Freeze Frame

Can Melissa McCarthy breathe life into a tired comedy formula? Well, she gives it the old college try in “Life of the Party.” When dumped by her husband, McCarthy decides to go back to college, the same school her daughter …

Melissa McCarthy is a funny lady. Can the force of her personality propel the farce “Life of the Party?” Susan and Russ give the lowdown on this back-to-school comedy about a woman who, after divorce, decides to attend the same …

Can Melissa McCarthy breathe life into a tired comedy formula? Well, she gives it the old college try in “Life of the Party.” When dumped by her husband, McCarthy decides to go back to college, the same school her daughter attends. McCarthy and her director husband Ben Falcone have no one to blame but themselves for the derivative script, but McCarthy nearly saves the soiree by the sheer force of her personality. “Breaking In” is yet another movie with an overworked premise. Gabrielle Union stars in this tired thriller about a woman who fights back against home intruders who’ve taken her two kids hostage. The cast members display two emotions in this movie, anger and boredom. Viewers might feel both. In “The House of Tomorrow,” Asa Butterfield plays a sheltered teen who lives with grandma Ellen Burstyn in a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome. When he finally makes some friends, he discovers the joys of punk rock. While the coming-of-age drama never amounts to much, it has some low-watt charm. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the subject of the love letter documentary, “RBG,” an overview of the 84-year-old’s public life as an iron-willed liberal jurist and private life as…

Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody is reunited with Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron in “Tully,” an offbeat comic drama about, of all things, postpartum depression. Theron plays a woman who delivers her third child. Because of exhaustion, she agrees to let her …

Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody is reunited with Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron in "Tully," an offbeat comic drama about, of all things, postpartum depression. Theron plays a woman who delivers her third child. Because of exhaustion, she agrees to let her wealthy brother pay for a night nanny, played by Mackenzie Davis. The plot focuses on the relationship that develops between these two. Theron is excellent and the dialogue is often very sharp and funny, but the movie's main conceit and strange finale may be off-putting to many. Renowned violinist, conductor and teacher Itzhak Perlman is the focus of the documentary "Itzhak." It chronicles his journey from his impoverished youth in Israel, to his battle with polio, his immigration to the US at the age of 13 in 1958 and his rise to become one of the most celebrated classical musicians of our time. Fortunately, there's plenty of concert footage and early video available to accompany the filmmakers' peek into his life behind the scenes. It's a fitting tribute to a uniquely gifted individual. Also opening this week, "Overboard" is a remake of the classic 1987 Kurt Russell/Goldie Hawn comedy, but they've flipped the script this time by changing the gender…

If “more” equals “better,” then “Avengers: Infinity War” is everything a Marvel fanboy could hope for. However, in spite of some impressive scenes and spirited individual performances, “Avengers: Infinity War” is just what you’d expect from a $300 million, 2 …

If "more" equals "better," then "Avengers: Infinity War" is everything a Marvel fanboy could hope for. However, in spite of some impressive scenes and spirited individual performances, "Avengers: Infinity War" is just what you'd expect from a $300 million, 2 hour and 40 minute superhero extravaganza. No more, no less. To call it busy and over-packed with characters would be an understatement. On the upside, Josh Brolin's motion-capture performance as the villainous Thanos provides a bit of gravitas and an appearance by Peter Dinklage is a memorable one…and we’ll just leave it at that. But the filmmakers' insistence on an ambiguous ending...one that won't be resolved for at least a year...will infuriate a lot of viewers, me included. “Avengers: Infinity War” has a lot going for it. It just seems content to go on to infinity. The sci-fi thriller “The Endless” is, in some ways the “Ying” to The Avengers “Yang. This low-budget entry is about a pair of brothers, escapees from a UFO cult, who return to the commune’s site after receiving a mysterious videotape. Naturally, they become entangled once again. Whereas “The Avengers” is all action, “The Endless” is a little too low key for its own good.…

Amy Schumer takes on the issue of body image in the likable comic fantasy, “I Feel Pretty.” She plays an insecure woman who falls and bumps her head and comes to believe that she’s a raging beauty. Although the screenwriters’ …

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has a knack for making a silk purse out of a cinematic sow’s ear. Can he do the same for the cursed video game genre? Maybe so.  In “Rampage,” based on the Midway arcade game, Johnson …

Amy Schumer takes on the issue of body image in the likable comic fantasy, “I Feel Pretty.” She plays an insecure woman who falls and bumps her head and comes to believe that she’s a raging beauty. Although the screenwriters’ template is pretty obvious, Schumer gives a shrewd performance proving she has real acting chops.   It’s no accident that the stoner comedy sequel “Super Troopers 2” is being released on 4/20. The original raunchy farce from the comedy group “Broken Lizard” was released in 2002 and was a modest hit. Fans of the original will know exactly what kind of lowbrow humor they’re in for.   Some inept Vermont Highway Patrol troopers are sent to work in Canada as part of a border dispute. They come across plenty of contraband, but can they keep from ingesting it before they catch the culprits? It’s a little unnerving to see these middle-aged guys displaying the same childish behavioral issues after all these years. While it has some shamelessly funny moments, much of “Super Troopers 2” feels like a bad flashback.   “Lean on Pete” is an austere but moving drama about a teenager from a troubled background who works at a…