New movies showing in Minneapolis
By Wendy Schadewald (Rating system: 4=Don’t miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)
“The Angry Birds Movie” (PG) (2.5)
[Rude humor and action.] — After a devious, green pig (voiceover by Bill Hader) and his cohorts arrive on an island of birds (voiceovers by Keegan-Michael Key, Tony Hale, Kate KcKinnon, Tituss Burgess, Ike Barinholtz, Blake Shelton, et al.) in this colorful, family-oriented, entertaining, 3D, 97-minute animated comedy, a Red angry bird (voiceover by Jason Sudeikis) and three friends (voiceovers by Danny McBride, Sean Penn, and Josh Gad), whom he met at an anger management class run by a laidback teacher (voiceover by Maya Rudolph), try to get the revered Mighty eagle (voiceover by Peter Dinklage) to help the flock of birds retrieve valuable eggs that the swine have stolen and taken to Piggy Island.
“A Bigger Splash” (R) (2.5)
[Graphic nudity, some strong sexual content, language, and brief drug use.] — Jealousy, tension, and trouble ensue in this quirky, sensuous, well-acted, 124-minute remake of the 1969 French “La Piscine” (aka “The Swimming Pool”) movie highlighted by gorgeous landscapes when a former lover/record producer (Ralph Fiennes) and his sexy, estranged daughter (Dakota Johnson) come to visit a whispering famous rock star (Tilda Swinton) recovering from throat surgery and her documentary filmmaker boyfriend (Matthias Schoenaerts) while they are vacationing on the Sicilian isle of Pantelleria.
“Green Room” (R) (3)
[Strong brutal graphic violence, gory images, language, and some drug content.] — After four punk rock band members (Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, and Callum Turner) and a bar patron (Imogen Poots) witness the stabbing death of a woman (Taylor Tunes) by a jealous skinhead (Brent Werzner) at an isolated roadhouse club in the back woods of Oregon owned by a ruthless white supremacist (Patrick Stewart) in this intense, captivating, violent, 94-minute, 2015 thriller, they desperately try to escape when the owner’s Neo-Nazi skinhead henchmen (Macon Blair, Mark Webber, Eric Edelstein, et al.) try to dispose of the evidence and the witnesses.
“Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” (R) (1.5)
[Crude sexual content, including brief graphic nudity, language throughout, drug use, and teen partying.] — Crude humor and language dominate this wacky, over-the-top, predictable, star-dotted (Dave Franco, Selena Gomez, Lisa Kudrow, and Ike Barinholtz), 92-minute comedy in which a frustrated pregnant couple (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) have to wait one hair-raising month while their house is in escrow after it is sold and then freak out when three irresponsible college students (Chloë Grace Moretz, Kiersey Clemons, and Beanie Feldstein) want to form a partying sorority next door with the help of a hunky former frat student (Zac Efron).
“The Nice Guys” (R) (3)
[Violence, sexuality, nudity, language, and brief drug use.] — A funny, tongue-in-cheek, unpredictable, violent, star-studded (Matt Bomer, Lois Smith, Ty Simpkins, Gil Gerard, Yaya DaCosta, and Keith David), 116-minute satirical comedy in which a dimwitted private eye (Ryan Gosling), who has a 13-year-old precocious daughter (Angourie Rice), and a strong-arm private investigator (Russell Crowe) are hired by a shady Justice Department head (Kim Basinger) in Los Angeles after the suspicious death of a voluptuous porn star (Murielle Telio) to find and protect her daughter (Margaret Qualley) who allegedly made a porno film in 1977 that incorporates some incriminating evidence in its reel.
“Sing Street” (PG-13) (3.5)
[Thematic elements, including strong language and some bullying behavior, a suggestive image, drug material, and teen smoking.] — Memorable music highlights this heartwarming, touching, well-acted, down-to-earth, 114-minute romantic comedy in which an inspired, talented Irish student (Ferdia Walsh Peelo), who lives with his feuding parents (Aiden Gillen and Maria Doyle Kennedy) and two siblings (Jack Reynor and Kelly Thornton) in Dublin, forms a band (Mark McKenna, et al.) with the help of a student manager (Ben Carolan) initially to impress a beautiful, orphaned teenager (Lucy Boynton) and to escape his troubled home life in 1985.
