NEW YORK (CNS) -- Somebody over at 20th Century Fox -- or, perhaps, someone in Marvel Comics' real-life universe -- came up with the following idea: Let's slightly rework this year's "Deadpool 2" in order to have it qualify for a less restrictive rating from the Motion Picture Association of America than the original R, let's market it to a broader audience over the holidays and let's give away a portion of the proceeds to charity.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Traditionalists be warned: "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (Columbia) has little to do with your father's Peter Parker. Instead, this innovative but noisy and frenetic animated take on the Marvel Comics saga features one novice web-slinger and a quintet of alternate versions of the title character who arrive on Earth from other dimensions.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- To reinforce the proposition that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were, and still are, sacred icons of film comedy, the pitch-perfect, affectionately nostalgic "Stan & Ollie" (Sony Classics) reproduces their 1953 arrival in Cobh, Ireland, during what would be their last tour of British music halls.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- The tortured, troubling -- yet in the end, uplifting -- story of a German risking his life to save some Polish Jews from Nazi death camps is recounted in "Schindler's List" (Universal).
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- If you take a job working the night shift at a morgue, the least you can expect is a little peace and quiet. According to the dreary horror tale "The Possession of Hannah Grace" (Screen Gems), however, such tranquility is not necessarily guaranteed.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Moviegoers under 33 take note: You had yet to be born when "Rocky IV," the 1985 film that hovers in the background of the sports drama "Creed II" (MGM), was released. While viewers of any age will know what to expect from this latest extension of the durable franchise long before they buy a ticket, the tried and true, against-the-odds formula still works somehow.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Someone behind "Robin Hood" (Summit) -- presumably one or both of the screenwriters, Ben Chandler and David James Kelly -- has mommy issues with Holy Mother Church. As a result, vicious anti-Catholicism permeates this otherwise merely dopey take on the classic legend.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- The burly demolition specialist who lent his name to 2012's "Wreck-It Ralph" returns to the big screen in the sweet animated follow-up "Ralph Breaks the Internet" (Disney). So too does the best friend he acquired in the first outing, diminutive race car driver Vanellope von Schweetz.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Green Book" (Universal) opens with a singer in the Copacabana nightclub in New York belting out "That Old Black Magic." Therein lies its flaw. This high-minded saga of race relations in 1962 is hobbled by sentimentality thicker than the marinara sauce which occasionally appears. It doesn't so much lean into stereotypes as take flying, cringe-worthy leaps.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- For a film about magic, 2016's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was strangely lacking in enchantment. So it's welcome news that the follow-up, "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" (Warner Bros.) is sharper and more engaging, though defects remain.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- It's rare that a movie can reasonably be expected to accomplish some good in the real world. But director and co-writer Sean Anders' blend of comedy and drama, "Instant Family" (Paramount) may be the exception.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- What "Beautiful Boy" (Amazon) captures best about the raw pain of drug dependency is the sheer randomness of it. Addiction is not only not a moral failing, it happens in what used to be called "the best of families." Unfortunately, this very legitimate insight translates here into a tone of smugness.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- When it comes to disturbing sights, "Overlord" (Paramount), let it be said from the start, sometimes goes overboard. This weird, wild but surprisingly effective blend of war story and chiller from director Julius Avery is thus far too gory and gruesome for most moviegoers.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Somewhere Theodor Geisel may be spinning in his grave over the latest treatment of one of his most famous character creations, "Dr. Seuss' The Grinch" (Universal). If so, he's only revolving gently.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Claire Foy, celebrated for her recent portrayal of the young Elizabeth II on the Netflix series "The Crown," takes on a similarly named but much less stately persona as the title character in "The Girl in the Spider's Web" (Columbia).
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- Writer-director Tyler Perry goes raunchy with the romantic comedy "Nobody's Fool" (Paramount). The vulgar film that results traffics in a flippant, degraded view of human sexuality.
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