SP, SS, TS, TX

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: TC

The Man Who Knew Infinity Two and a half stars

Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Devika Bhise. Directed by Matthew Brown. 108 minutes. Not rated. Brown’s biopic about Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (Patel) does little to explain the details of its subject’s discoveries, instead focusing on the difficulties that Ramanujan faced as an Indian studying and publishing in England in the 1910s. The middle-of- the-road approach is respectable, restrained and mostly dull, with plenty of biopic clichés. —JB

Theaters: ST, VS

The Meddler Three stars

Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne, J.K. Simmons. Directed by Lorene Scafaria. 100 minutes. Rated PG-13. Sarandon plays a widow coping with her loss by micro-managing her daughter’s life (and the lives of strangers). The Meddler is a sweet, low-key dramedy that is a little unfocused at times, but it emerges as a poignant late-in-life coming-of- age story, proof that maturity and wisdom can arrive at any age. —JB

Theaters: COL, ST, TS, 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: TC

Money Monster Three stars

George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell. Directed by Jodie Foster. Rated R. 98 minutes. A disgruntled investor (O’Connell) takes a cable financial-advice personality (Clooney) and his crew hostage live on the air in this uneven thriller. The tense stand-off in the confined space is well-constructed, but the movie loses momentum in the third act, and the social commentary is entirely superficial. —JB

Theaters: AL, BS, CAN, CH, COL, DTS, FH, ORL, PAL, RP, SC, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX

Mother’s Day Two stars

Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Jason Sudeikis. Directed by Garry Marshall. 118 minutes. Rated PG-13. Instead of a dozen or so stories set around the central holiday, Marshall’s third holiday-themed ensemble romantic comedy features just four. Given more room, the individual stories only strain under their flimsy premises. The jokes are beyond stale, the dialogue is full of repetitive exposition, and the plot mechanics are clumsy. —JB

Theaters: SC, 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: VS

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising One and a half stars

Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Chloë Grace Moretz. Directed by Nicholas Stoller. 92 minutes. Rated R. After the barely passable 2014 original made an unholy amount of money, this sequel seems expelled from some collective digestive tract. Not one character is smart or even lifelike, and though it’s sometimes satisfying to see them pummeled in lifeless slapstick gags, there’s not one genuine laugh here. —JMA

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

The Nice Guys Three and a half stars

Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice. Directed by Shane Black. 116 minutes. Rated R. Crowe and Gosling play a pair of disreputable private investigators in 1977 LA who find themselves caught in a conspiracy as they investigate a missing young woman. Black balances the serious, sometimes violent mystery with a barrage of one-liners and physical comedy, and The Nice Guys is consistently funny from beginning to end. —JB

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

Sarbjit (Not reviewed)

Randeep Hooda, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Richa Chadha. Directed by Omung Kumar. 131 minutes. Not rated. In Hindi with English subtitles. Biopic about Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national accused of spying and held prisoner in Pakistan for 23 years.

Theaters: VS

Sing Street Three and a half stars

Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Lucy Boynton, Aidan Gillen. Directed by John Carney. 106 minutes. Rated PG-13. The latest music-related film by John Carney (Once, Begin Again) tells the semi-autobiographical tale of a group of Dublin kids who form a New Wave band circa 1985. It’s no The Commitments, but the energy is infectious, and rising star Jack Reynor does tremendous work as the protagonist’s supportive older brother. —MD

Theaters: SC, TS

Singing With Angels (Not reviewed)

Sarah Kent, Scott Christopher, Anne Sward. Directed by Brian Brough. 94 minutes. Rated PG. A woman at a crossroads in her life reflects back on her time in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Theaters: VS

This Time (Not reviewed)

James Reid, Nadine Lustre, Freddie Webb. Directed by Nuel Crisostomo Naval. 109 minutes. Not rated. In Filipino with English subtitles. Two childhood friends explore a potential romance when they reunite as adults.

Theaters: VS

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: ST, 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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