New movies showing in Minneapolis
By Wendy Schadewald (Rating system: 4=Don’t miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)
“Blair Witch” (R) (1.5)
[Language, terror, and some disturbing images.] — When a grieving Maryland college student (James Allen McCune) is joined by a group of friends (Corbin Reid, Brandon Scott, Wes Robinson, Valorie Curry, and Callie Hernandez) in the search for his sister who went missing in the Black Hills Forest in 2014 in this creepy, disappointing, lost-found-footage, 90-minute thriller sequel to “The Blair Witch Project” dominated by jittery hand-held camera work, they are terrorized by an unseen, menacing entity in the dark woods.
“The Magnificent Seven” (PG-13) (3.5)
[Extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and historical smoking, some language, and suggestive material.] — Bullets and arrows fly in this gripping, action-packed, entertaining, well-paced, wit-filled, star-studded (Matt Bomber, Cam Gigandet, Mark Ashworth, and Dan Rhodes), 132-minute remake of the 1960 western classic “The Magnificent Seven” and the 1954 classic “Seven Samurai” in which two fed-up, frightened citizens (Haley Bennett and Luke Grimes) of the small Utah town of Rose Creek desperately hire seven gunmen (Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeier) in 1879 to take down a ruthless, murdering, greedy businessman (Peter Sarsgaard) and his henchmen.
“Max Rose” (NR) (3.5)
A touching, heartbreaking, well-acted, realistic, star-studded (Mort Sahl, Illeana Douglas, Fred Willard, Rance Howard, and Lee Weaver), 83-minute, 2013 film in which an aging, grieving, widowed jazz pianist (Jerry Lewis) reminisces about his deceased artistic wife (Claire Bloom) of 65 years in Los Angeles and the affair that she might have had with a smitten producer (Dean Stockwell) while his grade schoolteacher granddaughter (Kerry Bishé) and son (Kevin Pollak) desperately try to console him.
On DVD
“2 Days in Paris” (R) (2.5)
[Sexual content, some nudity, and language.] [Partially subtitled] [DVD only] — When a French photographer (Julie Delpy) and her hypochondriac interior designer American boyfriend (Adam Goldberg) stop off in Paris to visit her eccentric family (Marie Pillet, Albert Delpy, and Aleksia Landeau) after a less-than-perfect vacation in Venice in this smartly written, acrid romantic, 96-minute, 2007 comedy, their 2-year relationship is threatened when they run into her former lovers (Alexandre Nahon, Adan Jodorowsky, and Thibault De Lussy).
“3:10 to Yuma” (R) (3.5)
[Violence and some language.] [DVD only] — An unpredictable, suspenseful, well-paced, 122-minute, 2007 remake of the 1957 old-fashion western about a stubborn, handicapped, desperate Arizona rancher (Christian Bale) who leaves his wife (Gretchen Mol) and two sons (Logan Lerman and Benjamin Petry) in an attempt to earn quick money to pay off a greedy landowner (Lennie Loftin) and save his ranch by joining a Pinkerton bounty hunter (Peter Fonda), a lawman (Dallas Roberts), a veterinarian (Alan Tudyk), and other cowboys (Kevin Durand, et al.) in escorting a cagey, infamous outlaw (Russell Crowe) to a train bound for a Yuma prison after he and his dangerous band of cutthroat outlaws (Ben Foster, et al.) robbed yet another stagecoach belonging to the Southern Railroad.
“Death Sentence” (R) (2)
[Strong bloody brutal violence and pervasive language.] [DVD only] — After a remorseless punk (Matt O’Leary) senselessly and viciously murders the eldest teenage son (Stuart Lafferty) of a high-powered vice president (Kevin Bacon) at an insurance firm as part of a gang initiation ritual and detectives (Aisha Tyler, et al.) and lawyers seem to have their hands tied in this unrealistic, action-packed, bullet-ridden, tension-filled, 105-minute, 2007 thriller, the grieving father (Kevin Bacon) retaliates with a vengeance against the gang (Garrett Hedlund, Edi Gathegi, et al.) with dire consequences for his wife (Kelly Preston) and younger son (Jordan Garrett).
