New Movies

At the risk of flushing all of my critical cred right down the toilet, I will confess I don’t hate the first Cars. And Cars 2, while insane, is sort of fascinating in its madness. It’s not good, but I have watched it more than once. On the advice of my attorney, I will not comment on my physical or emotional impairment at the time of these screenings.

How do you make a successful Harry Potter prequel without Harry Potter? J.K. Rowling’s new spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, travels back nearly 70 years to 1926 before the events of the first Potter movie to tell a whole new story in a new setting with (almost) all new characters. Reviving the magical universe from the second biggest franchise of all time is a pretty risky move, but Fantastic Beasts does a good job of blending the familiar with the new.

Disney’s 1977 musical ‘Pete’s Dragon’ was my favorite movie as a kid, one I watched obsessively on VHS. In retrospect, I can now look back on it as an adult and admit it was a pretty awful movie — it was about an orphan whose adoptive family chased him while gleefully singing songs about abusing him. The songs were bad (though my 6-year-old self enjoyed them), the acting was as campy and mawkish, and the shoddy animation looks laughable today. But as much as the movie was a dated element of its time, it still told an emotionally relatable story that, when handled by Disney, can become timeless. It only makes sense that the studio remade ‘Pete’s Dragon,’ keeping that same sentiment, but without the hokey songs and with more impressive visual effects.

There’s nothing new or marvel about cute cuddly talking animals; they’ve been the center of animated feature films since the earliest days of animation. But in ‘The Secret Life of Pets,’ the age old shtick still works.

By now you have the release date for Captain America: Civil War tattooed on your brain, but — shocker! — there are other movies hitting theaters next month, believe it or not. In addition to Marvel's latest, we also have a new film from Shane Black, the sequel to Neighbors and, lest you forget, X-Men: Apocalypse. There's plenty more in our guide to May's new movie releases.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice held on to the number one spot at the box office this weekend, but it sure wasn’t pretty. Zack Snyder’s superhero showdown took a jaw-dropping tumble and if any other studio had decided to release a major film this weekend, it probably would have sunk to second place. This film is already proving to be a fascinating case study in marketing versus word of mouth: one earns you an opening weekend while the other gives you legs.

The CGI in Jon Favreau’s adaptation of The Jungle Book looks incredible — though it is a little strange to see the animals actually speak, as you can in the first clip from Disney’s epic new adventure. The sneak peek introduces us to the fearsome and ferocious tiger Shere Khan, voiced by Idris Elba, and while it’ll take some adjusting to hear these famous voices coming out of the mouths of gorgeous animals, Elba is inarguably the perfect voice for Khan.

If you’re a superhero fan (or if you’ve seen the amazing billboards), you’re already well-aware that February brings the highly-anticipated release of Deadpool, but there’s plenty of non-superhero entertainment to be found in theaters. Next month is packed with big action, the latest from the Coen brothers and some intense horror, giving you a few goosebumps to go with that winter chill. Read on for our guide to the new movie releases hitting theaters in February.