What to Watch in the Theater:
Serenity (R) is streaming on Amazon Prime. This drama/mystery is about Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey), a fishing boat owner with a past. He lives a small-town life on an island, taking tourists out for fishing expeditions. When his ex-wife, Karen (Anne Hathaway), comes back into his life with an urgent proposition, he has a lot of thinking to do. Things get a little weird, with his unusual long-distance connection to his son, and we start to realize things are not as they might seem. The twists are interesting, although the characters are not as engaging as they could be.
Our rating: 3.33 out of 5
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (PG13) opens today. We managed to miss the entire Fast & Furious franchise, but decided to give this one a try, since we’re fans of both Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. We were left a bit curious about the backstory between the two characters and others featured here, that didn’t detract from our enjoyment of this film. The action was sometimes over-the-top, but fantastic and very exciting, and the rapport (or lack thereof) between the two was fun. Vanessa Kirby adds a strong female character, and Idris Elba makes a shockingly good bad guy. This movie stands well on its own, although we’re sure fans of the franchise will enjoy it just as much.
Our rating: 4 out of 5
What to Watch at Home (Or Not):
Time Freak (PG13) is streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime. Asa Butterfield and Sophie Turner star in this romcom with a scifi twist. When Debbie breaks up with him after a year, Stillman builds a time machine, so that he can go back and fix everything that was wrong with their relationship. He takes along his buddy, Evan, and it’s fun to see how that side plot progresses as well. As far as time travel movies go, this one is pretty fun but also thought-provoking. Plus, the technology is a vast improvement on what we normally see in this type of movie, which makes the premise even more interesting.
Our rating: 4 out of 5
The Cat Returns (G) is available for rental. This English dub of the Studio Ghibli classic from 2002 boasts a pretty amazing voice cast, that includes Anne Hathaway, Peter Boyle, Elliott Gould, Kristin Bell, and even Tim Curry. There’s beautiful animation, as you’d expect from a Miyazaki film, as well as many fantasy elements. The story follows schoolgirl Haru (Hathaway) as she saves the life of a cat, and then discovers he’s royalty from the Kingdom of Cats, and she has a reward coming to her. Of course there’s conflict, and plenty of magic.
Our rating: 4.17 out of 5
Plus box office results, movie news, what’s new on DVD and Blu-Ray and what’s coming to Netflix this month.