By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
In movie theaters this week: A return visit from a finny friend, a buddy action comedy and a horror film that coulrophobics will want to avoid at all costs.
Central Intelligence
The overwhelming charisma of Kevin Hart and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson may be put to the test in this new buddy comedy. Johnson stars as a lethal CIA agent and Hart as an accountant who was Big Man on Campus back in the day, when Johnson's character was a tubby target of bullies. Now all buff and Rock-like (but no less goofy), he needs Hart's help to solve a crime. Looks very predictable, but the Washington Post's Stephanie Merry writes that that's not necessarily bad: "Central Intelligence won’t win any points for originality, but that doesn’t make it any less funny." (PG-13 for crude and suggestive humor, some nudity, action violence and brief strong language; United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9711 Canyon Drive)
Clown
This horror flick, opening exclusively at Premiere Cinemas Westgate Mall 6, was inspired by a parody trailer by fright-master Eli Roth, and it sounds like it may have been better off staying that way. In the film, a dad (Andy Powers) is possessed by a demonic spirit after donning a clown outfit for his son's birthday. "Disappointingly, (director Jon) Watts evinces little interest in mining the tropes associated with clowns, and he does nothing with the scarily funny notion of a respectable professional who suddenly refuses to shuck a party costume," writes Chuck Bowen for Slant. "Instead, he fashions a routine body-horror story of a man turning into a monster." (R for horror violence and gore, and for language; WM-6)
Finding Dory
The forgetful fish who stole the show in 2003's Finding Nemo is back in this long-awaited sequel. Ellen Degeners and Albert Brooks are joined by the likes of Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olsen, Ty Burrell and Idris Elba for this Disney/Pixar animated film in which Dory tries to find her family. Reviewers are overall quite positive about the film, though many say it doesn't live up to the original. "While it may not join the top tier of Pixar features, Dory ... is certainly the best non-Toy Story sequel the studio has produced," writes A.O. Scott for the New York Times. "(A)nyone can come up with a noble humanistic idea, or two, in an instant," writes Stephanie Zacharek for Time. "It’s much more challenging to dream up a whole movie’s worth of freewheeling, air-bubble-light jokes and inventive sight gags. In the end, the real value of Finding Dory ... lies in its goofy effervescence."
Special engagements
Copa America Centenario: The first and second semi-final games of this international men's soccer tournament will screen live at 8 p.m. Tuesday and 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Hollywood 16.
2016 DCI Tour Premiere: Six of the country's top drum corps (Boston Crusaders, the Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment, the Cadets, Bluecoats and Carolina Crown) will compete live in this special event streaming at the Hollywood 16 from Indianapolis at 7:30 p.m. June 23.
Still playing
Alice Through the Looking Glass (AS-14, H-16, Tascosa Drive-In, 1999 Dumas Drive); The Angry Birds Movie (AS-14, H-16); Barbershop: The Next Cut (Westgate Mall 6); Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (WM-6); Captain America: Civil War (AS-14, H-16); The Conjuring 2 (AS-14, H-16); The Darkness (WM-6); Keanu (WM-6); Me Before You (AS-14, H-16); Miracles from Heaven (WM-6); Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (H-16); Now You See Me 2 (AS-14, H-16); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (AS-14, H-16); Warcraft (AS-14, H-16); X-Men: Apocalypse (AS-14, H-16, TDI); and Zootopia (WM-6).
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/chipchandlerwriter on Facebook.
