Red 2

“Red 2” is yet another sequel that’s better than the original, though in this case not quite enough better to recommend running out and paying movie-theater prices. You won’t be upset, though, if you rent it.

Lay the Favorite

Complete the following sentences with the correct form of "lie" or "lay." (Answers below.)

1.) The maid has _____ the duvet over the bed each morning for the past six years.

2.) Among them, the three hens _____ all of the eggs consumed on the farm.

3.) The couch potato _____ on the divan all afternoon watching football games.

4.) The curio has _____ on the étagѐre since Theresa brought it back from Bangalore.

5.) The vacationers had no more important plan for the morning than to _____ their blanket on the sand and _____ on it for hours.

Looper

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis star as younger and older versions of the same man in “Looper,” a time-travel action adventure that starts out interesting and becomes less so as it goes. It’s one of those futuristic movies in which, only thirty years from now, American life has become unrecognizable. The country is divided into five “zones” (it’s always zones in these pictures). Time travel is possible, but has been banned by the government. Oh, yeah, everybody’s downtrodden, but you knew that, right?

The Cold Light of Day

The grossly incompetent thriller "The Cold Light of Day" stars Superman-designate Henry Cavill as a struggling young businessman who joins his family for a week's boating vacation in Spain. Returning from a short errand ashore, he finds their vessel has been commandeered and his kinsmen kidnapped. This sets in motion a plot of coincidence and contrivance, in which he learns his father (Bruce Willis) isn't really a "business consultant" but a CIA agent, who's given an important briefcase to some unsavory folks.

The Expendables 2, Hit and Run

The Expendables 2

Hit and Run

The one thing you have to give "The Expendables 2," it doesn't stand on ceremony. Within the first two minutes, about a hundred bad guys have been killed, one or two at a time, before we know why they're bad or why we should care. There's another scene early on in which Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham co-pilot an airplane that has to gain altitude to clear a tall embankment. Rather than give us an exciting shot (from either side) of the plane just getting over (or grazing) the bulwark, director Simon West cuts from an interior shot of Sly and Statham to one of the plane flying well past it. Totally inept.

Moonrise Kingdom

It’s tough to convey the torturous ordeal that is “Moonrise Kingdom,” the latest exercise in unfettered self-indulgence for the look-at-me party drunk Wes Anderson, who reaches a new nadir with each successive picture. The embarrassing storyline involves a precocious, nerdy young boy and the blank-faced, empty-headed older girl he instantly recognizes as his soulmate (it’s hard to tell who’s more annoying), but as always it’s just an excuse for Anderson to have a cast of name actors recite his interminable stream of vapid, cutesy-poo dialogue. Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis – all just dolls for Anderson to move about his elaborate dollhouse; and it’s been at least a decade since Bill Murray brought anything of value to a movie. Anderson is obviously not without visual flair - you could see an Oscar for set decoration – which only makes his choice of material all the more discouraging. Meanwhile, I kept hearing guttural moans and snippets of commentary from the friend I took to “Moonrise Kingdom”: “I can’t…” “It’s a nightmare…” How much money, I asked, would it take to get him to go back and see it again. He gave the question thoughtful consideration. “It would be tough,” he said, “but I’d do it for $150.”