MOVIES: Cameron Crowe’s ‘Aloha’ among films opening in Bellingham this week
OPENING THIS WEEK
Aloha
PG-13, some language, including suggestive comments; 104 minutes. A once-famed Air Force officer is assigned to a small base in Hawaii and finds himself renewing bonds with the woman he left there years ago as well is beginning a new relationship with the female Air Force “minder” assigned to him during his time on the island. Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride, Bill Murry, John Krasinski.
* 1/2 Sadley, in this case, “Aloha” doesn’t mean “Hello” or even “Welcome back, Cameron Crowe.” This feels like goodbye, at least to his major studio film career. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 11:30 a.m., 2:10, 3:10, 4:50, 6:10, 7:30, 10:10
Man and Superman (National Theatre)
Not rated; 201 minutes. Ralph Fienes stars as Jack Tanner in George Bernard Shaw’s provocative play that examines love, responsibility, our relationship to others and how and why we live as we do.
No critical review available
Playing: Pickford
Times: 6:30 (Thu)
Osaka Elegy
Not rated; 71 minutes. Mizoguchi Kenjii’s classic 1936 film follows a young woman who sacrifices herself in order to save her father and brother from financial problems. Yamada Isuzu, Seiichi Takegawa, Chiyoko Okura.
No critical review available
Playing: Pickford
Times: 6:30 (Tue)
The Pirates of Penzance
Not rated; 140 minutes. Famed director Mike Leigh presents Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic opera featuring pirates, blundering policemen, absurd adventures and dazzling music. Andrew Shore, Jonathan Lemalu, Robert Murray, Rebecca de Pont Davies.
No critical review available
Playing: Pickford
Times: 6:30 (Wed)
San Andreas
PG-13, some sexuality and violence; 119 minutes. An ex-Army chopper pilot finds his skills in great need when a series of “swarm’ earthquakes strike California, unleashing massive damage throughout the state. Dwayne Johnson, Paul Giamatti, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario.
* * 1/2 “San Andreas” is a well-executed reminder of why we don’t need to fret over the zombie apocalypse when there are plenty of real calamities Mother Earth can throw at us.— TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 4:40, 7:40
IMAX: 4:10, 10
3D: 12, 1:40, 7:10, 10:30
RPX: 12:40, 9:30
RPX 3D: 3:40, 6:40
Slow West
R, violence, brief language; 83 minutes. A well-off young man from Ireland travels to the western United States during the 1870s in search of his love taken away by her father and finds himself under the guidance and control of a wizened gun slinger who volunteers to be his “chaperon.” Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Caren Pistorius, Ben Mendelsohn.
* * * Building your movie on archetypes and a time-worn initiation/quest plot means that there are no real surprises to “Slow West.” But (director John) Maclean and his cast create a sound, tone and feel that makes even a moldy tale like this lean, mean and fresh, even if it never quite transcends the gun smoke of its genre. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Limelight
Times: 1 (Sun), 2 (Fri-Sat, Mon-Thu), 5:30 (Sun), 6:30 (Fri-Sat, Mon-Thu)
Tashi and the Monk
Not rated; 40 minutes. Buddhist monk Lobsang, trained under the guidance of the Dalai Lama, brings a troubled young girl into his unique community for orphans and neglected children in the Himalayas in an attempt to help her deal with the alienation and trauma her earlier life inflicted on her.
No critical review available
Playing: Pickford
Times: 5:30 (Mon)
ONGOING
Avengers: Age of Ultron
PG-13, intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, some suggestive comments; 141 minutes. The Avenger gang returns and finds themselves engaged with an artificial intelligence program that was designed to end threats to Earth but instead turns on mankind. Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Elizabeth Olsen, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson.
* * 1/2 “A bloated blockbuster movie-as-commodity like “Age of Ultron” doesn’t herald the end of this franchise or genre. But you see it from here. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 12:50, 2:20, 5:30, 7:05, 8:40
3D: 4, 10:20
Ex Machina
R, graphic nudity, language, sexual references, some violence; 105 minutes. A young computer coder is brought by his billionaire boss to a retreat in Norway, where he is tasked with giving a “Turing test” to a sentient robot who exhibits human traits, including empathy and love. Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno.
* * * “Ex Machina” is an “Island of Dr. Moreau” for the singularity era. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 12:10, 9:05
Far from the Madding Crowd
PG-13, some sexuality and violence; 119 minutes. A young woman comes into an small inheritance and a rundown farm and proceeds to remake the farm to her liking, drawing the interests of several local men seeking a wife. Carey Mulligan, Matthhias Shoenaerts, Juno Temple, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge.
* * * 1/2 Thomas Hardy’s romantic Victorian novel of class, labor and the fickle finger of love, “Far from the Madding Crowd,” earns a stately yet earthy and full-blooded film treatment from the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Pickford
Times: 11:45 a.m. (Sun), 12:45 (Fri-Sat, Mon-Tue, Thu), 2:30 (Sun), 3:30 (Fri-Sat, Mon-Thu), 5:15 (Sun), 6:15 (Fri-Sat, Mon-Thu), 8 (Sun), 9 (Fri-Sat, Mon-Wed)
Hot Pursuit
PG-13, sexual content, violence, language, some drug material; 87 minutes. A Texas police officer is assigned to help transport the wife of a drug cartel official and finds the job going very wrong when assassins show up and the two are forced to flee on their own across Texas. Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara, Richard T. Jones.
