PG-13, 2:05, comedy
“The Upside” stars Kevin Hart as a lazy, skirt-chasing ex-con hoping to reconnect with his estranged wife and son. He accidentally gets a job taking care of an obscenely wealthy New York businessman ( Bryan Cranston ) who became a paraplegic while hang gliding. The movie is based on a true story — and lifted from the 2011 French film “Les Intouchables” — but no one really worked on the shaky racial angle for an American audience. Hart, a comic force, reveals his limits as a dramatic actor in his fish-out-of-water role, while Cranston shows only a few glimpses of his formidable skills, especially when he turns steely.
PG-13, 2:23, action
The DC Comics superhero Aquaman takes center stage, on land and under the sea, in “Aquaman.” Jason Momoa (“Game of Thrones”) is surly and charismatic, with eyebrows that suggest all sorts of fun. Screenwriters David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall stumble all over the place trying to set up simple origin-story exposition — how Arthur Curry, the lighthouse keeper’s son, was born to Queen Atlanna of Atlantis, and how he must prevent war waged by Orm and associates, while aquamanning up to claim a leadership role down where the fishies go. The film’s just sincere enough where it counts to float this soggy mediocrity for a global audience.
PG, 1:36, family
With the proliferation of dog movies in the past couple of years, it’s no surprise that the astonishing animal journey film would soon resurface. “A Dog’s Way Home” tells the tale of Bella, a rescued pit bull who makes her way home after a two-year walkabout. During her journey, she connects with different animals and people who care for Bella as she cares for them, from a homeless vet to a magnificent cougar known as Big Kitten. The story is sweet enough, though totally outlandish.
PG, 2:00, action
The animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” gives ensemble superheroism a good name while giving audiences a really good time. It derives most of its story from the character of Miles Morales, an Afro-Latino Brooklyn teenager whose father is a vigilante-hating cop. Exploring the subway tunnels with his uncle Aaron, Miles is bitten by a genetically altered problem spider. Soon he learns that he, like Peter Parker, has been chosen to take on the Spidey mantle. The second half’s a bit of a letdown, but by the end, we’re back where we need to be: captured, happily, by Miles’ story and the “Spider-Verse” notion of the mask being for everyone up to the task.
PG-13, 1:49, horror
In “Escape Room,” half a dozen terrified strangers have signed on to compete in a game of experiential survival. Can our heroes figure out the clue that will let them exit the room and move on to the next trip-wired chamber of horror? “Escape Room,” which is like “Saw” remade as a PG-13 group date, jettisons the torture but keeps the death. The contestants don’t realize that the stakes of the game are real — i.e., their lives are truly on the line. The first part of the film gets some airy momentum going. Then we learn the secret of what the characters have in common, and it gives you that slightly sinking feeling of one contrivance too many.
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