Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With: Reviews
Movie Times click here.
Santa Cruz area movie theaters >
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New This Week
EVERLY Salma Hayek stars in this action thriller about a woman holed up in her apartment with an impressive arsenal of firepower taking a stand against gunmen sent to kill her by her mob-boss ex. Joe Lynch directs. (R) 92 minutes. Thursday-Friday late shows only, at the Del Mar.
FOCUS Will Smith stars as a slick, seasoned con man who takes on a sexy young blonde apprentice (Margot Robbie), but finds their working partnership complicated by romance in this comic caper adventure from co-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy Stupid Love). (R) 105 minutes. Starts Friday.
THE LAZARUS EFFECT Paranormal thriller from the producers of The Purge and Insidious franchises, in which a team of scientists doing research on resurrecting the dead have to try their discovery on one of their own—with harrowing results. Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, and Evan Peters star for director David Gelb. (PG-13) 83 minutes. Starts Friday.
MAPS TO THE STARS David Cronenberg directs this acidic look at Hollywood, its denizens, and the cult of celebrity, revolving around the family of a TV self-help therapist, his famous clients, and all of their attempts to claw their way to stardom. John Cusack, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, and Robert Pattinson star. (R) 112 minutes. Starts Friday.
Film Events
SPECIAL EVENT THIS WEEK: GLOBE ONSCREEN The reconstruction of Shakespeare’s famous playhouse in London is the setting for this series of performances, captured live in HD and broadcast to theatres worldwide. This week: THE DUCHESS OF MALFI Gemma Arterton (Tamara Drewe) stars in John Webster’s Elizabethan tragedy about a widowed noblewoman whose desire to marry her lover, who is also her steward, rouses the ire of her scheming brothers. (Not rated) 170 minutes. At the Del Mar, Thursday (Feb. 26), 7:30 p.m. Encore performance: Sunday (March 22) 11 a.m. Admission: $15. Seniors and students: $13.
SPECIAL EVENT THIS WEEK: THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRESENTS The famed Canadian theatrical festival broadcasts highlights from its current season, captured live in HD, to movie theatres worldwide. This week: KING LEAR Colm Feore stars as the aging monarch who misreads the affections of his two scheming and one devoted daughter in Shakespeare’s enduring tragedy. Antoni Cimolino directs.(Not rated) 173 minutes. At the Del Mar, tonight only (Wednesday, Feb. 25), 7:30 p.m. Encore performance: Sunday, March 1, 11 a.m. Admission: $15. Seniors and students: $13.
CONTINUING SERIES: MIDNIGHTS @ THE DEL MAR Eclectic movies for wild & crazy tastes plus great prizes and buckets of fun for only $6.50. This week: LABYRINTH David Bowie as the wicked Goblin King, and a herd of cheerfully bizarre Muppet critters play out a familiar coming-of-age quest plot that owes much to Alice and Oz. A teenage Jennifer Connelly is the heroine of the 1986 Jim Henson fantasy, and droll, cheeky dialogue by screenwriter Terry Jones provides some fun. (PG) 101 minutes. (**1/2)—Lisa Jensen. Fri-Sat midnight only. At the Del Mar.
CONTINUING EVENT: LET’S TALK ABOUT THE MOVIES Film buffs are invited to join us Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. in downtown Santa Cruz, where each week we discuss a different current release. For our location and discussion topic, please visit our Google Groups webpage: groups.google.com/group/LTATM
Movie Times click here.
Now Playing
THE DUFF A high school senior sparks a revolution in the social hierarchy in this comedy about a girl who finds out she’s known as the DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) to her more popular girlfriends. Mae Whitman (neither ugly nor fat) has the title role; Bella Thorne co-stars as her chief antagonist. Directed by Ari Sandel, from the Kody Keplinger novel. (PG-13)
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2 John Cusack is out of this sequel to the 2010 cult comedy. But Adam Scott takes over as his character’s grown son when remaining cohorts Craig Robinson and Clark Duke jump into the time-traveling hot tub to help out buddy Rob Corddry, and accidentally blast into the future. Steve Pink returns to the director’s seat. (R) 93 minutes.
MCFARLAND, USA In this fact-based story set in the farm belt of California’s Kern County, Kevin Costner stars as a newly-arrived high school PE coach who helps groom a handful of Latino farmworkers’ sons into a championship track team. Maria Bello, Carlos Prats, and Hector Duran co-star for director Niki Caro (Whale Rider). (PG) 128 minutes.
SONG OF THE SEA Reviewed this issue. (PG) 93 minutes. (****)—Lisa Jensen.
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Famed physicist Stephen Hawking, slouched in his motorized wheelchair, communicating through his robotic voice synthesizer, is so well-known, it’s difficult to imagine him any other way. But that changes with this smart, funny, tender biographical drama from director James Marsh. Beginning with Hawking as a vigorous young grad student at Cambridge, it tells the enduring love story of Hawking and his first wife, Jane. Eddie Redmayne earned an Oscar for his exceptional performance as Hawking, partnered by Felicity Jones, in a film that celebrates tenacity—in life, love, and ideas. (PG-13) 123 minutes. (****) (2015)
