ANT-MAN AND THE WASP. 2.5 stars. So-so sequel to the funny original has Ant-Man helping Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and the Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) rescuing the latter's mother from a subatomic prison, with interference from a crook (Walter Goggins) and a mysterious woman known as Ghost (Hannah Kamen-Hones). Over-plotted, strains for laughs. Michael Pena, Laurence Fishburne. 2 hrs. 5 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson
BLACKKKLANSMAN. 3 stars. Spike Lee brings the amazing true story to the big screen of Ron Stallworth, a black man who integrated the Colorado Springs Police Department in the 1970s and while doing so infiltrated and disrupted a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of a fellow officer. Starring John David Washington, Adam Driver, and Topher Grace. 2 hrs. 17 R (language) _ Gary Thompson
COLETTE. 2.5 stars. Evocative period drama and abbreviated biography of French writer Colette (Keira Knightley) who as a young woman wrote a series of sensational novels that her husband (Dominic West) published under his own name. Knightley is good, as usual, but the picture is disrupted a bit by West, who is so good at playing Colette's scoundrel of a husband that you miss him when he's gone. 1 hr. 51 R (sex) _ Gary Thompson
CRAZY RICH ASIANS. 3 stars. An American woman (Constance Wu) goes to Singapore for a wedding and discovers her boyfriend (Henry Golding) is ultra-wealthy, and that not everybody is happy about their relationship. Frothy, sometimes superficial, but elevated by Wu's charming lead performance, and her scenes with Michelle Yeoh as her prospective mother-in-law. 2 hrs. 1 PG-13 (language) _ Gary Thompson
THE HATE U GIVE. 3 stars. Effective adaptation of the YA best-seller about a teen (Amandla Stenberg) who witnesses a police shooting, and must navigate the treacherous gap between the way the incident is viewed in her mostly white prep school, and the African American neighborhood where she lives. Strong cast (with Regina Hall, and Stenberg is excellent) and assured direction from George Tillman Jr., who handles several complex issues with thoughtfulness and skill. 2 hrs. 12 PG-13 (language) _ Gary Thompson
JULIET, NAKED. 3 stars. Winning rom-com based on a Nick Hornby book about a woman (Rose Byrne) who begins an online relationship with the reclusive rocker (Ethan Hawke) worshipped by her boyfriend (Chris O'Dowd). Nicely written, beautifully performed by Byrne and Hawke. 1 hr. 38 R (language) _ Gary Thompson
THE MEG. 3 stars. Adaptation of Steve Alten's best-selling book stars Jason Statham as a deep-sea rescue specialist who ends up doing battle with a gigantic shark thought to have been extinct. Borrows good-naturedly from "Jaws," "The Abyss," and "Deep Blue Sea," with some decent special effects as it positions itself as summertime popcorn entertainment. 1 hr. 47 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson
MILE 22. 2 stars. In an Asian country, a group of U.S. covert agents (Mark Wahlberg, Ronda Rousey, Lauren Cohan) are assigned to escort a man (Ido Uwais) through a phalanx of assassins. Often ugly in tone and content, and although the final twist puts all of this in a new light, the movie still misses. By a mile. With John Malkovich. 1 hr. 30 R (violence) _ Gary Thompson
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE _ FALLOUT. 3 stars. The globetrotting IMF team (Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg), assigned to work with a CIA guy (Henry Cavill), tries to keep stolen plutonium out of the hands of terrorists, confronting an old nemesis (Sean Harris) and a mysterious new figure (Vanessa Kirby). Lots of old-school action, plenty of outrageous plot turns, all in good fun. With Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett. 2 hrs. 27 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson
OPERATION FINALE. 2.5 stars. Competent, thriller-style telling of Israeli agents (Oscar Isaac, Nick Kroll, Melanie Laurent) in 1960 locating and capturing Nazi fugitive and war criminal Adolph Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), then in hiding in Argentina. Directed by Chris Weitz. 2 hrs. 2 PG-13 _ Gary Thompson
THE PREDATOR. 2.5 stars. A boy unwittingly brings about the return of the world's most deadly hunters to Earth. Their prey: the human race. 1 hr. 48 R (profanity, language) _ Nick Vadala
PRIVATE LIFE. 2.5 stars. Comedy, laced with a significant amount of melancholy, about a fortysomething couple (Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn) exhausting their financial and spiritual reserves in a quest to conceive a child, via costly fertility treatments and other means. Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, full of funny lines, but the film is long and the character arcs flat, and the sadness is very close to the surface. With Molly Shannon, Denis O'Hare. 2 hrs. R (language) _ Gary Thompson
A SIMPLE FAVOR. 3 stars. A blogger (Anna Kendrick) attempts to discover the secret behind her friend's (Blake Lively) sudden disappearance. 1 hr. 56 R (profanity) _ Gary Thompson
VENOM. 2 stars. Not much bite to this generic superhero movie about a TV journalist (Tom Hardy) investigating the secret experiments of a tech overlord (Riz Ahmed), and ends up infused with alien DNA that makes him go monster from time to time. Hardy and co-star Michelle Williams manage to get some laughs from the material, but the ending is another one of those dull CGI smackdowns, with the actors supplanted by animated versions of themselves. 1 hr. 52 PG-13 (language) _ Gary Thompson
THE WIFE. 3 stars. A novelist (Jonathan Pryce) wins the Nobel Prize for literature, but when he goes to Stockholm to claim, his marriage (to Glenn Close) and life start to unravel. Well-acted, but a clumsy script tips the viewer to secrets meant to shock when revealed in crucial scenes. Based on the Meg Wolitzer novel. 1 hr. 40 R (language) _ Gary Thompson
