Movie Reviews

The nuptials turn nasty in “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” (Fox). This potentially enjoyable comedy from director Jake Szymanski departs from its initial promise as a conversion story and instead follows an all-too-familiar path to the gutter.

Back in 1995, the classic children’s film “Toy Story” purported to show audiences what playthings get up to when they aren’t being observed by people. Now “The Secret Life of Pets” (Universal) does much the same for domesticated animals.

Anne Fontaine, director of “Coco Before Chanel” and “Gemma Bovery,” released her most recent work, “The Innocents,” about a group of Benedictine nuns in Warsaw, Poland, raped by soldiers after World War II and the doctor who comes to their aid.

A loud summertime diversion, the movie wants to provide something for everybody — at least those seeking a history lesson, a passionate romance, or a rousing adventure in which the good guys are easy to distinguish from the bad. And yet, despite also offering many stabs at humor, the topsy-turvy, tongue-in-cheek quality reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan is mostly inadvertent.

NEW YORK (CNS) — Like its source material, Roald Dahl’s eponymous1982 children’s book, “The BFG” (Disney) comes packed with specialized terms for its own fantasy elements. […]

It’s little cause for surprise that “The Purge: Election Year” (Universal) sticks to the commercially tried-and-true formula of its franchise predecessors by appealing to the very impulses it pretends to condemn.

NEW YORK (CNS) — Something like pondering leftovers discovered in the back of the refrigerator, a movie studio decided, “Hey! This hasn’t gone bad!” The result […]

NEW YORK (CNS) –- The ambitious historical drama “Free State of Jones” (STX) considers a little-known aspect of the Civil War: armed dissent within the South […]