“Rock Dog” obeys every command of a formulaic kids’ tale
“Rock Dog,” an ungainly animated fable about a Tibetan mastiff who longs to be a guitar-shredding rocker, never really comes to heel. Intermittently diverting as it may be, the movie bears all the...
View ArticleIn new “Wimpy Kid” film, a fresh cast and amped-up “yuck”
Two stars. Rated PG. 90 minutes. Every single sight gag in “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” telegraphs its punchline for what seems like an eternity. Anyone, young or old, who sees the movie —...
View ArticleFascinating “Obit” explores the arcane art of celebrating the newsworthy life
Three and one-half stars. Unrated. 95 minutes. Who died today? That’s an ordinary question, when posed by people of a certain age as they open their morning papers — print edition, of course — looking...
View Article“Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie” is — ahem — a gas
By Jane Horwitz, The Washington Post You all should be ashamed of yourselves. Honestly, it is just so immature to giggle at toilet humor. If you don’t watch out, the evil Professor Poopypants may just...
View Article“My Little Pony: The Movie”: Sugary sweet and only slightly sticky
Two and one-half stars. Rated PG. 99 minutes. Lollipop-sweet and rainbow-bright, the four-legged gal pals of Ponyville go clippity-clopping from the small screen to the big in “My Little Pony: The...
View Article“Goodbye Christopher Robin”: Warm and PBS-pretty, this portrait of Pooh’s...
Two and one-half stars. Rated PG. 101 minutes. In the 1920s, A.A. Milne gave a world reeling from World War I gentle books inspired by his only child and the boy’s stuffed-animal friends. The British...
View ArticleMovie review: Animated “The Star” is a hit-and-miss affair
Two stars. Rated PG. 86 minutes. An animated fable about the first Christmas, “The Star” reimagines the Nativity story from the perspective of an animal – actually, an entire menagerie of comical Holy...
View ArticleMovie review: In “Ferdinand” a conscientious-objector bull of a children’s...
Three and one-half stars. Rated PG. 106 minutes. Any picture book that a parent can read to kids in a few short minutes, no matter how delightful, requires fattening up to become a film. Sometimes...
View Article