* 1/2 A mismatch-misfire badly misdirected by the director of “The Gulit Trip” and “27 Dresses,” it wastes the Oscar-winning Reese and the spirited spitfire Vergara, cast as a comically disgraced cop who escorts the wife of a drug lord’s accountant to court. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 12:05, 5, 9:10,
Iris
PG-13, some strong language; 80 minutes. Famed documentary filmmaker’s Albert Maysles’ final effort follows the ninety-something Iris Apfel, a fashion icon in New York, known for her courture accessories and her wild outfits.
* * * She was never a great beauty, a model or magazine editor, never married anybody famous. But somehow, Iris Apfel was anointed a New York “fasion icon.” — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Limelight
Times: 3:15 (Sun), 4:15 (Fri-Sat, Mon-Thu)
Mad Max: Fury Road
R, intense sequences of violence throughout, disturbing images; 120 minutes. Tom Hardy takes on the role of Max Rockatansky, who wanders the wastelands, fighting off marauding tribes seeking gas, weapons and food. Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough.
* * * 1/2 From its first frame to its last, “Fury Road” lets (director George) Miller — whose “Babe” and “Happy Feet” were just as prophetic — put the Mad back into Max and the madness back into our headlong rush to doom. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 12:20, 3:20, 5:40, 6:20, 9:15
3D: 1:20, 2:40, 4:20, 7:20, 10:15
Pitch Perfect 2
PG-13, innuendo, language; 115 minutes. The “Pitch Perfect” crew returns and fights to get their music vibe back after one of the singers accidentally exposes herself during a performance before the President and First Lady, leading the group to be banned from their national tour. Rebel Wilson, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick.
* * For big fans of the first “Pitch Perfect,” the sequel will not aggravate or offend. But I swear, in one party sequence (Anna) Kendrick appears to be stifling a yawn. —CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 11:40 a.m., 1, 2:55, 3:50, 6, 6:50, 8:50, 9:40
Poltergeist
PG-13, intense frightening sequences, brief suggestive material, language; 93 minutes. A family is assaulted by an evil force haunting their suburban home, forcing them to come together when the family’s youngest daughter is held captive. Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris.
No critical review available.
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 12:15, 8, 10:25
3D: 2:45, 5:35, 9:55
Tomorrowland
PG, sequences of sci-fi action violence and peril, thematic elements, language; 130 minutes. A brilliant young girl and an older one-time boy genius come together to help save the future. George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie.
* * 1/2 As much as one appreciates the idea of optimism, looking for solutions instead of bemoaning the doom-laden futility of it all, “Tomorrowland” falls short. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Barkley Village
Times: 11:50 a.m., 12:30, 2:50, 3:30, 5:50, 6:30, 9, 9:35
IMAX: 1:10, 7
Welcome to Me
R, sexual content, some graphic nudity, language, brief drug use; 105 minutes. A woman suffering from mental illness wins $86 million in the lottery and uses her new funds to “buy” her own show on a failing home shopping channels, using it to voice all the complaints and old scores that she feels have changed her life. Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Wes Netley, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack.
* * Wiig’s adorably offbeat timing, her loveable loser who doesn’t realize she’s a loser gift, is exhausted in what is essentially a “Saturday Night Live” sketch and character given 100 minutes of screen time. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Limelight
Times: 7:40 (Sun), 8:40 (Fri-Sat, Mon-Thu)
What We Do in the Shadows
Not rated, blood, profanity, innuendo; 86 minutes. A group of vampires living in New Zealand deal with their loves, their undead lives and other issues that impact metrosexual residents. Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh.
* * 1/2 “What We Do in the Shadows” is a one-joke comedy about vampires, and yet another mockumentary ... but with those crackpot Kiwis Jemaine Clement and Taika Waitit behind it, you can be sure that one joke is going to deliver a lot of laughs, enough that the format won’t matter. — TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Playing: Pickford
Times: 8:10 (Sun), 9:10 (Fri-Sat, Tue, Thu), 9:30 (Mon, Wed)
Woman in Gold
PG-13, thematic elements, brief strong language; 119 minutes. A woman struggles to recover a priceless Gustav Klimt painting stolen from her family by the Nazis and now located at an art gallery in the United States. Helen Mirren, Ante Traue, Francis Fisher.
With all the good things going for it, it’s regrettable that “Woman in Gold” is no more than adequate, more old-fashioned Hollywoodization than incisive modern dramatization. — LOS ANGELES TIMES
Playing: Pickford
Times: 12:30 (Sun, Mon), 1 (Wed), 1:30 (Fri-Sat, Tue, Thu), 3 (Sun-Mon), 4 (Fri-Sat, Tue-Thu), 5:30 (Sun), 6:30 (Fri-Sat), 7:15 (Mon)
This story was originally published May 29, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "MOVIES: Cameron Crowe’s ‘Aloha’ among films opening in Bellingham this week."