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Short Takes: Movie listings and reviews for June 22

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Josh Bell, Mike D'Angelo, Jeffrey M. Anderson

Special screenings

Cinemark Classic Series

6/25, 6/28, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, 2 & 7 p.m., $7.50-10.75. Theaters: ORL, SF, SP, ST

Drum Corps at the Cinema

6/22, broadcast of Drum Corps International tour opener, 5:30 p.m., $13-$15. Theaters: COL, SP, ST, VS. Info: fathomevents.com.

Family Movie Night

Thu, sundown, free. 6/22, The Secret Life of Pets. 6/29, Pete’s Dragon (2016). 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.

Inside the Director’s Cut

6/26, short film Murder 4 Dummies plus Q&A with filmmakers, 8 p.m., free. Millennium Fandom Bar, 900 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-405-0816.

The Metropolitan Opera HD Live

6/28, Verdi’s Macbeth encore, 7 p.m., $12.50. Theaters: VS. Info: fathomevents.com.

Outdoor Picture Show

Sat, 7:30 p.m., free. 6/24, Pete’s Dragon (2016). The District at Green Valley Ranch, 2225 Village Walk Drive, Henderson, 702-564-8595.

Saturday Movie Matinee

6/24, 1 p.m., free. Windmill Library, 7060 W. Windmill Lane, 702-507-6036.

Sci Fi Center

Mon, Cinemondays, 8 p.m., free. 6/24, Don't Torture a Duckling, Slaughter Hotel, 7 p.m., $5. 5077 Arville St., 855-501-4335, thescificenter.com.

Studio Ghibli Fest

6/25, 6/26, My Neighbor Totoro plus animated short films, Sun 12:55 p.m. dubbed, Mon 7 p.m. subtitled, $10-$12.50. Theaters: COL, ORL, RR, SF, SP, ST, VS. Info: fathomevents.com.

Summer Movie Series

Wed, 11:30 a.m., free. 6/28, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Fashion Show Mall, 3200 Las Vegas Blvd S., 702-369-8382.

Tuesday Afternoon at the Bijou

Tue, 1 p.m., free. 6/27, Rear Window. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 702-507-3400.

New this week

Beatriz at Dinner Three stars

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

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

Duvvada Jagannadham (Not reviewed)

Allu Arjun, Pooja Hegde, Rao Ramesh. Directed by Harish Shankar. 160 minutes. Not rated. In Telugu with English subtitles. An unassuming cook leads an exciting secret life.

Theaters: SP

Transformers: The Last Knight One and a half stars

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: ST, VS

Now playing

47 Meters Down Three and a half stars

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

Alien: Covenant Three and a half stars

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: COL, SC, ST

All Eyez on Me Two stars

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, CH, DI, ET, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX

Baywatch One and a half stars

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: GVR, ORL, RR, SC, SS, TX

Beauty and the Beast Two and a half stars

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

The Book of Henry Two stars

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, SP, TS, VS

The Boss Baby Two stars

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

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie Three and a half stars

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

Cars 3 Two and a half stars

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, ET, FH, GVL, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, TS, TX, VS

Everything, Everything Two and a half stars

Amandla Stenberg, Nick Robinson, Anika Noni Rose. Directed by Stella Meghie. 96 minutes. Rated PG-13. Teenage Maddy (Stenberg) has an autoimmune disease that keeps her confined to her house, but she longs for more after meeting her hunky, sensitive neighbor Olly (Robinson). The central romance straddles the line between sweet and cloying, but the goodwill is shattered by a cheap third-act twist. —JB

Theaters: TX

The Fate of the Furious Two stars

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

Gifted Two and a half stars

Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer. Directed by Marc Webb. 101 minutes. Rated PG-13. Evans plays a sensitive, hunky, intelligent mechanic raising his niece Mary (Grace) after his sister’s suicide. He’s forced to fight his rich, snooty mother for custody when Mary is discovered to be a math genius. The story is earnest, predictable and cheesy, with likeable but bland performances. —JB

Theaters: SC

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Three stars

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: BS, TC, TX

It Comes at Night Three and a half stars

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: GVR, ORL, PAL, SF, ST, TS, TX, VS

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword Two stars

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: GVR

Kong: Skull Island Three stars

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, TX

Megan Leavey Two and a half stars

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: AL, FH, GVR, ORL, SC, SF, SP, ST, TX, VS

The Mummy Two stars

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

My Cousin Rachel Two and a half stars

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: COL, SC

Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer Two and a half stars

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

Paris Can Wait Two stars

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, TS, VS

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Two stars

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, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX

A Quiet Passion Three stars

Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Duncan Duff. Directed by Terence Davies. 125 minutes. Rated PG-13. This biopic of iconic poet Emily Dickinson features a strong performance from Nixon and some lovely visuals, but mostly follows familiar genre beats. The first half is surprisingly funny, with witty, literary dialogue, before Dickinson’s life of solitude and ill health takes the narrative in a more conventionally dramatic direction. —JB

Theaters: VS

Rough Night Two stars

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, CAN, CH, DI, ET, FH, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SC, SF, SHO, SP, SS, TS, TX

Smurfs: The Lost Village Two stars

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

Snatched Two stars

Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Ike Barinholtz. Directed by Jonathan Levine. 91 minutes. Rated R. A mother and daughter are kidnapped while on vacation in South America, but their abduction is just a jumping-off point for a series of increasingly dangerous (and silly) misadventures. There are a handful of good laughs, but the jokes get less effective as the plot takes over in the second half. —JB

Theaters: SC

Wonder Woman Three and a half stars

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, GVL, GVR, ORL, PAL, RP, RR, SF, SHO, SP, SS, ST, 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

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