Capsule Reviews of Movies

Reviews

Ratings:

**** Excellent *** Good

** Fair * Poor

Reviewers: C.R., Carrie Rickey; S.R., Steven Rea; D.D., Dan DeLuca; T.D., Tirdad Derakhshani; D.H., David Hiltbrand; W.S., Inquirer wire services.

Are You Here See Steven Rea's review on Page 11.

Frank See Steven Rea's review on Page 5.

If I Stay See Steven Rea's review on Page 4.

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar See David Hiltbrand's review on Page 5.

Life After Beth See Tirdad Derakhshani's review on Page 11.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For See Steven Rea's review on Page 4.

When the Game Stands Still See David Hiltbrand's review on Page 6.

And So It Goes 1/2 Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton team for the first time in a wincingly sappy three-quarter-life rom-com about a Scrooge-like widower and a wifty lounge-singing widow - and the unexpected appearance of a cute-as-a-button grandchild, ready-made to melt hearts. Rob Reiner directs, and shouldn't have. 1 hr. 34 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Boyhood Richard Linklater's unassuming masterpiece follows a Texas kid (newcomer Ellar Coltrane) from grade school to college dorm, reconvening cast and crew (including Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as the parents) a few weeks every year for 12 years, and its carefully observed series of small moments take on quiet, metaphoric power. The faces and features of the actors - children and adults - change, and good stuff, bad stuff, the funny, the sad, the transformative, the banal, all happen in real time. Because, for once, in the movies, time is real. 2 hrs. 46 R (profanity, sex, adult themes) - S.R.

Calvary Brendan Gleeson stars as a good priest in a bad world - in the beautiful West country of Ireland - in John Michael McDonagh's stormy whodunit. A furious, darkly funny look at the nature of faith, and the nature of man. 1 hr. 40 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Chef Jon Favreau stars in - and wrote and directs - this bouncy paean to the culinary arts, about a top cook who gets a career-killing bad review, rebounds, and bonds with his son in a feel-good food-truck ride across the States. Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, and John Leguizamo join the fun - which feels force-fed at times. 1 hr. 55 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 1/2 Unnecessarily slow and somber sequel to the 2011 reboot of the sci-fi franchise from another century. The apes are dominant, living a life of peace in the misty woods north of San Francisco, but then the humans come asking favors - armed with guns. With Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Gary Oldman, and Andy Serkis' performance-capture turn as Caesar, leader of the highly evolved monkeys. 2 hrs. 10 PG-13 (violence, action, adult themes) - S.R.

Dinosaur 13 1/2 Too long by half, this slanted documentary chronicles the tangled legal battle over T. rex fossils discovered in South Dakota's Badlands in 1990. 1 hr. 35 PG (profanity, smoking) - D.H.

The Expendables 3 1/2 Sylvester Stallone enlists faces both old and new (but mostly old) for this raucous, redundant sequel - a mercenary film about mercenaries. With Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson. Antonio Banderas, and Ronda Rousey. 2 hrs. 6 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) - D.H.

Finding Fela Alex Gibney's documentary about the African musical superstar gets so tangled up in the recent Broadway version of Fela's life that it almost loses sight of its subject. 1 hr. 59 No MPAA rating (profanity) - D.H.

A Five Star Life Margherita Buy stars as a fortysomething single woman whose job, hotel critic, takes her around the globe, checking in incognito and puting the ritziest of establishments to the test. But when she's back home, alone, in Rome, she has to figure out what it is she wants from life. A frothy romantic comedy tinged with melancholy and yearning. 1 hr. 25 No MPAA rating (sex, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Get On Up 1/2 Chadwick Boseman, having played baseball legend Jackie Robinson in 42, tries on a different kind of legend: the Godfather of Soul. With that unmistakable rasp, unmistakable pompadour, and unmistakable dance moves, a biopic of James Brown. From Tate Taylor, director of The Help. 2 hrs. 18 PG-13 (sexual content, drug use, profanity, violent situations) - D.D.

