Reviews by Richard Roeper or Roger Moore, unless otherwise noted.

Heads Up

“Ghostbusters” — A trio of university parapsychologists lose their research grant and decide to open their own business, “Ghostbusters,” and almost at once are summoned to investigate the strange happenings in a Central Park West apartment. What they discover is that all of Manhattan is being besieged by otherworldly demons. Part of the Deschutes Public Library’s “Know Fright” series, the 1984 film screens at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Tin Pan Theater in Bend. Admission is free. (PG)

— Synopsis from Sony Pictures

“Gremlins” — Miniature green monsters tear through the small town of Kingston Falls. Hijinks ensue as a mild-mannered bank teller releases these hideous loonies after gaining a new pet and violating two of three simple rules: No water (violated), no food after midnight (violated), and no bright light. Hilarious mayhem and destruction in a town straight out of Norman Rockwell. The 1984 film screens Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday at McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend. Cost is $4 for adults and $2 for children (ages 11 and under). (PG)

— Synopsis from McMenamins

“John Wick” — An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him. Starring Keanu Reeves as John Wick, the film also costars John Leguizamo and Willem Dafoe. The film opens Oct. 24 with a few early screenings Thursday and is available locally in IMAX. (R)

— Synopsis from Lionsgate

“The Metropolitan Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro” — The Metropolitan Opera music director James Levine conducts a spirited new production of Mozart’s masterpiece, directed by Richard Eyre, who sets the action of this classic domestic comedy in an 18th-century manor house in Seville during the 1930s. Dashing bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov leads the cast in the title role of the clever servant, opposite Marlis Petersen as his bride, Susanna, Peter Mattei as the philandering Count they work for, Amanda Majeski as the long-suffering Countess and Isabel Leonard as the libidinous pageboy Cherubino. “The Met: Live in HD” series features 10 opera performances transmitted live in high definition to movie theaters around the world. The events screens at 9:55 a.m. Saturday and encores at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Regal Old Mill Stadium 16 & IMAX in Bend. Tickets are $24 for adults, $22 for seniors and $18 for children. 235 minutes. (no MPAA rating)

— Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera

“Ouija” — This Halloween, find out what happens when a deadly presence refuses to say “Goodbye” in the classic Ouija board game. Starring Olivia Cooke, the film is a supernatural thriller in which a group of friends must confront their most terrifying fears when they unwittingly make contact with a dark power from the other side. The film opens Oct. 24 with a few early screenings Thursday. (PG-13)

— Synopsis from Universal Pictures

“Pompeii from the British Museum” — An exclusive private view of the major exhibition, “Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum” returns to the big screen. The exhibition, first shown in cinemas last year, explores the homes and lives of the inhabitants of the thriving industrial hub of Pompeii and the small seaside town of Herculaneum nearly 2,000 years ago when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. Introduced by British Museum director Neil McGregor, cinema audiences will be treated to an exclusive, family-friendly view of the exhibition with insights from renowned experts who help bring these fascinating objects to life. With accompanying music, poetry and readings from eyewitness accounts, you will go behind the scenes of the exhibition to discover the stories of these famous Roman cities. The event screens at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Regal Old Mill Stadium 16 & IMAX in Bend. Cost is $12.50. 80 minutes. (no MPAA rating)

— Synopsis from Fathom Events

“St. Vincent” — Maggie and her adopted 12-year-old son, Oliver, move next door to war veteran Vincent. When Oliver gets locked out after school one day, Vincent allows him to stay at his house until his mom gets home. Because he has bills up to the ceiling and is desperate for cash, he tells Maggie he’ll baby-sit Oliver every day after school. Vincent then introduces Oliver to his lifestyle, including gambling, drinking and his relationship with a Russian prostitute. The film stars Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts. “St. Vincent” opens Oct. 24 with a few early screenings Thursday. (PG-13)

— Synopsis from film’s website

What’s New

“The Best of Me” — For an hour or so, Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden gamely swim against the current, fighting the torpid tide of tripe that romance novelist Nicholas Sparks sends their way in his latest. It’s sad to watch them strain and struggle and then give up as the lachrymose “The Best of Me” drowns them in a sea of saccharine. It’s yet another doomed last chance love story set in the coastal South, star-crossed lovers “destined” to be together but kept apart by tragedy. There’s barely a tear left in this limp weeper. Rating: One and a half stars. 113 minutes. (PG-13) — Moore

“The Book of Life” — “The Book of Life” is a Mexican-accented kids’ cartoon so colorful and unconventionally dazzling it almost reinvents the art form. As pretty as a just-punctured piñata, endlessly inventive, warm and traditional, it serves up Mexican culture in a riot of Mexican colors and mariachi-flavored music. The tale is told by a museum tour guide in an effort to impress a raucous bunch of American school kids. Mary Beth (Christina Applegate) recounts a love story built around El dia de los Muertos, Mexico’s Day of the Dead. And the moment that story begins, the computer animated style switches from quirky, big-headed, plastic-looking adults and kids to a bizarre, wooden-puppet world of the past, the Mexican village of San Angel. At this point in the animation game, we know what to expect of Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks. “Book of Life” is something new and a gigantic step up from Reel FX Animation’s previous work (“Free Birds”). This sometimes riotous, always charming film suggests they’ve taken their own movie’s message to heart. You can “write your own story,” and have it pay off. The film is available locally in 3-D. Rating: Three and a half stars. 95 minutes. (PG) — Moore