“Deep Water” (R) (1.5)
[Violence and language.] [DVD only] — While a Naval special forces agent (Costas Mandylor) and his partner (David Kaufman) are assigned to protect the daughter (Sonia Satra) of an oil tycoon from terrorists (Alex Hyde-White, Robert Bauer, Michael Dean Jacobs, David Packer, Finola Hughes, et al.) onboard a cruise ship headed for Hawaii in this lackluster, preposterous, water-logged, 92-minute thriller ripoff of Poseidon, they end up trying to save the crew (Larry Poindexter, Julie McCullough, Chick Vennera, et al.) and passengers (Sara Bibb, Douglas Robinson, Carol Arthur, Joe Skorpen, Blake Clark, Kevin Rahm, et al.) on the ship after its overturns from a tidal wave due to the nearby detonation of a nuclear bomb.
“Halloween” (R) (2)
[Strong brutal bloody violence and terror throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.] [DVD only] — After an animal-killing, mask-wearing, psychopathic young boy (Daeg Farch) murders a school bully, his abusive mother’s lover (William Forsythe), and his teenage sister (Hanna Hall) and her boyfriend (Adam Weisman) in 1963 and is treated in a mental hospital by a psychologist (Malcolm McDowell) in Rob Zombie’s bloody, scream-filled, graphic, yet another horror flick, 109-minute prequel, he escapes as an adult (Tyler Mane) 15 years later and returns to his home town in Illinois in a murderous rampage to find his adopted sister (Scout Taylor-Compton) who was left orphaned after the suicide of his despondent mother (Sheri Moon) and kills everyone in his path.
“Iraq for Sale: War Profiteers” (NR) (3.5)
[DVD only] — An eye-opening, candid, blood-pressure-raising, 75-minute, 2006 Robert Greenwald documentary that consists of interviews with politicians, government officials, and whistleblowers, including former contract employees, who expose the incompetence, corruption, greed, and shameful shenanigans of private contractors, such as Blackwater, KBR/Halliburton, CACI, and Titan, in Iraq that have endangered the lives of military personnel and their own employees while making them billions by overcharging and short changing services.
“Lesson in Love” (NR) (3)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — A charming and understated, 96-minute, 1954 black-and-white Ingmar Bergman comedy about a womanizing Danish gynecologist (Gunnar Björnstrand) who desires to reconnect with his beautiful wife (Eva Dahlbeck) of 16 years and end his affair with a seductive dark-haired patient (Yvonne Lombard) after leaning from his daughter (Harriet Andersson) that his wife is having an affair with a Copenhagen sculptor (Åke Grönberg).
“Shoot ‘Em Up” (R) (4)
[Pervasive strong bloody violence, sexuality, and some language.] [DVD only] — A highly entertaining, tongue-in-cheek, quip-filled, bullet-laden, action-packed, 86-minute thriller about a mysterious, carrot-gnawing, cynical, gun-savvy good Samaritan (Clive Owen) with nine lives who tries to save a pregnant woman (Ramona Pringle) and ends up protecting a newborn baby and a prostitute (Monica Bellucci) from a tenacious, ruthless hitman (Paul Giamatti) and his gun-wielding goons.
“This Is England” (NR) (3.5)
[DVD only] — A powerful and disconcerting semibiographical, 101-minute Shane Meadow film about a British widow (Jo Harley) living in a coastal town in northern England who struggles to raise her 11-year-old, bullied, impressionable son (Thomas Turgoose) in 1983 after he turns to a group of zealous, nationalistic skinheads (Stephen Graham, Joseph Gilgun, Andrew Shim, Rosamund Hanson, Vicky McClure, et al.) for camaraderie and acceptance.
“Wild Strawberries” (NR) (3.5)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — While a stubborn, widowed, 78-year-old Swedish physician (Victor Sjöström) ignores the advice of his longtime housekeeper (Jullan Kindahl) in Stockholm and travels by car with his daughter-in-law (Ingrid Thulin) and three hitchhikers (Bibi Andersson, Folke Sundquist, and Björn Bjelfvenstam) he picks up along the way to receive an award in Ingmar Bergman’s highly acclaimed, poignant, and artistically captivating, black-and-white, 91-minute, 1957 film, he reminiscences about the choices he made in his life that left him unfulfilled.
©1986 through 2016 by Wendy Schadewald. The preceding films were reviewed by Wendy Schadewald, who has been a Twin Cities film critic since 1986. To see more of her film reviews, log on to 60-Second Film Reviews.
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