Kandahar (In Theaters May 26)
As a military intelligence officer in the Middle East, Mitchell LaFortune's identity and mission were exposed during the Snowden leaks. Now hunted, Kandahar depicts his experience attempting to flee Afghanistan, translator in tow. Renamed Tom Harris and portrayed by Gerard Butler, this R-rated actioner depicts Harris traversing Afghanistan’s forbidding landscapes. Equally treacherous are the cities and villages he navigates during a 400-mile journey to reach the extraction point in Kandahar. A great prize if captured, Harris and his translator are pursued by elite enemy forces and foreign spies tasked with hunting them down. Roman Waugh directs, seeming equally at home with gun battles, or while examining complex relationships between the U.S. and various Middle Eastern factions. (Lisa Miller)
The Little Mermaid (In Theaters May 26)
With director Rob Marshall at the helm, the live-action adaptation of Disney’s, “The Little Mermaid,” splashes into theaters. The musical fantasy adapts the Hans Christian Andersen tale depicting Ariel (Halle Bailey), a mermaid princess, who longs to explore the human world. After saving Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), from drowning, Ariel's fallen head-over-heels for the handsome prince. She dreams of seeing him again, no matter how strongly her father King Triton (Javier Bardem), admonishes Ariel to avoid the human world. Ariel strikes a bargain with her evil Aunt Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), sacrificing her beautiful voice in return for human legs. McCarthy was thrilled to win the role, since, as a babysitter she claims, “I saw the movie at least 100 times.” Running 2-hours, 15-minutes, the expanded plot incorporates four new songs. Nearly an additional hour of runtime that will be a godsend for this generation’s babysitters. (Lisa Miller)
The Machine (In Theaters May 26)
Stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer, stars in this film inspired by his second (that’s right, second) junior year of college which he spent in Russia. He’s supposed to perfect his Russian at university, but Bert (played as a college student by Jimmy Tatro), prefers hanging with the Russian Mob’s young-guns. They welcome Bert for his ability to be comical while downing buckets of vodka. Nicknamed “The Machine,” Bert becomes a mascot to their petty crimes. The film imagines what might happen if 20 years later, an angry Russian syndicate boss kidnaps Bert and his dad (Mark Hamill), for some offense Bert unknowingly committed. When he and Dad are whisked off to Russia, we see that Bert inherited Dad’s party-hearty gene as Dad happily consumes the drugs meant to render him senseless, then begs for more. Directed by Peter Atencio, this R-rated comedy-actioner overflows with gun violence, profanity and sexual situations, all of which hope to be hilarious. (Lisa Miller)
Violent Streets (Film Movement Blu-ray/DVD)
Japanese director Hideo Gosha opens Violent Streets in a setting that may seem incongruous to many Western viewers: a flamenco guitarist and a pair of castanet-clapping dancers in a Tokyo nightclub called Madrid. Such performance-spaces might really exist in Japan’s voluminous popular culture and in Violent Streets, provides colorful backdrop for the erupting gang war.
The 1974 film pits the nightclub’s owner, Egawa, a retired gangster, against mobs vying for control of Tokyo’s underworld. He is implacable, hard as steel, and although not entirely likeable, he is at least devoted to an old school code of conduct—unlike the grisly new generation of sadists trying to squeeze him out. Gosha shows many scenes rather than tell them, relying on clever visuals instead of dialogue. Disturbing links are made between sex and violence, sex and simian brutality. And those flamenco performers are a recurring motif. (David Luhrssen)
