Author: Amy Diaz

Jungle Cruise (PG-13)

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt ride the Jungle Cruise, a perfectly enjoyable adaptation of the Disney amusement park ride.

I realize that both by watching this movie and by liking it I’m probably contributing to a world in which this becomes a vast Pirates of the Caribbean-esque universe with a jillion increasingly tiresome sequels. But, for now, for this one film, I’m on board this ride.

It’s 1916 and Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) is a would-be explorer in a world that’s not super keen on lady explorers. When she attempts to get support from a London-based exploration society for a new expedition, she sends her brother MacGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall) to give the big speech, which is both an attempt to play to their anti-female-scientists sentiment and a ploy to give her time to steal an artifact from the society’s labs after they’ve turned MacGregor down.

The artifact is an old arrowhead which is part of a legend about a tree called Tears of the Moon that exists somewhere in the Amazon and has petals that are said to have the power to cure all disease. Lily is determined to find the tree and help to bring this cure-all remedy to the world.

But she’s not the only one seeking it. Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), son of the German kaiser, also wants the tree’s petals so that he can ensure that Germany wins the Great War and so that he personally can rule for generations.

Lily manages to make off with the arrowhead and heads with her brother to Brazil to attempt to locate the tree. She eventually hires Frank (Johnson) and his boat to take her up the river to the spot where she believes she will find the tree. Frank is a jungle cruise operator, famed for having not necessarily the best but definitely the cheapest Amazon day cruise for tourists. He also likes puns and knows how to put on a “wonders of the jungle” show (hired buddies play fierce local warriors; a man-eating hippo is a geographically inaccurate bit of prop-craft). He owes some money to local boat mogul Nilo (Paul Giamatti) and is just down on his luck enough that he agrees to go with Lily and MacGregor on their quest, even though he initially doesn’t think they’ll get all that far in their quest.

Of course, just because Lily was able to get away from Prince Joachim in London doesn’t mean he gave up the search for her or the arrowhead.

Common Sense Media suggests that viewers be 11 years old to ride this ride; I think that’s about right, maybe 11 or 10, depending on the kid. There are some big snakes and some images of people who have been cursed and have become part jungle flora and fauna (sorta in the way that some of the pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean became part sea creatures). But this is basically a wholesome adventure movie with winning personalities and a very cartoonish villain.

Johnson is a fun guy to hang out with generally and here he is in family-movie top form with an ever so slight amount of crustiness in the beginning and just a big blob of gooey loyalty and honor and benevolence underneath. Blunt is also winning at this kind of character — she’s smart and brave and all her flaws double as adorable quirks (and she’s able to sell that without it becoming syrupy). Whitehall, who starts out by being the obligatory character who is horrified by the jungle and longing for a cocktail by a pool, grows into as close as a movie like this can get to a real character with layers.

Jungle Cruise is not reinventing cinema but it is a solid and charming entry into the family-friendly adventure movie genre. B

Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra with a screenplay by Michael Green and Glenn Ficarra & John Requea, Jungle Cruise is two hours and seven minutes long and distributed by Walt Disney Studios. It is in theaters and available on Disney+ (with a subscription and for an additional $29.99).

Stillwater (R)

Matt Damon plays an American father trying to get his daughter out of a French prison in Stillwater, a movie that feels like it was carefully crafted to earn Matt Damon awards consideration.

Maybe not actual awards, but I feel like Damon and others from this movie could fill out critics’ long lists as possible nominees for, like, best actor, best supporting actress and stuff, come award season.

Bill Baker (Damon) is filling his time while waiting to find another job with an oil company in Oklahoma by working construction, specifically working deconstruction at a town that’s recently been hit by a tornado when we meet him. It’s a perhaps too-tidy metaphor for his life, which is him picking up after a disaster: His daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) has been in prison in Marseille, France, for five years after being found guilty of murdering her girlfriend, with whom she’d been having relationship woes. Allison insists on her innocence but it seems that past attempts to reopen or appeal her case have failed. Bill comes to France to visit her and she gives him a letter to take to her lawyer, Leparq (Anne Le Ny). Allison has what she thinks is new information that could help her case but the lawyer tells Bill that Allison needs to make peace with her situation as any attempt to reopen the case is basically hopeless. Bill disagrees.

