Your Weekend Review: What To See (And What To Skip) In The Theatres

By Original-Cin Staff

In keeping with the merry season of late January, we’ll start with Les Misérables (Rating: B+) which, for those who skipped French, means “the miserable ones.” France’s Oscar nominee is neither another adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel nor a damage-control re-release of director Tom Hooper’s 2012 musical to remind us that he did something before Cats.

Set among gang-embattled immigrant suburb of Paris, the drama, says reviewer Karen Gordon, is a “gripping police procedural” that raises serious questions about French society and the future of its youth.

A scene from the lamentable Dolittle.

Don’t expect to get cheered up from Clemency (Rating: B) the Sundance prize-winning starring Alfie Woodard as a by-the-book prison warden, traumatized by the executions by injection which she supervises, in a movie, says reviewer Liam Lacey, which is partly about its anti-death penalty message and a lot about watching Woodard’s extraordinarily expressive face.

For more irresponsible fun, there’s the action comedy, Bad Boys For Life (Rating: B-) is a reboot of the Martin Lawrence-Will Smith series about a couple of detectives which reviewer Thom Ernst says involves more racing, chasing and blowing stuff up and, in its favour, it’s set in Miami.

In other reboot news Doolittle (Rating: D) stars Robert Downey Jr as a Victorian-era doctor, competing for screen time with menagerie of CGI-altered animals. Finally, we have the documentary, What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (Rating: B) about the acerbic New Yorker movie critic, who still casts a long shadow over reviewing, even among writers who don’t know it.

Have a great weekend… and keep your mittens dry.