Movie Reviews

The premise of “Free Fire” (A24) is that a single extended gunfight can sustain an entire film, provided the participants in the showdown keep making incongruously funny and mordant remarks.

Endearing and well-acted, director Marc Webb’s drama “Gifted” (Fox Searchlight) might have been a family-friendly movie.

After raising more than $3,600 through the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, Preston Yarger and Nicolas Alayo, filmmakers who are lifelong “Star Wars” fans, spent two days in mid-February filming in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California, where scenes from “Return of the Jedi” had been shot more than three decades ago.

Grown viewers willing to kick reality to the curb will have fun with the preposterous but lively auto-themed action adventure “The Fate of the Furious” (Universal).

Dicey moral values and a high mayhem quotient, however, mean this seventh sequel to 2001’s “The Fast and the Furious” is not a film for impressionable youngsters.

The movie, “The Case for Christ” — which is acceptable for a wide audience and for those looking for an informal way to bolster their religious education during the holiest of seasons could hardly find a more fitting choice.

If you’ve always wondered, “Just what is a Smurfette?” then “Smurfs: The Lost Village” (Columbia) may be the film for you.

Despite its title, there’s nothing very spiffy about “Going in Style” (Warner Bros.). In fact, this leaden caper comedy feels distinctly cut-rate.

A couple powerless to save many of the animals in their care, Antonina and husband, Jan Zabinskis turn to rescuing people in their defiance of the Nazis.