Bay Area movie theaters are open and the summer blockbusters are coming.
This week sees a new “Saw” entry, a bloody Christmas movie to rival “Die Hard,” a zombie sequel from Zack Snyder, a chiller from two prominent new voices on the horror scene and a cute romance set in Ireland.
Here’s our roundup.
“Army of the Dead”: Zack Snyder revisits the zombie world he rebooted in 2004 with this high-adrenaline epic sequel that’s too long for its own good but is nevertheless a thrill ride. Dave Bautista stars as the leader of a team corralled to enter a cordoned-off Las Vegas — now the domain of zombies — and snatch $50 million stuck in a vault buried beneath a casino. In true Snyder style, there is slow-motion stuff as well as acoustic versions of hit songs. And the “Dawn of the Dead” filmmaker overamplifies everything, and that includes his huge cast. While the setup is flimsy, the execution isn’t — Snyder packs this effort with lots of effects, carnage and sappy moments. Yes, it lacks the convincing social commentary of George Romero’s classics, but “Army” is enjoyable nevertheless. Bautista makes a likeable strongman, but it is German superstar Matthias Schweighöfer, a scream as safecracker Dieter who’s clueless about killing the undead and shrieks every time he’s near one, who steals it. But no one can upstage the zombie tiger and horse and the zombie Vegas lovebirds with real brains in their noggins. “Army of the Dead” is overstuffed and ridiculous but that is partly why it’s irresistible. Details: 3 stars out of 4; in theaters May 14, on Netflix May 21.
“Spiral: From the Book of Saw”: The welcome presence of Chris Rock suggests the $1 billion “Saw” torture porn franchise might be loosening up a bit, which it sorely needs to do. But while Rock provides a few laughs (the opening sequence riffing on “Forest Gump” is hilarious) director Darren Lynn Bousman sticks mostly to the “Saw” handbook even as he soups it up with high-brow production values. Rock is an inspired choice to portray the always-in-trouble cop Zeke Banks, son of the former, highly regarded chief (Samuel L. Jackson). He gets reluctantly paired with a bland rookie (Max Minghella), and they’re soon investigating deadly “Jigsaw” games — only this time it’s the cops who are the targets. The script from Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger deviates just enough from the tired later “Saw” entries, even if it’s business as usual with the gruesome violence. Rock and Jackson class up the series, but what makes “Spiral” a cut above is ghoulish sense of dread that blankets this better-than-expected horror outing. It’s a Rock-solid addition. Details: 2½ stars; available May 14 in theaters.
“Riders of Justice”: Yippee ki-yay, Anders Thomas Jensen. You’ve delivered the twisted Christmas revenge flick we’ve been craving, one that compares favorably with such bizarre holiday-set chestnuts as “Die Hard.” Jensen wrote and directed “Justice,” with “Another Round” star Mads Mikkelsen reminding us he can ace any role. As a vengeance-seeking military man, the Danish actor one-ups Liam Neeson and other middle-aged action stars. His laconic but deadly Markus returns home for the holidays to bury his wife, who was killed in a suspicious train accident, and to grieve with their smart teen daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg). But Markus is mostly busy forming a ragtag team of eccentrics to find out what led to the tragedy. From the first frame to the last, Jensen’s “Riders” is a wild-ass ride that cements Mikkelsen as a cinematic treasure. Details: 3½ stars; opens May 14 at the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley and Embarcadero Cinemas in S.F.; available On Demand May 21.
“The Djinn”: With just their second feature (the first being last year’s “The Boy Behind the Door”), the filmmaking duo of David Charbonier and Justin Powell declare they are the exciting new voices of horror. “The Djinn” is rooted in classic be-careful-what-you-wish-for O. Henry and Stephen King storytelling. The action is claustrophobically confined to a SoCal apartment where a 12-year-old mute boy (Ezra Dewey) dips into a spellcasting book that conjures up an evil force. There’s a moral to the story here, and it hits hard near the end. Details: 3½ stars; opening May 14 in select theaters and on various streaming platforms.
“Finding You”: As inconsequential as it is adorable, this Ireland rom-com succeeds largely due to the cutie-pie lovebirds. Rose Reid stars as American violinist Finely who’s nursing rejection after a failed audition. While on a flight to Ireland, she meets swoonable movie star Beckett (the swoonable Jedidiah Goodacre). They spar, naturally, and later discover they’re both staying at the same B&B with a family that’s as cute as they are. It’s as sugary as Lucky Charms, but that’s OK since Vanessa Redgrave and Patrick Bergin are in it and there are some clever sequences, including the “Game of Thrones”-like movie Beckett’s making. If you like rom-coms, this will win your heart. Details: 3 stars; opening May 14 in select theaters)
“Profile”: A London freelance journalist poses as a disenchanted woman being lured by ISIS recruitment in this drama based on real events. It’s all a ploy to land a killer story, but Amy (Valene Kane) gets so obsessed with the handsome terrorist Bilel (Shazad Latif), it begins to affect her relationship with her number-crunching boyfriend (Morgan Watkins). Director/co-writer Timur Bekmambetov was a producer of the film “Searching” starring John Cho, and he cribs the same shot-on-screen motif of that better film. That doesn’t necessarily help here. Nor does the tepid boyfriend relationship. Still, there is intensity to spare and surprising shifts that are effective most of the time. Details: 3 stars; in theaters May 14.
“The Killing of Two Lovers”: Stark, desolate and distinctive, Robert Machoian’s rural American classic captures the deterioration of a marriage, devoid of the L.A. and N.Y. types Hollywood holds so precious. It opens with one of the most nerve-racking sequences in recent memory, with a distressed man (Claye Crawford, in a career-making performance) hovering over the entwined sleeping bodies of his estranged wife and her new lover, a gun in his hand. That hair-trigger tension permeates “Killing,” a portrait of lost lovers and the family left behind. It’s a film stripped of any pretense; everything about it seems to bear the hand of a veteran filmmaker. And the performance from Crawford is shattering. Details: 3.5 stars; available in select theaters May 14 and available for streaming as well)
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.