Allison has heard through a professor where she used to go to school that a fellow student was at a party where a guy claimed that he had once stabbed a woman and gotten away with it. The guy had the same name, Akim, as the guy Allison met at a bar on the night of the murder and who she says stole her purse. Despite not speaking French, Bill charges forth to track down Akim in hopes of getting a DNA sample that can be matched to the unknown DNA found at the scene of the murder.

To help with some of the translating and finding his way around the city, Bill turns to Virginie (Camille Cottin), a woman who was temporarily staying with her daughter, Maya (Lilou Siauvaud), in a hotel room next to Bill’s. Eventually, they become friendly enough that Bill rents a room from her in her new apartment and spends afternoons watching Maya — building a family life as he continues to attempt to help Allison.

This movie features some nice performances and some nuanced details. Breslin does a lot in her relatively few scenes. She shows a believable discomfort-in-her-soul as someone wrestling with her current predicament (prison and an uncertain future but also the death of her girlfriend) and past hurts (we learn that her mother died by suicide and Allison and Bill have had a difficult relationship). In the letter that sets off Bill’s search, Allison describes her father as not being capable. Damon is able to show that Bill is hurt by this criticism but also understands why she feels this way and desperately wants to prove her wrong. Damon does a good job of demonstrating the weight of Bill’s life — his disappointments, his failures and his desire to still salvage something for both him and Allison.

Likewise, Cottin is good in her supporting role as a woman who, as her friend suggests, always likes a cause and Bill is her newest one. Bill seems to be both kind of an exotic creature to her — his Oklahoma accent and Midwestern everything — and a tangible focus for her altruistic impulses. The movie is able to give Virginie these qualities but Cottin keeps from being a total caricature. Or, to the degree that she is a little too good to be true (sure, move in! Watch my small child! I’ll help you interview random people!), she keeps the character from seeming too unrealistic.

The movie does seem to underline its points and character beats a lot — I’m not really sure why it needed to clock in at nearly two and a half hours. And the movie’s final third feels a little … much. But in the mix are nice moments of Bill and Allison sitting by the ocean or Allison and Virginie talking about Bill and Allison’s inner nature or some scene of Bill relating to Maya. It’s all good, above-average completely fine stuff that just doesn’t feel terribly sticky. The result is a movie that I’m not sorry to have watched but that I feel fairly certain I’m going to mostly forget about in a month. B-

Rated R for language, according to the MPA at filmratings.com. Directed by Tom McCarthy and written by Tom McCarthy & Marcus Hinchey and Thomas Bidegain & Noé Debré, Stillwater is two hours and 19 minutes long and distributed by Focus Features. It is screening in theaters.

FILM

Venues

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester;
151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua;
150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

Shows

• Rock of Ages(PG-13, 2012) screening at the Rex Theatre in Manchester on Wednesday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to the Manchester Police Athletic League. Tickets cost $12.

• Jaws(1975, PG-13) screenings at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham Wednesday, Aug 4, through Saturday, Aug. 7, at 7 p.m. plus screenings at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Tickets cost $4.99.

• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ(1925) a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis on Thursday, Aug. 5, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth. Tickets start at $10.

• Ailey (PG-13, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8, at 12:45 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

• Pig (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8, at 4:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

• Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8, at 3:30 p.m.

• In the Heights (PG-13, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 8, at 1:15 p.m.

• Matilda (PG, 1996) at the Rex Theatre on Tuesday, Aug. 10, at 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to SEE Science Center. Tickets cost $12.

Featured photo: Jungle Cruise. Courtesy photo.

Old (PG-13)

A family has a pretty terrible day at the beach in Old, the latest, I don’t know, not horror really, thriller or something, from M. Night Shyamalan.

Married couple Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) were probably always going to have a lousy holiday at some resort on an unnamed island. Sure, their kids, 11-year-old Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and 6-year-old Trent (Nolan River), seemed pretty excited about a resort with a candy buffet bar and a beach, but Guy and Prisca both seem to be barely keeping a lid on some misery, with a medical thing, a near-future separation and the concept of a “last family holiday” mentioned. Perhaps this is why Prisca jumped at the suggestion of the hotel manager (Gustaf Hammarsten) for a day trip to a fancy private beach as a place for her family to make some kind of lasting memory.

