Look on the bright side.
Sure, there aren’t any really great movies opening this weekend, nothing you’re going to be hearing about when they’re talking about Oscars for 2019. But there aren’t any dogs, either.
Well, maybe one.
Plus, remember this: At least we don’t live on the East Coast, so we’re not so snowed in we can’t make it to the theater. Watching even a bad movie is better than shoveling your sidewalk.
Crime pays
Randy Cordova liked “Den of Thieves” (4 out of 5 stars), despite a lack or originality. Pablo Schreiber and Gerard Butler play a bank robber and cop, respectively, and they’re heading for a showdown (looting the Federal Reserve is in the works). There are echoes of Michael Mann’s “Heat,” but the film works on its own terms. "Den of Thieves" isn't a masterpiece by any means,” Cordova writes, “but it's fun, exciting and hard-boiled, and the actors are doing solid work.”
Gerard Butler stars in a crime drama about an elite unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. STX Entertainment
Outside looking in
Director Michael Haneke is up to his usual funny games in “Happy End” (3 stars), but Barbara VanDenburgh found it even more challenging. It’s the story of a wealthy European family in decline, but the audience doesn’t learn much. “Haneke holds the audience at an even further remove,” VanDenburgh writes. “He films in distant static shots that last an uncomfortably long time, holding the viewer at arm's length. It feels as if you're watching it from across the street of a drive-in theater as you desperately try to find the signal for the audio.”
Secrets are revealed among the members of a bourgeois European family. Mathieu Kassovitz and Isabelle Huppert star in the film from Michael Haneke. Sony Pictures Classics
Parental guidance not recommended
“Mom and Dad” (3 stars) is a nutso idea — parents suddenly have the insatiable desire to kill their own children — that doesn’t hold up over time, but man, is it out there. It’s also fun, in its way, with Nicolas Cage as one of the parents. This is crazy Cage, going way over the top and having a ball with a suddenly psychotic father who might have been a little bit that way to begin with. Not for everyone, but if you like dark comedy, have at it.
What would happen if, for some inexplicable reason, parents everywhere began to murder their offspring? That's the subject of a horror film with Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair. Momentum Pictures
Glass half full
“12 Strong” (3 stars) is a terrific story turned into a decent movie. Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon star as part of an elite group of Special Forces soldiers who were the first to invade Afghanistan after 9/11 — and have to do so on horseback. Some of the battle scenes are gripping, but overall the film paints far too optimistic a portrait of the U.S. experience in Afghanistan, a war that continues. This makes it seem like 12 guys won the war in three weeks.
The first trailer for '12 Strong,' starring Chris Hemsworth, the true story of Green Berets who ride into battle in Afghanistan after 9/11 on horses.
Sour note
There’s just no other way to say it: “Forever My Girl” (2 stars) is a bad movie. British actor Alex Roe gives it his best as a country singer who ditched his fiancée (Jessica Rothe) at the altar in their small southern town, only to become a massive country-music star. He comes home for a funeral and discovers that he also has a daughter he never know about. No cliché goes unturned. Almost worth seeing for the ridiculous fan scenes, which play like a hillbilly “Hard Day’s Night.” Almost.
A country star (Alex Roe) returns home and reconnects with his ex-wife (Jessica Rothe). Roadside Attractions
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.
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