'Toy Story 4'

It’s been almost a quarter century since Disney/Pixar introduced the world to a pull-string cowboy named Woody and a plastic winged spaceman named Buzz — and darned if they still, in “Toy Story 4,” can’t make us laugh, smile, and get a little emotional about the inner life of children’s playthings.

“I don’t remember it being this hard,” Woody, again voiced by Tom Hanks, laments about the job of making a small child happy. His current kid, Bonnie, has relegated Woody to the closet while she plays with Buzz (voiced by Tim Allen) and the others. But Woody remains loyal to his kid, even if he’s feeling ignored.

Read the full review at sltrib.com.

'Men in Black: International'

Serious question: Has there ever been a “Men in Black” movie that wasn’t vaguely disappointing?

Not terrible, mind you, just slightly off the mark.It’s now four times — with “Men in Black: International” being the latest — that in its comedy and action didn’t take full advantage of the smartly silly premise Lowell Cunningham introduced in his comic book adventures of a super-secret organization that protects the Earth from intergalactic threats and keeps tabs on the many aliens living quietly among us.

This fourth installment — the first without Will Smith as the star — begins in fits and starts, jumping from location and era erratically. Two events are established in the past. One involves a girl, Molly, seeing the MIB’s wipe her parents’ memory in Brooklyn, 1999. The other, in Paris 2016, shows agents H (Chris Hemsworth) and T (Liam Neeson) battling some malevolent alien from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Cut to today, and Molly (Tessa Thompson) is a genius-level FBI applicant who wants to join the Men in Black. She eventually gets into the MIB’s New York headquarters, and impresses the boss, Agent O (Emma Thompson), to hire her as an agent, probationary, with the new name Agent M. O sends M to London to help deal with a threat.

In London, M is greeted by the bureau chief, T (now called High T, which is the height of the script’s cleverness). She’s paired with H, an assignment she accepts eagerly — even though other agents, like C (Rafe Spall), say he’s not the top agent he used to be.

H and M take an assignment that goes horribly wrong, thanks to two dreadlocked alien villains (played by Laurent and Larry Bourgeois, the French dance duo Les Twins), prompting the suspicion that there’s a mole within MIB.

The script by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (who worked on the “Iron Man” and “Transformers: The Last Knight” screenplays) globe-hops through London, Paris, New York, Marrakesh and Italy, like a Bond movie without the visceral feel of danger. There are some encounters with characters portrayed by, in order of appearance, Kumail Nanjani and Rebecca Ferguson — but neither play as humorously as they probably should.

Director F. Gary Gray knows action, as “The Italian Job” and “The Fate of the Furious” demonstrate, but it’s been two decades since “Friday,” and Gray’s comedy chops are dated. Many of the jokes don’t land as effectively as they might have on paper. But the jokes aren’t as bland as Charles Wood’s production design, which feels generically futuristic instead of the very specific look of the first movies: The Pan Am terminal at JFK back in the mid-1960s.

There are bright spots in “Men in Black: International,” provided mostly by its leads. We already knew The smartly cool Tessa Thompson and roguish Chris Hemsworth had chemistry, from “Thor: Ragnarok,” but here it’s not lost in superhero frippery. Thompson shines out, in part because her M is the first character in the franchise who feels fully developed. If this installment is a hit, here’s hoping the filmmakers can build on Thompson and Hemsworth’s combined charms.

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‘Men in Black: International’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, June 14, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action, some language and suggestive material. Running time: 114 minutes.

'Late Night'

If we haven’t already killed the old sexist notion that women can’t be funny, the Mindy Kaling-scripted “Late Night” should be the final nail in that coffin.

Kaling also stars in this comedy, as Molly Patel, an aspiring comedian trying to make the jump from her boring old job in a chemical plant to writing comedy for her hero, late-night talk-show host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson). She doesn’t seem to have the qualifications the head writer, Brad (Denis O’Hare), usually is seeking — but when it’s noted that the whole writing staff is “white, male and come from elite colleges,” Molly is suddenly hired for a 13-week trial run.

Those white male writers take an immediate dislike to Molly, mocking her inexperience and her earnest attempts to call out the show’s complacency. What the writers don’t know is that Katherine has been told by the new network president, Caroline Morton (Amy Ryan), that after nearly three decades as host she is being replaced by a young, frat-boy comedian (Ike Barinholtz).