Though the manager told them to keep this beach a secret, theirs wasn’t the only family he told about it. As Guy and Prisca and the kids pack into the hotel’s van for a ride over, they’re joined by tightly wound doctor Charles (Rufus Sewell), his wife, Chrystal (Abbey Lee), their 6-year-old daughter Kara (Kyle Bailey) and his mother (Kathleen Chalfant). When they arrive at the beach (dropped off by a driver played by Shyamalan himself, which, sigh, really guy?), they find famous rapper Mid Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre) already there and are soon joined by another couple, Jarin (Ken Leung) and Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird).

By the time Jarin and Patricia show up, the day has already started to head south, with young Trent having spotted the body of a woman floating in the water and Charles having accused Sedan, who is sort of stunned and has a non-stop nosebleed, of causing her death. In the confusion of the moment, the group realizes that (1) their cell phones get no reception, (2) they can’t go back through the cave that brought them to the beach because it causes everyone who heads back to get a crushing headache and then black out and, perhaps most disturbingly, (3) something weird is happening with their kids.

After first having to ditch his swim trunks because they don’t fit, Trent (Luca Faustino Rodriguez and later Alex Wolff) is suddenly taller and older, something like 11, Jarin guesses, with Maddox (Thomasin McKenzie, who plays her for a significant part of the movie) at more like 16 and Kara (Mikaya Fisher) also 11. The kids are freaked out at suddenly being bigger and the adults are freaked out about everything, including the increasingly erratic behavior of Charles and the sudden illness of his mother. They eventually guess that they are all, not just the kids, aging and that all of the families were dealing with some kind of illness when they arrived at the island.

I can’t decide if it’s cleverly efficient or over-the-top hokey how this movie delivers the basic biographical information and a bunch of backstory about the characters. We learn names and occupations almost immediately because Trent directly asks everybody about them in a way that is I think supposed to read as a cute kid quirk but comes off as very “hey audience, take notes.” There is also a point when Patricia, therapist, basically gathers everyone on the beach together to have them explain their backstories. It’s not that this action is so weird in the context of the story, it’s that it comes across as clunky and inartful, which then starts to border on silly. There are a lot of things like that here, such as a stretch (spoiled in the trailers) when one character becomes very quickly pregnant and then delivers a baby. Sure, there is something of a horror element to it (also an ick factor) but it also comes across as sort of ridiculous.

I basically went with the first, oh, 45 minutes or so of Old. This isn’t the most solidly constructed plot (or set of characters or dialogue) but it’s an interesting concept, there are a bunch of interesting ideas banging around. The terror of the family, the children changing so fast, the adults watching their children change and realizing what it all means for everybody’s lives, is relatively well developed. But, not unlike some other Shyamalan films, it all seems to unravel and deflate in its back half. I don’t know how I wanted this story to resolve but I do know that how it all comes together feels unsatisfying, both unfinished and overly literal.

There are some decent performances here: The core family — it’s Bernal, Krieps, McKenzie and Wolff who are together for I think the longest stretch — work well together and the actors playing the older incarnations of very-recent kids do a good job of giving us both grown-up people and people whose life references are still child-based. Bernal and Krieps have some nice scenes together; they believably play out a long marriage over a short period of time. But there are also times (many of Sewell’s scenes, for example) when the movie-ness of the movie just can not get out of an actor’s way enough for them to give a compelling, and not silly, performance.

Old isn’t terrible but it’s ultimately more frustrating than anything else. C

Rated PG-13 for strong violence, disturbing images, suggestive content, partial nudity and brief strong language, according to the MPA at filmratings.com. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan (who also wrote the screenplay, which is based on a graphic novel called Sandcastle by Pierre-Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters), Old is an hour and 48 minutes long and distributed by Universal Studios. It is playing in theaters.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (PG-13)

How charismatic is Henry Golding? So charismatic that I basically, on balance, enjoyed Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, an origin story for a character in the G.I. Joe universe.

Once upon a time, kid Snake Eyes (Max Archibald; the character may have had a name at some point but I didn’t catch it) watched in horror as baddies murdered his dad (Steven Allerick). Left to grow up on the streets, Snake Eyes (Golding) has become a bare-knuckle fighter who drifts from town to town as an adult. A Yakuza tough guy hires Snake Eyes to become one of his worker-bee tough guys. Snake Eyes initially turns him down but then agrees to join up because they offer to find the man who murdered Snake Eyes’ father.

