New movies showing in Minneapolis
By Wendy Schadewald (Rating system: 4=Don’t miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)
“Kong: Skull Island” (PG-13) (3.5) [Intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief strong language.] — When an Army lieutenant colonel (Samuel L. Jackson) and his soldiers (Toby Kebbell, Shea Whigham, Jason Mitchell, Thomas Mann, Eugene Cordero, et al.) head out from Bangkok, Thailand, to escort a team of explorers, including a duplicitous scientist (John Goodman), a jungle tracker (Tom Hiddleston), a photojournalist (Brie Larson), a geologist (Corey Hawkins), and a biologist (Tian Jing), to a mysterious, uncharted island in the South Pacific in 1973 in this entertaining, action-packed, fast-paced, suspenseful, star-studded (John C. Reilly, John Ortiz, Richard Jenkins, and Robert Taylor), 3D, 2-hour film highlighted by amazing special effects and based on story by John Gatins, they end up in a battle with a giant gorilla (Toby Kebbell) that protects a grateful tribe of people on the island from a horde of gargantuan, hungry creatures.
“Logan” (R) (3.5) [Strong brutal violence and language throughout, and brief nudity.] — A gripping, thrilling, action-packed, violent, well-acted, 3D, 135-minute film based on the Marvel “X-Men” franchise in which aging Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who hires himself out as a chauffeur and tries to protect seizure-prone Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and a sun-allergic mutant (Stephen Merchant) in a rundown hovel in the desert near Mexico, reluctantly escorts his daughter (Dafne Keen), who also has retractable daggers, to North Dakota in 2029 to search for her genetically engineered mutant friends (Hannah Westerfield, Bryce Romero, Aidan Kennedy, Chester Rushing, Vincenzo Lucatorto, Chase Cubia, Nayah Murphy, Haley Glass. Kelton DuMont, et al.) while all of them are hunted by a mad scientist (Richard E. Grant) and his henchmen (Boyd Holbrook, Krzysztof Soszynski, et al.).
“The Ottoman Lieutenant” (R) (3) [Some war violence.] [Subtitled] — Gorgeous cinematography highlights this engaging, well-acted, unpredictable, mild violence, 109-minute romantic film in which a striking, headstrong, Christian nurse (Hera Hilmar) leaves her stunned, worried parents (Paul Barrett and Jessica Turner) in Philadelphia to deliver her deceased brother’s much-needed truck and medical supplies to a remote American mission hospital founded by a hotheaded doctor (Ben Kingsley) in Istanbul in 1914 and then finds herself being pursued by a smitten American doctor (Josh Hartnett) and a handsome Muslim Turkish Imperial Army lieutenant (Michiel Huisman) while WWI rages around her when Russia sides with Germany and takes on Ottoman Empire soldiers (Haluk Bilginer, et al.) and Armenian rebels.
“The Shack” (PG-13) (3.5) [Thematic material including some violence.] — After receiving an alleged note from God in his mailbox when his daughter (Amélie Eve) is murdered by a serial killer in a shack in the Oregon woods in this heart-tugging, faith-based, inspirational, thought-provoking, star-dotted (Tim McGraw, Graham Greene, and Alice Braga Moraes),132-minute film based on William P. Young’s bestselling 2007 novel and highlighted by gorgeous cinematography, a grieving father(Sam Worthington), who lives with his wife (Radha Mitchell) and two children (Megan Charpentier and Gage Munroe), returns to the scene of the crime and goes on a spiritual reawakening with God (Octavia Spencer), Jesus (Avraham Aviv Alush), and the Holy Spirit (Sumire Matsubara) trying to come to terms with his loss and anger.
“Table 19” (PG-13) (2) [Thematic elements, sexual content, drug use, language, and some brief nudity.] — A depressing, dark, intermittently funny, star-dotted (Margo Martindale, Amanda Crew, Andrew Daly, Andy Stahl, Becky Ann Baker, and Thomas Cocquerel), 87-minute comedy in which a group of alleged misfit losers, including a pregnant former maid of honor (Anna Kendrick) who was dumped by the bride’s brother (Wyatt Hawn Russell), an unhappy Ohio restaurateur couple (Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson), a tall and lanky former prisoner (Stephen James Merchant), a shy Indian man (Anthony Revolori) desperate to meet someone, and a terminally-ill, pot-smoking nanny (June Squibb), try to make the most of it when they are assigned an out-of-the-way table at a wedding reception on an island.
“A United Kingdom” (PG-13) (3) [Some language, including racial epithets and a scene of sensuality.] — When African Prince Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) falls in love and marries English typist Ruth Williams (Roseamund Pike), who lives with her parents (Nicholas Lyndhurst and Anastasia Hille) and sister (Laura Carmichael) in London, in 1947 and they return to Bechuanaland Protectorate (aka Bostwana) in this engaging, ire-producing, factually based, star-studded (Jack Davenport and Tom Felton), romantic, 111-minute film based on the novel by Susan Williams, it causes a political quagmire for the British government and fuels discord with his Bamangwate people and his disapproving ruling uncle (Vusi Kunene).
On DVD
“Broken Sky” (PG-13) (2) [Sex, nudity, and adult themes.] [Subtitled.] [DVD only] — Poetry readings underscore this repetitious, sexually explicit, 140-minute, 2006 film about a gay Mexican college student (Miguel Angel Hoppe) who seeks solace and comfort in the arms of another man (Alejandro Rojo) when his lover (Fernando Arroyo) becomes infatuated with another student he meets at a nightclub.
“Earrings of Madame De” (NR) (3.5) [Subtitled] [DVD only] — A captivating, black-and-white, 105-minute, 1953 farce about a well-traveled pair of valuable diamond earrings that ironically and surprisingly finds their way back to a faint-prone coquettish countess (Danielle Darrieux) in Vienna after she secretly pawned them to an untrustworthy jeweler (Jean Debucourt), who in turn sells them back to her adulterous husband (Charles Boyer) who gives them as a keepsake to his roulette-playing mistress (Lia Di Leo) as she leaves for Constantinople, where a handsome baron (Vittorio De Sica) buys the earrings and eventually gives them to his mistress.
“I’m Not There.” (R) (2.5) [Language, some sexuality, and nudity.] [DVD only] — Nostalgic folk music, including “The Times They Are A-Changin,” highlights this surreal, disconnected, unconventional, creative, star-studded (Julianne Moore, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, et al.), 135-minute, 2007 biographical film in which Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw literally play the many faces of the legendary singer and songwriter Bob Dylan during different stages of his life; primarily for Bob Dylan aficionados.
“Love in the Time of Cholera” (R) (3.5) [Sexual content/nudity and brief language.] [DVD only] — After a smitten Colombia telegraph operator (Unax Ugalde) proposes to a beautiful Catholic girl (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and she is forced by her wealthy, widowed father (John Leguizamo) to reject his proposal in 1879 and ultimately ends up marrying a handsome, Paris-educated doctor (Benjamin Bratt) in this touching, sad, and beautifully photographed, 139-minute, 2007 film based on Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ novel, the spurned lover (Javier Bardem) falls into a deep depression and spends the next 51 years bedding more than 600 hundred women and dreaming of his reunion with his long lost love.
“Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” (G) (2) — The magic leaves early in this weak plot, ultimately disappointing, family-friendly, 93-minute, 2007 film narrated by a young boy (Zach Mills) in which the 243-year-old eccentric owner (Dustin Hoffman) of a wondrous toy store hires a cynical, stuffy accountant (Jason Bateman) to get his books in order in preparation for handing the store over to his disillusioned, piano-playing manager (Natalie Portman).
©1986 through 2017 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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