After a 17-year hiatus, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are reunited in the comic action thriller, “Bad Boys for Life,” the third entry in the franchise that began in 1995. These Miami based detectives are getting long in the tooth and it shows as they’re targeted for assassination by a Mexican drug cartel. Everything about this absurd and violent R-rated movie is over the top and beat-by-beat predictable, but Smith and Lawrence manage to save the day and the movie with their goofy humor and personal appeal. Watcha gonna do?
Oscar winners Viola Davis and Allison Janney star alongside young McKenna Grace in the self-consciously whimsical comedy, “Troop Zero.” McKenna plays a pre-teen social outcast in a small Georgia town in the 1970s who recruits a group of misfits to form a Birdie Scout troop. This is the sort of wacky movie that aims to charm us with its eccentricity. This sentimental, sweet natured movie benefits greatly from it’s solid and likable cast.
Actor Guy Pearce goes slumming for a paycheck in the ridiculous action thriller, “Disturbing the Peace.” Pearce plays a marshal and former Texas Ranger who goes to battle with a gang of biker bank robbers in a small southern town. The plot, dialogue and direction are laughably bad, but not quite bad enough to make “Disturbing the Peace” a campy pleasure.
Also opening this week, Robert Downey, Jr. stars in “Dolittle,” a family film about the famed doctor and veterinarian who could talk to animals. “The Corrupted” is a violent British crime thriller starring Sam Claflin. “The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson” is a thriller that claims to offer a new angle on the O.J. Simpson murders. Mena Suvari stars. “Weathering With You” is Japanese anime offering about a girl with power over the weather.