What follows is Molly’s often comic, and sometimes touching, efforts to help Katherine rediscover her funny, feminist voice, and update her approach for the internet age. At the same time, Molly also tries to soften up the writing staff, including the lecherous Charlie Fain (Hugh Dancy), jaded veteran Jack Burditt (Max Casella) and the whipsmart head monologue writer, Tom Campbell (Reid Scott), who inherited the job from his father.

Director Nisha Ganatra finds the perfect pacing for Kaling’s script. She also brings an effervescence to the New York settings, from the sleek TV production offices to the stately apartment Katherine shares with her supportive husband, Walter Lovell (John Lithgow), a retired professor in the early-to-middle stages of Parkinson’s disease.

The jokes are sharp and hilarious, and often touch on issues of Hollywood sexism. In one stand-up appearance, Katherine notes that she’s the same age as Tom Cruise, adding, “He gets to fight the mummy. I AM the mummy.” Wrapping the message in comedy, like stuffing the pill in a dog treat, makes it easier to digest.

The most admirable thing Kaling does is shift “Late Night” from being Molly’s story to Katherine’s. The second half is all Thompson’s show, as Katherine deals with network pressures, a slavering media and “hot take” instant criticism. As a result, Thompson gives the best performance she’s had in years, furthering the message that all a talented woman needs to succeed in entertainment is the room to run.

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‘Late Night’

★★★1/2

Opened June 7 in select cities; opens Friday, June 14, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for language throughout and some sexual references. Running time: 102 minutes.

'Shaft'

The chaotic action movie “Shaft” isn’t a reboot, oddly enough, but a labored sequel to both the 2000 movie of the same name and the 1971 blaxploitation classic that started it all.

The prologue is set in Harlem 1989, as detective John Shaft (played by Samuel L. Jackson, as in the 2000 version) is talking to his lady, Maya (Regina Hall), just before thugs start shooting at them in Shaft’s purple Cadillac. Shaft is able to repel the attack, and learn it’s tied to the drug kingpin Gordito (Isaach de Bankolé). But for Maya, enough is enough, since their baby son John Jr. was in the back seat.

Traversing 30 years — and Shaft’s move into and out of the NYPD — via credit montage, the movie lands in the present, and introduces us to that baby, now 30-year-old J.J. (Jessie T. Usher), an MIT-graduated data analyst for the FBI’s New York office. While his bureau chief, Vietti (Titus Welliver), launches a terrorist investigation of an imam (Amato D’Apolito), J.J. has a more personal case to solve: His childhood friend Karim (Avan Jogia), a veteran who served in Afghanistan and was clean after years as an addict, suddenly ends up dead from what looks like an overdose.

J.J. tries venturing into Harlem alone, but soon realizes he needs street expertise. So he reluctantly reconnects with his father, who instantly sees a possible connection between Karim’s death and his old nemesis Gordito.

The pair-up between generations of Shaft men is a bumpy one. J.J. is appalled by his father’s rough-and-tumble tactics — “those weren’t just crimes, those were human rights violations,” J.J. says after his dad beats up a drug dealer — and his profane descriptors of all things womanly. Papa Shaft, on the other hand, belittles his son’s millennial lifestyle, such as a pad that resembles “an apartment display for Pier One Imports,” and J.J.’s dislike of firearms.

Director Tim Story and TV scribes Kenya Barris (the creator of “black-ish”) and Alex Barnow (“The Goldbergs”) deliver story that’s equal amounts shooting off at the mouth and shooting guns, and much of it nonsensical. The story winds its way past Karim’s military buddies (Matt Lauria, Aaron Dominguez, Robbie Jones) and a Latina supermarket tycoon (Luna Lauren Velez), and brings in Grandpa Shaft (played by the original, Richard Roundtree) for far less time than the ad campaign would lead audiences to believe.

It’s difficult to decide what to make of John Shaft’s retrograde, pre-woke persona. Yes, he’s unmistakably cool — being played by Jackson, he couldn’t be anything else. But there’s a heavy air of an old man hectoring those kids to pull their pants up and stop staring at screens all the time. “Shaft” never reconciles those two elements, and comes off like a cranky time capsule of a movie era that’s long gone away. 

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‘Shaft’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, June 14, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for pervasive language, violence, sexual content, some drug material and brief nudity. Running time: 111 minutes.

'The Dead Don't Die'

Considering how much the zombie horror genre — with its bursts of violence, separated by offbeat and seemingly random moments of character development — matches his own styles, it’s a wonder that the fiercely independent director Jim Jarmusch hasn’t made one before.

But made one he has in “The Dead Don’t Die,” which would have the feel of a generic horror movie if not for Jarmusch’s eerie sense of humor and the wealth of talent that gravitates to him like zombies seeking brains.

