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The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Entertainment
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Capsule reviews of feature films

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. 3 stars. Live-action version of the 1991 animated classic, starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens in the title roles. Competently staged by Bill Condon, but does not improve on the 2D Disney original. With Luke Evans and Josh Gad. 2 hrs. 9 PG (action violence, peril) _ Gary Thompson

BORN IN CHINA. 3 stars. Cuddly Disney documentary focusing on a year in the life of a number of animal species, most notably pandas. 1 hr. 16 G _ Gary Thompson

CHIPS. 2.5 stars. Raunchy remake jettisons just about everything from 1970s TV show of the same name. With Dax Shepard, Michael Pena and Kristen Bell. 1 hr. 41 R (crude sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, some violence, drug use) _ Gary Thompson

CHUCK. 3 stars. Funny, poignant and true story of heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber), who's 15-round bout with Muhammad Ali became the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky." With Jim Gaffigan, Naomi Watts and Elisabeth Moss. 1 hr. 41 R (language) _ Gary Thompson

CITIZEN JANE: BATTLE FOR THE CITY. 3 stars. An informative documentary about writer-activist Jane Jacobs, whose innovative ideas about how cities should function put her at odds with powerful, conventional urban planners in the New York of the 1960s, The film quotes Jacobs as saying she developed many of her ideas writing about efforts to revitalize Philadelphia's Society Hill back in the 1950s. 1 hr. 33 No MPAA rating _ Gary Thompson

COLOSSAL. 2.5 stars. An out-of-control Manhattan woman (Anne Hathaway) loses her job and her boyfriend (Dan Stevens), then ends up back working in the bar run by an old friend (Jason Sudeikis). Meanwhile, a monster shows up in the Far East. An enjoyably outlandish comedy, until it suddenly curdles into something unpleasant and violent. Hathaway, though, is good in a tricky role. 1 hr. 50 R (language) _ Gary Thompson

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS. 2.5 stars. In this stunt-filled sequel, a hacker (Charlize Theron) blackmails Gino (Vin Diesel), while his buddies (Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson) try to extricate and exonerate him. Also starring Tyrese, Ludacris, Helen Mirren and Jason Statham. 2 hr. 15 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson

FREE FIRE. 3 stars. Brie Larson and Armie Hammer are middlemen in a cash-for-guns deal that goes bad, and the movie become a bleak, black comedy shootout. With Cillian Murphy, directed by Ben Wheatley. 1 hr. 25 R (violence) _ Gary Thompson

GET OUT. 3 stars. Jordan Peele's horror movie about a black man (Daniel Kaluuya) who heads to mansion country to meet the parents (Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener) of his white girlfriend (Allison Williams). Conceptually clever, though not always as scary as it could be, with a winning supporting role for Lil Rel Howery. 1 hr. 43 R (violence, bloody images) _ Gary Thompson

GIFTED. 2.5 stars. A custody drama featuring Chris Evans as a bachelor assigned to raise his late sister's math genius daughter (Mckenna Grace). A nice performance by Evans, who elevates the so-so material. With Octavia Spencer, Jenny Slate. 1 hr. 41 PG-13 (language) _ Gary Thompson

GOING IN STYLE. 2 stars. Three retired steelworkers (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin) plot to rob the bank complicit in getting rid of their pensions. Good natured slapstick, but almost infallibly unfunny. With Ann-Margaret. Directed by Zach Braff. 1 hr. 37 PG-13 (drug use, language) _ Gary Thompson

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2. 2.5 stars. The gang's all here in this somewhat bloated, self-serious sequel, but the irreverent energy of the original is in short supply. 2 hrs. 17 min. PG-13 _ Gary Thompson

HOW TO BE A LATIN LOVER (Not previewed) An aging gigolo (Eugenio Derbez) tries to woo a widower (Raquel Welch) with the help of his estranged sister (Salma Hayek). With Rob Lowe. 1 hr. 55 PG-13 (crude humor, sexual references and gestures, brief nudity)

