Movie Reviews Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

It’s the 32nd Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, which means we’ve reached the point where they’re telling us the weepy origin story of a talking raccoon.Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is the order of the day in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” the final entry in the trilogy, in which the furry wiseguy is nearly killed and his co-heroes must chase down the assailant within 48 hours to save his little life.Running time: 150 minutes.

It’s “Mommie Dearest” gone wild.In the first scene, though, we’re back in one of those creepy, secluded cottages that made the 1981 film a classic. Out in the woods, a girl-turned-“Deadite” kills her two friends before an on-screen message reads: “One day earlier.” The location shifts to the soon-to-be-demolished city apartment building of Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), a mother of three kids who recently separated from her husband. The night her sister Beth (Lily Sullivan), a rebellious concert roadie, comes to visit, an earthquake opens a hole in their parking garage concealing our old friend the Book of the Dead and some vinyl recordings of spooky incantations.Teenage Danny (Morgan Davies) decides to pop them on his turntable and, you know, accidentally destroys his family, including sisters Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher).Demons are unleashed, one enters Ellie’s body and then Mother Monster brutally goes after Beth and the kids. I vastly prefer the “Evil Dead” series to, say, never-ending “Scream” because unlike with Ghostface, no elaborate narrative excuse needs to be drummed up for why ancient evil spirits are still slumming it on earth.

Matthew McConaughey smoking a joint in Guy Ritchie’s new movie “The Covenant.” The prolific British director has, for the moment, left behind quirky crime and comedy for his Afghanistan War film — and it’s not hard to understand why. The story the movie is based on is a harrowing and special one. A US Army sergeant and an Afghan interpreter are on the run from the Taliban, when the American is knocked unconscious and his companion must go to extraordinary lengths to save him.Running time: 125 minutes.

Como se dice, “What the hell?”The priest, whose beard is mysteriously much whiter than his hair, is sent to the abbey by the pope — “Charlie’s Angels” style. The building was recently inherited by Julia (Alex Essoe) after the car-accident-impalement death of her husband.

Stuck in a movie theater seat watching “Renfield” plod along, the answer is a resounding meh.As the Count from “Sesame Street” would say, “‘Renfield’ gets TWO stars! Ah, ah, ah.”Cage — whose career has become so goofy he recently played a parody version of himself who gets kidnapped by a Spanish drug lord — is as funny and self-aware as the evil old vampire. Crazy, it would seem, has become Cage’s new normal. But don’t come looking for a wacky sendup of the story in the vein of Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein.” It’s actually not even as hilarious as that director’s much-worse 1995 movie “Dracula: Dead and Loving It,” and outside of a few basic details the film has little to do with Bram Stoker’s book.“Renfield,” directed by Chris McKay, has more in common with the (far better) “Zombieland” series, with high-body-count action sequences, quick-cut comedy and an unlikely, socially awkward hero. That would be Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), Count Dracula’s beleaguered “familiar,” who has been gifted an unnaturally long life in exchange for bringing the vamp fresh victims.

voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) work as plumbers.It’s a realistic setting. I spot mustachioed guys wearing overalls in Williamsburg all the time.But perhaps the boys would be better off selling artisan beard oil on Bedford, because they’re not very good with their socket wrenches.

Amazon Studios’ robustly entertaining, real-life drama definitely has the makings of one. It’s far and away the most likable film released so far this year.There’s a starry cast led by Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck, who also directs his best movie since “Argo” 11 years ago. Running time: 112 minutes.

Netflix has padded its catalog of cinematic background noise some more with “Murder Mystery 2,” the instantly forgettable sequel to its rancid whodunit comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler as married crime solvers. Running time: 89 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence, bloody images, strong language, suggestive material and smoking).

awarded the first film zero stars — few people saw and even fewer remember. Running time: 134 minutes. Rated PG-13 (fantasy action/violence and some language.) In theaters.And the source material, the role-playing game “Dungeons & Dragons,” is famously confusing and impenetrable to outsiders.

had Keanu Reeves gallop on a horse through Brooklyn? Four tremendous films and nine years into the adrenaline-fueled, Reeves-led action series, director Chad Stahelski has yet to let his franchise noticeably dip in quality. “Wick” wields an assured identity and fireworks style with the same confidence of its main character carrying a deadly pistol.

the world saw “Black Adam” and was fully convinced that the movie was as low as DC Comics could possibly go, here comes “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” to outdo it in the limbo line of awfulness.We’re talking about a film in which the sentence “The most powerful thing about you… is you!” is uttered twice.A film with a character named Steve, who is an all-knowing, enchanted pen.Zero stars. Running time: 130 minutes.

on a New York City subway platform.  Who cares if it’s Ghostface or not? Is this lunatic gonna push her onto the tracks?It’s a fleeting, ripped-from-the-headlines thrill in what’s otherwise a snooze-fest that mechanically rips off what came before it. Running time: 123 minutes. Rated R (strong bloody violence and language throughout, and brief drug use).Not to mention that this first “Scream” movie to be set in the city is a total waste of NYC. Don’t spend any mental energy trying to figure out what street the characters are running down, what park they’re hiding out in, or what borough it is.

decades-old film franchises out there to which I say: Keep making more, please.The pulse-pounding “Creed III” is the ninth movie in the series. And although there is nary a mention of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa in this one, the indomitable spirit, grit and heart that made the 1976 original a surprise hit is still alive — 47 years later.Running time: 116 minutes. Rated PG-13 (intense sports action, violence and some strong language).

