Reprise of the hit alien-fighting epic of 20 years ago, in which the nations of the world united to fight a common foe, led by an inspirational United States president and a swaggering fighter pilot, hasn’t aged well with its premise. Viewers who enjoy alien-invasion epics are unlikely to care so much once the shooting […]

A trio of magicians and illusionists (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and James Franco) – their performing ensemble, the “Four Horsemen,” now rounded out by Lizzy Caplan in lieu of Isla Fisher – returns to execute a complicated, worldwide sting involving a computer circuit that can de-encrypt any system into which it’s plugged. The tricks performed […]

With a clear target audience of adolescent boys, Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael take on an evil scientist bent on world domination, and sometimes discuss the importance of teamwork and what it means to be fully human. Director Dave Green and screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec remain faithful to the tropes of action pictures […]

Lovingly directed by Steven Spielberg, this adaptation of Roald Dahl’s eponymous 1982 children’s book combines live actors with motion-capture animation to create superior entertainment for the discerning child who reads – and who enjoys fairy tales with a slightly skewed perspective. The plot centers on the relationship between a 10-year-old London orphan (Ruby Barnhill) and […]

This third installment in the blood-soaked franchise that started with 2013’s “The Purge” sticks to the commercially tried-and-true formula of appealing to the very impulses it pretends to condemn, using the premise of a dystopian future America where one night a year is set aside for legally sanctioned murder and mayhem to do so. But […]

A solitary medical student (Blake Lively) is pursued by a great white shark near a secluded Mexican beach and is forced to improvise to save her life. Director Jaume Collet-Serra and screenwriter Anthony Jaswinski at times appear to struggle with sustaining tension while giving their heroine unexpected tasks. Watch out for: Some gore, fleeting rough […]

Heavy-handed video game adaptation pitting an army of murderous orcs (including Toby Kebbell) led by an evil wizard (Daniel Wu) against the inhabitants of a fantasy version of Earth. Heading the opposition to the invasion are a wise king (Dominic Cooper), a gallant knight (Travis Fimmel) and two practitioners (Ben Foster and Ben Schnetzer) of […]

A high IQ is not a prerequisite for seeing this dimwitted action comedy, directed and co-written by Rawson Marshall Thurber. Stuck in a mundane job, and with his marriage to the sweetheart (Danielle Nicolet) of his youth on the rocks, an unhappy accountant (Kevin Hart) who was once voted “most likely to succeed” is reluctant […]