On DVD
“Crazy Love” (PG-13) (3)
[Language that includes sexual references and mature thematic elements.] [DVD only] — A captivating, fascinating, eyebrow-raising, 92-minute, 2007 documentary that centers around the exceedingly bizarre, turbulent love story that began in 1959 and stirred up a national media frenzy when successful and married Bronx attorney Burton N. Pugach became hopelessly obsessed and infatuated with beautiful virgin Linda Riss, when the relationship sidetracked and his insane jealously led to a 30-year prison term after he hired two thugs to blind her with lye due to her engagement to another man, and then shockingly they ended up married for 28 years after she accepted his proposal on his release from prison.
“Day Watch” (R) (2.5)
[Violence.] [Subtitled] [DVD only] — Stunning special effects and awesome cinematography highlight this equally incomprehensible, 132-minute, 2006 supernatural sequel to “Night Watch” in which a Night Watch (aka the good guys) Russian (Konstantin Khabensky) and his comely partner (Mariya Poroshina) in training try to stop his vampire son (Dmitry Martynov) and the vampires, witches, and warlocks (Viktor Verzhbitsky, et al.) of the Day Watch (aka the bad guys) from destroying Moscow and ending the 1,000-year truce between good and evil.
“Hostel: Part II” (R) (.5)
[Sadistic scenes of torture and bloody violence, terror, nudity, sexual content, language, and some drug content.] [DVD only] — Graphic gore, grisly torture, and vile murderers dominate this debase, violent, 92-minute, 2007 horror sequel in which two monstrous, sadistic, wealthy American businessmen (Roger Bart and Richard Burgi) and a mysterious European bid for the privilege of slowly torturing and savagely butchering three American art students (Bijou Phillips, Heather Matarazzo, and Lauren German) in Rome after a sexy model (Vera Jordanova) lures them to an ominous youth hostel in Slovakia.
“Into the Grizzly Maze” (R) (2.5)
[Violence, grisly images, language, and brief sexuality/nudity.] [DVD only] — After a ferocious grizzly bear kills two poachers in Alaska in this predictable, action-paced, violent, star-dotted (Scott Glenn, Piper Perabo, Adam Beach, and Michaela McManus), 95-minute, 2015 film, a sheriff (Thomas Jane), his estranged brother (James Marsden), and a disgruntled guide/tracker (Billy Bob Thornton) hunt down the animal.
“La Vie En Rose” (PG-13) (3)
[Substance abuse, sexual content, brief nudity, language, and thematic elements.] [Subtitled] [DVD only] — Flashbacks dominate this fascinating, deliberately paced, 140-minute, 2007 biographical film that follows the difficult, rollercoaster life of the legendary French icon and world-famous singer Edith Piaf (Marion Cotillard) from her childhood living with Belleville prostitutes (Emmanuelle Seigner, et al.) and then traveling with her circus-performing father (Jean-Paul Rove) and singing for their supper in 1920s Paris, being discovered on the streets by nightclub owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), falling in with boxing world champion Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins), performing in concert halls from Europe to New York City, to succumbing to her untimely death at age 47 in the 1960s.
“Mafioso” (NR) (3.5)
[Subtitled] [DVD only] — A memorable, tightly-woven, tension-filled, black-and-white, 105-minute rerelease of the dark 1962 Italian comedy in which a straitlaced, family-loving efficiency expert foreman (Alberto Sordi) at a factory in Northern Italy returns to his hometown in Sicily with his beautiful wife (Norma Bengell) and two young daughters to visit family and ends up having to perform a distasteful, huge favor for the local Don (Ugo Attanasio).
“Paprika” (R) (1.5)
[Violent and sexual images.] [Subtitled] [DVD only] — Colorful animation and a minimal plot characterize Satoshi Kon’s convoluted, nonsensical, 90-minute, 2006 anime film in which dreams and reality merge after a Japanese doctor (voiceover by Megumi Hayashibara) discovers that a prototype machine called the DC-MINI, which was intended to help therapists analyze the dreams of patients, has been stolen.
See related: All film on MinnyApple.com
©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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