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO. 4 stars. A stunning documentary about William Baldwin's work as an artist and foremost as a civil-rights activist by celebrated Haitian-born director Raoul Peck ("It's Not About Love," "Lumumba"). The film has an ambitious goal: to use footage and narration (read by Samuel L. Jackson) to reconstruct Baldwin's unfinished opus "Remember This House," a study of the life and death of civil-rights activists who had been assassinated, including Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (disturbing violent images, thematic material, profanity and brief nudity) _ Tirdad Derakhshani

JULIAN SCHNABEL: A PRIVATE PORTRAIT. (Not previewed) A documentary about the noted painter/filmmaker, his meteoric rise in the New York art scene of the 1980s, and his work as a director on "Basquiat," "Before Night Falls" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." No MPAA rating

KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD. 2 stars. Guy Ritchie attempts a radically modernized and up-tempo version of the classic story, though ultimately he manages to strip the characters of the mythic stature while offering the small consolation of wisecracks and video game visuals. With Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law and Djimon Hounsou. 2 hrs. 3 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson

THE LOST CITY OF Z. 2.5 stars. British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) surveys the South American jungle in the languid epic Lost City of Z, a nice-looking movie that nevertheless finds itself up the Amazon without a paddle. 2 hr. 21 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA. 2.5 stars. In making his animated feature debut, Dash Shaw adapts his own graphic novel about a group of high school sophomores scrambling to survive two catastrophes � their high school literally submerging, and just plain high school. It's hard to say which is more difficult. 1 hr., 15 PG-13 (some images of peril, sexual references and drug material) _ Gary Thompson

NORMAN. 3 stars. Richard Gere gives the most annoying performance of his career _ by design _ in this offbeat movie about a New York nebbish swept up in big-time finance and Israeli politics. Saves its narrative surprises for the very end. 1 hr. 58 R (language) _ Gary Thompson

THE PROMISE. 2 stars. Well-intentioned epic about the Armenian genocide of 1915 has history, but its central love story is flat, and the movie suffers. With Oscar Isaac, Charlotte La Bon and Christian Bale. 2 hr. 10 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson

RISK. 3 stars. Laura Poitras was granted extensive access to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to make this documentary, which portrays him as a zealot eager to expose state secrets, but bitterly defensive about his own. Assange has disowned the film. 1 hr. 30 No MPAA rating _ Gary Thompson

SABAN'S POWER RANGERS (Not Previewed). The resurrected kiddie show about teens-turned-superheroes that has a seemingly endless shelf life gets a big-screen reboot with the help of Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Banks. Distributed by Lionsgate. 2 hrs. 4 PG-13 (sci-fi violence, action and destruction, language, and some rude humor).

T2 TRAINSPOTTING. 3 stars. Danny Boyle's rueful, sometimes ruefully funny, sequel to his 1996 hit about four Scots lads (Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller) and their hedonistic lives, a movie that became an anthem for a generation of U.K. youth. Now, the men are in their 40s, and hard drugs have given way to hard feelings. 1 hr. 58 mins. R (sex, language) _ Gary Thompson

THEIR FINEST. 3.5 stars. Funny and moving period drama about a woman (Gemma Arterton) in wartime London who stumbles into a job as a screenwriter on a propaganda movie. Witty, borderline screwball feminist comedy, wrapped in an emotionally powerful look at the uses of art. With Sam Claflin. 1 hr. 57 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson

UNFORGETTABLE. 1 star. Katherine Heigl goes all psycho girlfight on Rosario Dawson in a revenge thriller that would completely forgettable except it's so ridiculously bad. 1 hr. 40 R (sex, violence) _ Gary Thompson

THE WALL. 2.5 stars. Taut action gives way to an increasingly far-fetched plot in Doug Liman's movie about a pinned-down American soldier (Aaron-Taylor Johnson) matching wits with an Iraqi sniper. 1 hr. 21 R (Violence) _ Gary Thompson

THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE. 2.5 stars. Jessica Chastain stars in this dutiful if sometimes mechanical true story of Antonina Zabinski, a Polish woman who helped save hundreds of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi occupation of World War II. With Daniel Bruhl. 2 hrs. 6 PG-13 (violence) _ Gary Thompson

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