Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie,
directed by Mandie Fletcher
(R, 1 hour, 26 minutes)
Older but no wiser, best friends Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) continue to conduct themselves like the flashy, hard-drinking, drug-abusing, fad-following, obnoxious, clueless and desperate-to-be-glamour girls they were in their television series that aired in the 1990s on BBC.
Their schtick -- Eddie as a public relations agent, Patsy as a magazine editor -- doesn't quite work as well now. The glitz that so identified the pair in the past has worn off into a veneer of sweaty desperation as Eddy (gaudily dressed in absurd garb and towering shoes barely suited for someone half her age and size) struggles to revive her more-than-usually comatose business by recruiting now-mature fashion model Kate Moss as a client. Disaster results, from which ever-resourceful Patsy plots an improbably fantastical plan for recovery.
It's not as ridiculously funny as the TV series, but AbFab the movie has its moments. Many of them are supplied by still-adorable Jane Horrocks as Eddy's goofy assistant Bubble and Julia Sawalha as Eddy's primly responsible daughter Saffron, who is even more different from her mother than she used to be and now has a daughter of her own. Guest appearances by Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) don't hurt, nor do a lively assortment of cameos that serve to keep all eyes focused on the screen.
Don't Breathe (R, 1 hour, 28 minutes) Scary and violent, this skillfully constructed and highly suspenseful mystery concerns three ruffians who break into the Detroit house of a wealthy blind veteran who served in Iraq, expecting to find easy pickings. They couldn't be more wrong. With Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang; directed by Fede Alvarez.
The Blu-ray, DVD and digital releases offer five featurettes: "No Escape," "Creating the Creepy House," "Meet the Cast," "Man in the Dark" and "The Sounds of Horror." There are also eight deleted scenes with optional director's commentary and feature commentary with director Alvarez, co-writer Rodo Sayagues and actor Stephen Lang.
The Wild Life (PG, 1 hour, 30 minutes) This competently animated comedy, which targets the youngest of moviegoers with a decidedly simple story, concerns the goings-on of the animal occupants of a tropical island who are confronted by their first human, a shipwrecked guy named Robinson Crusoe. With voices of Matthias Schweighofer, Kaya Yanar, Aylin Tezel; directed by Vincent Kesteloot, Ben Stassen.
Pete's Dragon (PG, 1 hour, 43 minutes) A slow-building, easygoing animated/live-action adventure for families, this is the gentle story of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend, a dragon named Elliott. With Bryce Dallas Howard, Oakes Fegley, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Robert Redford; directed by David Lowery. A remake of the 1977 original with Helen Reddy, Sean Marshall, Jim Dale.
Baked in Brooklyn (not rated, 1 hour, 26 minutes) Brains and tenacity don't always lead to success, as David (Josh Brener, who plays Big Head of HBO's Silicon Valley) discovers. With mounting bills and rent to pay, zero income, and an increasingly frustrated girlfriend (Alexandra Daddario), he finds a solution to his money problems: selling marijuana over the internet and delivering the goods on a bicycle across New York's boroughs. A fine solution, or so he thinks. In practically no time, his life and business careen out of control. With Tovah Feldshuh, Al Sapienza, Lindsey Broad; directed by Rory Rooney.
MovieStyle on 12/02/2016