While working for the Yakuza, Snake Eyes becomes friends with Tommy (Andrew Koji), a guy who seems to be a little higher up in the gang’s corporate organizational chart. When Tommy is revealed to be a spy for the Arashikage clan, the gang tries to order Snake Eyes to kill him but instead Snake Eyes saves Tommy, who in turn takes him to his family’s palatial estate in Japan and offers Snake Eyes the chance to train with the ninja of the Arashikage, whose head is Tommy’s grandmother, Sen (Eri Ishida). Akiko (Haruka Abe), the head of Arashikage security, is not so sure about this Snake Eyes fella and doesn’t like the plan to let him join the clan.

Eventually, the international bad guy operation known as Cobra makes an appearance, with Baroness (Ursula Corbero) working with Kenta (Takehiro Hira), the movie’s central bad guy. We also get talk of the “Joes,” presented here as kind of an international good guy organization, in the form of Scarlett (Samara Weaving).

There’s more G.I. Joe mythology, but my memories of the cartoon are vague — enough that I remembered a bit of “hey, isn’t that guy going to become that guy” type character beats but not enough that I found myself super invested in all the backstory. Nor do I think you need to be to enjoy what’s best about this movie, which is its basically talented, if not always well-served by the movie, cast, in particular Golding. More Golding in any form, is my general feeling and he makes for an engaging action hero here. The movie gives him about a quarter inch of character development but he’s able to stretch that just a little farther through the power of his presence. In my fantasy casting of the next generation of James Bond, Golding has been one of my contenders for a while — he’s suave and handsome and believably bad-ass and capable. This movie doesn’t have that much humor or that many emotional beats, but Golding definitely makes the most that he can of what often feels like just a live-action version of the cartoon I remember from my childhood.

The movie also shines in some of its fight scenes, many of which are sword-based. The choreography makes what you know are likely to be fights to the draw none the less energetic and they’re often situated in some pretty settings (the Arashikage training grounds, a rainy cityscape).

Snake Eyes isn’t particularly great, it’s not one of those popcorn movies that transcends form in some way. I wish more had gone into making this cinematic world a little richer, especially since it feels like we’re going to be here a while. But for what it is, it does OK, with Golding largely saving the day. C+

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and brief strong language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Robert Schwentke with a screenplay by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Joe Shrapnel & Anna Waterhouse, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins is two hours and one minute long and is distributed by Paramount Pictures. The movie is currently in theaters only; according to IndieWire and Wikipedia, Snake Eyes will stream on Paramount+ on Sept. 6.

FILM

Venues

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester;
151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua;
150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

O’neil Cinemas at Brickyard Square
24 Calef Highway, Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Jaws 21+ trivia night at Chunky’s in Manchester on Thursday, July 29, at 7:30 p.m. Admission costs $5, which is a food voucher.

• Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, July 30, through Sunday, Aug. 1, at 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

• Pig (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, July 30, through Sunday, Aug. 1, at 4:45 and 7:30 p.m.

• In the Heights (PG-13, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, July 30, through Sunday, Aug. 1, at 1:15 p.m.

• Jungle Cruise (PG-13, 2021) a sensory friendly flix screening, with sound lowered and lights up, on Saturday, July 31, 10 a.m. at O’neil Cinema in Epping.

• The Wizard of Oz (1939) at the O’neil Cinema in Epping on Monday, Aug. 2, and Wednesday, Aug. 4, at 10 a.m. as part of the summer kids series. Tickets to the screening cost $2 for kids ages 11 and under and $3 for ages 13 and up. A $5 popcorn and drink combo is also for sale.

• Raya and the Last Dragon (PG, 2021) at the Rex Theatre on Tuesday, Aug. 3, at 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to Manchester Police Athletic League. Tickets cost $12.

• Jaws (1975, PG-13) screenings at Chunky’s in Manchester, Nashua and Pelham Wednesday, Aug 4, through Saturday, Aug. 7, at 7 p.m. plus screenings at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Tickets cost $4.99.

• Rock of Ages (PG-13, 2012) screening at the Rex Theatre in Manchester on Wednesday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m. with a portion of the proceeds going to the Manchester Police Athletic League. Tickets cost $12.

Featured photo: Old.