Jarmusch’s set-up is minimal. Centerville is a sleepy town with all the usual establishments: A mini-mart, a hotel, and a three-member police department consisting of Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and officers Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) and Mindy Morrison (Chloë Sevigny). Other locals include racist farmer Frank Miller (Steve Buscemi), hardware store owner Hank Thompson (Danny Glover), mini-mart clerk Bobby Wiggins (Caleb Landry Jones) and town hermit, Bob (Tom Waits).

Yep, Centerville is all pretty normal, even if the town’s new medical examiner, Zelda Winston (Tilda Swinton), is Scottish with remarkable skills in Japanese swordplay — and the local package delivery service, Wu-PS, is inspired by the Wu-Tang Clan.

The quiet of Centerville is disrupted when two zombies — played by rocker Iggy Pop and indie filmmaker Sara Driver — attack the town diner and kill two employees. (One of them, Fern, is played by Eszter Balint, star of Jarmusch’s 1984 debut, “Stranger than Paradise.”) The police investigate, and Ronnie is the first to say what everybody else won’t: “I’m thinking zombies.”

Soon zombies have overrun Centerville, and not even college kids (including Selena Gomez) in the local motel are safe. Even the dead neighbor, Mallory (Carol Kane), waiting in the police station’s holding cell for a funeral home to pick her up, is suddenly up and about and grunting “Chardonnay.”

Appropriately for Jarmusch, these aren’t fast zombies — more like laconic zombies, moving only as fast as the humor requires. There’s plenty of space for Murray to deliver some low-key one-liners, and for Driver to steal the movie with the most meta movie moment I’ve seen in a long time.

Horror fans may not groove to Jarmusch’s rhythm, and there were moments that reminded me of the “Saturday Night Live” sketch that imagined Wes Anderson making a horror movie, “The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders.” Those who know Jarmusch’s particular vibe will enjoy the comic ups and downs “The Dead Don’t Die” offers.

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‘The Dead Don’t Die’

★★★

Opens Friday, June 14, at select theaters, including the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City), Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy), Megaplex at The District (South Jordan) and Megaplex Thanksgiving Point (Lehi). Rated R for R for zombie violence/gore, and for language. Running time: 105 minutes.

'American Woman'

What starts in the drama “American Woman” as a scenario for a thriller — a woman’s teen daughter goes suddenly missing — transforms into something deeper and more emotional, thanks to a stand-out performance by Sienna Miller.

Miller plays Debra Callahan, who at 32 has lived more than her share of life in her Pennsylvania town. A mother at 16, she’s now living with her 16-year-old daughter Bridget (Sky Ferreira), who has a one-year-old son of her own. They live across the street from Debra’s older sister, Katherine (Christina Hendricks), who has three kids with her working-stiff husband Terry (Will Sasso). Debra’s love life is a mess, as she’s seeing a married man, Brett (Kentucker Audley).

One night, after Bridget goes to reconcile with her son’s layabout dad, Tyler (Alex Neustaedter), Bridget never comes home. At first, Debra blames Tyler, but as days pass, and volunteers comb nearby fields for a sign of Bridget, Debra must come to grips that Bridget is never coming back, and the police may never find out what happened.

Cut forward six years, as Debra is raising her grandson, Jesse (Aidan McGraw), and moving from an abusive boyfriend, Ray (Pat Healy), to nice-guy Chris (Aaron Paul). Cut forward another six years, when Jesse is 13 (and played by Aidan Fiske), Debra has a steady job and a seemingly solid marriage to Chris. At each stop, though, Bridget’s absence leaves a hole in her soul.

Screenwriter Brad Inglesby, who has written such working-class crime dramas as “Run All Night” and “Out of the Furnace,” shifts gears well with this thoughtful look at a woman trying to rebuild a life after an unspeakable loss. Director Jake Scott (who directed the 2010 Sundance entry “Welcome to the Reillys”) leans into the more predictable soap-opera moments a bit heavily, but the feelings are authentic and the dialogue understated.

The cast, which includes Amy Madigan as Debra and Katherine’s judgmental mom, is first-rate. The breakout is Miller, who usually dives into chameleonic roles (“American Sniper,” “The Lost City of Z” and “Burnt” are recent examples) but here lets her brassiness attract the full spotlight. It’s a gutsy, commanding performance that we all knew Miller was capable of doing, and makes “American Woman” an intense and gratifying experience.

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‘American Woman’

★★★

Opening Friday, June 14, in select theaters, including Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for language, sexual content and brief drug use. Running time: 111 minutes.