#Middlebury
“Long Shot” (R) – Love can be found in the strangest combinations and in the strangest of places: for example, a perfectly polished and effortlessly successful secretary of state turned potential presidential candidate, and an overly principled frumpish journalist hired to be said candidates’ speechwriter. They reconnect after realizing that the candidate babysat the journalist in his early teens. Yes, his, because in this gender bender, writer Fred Flarsky is played by Seth Rogan, and the coolest of cool chicks, Charlize Theron, dons the power suits of politician Charlotte Field. Although the pair couldn’t be more different, the chemistry is quite charming and warm. It’s a great little date-night rom-com with a bit of political/societal oomph.
Scene from “UglyDolls” (STX Entertainment photo)
“UglyDolls” (PG) – In Uglyville, all the dolls are decidedly different. In fact, they celebrate their brightly colored weirdness and lack of homogeneity in full-throated song bursts – especially the pugnaciously positive Moxy (voiced by Kelly Clarkson), whose life can be enhanced only by a child to love her. In search of such a child, she adventures up a pipe with her friends – Ugly Dog (Pitbull), Wage (Wanda Sykes) and Babo (Gabriel Iglesias) – and lands in a cold-hearted Institute of Perfection, the antithesis of Uglyville. Here dolls with symmetrical good looks are trained before they can be released to children, led by smooth villain Lou (Joe Jonas). This is a formulaic kids’ movie, with songs aplenty, some with lyrics so literal it’ll make you cringe. Save it for the 7 and under set.
“The Intruder” (PG-13) – When a gorgeous house in Napa goes on the market, Scott and Annie Russell (Michael Ealy and Meagan Good) snap it up – a dream home for a dreamy new family life. But seller Charlie Peck (Dennis Quaid) is having separation anxiety. What follows is a good old-fashioned psychological thriller. The story is overly ripe, low-hanging fruit, but Quaid manages to breathe some terrifying new life into it. He’s both an off-his-rocker but sympathetic soft case and a knife- and bow-toting deadpan maniac. I really liked him in this.
“El Chicano” (R) – El Chicano is an inner city fairy tale, but for LA detective Diego Hernandez (Raul Castillo), the vigilante nightmare becomes the only solution to a cartel incursion that has taken the life of both his brother and his partner. A local drug lord named Shotgun (David Castaneda, lately of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy”) fiercely claims the street, going so far as to gun down police. Hernandez takes a hit himself, and as he recovers, vows to clean things up by taking on the persona of El Chicano, the “ghetto grim reaper” that every crook’s kid is warned about. What you think you get, you get. Bad guys wear black hats, the good guy gets a face mask, and there’s a whole lot of blood and guts.
New TV Releases
“Deadly Class” Season 1
“The Good Place” Season 3
“The Hot Zone” Miniseries
© 2019 King Features Synd., Inc.
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