director Elizabeth Banks keeps the powder gags fresh throughout, as the mammal maims her way through a Southern forest preserve. The movie about blow never blows.Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (bloody violence and gore, drug content and language throughout.) In theaters.The hysterical film is based on a true story in the loosest possible sense.

brutally murder 11 people … is a sentence I never thought I’d write.But that’s what goes down in the sicko indie horror film “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” which played theaters for one night only on Wednesday. And, believe you me, one night is enough.How has the 100 Acre Wood legally been turned into a barbaric onscreen hunting ground that slashes the throat of childhood nostalgia? Running time: 84 minutes.

red-hot Majors has gravitas as he snarls about the injustices the world has done to him. Whenever he’s onscreen, we are transfixed.Running time: 125 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence/action, and language.) In theaters Feb.

Aquaman,” at least, had giant rideable seahorses and Nicole Kidman as a mermaid. “Black Adam” boasts Pierce Brosnan giving a worse performance than when he sang “Knowing Me, Knowing You” in “Mamma Mia!”Two decades after Johnson mind-numbingly barreled through the sand as “The Scorpion King,” he plays basically the same complicated warrior type only with less hair and zero personality. A prologue informs us that 5,000 years ago in fictional Kahndaq — could be Egypt, could be the Middle East — a young slave sacrificed himself to free his people and was therefore granted super powers by the ancient wizard from “Shazam!” He becomes Teth-Adam, Kahndaq’s champion.Back in the present day, the poor city is under military occupation by an evil company called Intergang (the bad guys have “no worries!” Australian accents) and is being plundered for its main natural resource, Eternium.

Peacock Friday, you’ll consider taking Wite-Out to the title and changing it to “Halloween Keeps Going, Please.” Director David Gordon Green was deservedly lauded in 2018 for his superb first ‘ween film, which restored the Michael Myers vs. Laurie Strode death match to its 1970s gritty glory after a string of bombs in the 1990s and aughts.

Bohemian Rhapsody” about a celebrated maestro we would all be more familiar with if we had the time and money to regularly attend the Berliner Philharmoniker and skim Der Spiegel. Nein! She’s fake.Running time: 158 minutes.

Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy . . .

out on Disney+ 29 years later, is much, much worse.Running time: 104 minutes. Rated PG (action, macabre/suggestive humor and some language).

Netflix’s new Marilyn Monroe movie that hopes to be a major contender during awards season.Running time: 166 minutes. Rated NC-17 (some sexual content). Out Sept.

HBO series “Girls” was infamously nudity-and-sex-filled has segued to the coming-of-age genre with her charming comedy “Catherine Called Birdy,” which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.Running time: 108 minutes. Rated PG-13 (some suggestive material and thematic elements). In theaters Sept.

Toronto International Film Festival, we believed that the main characters actually loved each other.Running time: 113 minutes. Rated R (sexual content). In theaters Oct.

Toronto International Film Festival.Unless, of course, you holler, “Allelujah! It’s time to go home!”That’s because the dinky drama, about a struggling hospital for the elderly in England, gets steadily more depressing as it plods along. There’s nothing wrong with some silver screen sorrow, but not when it amounts to indecisive mush. Sure, it is a pleasure to see the boffo acting talent together — Jennifer Saunders, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi and more — but they deserve so much better than hospital Jell-O. The creaky film began as a play at London’s Bridge Theatre by writer Alan Bennett, who also penned “The History Boys,” and much like the 2006 screen version of that show, “Allelujah,” directed by Richard Eyre, doesn’t comfortably make the leap to cinema.

2019 “Knives Out” premiered Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival. Called “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” the Netflix movie brings back Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc and throws him in with an entirely new crew of wealthy eccentrics.Running time: 139 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Toronto International Film Festival, has been shrouded in secrecy for months. About all we knew going in was that the movie is based on the famed director’s own life, and stars Williams, Paul Dano and Seth Rogen. Running time: 151 minutes.

Toronto International Film Festival.Bri (Jamila C. Gray), a 16-year-old aspiring rapper, rises from late-night rap battles at an underground venue called the Ring in her fictional hometown of Garden Heights to having the most-played song on the radio. Running time: 115 minutes.

Marilyn Monroe biopic “Blonde” starring Ana de Armas premiered at the Venice Film Festival Thursday, earning praise from several critics for its portrayal of the 1950s blonde bombshell. Adapted from the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name, the film runs nearly three hours and received a 14-minute standing ovation from the crowd, which caused de Armas to break down into tears, according to Variety.“Andrew Dominik’s Venice Film Festival competition entry ‘Blonde’ takes a blowtorch to the entire concept of the Hollywood biopic and arrives at something almost without precedent,” Deadline’s critic said.“[‘Blonde’] is simply inventing fresh indignities for the most positively, permanently persecuted heroine outside of a John Waters movie ever to have to suffer.” As Netflix’s first film with an NC-17 rating, “Blonde” sparked backlash almost instantly when it debuted its first trailer in July over the casting of de Armas due to the fact that she is Cuban and her accent was not “authentic.”Variety’s critic Owen Gleiberman disagreed in his review, saying the film is “built around a performance, by Ana de Armas, of breathtaking shimmer and imagination and candor and heartbreak.