New to Theaters
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New on Streaming
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Posted on August 19, 2021 at 1:20 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: |
Rated R for some sexual references, language, brief nudity, strong and bloody violence |
| Profanity: |
Very strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Nudity, sexual references and situation |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Alcohol |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Constant very intense peril and violence with many disturbing and gory images, guns, knives, fights, bombs, waterboarding and torture, characters injured and killed, attempted rape of a child |
| Diversity Issues: |
Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
August 20, 2021 |
| Date Released to DVD: |
October 18, 2021 |
I do not expect narrative coherence from movies that fall into the category of don’t-pay-attention-to-the-plot-just-enjoy-the-action, just that they don’t distract the audience with too many “huh?” moments. “The Protege” teeters on the “huh” brink, with enough for three episodes of Pitch Meeting, the YouTube series hilariously dissecting movie plot holes. Plus, the intensity of the …
Continue reading “The Protege”
Posted on August 12, 2021 at 5:38 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
High School |
| MPAA Rating: |
Rated PG-13 for drug use, strong sexual content, and language |
| Profanity: |
Strong and crude language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Sexual references, some crude, and explicit situations |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Drinking and marijuana |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Bar fight, tense confrontations |
| Diversity Issues: |
A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
August 13, 2021 |
One of the smartest choices a filmmaker can make is to take a challenging universal human experience and heighten with with specific details and characters we care about. That is the case with “CODA,” the first film ever to win both the Audience Award and the Grand Prize at Sundance. It got the Directing Award …
Continue reading “CODA”
Posted on August 12, 2021 at 5:10 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
High School |
| MPAA Rating: |
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, strong language including racial epithets, violence, suggestive material, and smoking |
| Profanity: |
Some strong and racist language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Sexual references and non-explicit situations, child molestation |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Alcohol and alcohol abuse, drunkenness |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Domestic abuse, scuffles, sad death of a parent, murder of Martin Luther King |
| Diversity Issues: |
A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
August 13, 2021 |
Let’s stipulate two incontrovertible truths: First, as dazzling as Jennifer Hudson is, she is not the once-to-a-planet gift that was Aretha Franklin, whose songs are so deeply embedded in our collective unconscious that we cannot help but hear it in our head and accept no substitutes. Long past her prime but every inch a diva …
Continue reading “Respect”
Posted on August 5, 2021 at 5:55 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Kindergarten - 3rd Grade |
| Profanity: |
Some schoolyard language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
None |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Sad deaths including references to the death of a husband and father, some peril and scary moments |
| Diversity Issues: |
Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
August 6, 2021 |
In the first of two animated musicals coming this year from “Hamilton’s” Lin-Manuel Miranda, he plays the title character, Vivo, a golden kinkajou (looking like a cross between a teddy bear and a honey-colored monkey). And because he is played by Miranda, he is a singing kinkajou, performing in a Cuban town square with his …
Continue reading “Vivo”
Posted on August 5, 2021 at 5:40 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: |
Rated R for strong violence and gore, language throughout, some sexual references, drug use and brief graphic nudity |
| Profanity: |
Extremely strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Explicit nudity and sexual references and a sexual situation |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Alcohol |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Extremely intense and gory violence with many disturbing and bloody, graphic images, characters injured and killed, comic book violence, guns, explosions |
| Diversity Issues: |
Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
August 6, 2021 |
| Date Released to DVD: |
October 25, 2021 |
Just to clarify: the 2016 film with Will Smith and Margot Robbie about the imprisoned DC Comics villains who are assembled into a “Dirty Dozen”-style team by a tyrannical official from a secret government agency is called “Suicide Squad.” This 2021 reboot is called “The Suicide Squad.” Got it? “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” writer/director James …
Continue reading “The Suicide Squad”