Hell Fest R
When teen friends Natalie, Brooke and Taylor (Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards and Bex Taylor-Klaus) join their dates to attend a traveling, haunted, Halloween carnival, they are targeted by a serial killer. Because patrons are unable to distinguish the real thing from the “park experience,” the masked slasher murders in plain sight. Once the girls realize they’re on his list, the question becomes whether any of them will survive the night. As in real life, few adults patronize the park. Here, having better things to do is one advantage of growing older.
Night School PG-13
It takes just three months to prepare for the GED test (ostensibly the equivalent of a high school diploma, which takes four years to earn). This amazing factoid doesn’t detract from the truth that educating adults is no easy task, at least for Terry Walker (Kevin Hart). His placement test shows he’s dyslexic, suffers from dyscalculia and is “just clinically dumb,” according to his teacher, Carrie (Tiffany Haddish), who points out “there’s no cure.” Her unorthodox teaching methods include quizzing students in the ring and using her mixed martial arts skills to dish out a smackdown for each wrong answer. Co-written by Hart, this light-hearted romp plays with the definitions of good ethics and of “the black voice.”
Smallfoot PG
A list of rules prevent yetis from leaving their mountain top. However, all that changes when a human (known in yeti myth as a “Smallfoot”) mistakenly parachutes into yeti-ville. Spotted by Migo (voice of Channing Tatum), Smallfoot literally blows away, compelling Migo to undertake an epic quest to find him after The Stonekeeper calls Migo’s story a tall tale. Featuring fetchingly hairy yetis in pastels and white and the occasional inspired sight gag, Smallfoot is barely bearable; the overly complicated writing and hopelessly irritating human characters are simply cringeworthy, however.
