Archives

“Boo! A Madea Halloween” (Lionsgate)

Cassi Davis and Tyler Perry star in a scene from the movie "Boo! A Madea Halloween." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Lionsgate)

By Catholic News Service The language-fracturing violence-threatening moral force in a muumuu (played, of course, by writer-director Tyler Perry) still gives out with the bickering and the lightning-fast asides. But Perry’s script gives her little to do other than mingle with college students and trash-talk with her elderly friends. The hammer-wielding harridan tries, unsuccessfully, to […]

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“Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” (Paramount)

Tom Cruise stars in a scene from the movie "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS photo/Paramount)

By Catholic News Service Tom Cruise, in his second venture as the former Army officer-turned-freelance-detective invented by British novelist Lee Child, is as durable as a cast-iron stove.  A somewhat mysterious knight-errant, Reacher is a strong moralist according to his own lights, and descends into others’ predicaments like a deus ex machina. This go-round, he […]

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“Keeping Up With the Joneses” (Fox)

Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher star in a scene from the movie "Keeping Up With the Joneses." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.)

By Catholic News Service Flat action comedy in which a suburban couple (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher) discover that their suspiciously perfect new neighbors (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot) are, in fact, undercover spies. In a bid for fish-out-of-water laughs, Michael LeSieur’s script then drags the ordinary duo through high-speed chases, shootouts and other dangerous […]

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“The Accountant” (Warner Bros.)

Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick star in a scene from the movie "The Accountant." The Catholic News Service classification is O -- morally offensive. (CNS/Warner Bros.)

By Catholic News Service Absurdly convoluted and morally bankrupt action-drama about an autistic man (Ben Affleck) with an innate genius for crunching numbers and the learned ability to kill with brutal precision. After years working as a forensic accountant for criminal enterprises worldwide, the deeply flawed protagonist takes on a legitimate client; in the process, […]

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“Voiceless” (ArtAffects)

Rusty Joiner and Jocelyn Cruz star in a scene from the movie "Voiceless." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Icon Media Group)

By Catholic News Service An overheated tone and characters’ questionable tactics in the struggle against abortion undercut the obviously good intentions behind this pro-life drama. A Special Forces veteran (Rusty Joiner) who teaches boxing at an inner-city Philadelphia church’s outreach center is dismayed to find an abortion mill operating across the street. Previously uninvolved in […]

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“Kevin Hart: What Now?” (Universal)

Kevin Hart stars in a scene from the movie "Kevin Hart: What Now?" The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Universal)

By Catholic News Service Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia is the outsized setting for this concert film featuring the diminutive comic. His language gets raunchy, but his routine is never bawdy, mean-spirited or smutty. Vocabulary aside, there are two main problems here: A framing device of Hart in a James Bond-style movie, directed by Tim […]

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“Max Steel” (Open Road)

Ben Winchell stars in a scene from the movie "Max Steel." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Open Road Films)

By Catholic News Service Yet another action figure leaps off the toy store shelves and onto the big screen in this derivative coming-of-age superhero chronicle, directed by Stewart Hendler. A gangly 16-year-old boy (Ben Winchell) is transformed by the universe’s most powerful form of energy and gains a robotic sidekick (voice of Josh Brener) to […]

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“The Birth of a Nation” (Fox Searchlight)

Gabrielle Union and Colman Domingo star in a scene from the movie "The Birth of a Nation." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Fox)

By Catholic News Service Nate Parker wrote, directed and stars in this moving dramatization of the life of Nat Turner, an enslaved Virginian whose eponymous 1831 rebellion represented the most serious challenge of its kind ever posed to slavery in the antebellum South. Taught to read at an early age, Turner becomes a preacher whose […]

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“Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life” (Lionsgate/CBS Films)

Andrew Daly, Thomas Barbusca, Griffin Gluck and Isabela Moner star in a scene from the movie "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/CBS Films)

By Catholic News Service Parents may not care for the underlying message of this comedy for kids in which an artistically gifted but mildly troubled preteen (Griffin Gluck) rebels against the excessive discipline enforced by the rigid principal (Andy Daly) of his new school. Though his revolt, in which he’s aided by his best friend (Thomas […]

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“Queen of Katwe” (Disney)

Lupita Nyong'o and Madina Nalwanga star in a scene from the movie "Queen of Katwe." The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. (CNS/Disney)

By Catholic News Service A glorious drama that applies the traditional formula of an uplifting sports film to the real-life story of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga), and then goes in unexpected directions to expose the scars horrific poverty can leave on the human soul. In adapting a book by Tim Crothers, director […]

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