By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
In theaters this week: magical and ghostly sequels and a film adaptation of a popular role-playing game. Hey folks, this is what summer looks like.
The Conjuring 2
Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as real-life ghosthunters Lorraine and Ed Warren, this time traveling to London in the 1970s to investigate a house purportedly infested by demons. "What makes The Conjuring 2 play deeper and darker than a warmed-over version of The Exorcist is director James Wan (Saw, Insidious, Furious 7)," writes Peter Travers for Rolling Stone. "This Malaysian-born filmmaker can make his camera do terrifying tricks that are almost supernatural. The most innocent objects, including a toy fire truck, take on a haunting malevolence." Reviews are overall fairly solid for the thriller. (R for terror and horror violence; United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive)
Now You See Me 2
The glossy 2013 original was a surprise hit, so it's to be expected that the prestidigitous semi-good guys would be back for a sequel. ("Guys," because Isla Fisher declined to come back. Lizzie Caplan takes her place.) This time out, the Four Horsemen (Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson and Mark Ruffalo, plus Caplan, because math is hard) are forced by a crazy, magic-obsessed tech gazillionaire (Daniel Radcliffe) to steal a computer chip for him. A few reviews are positive ("It’s much more enjoyable than the typical summer sequel du jour," Colin Covert writes for the Minneapolis Star Tribune), but others are quite scathing: "Making a successful sequel is always a little bit like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. But the only magic trick here is how slowly they've made two hours of our lives disappear," writes Stephen Whitty for the New York Daily News. (PG-13 for violence and some language; AS-14, H-16)
Warcraft
Reviews for this adaptation of the popular role-playing game World of Warcraft are as ugly as the movie's CGI-crafted orc stars. "Rarely is so much time, money, and cutting-edge technology expended on a spectacle so devoid of wonder," writes A.A. Dowd for The A.V. Club. "(E)asily a contender for the worst movie of the year," writes Christy Lemire for RogerEbert.com. "There's just no way to become as invested during a two-hour movie as a gamer who's spent years, maybe even decades, immersed in the rituals and traditions of the worlds of Warcraft," writes Sandy Cohen for the Associated Press. (PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy violence; AS-14, H-16)
Ghostbusters
The comedy classic screens again at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday at both multiplexes. (PG; AS-14, H-16)
Still playing: Alice Through the Looking Glass (AS-14, H-16); 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 Jungle Book (AS-14, H-16); Kung Fu Panda 3 (WM-6); Me Before You (AS-14, H-16); Miracles from Heaven (WM-6); Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (AS-14, H-16); The Nice Guys (H-16); Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (AS-14, H-16); Ratchet & Clank (WM-6); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (AS-14, H-16, Tascosa Drive-In, 1999 Dumas Drive); 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.
