Rampage Is Exactly What You Think It Is

Add up the grosses and average out the Tomatometers for Blumhouse’s latest handful of low-budget horror outings, and it’s clear that they’re on a pretty incredible tear: Split, Get Out, and Happy Death Day all hit paydirt last year, and that winning streak continued with the box office success of Insidious: The Last Key in January. The studio rides that hot hand into this weekend’s Truth or Dare, about a group of college seniors (including Lucy Hale and Tyler Posey) who make the ill-fated decision to engage in a round of the titular game… with freaky supernatural results. When all else fails, “kill a bunch of pretty young people” is always a reliable fallback setup for a horror movie, so genre enthusiasts may get a few thrills out of the end results; unfortunately, critics are typically harder to impress, and they say this is all standard stuff — neither inventive nor scary enough to set Truth or Dare apart from the decades of dreary slashers that came before it. If you’re really in the mood to listen to people scream in the dark for an hour and a half, go for it — but all things considered, the box office fate suffered by Battleship is still probably a scarier game-related Hollywood story.

Wes Anderson has never made what most people would consider children’s movies, so when he ventured into the traditionally kid-friendly arena of stop-motion animation with 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, it came as something of a surprise. As it turns out, the medium is a perfect fit for the writer-director’s gentle whimsy and attention to detail — and he’s back with Isle of Dogs, now entering wide release. Anderson’s latest outing tells the story of Atari (Koyu Rankin), a Japanese boy determined to rescue his dog (voiced by Liev Schreiber) from an island where the animals have been quarantined during an outbreak of canine flu — again, not your average setup for an animated movie, but one that critics say provides rich creative ground for a cinematic experience that’s deeply enjoyable on a number of levels. Another acclaimed addition to Anderson’s filmography, Isle ranks among 2018’s best-reviewed movies thus far, and offers one of your safest destinations at theaters this weekend.

If you’re like most people, then an animated movie about a dog who served with honor in the trenches during World War I probably doesn’t rank high on your cinematic wish list — but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to make a good one, and Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero is here to offer proof. Although a good many filmgoers are likely unfamiliar with the real-life Stubby’s military exploits, his story is legitimately incredible, and critics say it’s been told here with sensitivity and charm by director/co-writer Richard Lanni. Viewers with young children may balk at the prospect of taking the family to see a movie about a dog whose life was repeatedly in mortal danger — or raise a skeptical eyebrow at the notion of a well-reviewed animated release from a studio that isn’t one of the usual suspects — but if you’re looking for a worthy cartoon diversion, it looks like this Stubby stands tall.

It’s tough to jump from TV star to marquee idol, and even most of the Hollywood vets who’ve been lucky enough to make the leap — like George Clooney and Bruce Willis — needed a few mulligans before they really found their footing on the big screen. It’s far from unusual, in other words, that the film industry hasn’t really seemed to know what to do with Jon Hamm since he started focusing on movies after Mad Men went off the air; although he certainly looks like a movie star, he’s spent the last few years waiting for his breakout film role. The sober-minded and relatively complex Beirut may not be the project that truly marks that transition, but critics say this is the type of stuff Hamm really needs more of — a movie that takes advantage of his ability to play charismatic yet damaged individuals, set against the backdrop of a gripping conflict. He stars here as Mason Skiles, a former diplomat who’s lured back into his old trade as part of an operation to help save the life of a friend he left in the titular city, and reviews describe a Tony Gilroy-scripted drama that should satisfy fans of Tony Gilroy-scripted dramas — even if this one doesn’t quite do justice to the thorny real-life conflicts that fuel its plot. Absorbing despite its flaws and elevated by strong work from Hamm and Rosamund Pike, Beirut looks like the place to be for fans of grown-up political intrigue this weekend.

Seductive and surprising, Killing Eve‘s twist on the spy vs. spy conceit rewards viewers with an audaciously entertaining show that finally makes good use of Sandra Oh‘s talents.

A superbly-mounted adaptation of E.M. Forster’s tale of British class tension, with exceptional performances all round, Howards End ranks among the best of Merchant-Ivory’s work.

Lost in Space‘s production values are ambitious enough to attract sci-fi adventure fans, while the story’s large heart adds an emotional anchor to all the deep space derring-do.