NEW YORK (CNS) -- A second helping of excessively violent action with a side of foul-mouthed sarcasm is on offer in "Deadpool 2" (Fox), director David Leitch's follow-up to the 2016 original. Lost amid the mayhem is some potentially interesting ethical material as well as a few genuinely funny one-liners.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Can we please stop saying sex?" a character asks in the ensemble romantic comedy "Book Club" (Paramount). The answer, in a word, is no. In fact, there's hardly a line of dialogue in director and co-writer Bill Holderman's film, penned with Erin Simms, that doesn't contain an innuendo, a smutty pun or some other tiresome joke. A listless cat's visit to a veterinarian and the refurbishment of a motorcycle are both made the occasion for extended off-color wordplay, while the use of Viagra in ill-chosen setting results in a series of cringe-worthy visuals.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- "First Reformed" (A24) has quite a bit to say about religious belief, environmentalism, grieving, alienation, rage, the power of love and the corruption of religion by money and power.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Life of the Party" (Warner Bros.) turns out to be an especially poor choice of title for a campus-set comedy that is, essentially, lifeless. Flat and boring, the film also winks at -- though it doesn't display -- extracurricular bedroom activities.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Don't mess with Mom; that's the message of the less-than-credible and excessively violent thriller "Breaking In" (Universal). As it strains its tenuous premise, the film approaches a conclusion calculated to appeal to viewers' worst instincts.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- The real-life evil of abortion is blended with otherworldly and occult phenomena in the horror tale "Wraith" (Out Cold). The result is an earnest but flawed message movie. There is some originality to this story of the Lukens family -- dad Dennis (Jackson Hurst), mom Katie (Ali Hillis) and 14-year-old daughter Lucy (Catherine Frances) -- whose Victorian home in Neenah, Wisconsin, becomes the venue for some unwelcome supernatural activity. At least one of the spirits haunting them, a young girl, for instance, turns out to want to help, not hurt, the clan.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Veteran filmmaker Wim Wenders respectfully profiles the current successor of St. Peter in the well-crafted, sometimes moving documentary "Pope Francis: A Man of His Word" (Focus). Though Wenders also provides some narration, as his title suggests, he largely lets the pontiff speak for himself.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Those few grown-ups for whom it can be considered acceptable will find the thriller "Bad Samaritan" (Electric Entertainment) intriguing but seamy. Writer Brandon Boyce and director Dean Devlin have created an intricate moral maze of a film. Yet following its ins and outs involves journeying to an underworld of aberrant behavior many may not wish to visit.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- No need to throw a lifeline to "Overboard" (MGM), a surprisingly buoyant remake of the 1987 romantic comedy. The original film is best remembered for the chemistry between its stars, real-life partners Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Unfortunately, however, its plot involved a frivolous treatment of adultery.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Combine familiar comic book figures with the memorable time-warp premise of 1993's "Groundhog Day," and you've got the delightful direct-to-video feature "Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash" (Warner Brothers Home Entertainment).
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- A series of onscreen statistics at the end of "Traffik" (Lionsgate) are meant to alert viewers to the extent of the very grave real-world problem of human trafficking with which the film deals. They're also there, perhaps, to reinforce the idea that writer-director Deon Taylor has approached his dramatization of this blight with only the best and most serious intentions.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Strong pro-life values are embedded in the towering, richly complex Marvel Comics-based adventure "Avengers: Infinity War" (Disney). While this often-dazzling, sometimes-dizzying epic is safest for grown-ups, its positive moral lessons may lead at least some parents to deem it acceptable for older teens as well.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Imagine being confined for about an hour and a half in the boys' locker room of a high school attended exclusively by dullards, and you'll have a sense of what it's like to sit through the obnoxious ensemble comedy "Super Troopers 2" (Fox Searchlight).
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Whatever point there might be to "You Were Never Really Here" (Amazon), this adaptation of the Jonathan Ames novella about a stressed-out, self-loathing hitman from writer-director Lynne Ramsay is adrift in a lurid quagmire of immorality.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Whacks to the noggin make such convenient plot devices. In "I Feel Pretty" (STX), the latest Amy Schumer comedy, a tumble during a Soul Cycle workout gives her out-of-shape character the reverse of body dysmorphic disorder. Thus she sees herself as slim, beautiful and perfect -- and this supercharges her self-esteem, transforming her romantic life and her career.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- In this age of media saturation, there can't be many human activities that have yet to be captured on film or videotape. According to William Friedkin, director and narrator of "The Devil and Father Amorth" (The Orchard), however, his brief, mostly straightforward documentary includes just such a novelty: the first authorized footage of a Catholic exorcism.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Those looking for a film that seriously engages with the human condition or advances the art of cinema will not find what they're looking for in "Rampage" (Warner Bros.). Grown-ups out to kill the better part of two hours and willing to be satisfied with some campy fun, on the other hand, will have little cause for complaint.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Every word matters in "Beirut" (Bleecker Street), an espionage thriller set in 1982 during the Lebanese civil war. Negotiations are layered on top of promises and betrayals as American diplomats hope to exchange a hostage for a Palestinian terrorist who might be a prisoner in Israel. This is the extraordinarily rare intricately plotted drama for grown-ups in which gunfire, explosions and ethnic hatreds are secondary to matters of trust.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- There's little authenticity or audacity to be found in the dull thriller "Blumhouse's Truth or Dare" (Universal). Rather than chilling viewers, director and co-writer Jeff Wadlow's film merely succeeds in endangering its cast via a supernatural version of the titular pastime. The movie thus constitutes a sort of safe, bourgeois take on the sadistic "Saw" franchise.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Writer-director Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs" (Fox Searchlight) pushes the limits of his customary deadpan drollery with its emphasis on death and gloom. Cute and cuddly these canines are not. So Anderson's first stop-motion animated film since 2009's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is definitely not for young children.
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