The Giver A seemingly utopian society, its citizens devoid of memories or feelings, gets shaken up when a young charge (Brenton Thwaites) is assigned to be the Receiver of Memories from the time before "Sameness." Jeff Bridges is the gravelly voiced old-timer who imparts a bygone civilization's flashbacks of war, and tumult, but also of happiness and beauty. And so a veritable can of worms is opened in this solid adaptation of Lois Lowry's much-read children's novel. 1 hr. 34 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Guardians of the Galaxy Chris Pratt rounds up a team of outer-space misfits. Their mission: Does it matter? This breezy comic-book adaptation is the first sci-fi movie to spoof itself. 2 hrs. 2 PG-13 (violence, profanity) - D.H.

Hercules 1/2 Dwayne Johnson supplies the muscle in this large-scale, entertaining adventure. The plot is pedestrian but that's why Herc rides a chariot. With Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, and John Hurt. 1 hr. 38 PG-13 (violence, profanity, partial nudity) - D.H.

The Hundred-Foot Journey 1/2 Helen Mirren is a snooty restaurateur who doesn't like it when a family from Mumbai roll into her quaint little French town, setting up their eatery right across the rue. An impossibly overstuffed culinary culture-clash rom-com, but probably impossible not to enjoy. Especially if you're a foodie. 2 hrs. 2 PG (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Into the Storm 1/2 A series of deadly tornadoes that wreak havoc in a town leads some to flee, but others to channel their inner storm-chaser. 1 hr. 29 PG-13 (sequences of intense destruction and peril, language, some sexual references) - T.D.

Land Ho! 1/2 A pair of senior former brothers-in-law embark on a road trip through Iceland. The scenery is beautiful, but that is the high point of the film. 1 hr. 35 R (language, sexual references and drug use) - T.D.

Let's Be Cops Two buddies who dress up as cops for a party wind up getting sucked into doing real police work in this comedy that stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. Not Previewed

Lucy French action director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Nikita) outdoes himself in this English-language comic-book fantasy starring Scarlett Johansson as a student whose brain becomes supercharged after a drug overdose. Clever, drenched in irony, the flick is at turns a violent, noirish mob thriller, a speculative sci-fi yarn about the mysteries of the brain, and an existential inquiry about The Meaning of Life. 1 hr. 30 R (strong bloody violence, sexuality, smoking, drug use, profanity) - T.D.

Magic In the Moonlight For all its visual delights - Roaring Twenties roadsters, dazzling dresses, Cote d'Azur landscapes to die for - Woody Allen's 44th feature has to be one of his bigger duds. The mostly mirthless comedy, a sparkless romance, stars Colin Firth as an ace magician out to debunk a beautiful young American psychic, played by Emma Stone. 1 hr. 37 PG-13 (adult themes) - S.R.

A Most Wanted Man 1/2 One of Philip Seymour Hoffman's last performances is also one of his greatest - as the rumpled, chain-smoking chief of a covert antiterrorist unit in modern-day Hamburg. The actor lives and breathes the role. A taut thriller, adapted from John le Carré's 2008 novel, full of tradecraft and moments of quiet terror, with a stellar supporting cast. 2 hrs. R (profanity, violence, adult themes) - S.R.

Rich Hill 1/2 This impressive documentary chronicles the lives of three boys growing up in an impoverished Midwestern town. 1 hr. 31 No MPAA rating (adult subjects, language, smoking) - T.D.

Step Up: All In The stars from the previous installments in this dance series return for a big competition in Las Vegas. 1 hr. 52 PG-13 (some language, suggestive material) Not Previewed

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Uninspired reboot of the jokey '90s franchise, with Megan Fox as intrepid news reporter April O'Neil, friend to those adolescent, anthropomorphic reptiles schooled in the martial arts. Will Arnett and William Fichtner also show up. 1 hr. 41 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.

What If Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan are great together as platonic best friends who find themselves wondering - increasingly, but hardly ever at the same time - whether the platonic part is such a good idea. Smart, snappy, sweet. 1 hr. 42 PG-13 (sex, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.