“Fury” — This bit of heroics isn’t “what I wanted to do,” Brad Pitt’s battle-scarred sergeant, and a hundred movie sergeants before him, growl. “But it’s what we’re doing.” “Fury” is the sort of World War II movie Hollywood used to churn out four or five times a year — a gritty, grunt’s eye-view of combat. The grit is bloodier and R-rated now, as is the combat jargon. Firefights have a visceral, video-game immediacy. It’s still a B-movie. But even a B-movie stuffed with clichés can be gripping. “Fury,” written and directed by David “Training Day” Ayer, takes us into the claustrophobic confines of a tank and makes a fine star vehicle for Pitt, if not the most original march down World War II lane. Rating: Three stars. 134 minutes. (R) — Moore

“Men, Women & Children” — It says something about us as a culture that the moment that provokes gasps of shock in “Men, Women & Children” comes when a media-paranoid mother deletes text messages from her teenage daughter’s phone. We’re shocked at this parental betrayal, the invasion of privacy. It’s only later that we remember, “Oh yeah, Mom PAID for the phone” and that everything else in this ensemble social media soap opera underlines how that shrill mother (Jennifer Garner) is right to be scared to death of how children, women and men are abusing this new hand-held god we worship. It’s too bad this broad, heavy-handed tragi-comedy undercuts many of its most thought-provoking moments, further evidence that after this, “Young Adult” and “Labor Day,” director Jason Reitman may never come close to “Up in the Air” again. Rating: Two stars. 114 minutes. (R) — Moore

“Take Me to the River” — There have been earlier and better movies about “The Memphis Sound,” with the documentary “Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story” being among the best. And there have been recent and better music documentaries built around the idea of giving music legends another recording session and a final moment in the sun — “Twenty Feet from Stardom” set the standard for those.

So “Take Me to the River,” a broader and shallower recreation of that magical era in rhythm & blues and soul, doesn’t cover new ground. The history isn’t extensively explored, which leaves us with the novelty of having a lot of rappers share studio time with the likes of Bobby Rush and William Bell, Mavis Staples and Bobby “Blue” Bland. The rappers — from Lil P-Nut to Snoop Dogg — create new rap breaks for classic songs, which the legends sing and the rappers pitch in on. The most valuable thing about the film, implied in the shared narration by Terrence Howard and director Martin Shore, is capturing these legends one more time before it’s too late. But the whole affair is more celebratory than organized — way too many scenes of people meeting and hugging — and comes off like a well-intentioned vanity project with a few too many vanities to serve. Rating: Two and a half stars. 90 minutes. (PG) — Moore

“The Two Faces of January” — “The Two Faces of January” has the allure of a thriller and the haunting quality of a character study. It follows three people, all of them flawed and under pressure, and keeps the audience in sympathy with all three. It’s some kind of feat to place three people in conflict and have the audience wish the best for each of them. Set in Greece in 1962, it’s a beautiful movie to look at, from the Athenian ruins to the ancient villages to the sight of Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst in their starched white traveling clothes, two affluent Americans seemingly without a care. Some beneath-the-surface connection draws them to an American tour guide (Oscar Isaac), a petty swindler living on his wits in Athens. It’s all very comfortable and friendly — very much in the vacation spirit of laughing and drinking and staying out late — and then something bad happens. Something that Chester (Mortensen) has been running from catches up, all at once. Soon circumstances place all three in the predicament of having to get out of town and back to the United States as quickly as possible. That Hossein Amini, in his first outing as a director, kept all three of these well-known actors in perfect balance, suggests a filmmaker who knows how to steer a performance. This film was not given a star rating. 96 minutes. (PG-13)

—Mick LaSalle,

San Francisco Chronicle

Still showing

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” — Whatever else children take from Judith Viorst’s delightful “Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day,” the sly subtext this picture-heavy book is how exhausting and sometimes misguided the optimism of the eternally optimistic can be. Parents who smile all the time, who make light of the weight of the world kids carry around sometimes? Annoying, especially to those kids. That’s what the film version kicks around the block, and rather amusingly, a few times. Life is going to trip you up. A lot. Smiling about everything may help. But getting up after every knock-down is the only sure cure. It’s just competent, light entertainment, no more ambitious than that. But the stuff that’s not in Viorst’s slim book for children is what gooses this kids comedy, the plot points and grown-up concerns handled with comic flair by Jennifer Garner and Steve Carell, both of whom come right up to the brink of melting down — but don’t. This is why you hire movie stars, folks. Rating: Two and a half stars. 81 minutes. (PG) — Moore

“Annabelle” — “Annabelle” is another tale of a doll possessed, a horror movie of such hoary conventions that we meet the “knowing priest” (Tony Amendola) in the first scene and we’re introduced to the helpful, occult-curious bookstore owner (Alfre Woodard) before the first act is through. There’s nothing surprising about this late ’60s tale, including its connection to the modern ghost stories told in “The Amityville Horror” and “The Conjuring.” But what it lacks in originality it makes up with in hair-raising execution. You will scream like a teenage girl. Mia (Annabelle Wallis) and John (Ward Horton) may be the blandest Catholics late-’60s California has to offer. She’s a pregnant housewife, waiting on their first baby. He’s a young doctor and man of science. A Manson Family-like slaughter hits the couple living next door and spills into their lives. That’s where the murderous cultist Annabelle got her hands on one of Mia’s antique dolls before she died. And that’s when stranger things than a Satanic murder cult attack start to happen. Like “Insidious” and “The Conjuring,” the only goal here is to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. And “Annabelle” does, more than once, before that dolly is done. Rating: Two stars. 98 minutes. (R) — Moore

“The Boxtrolls” — There’s something about stop motion 3D animation — the not-quite-real textures of skin and hair, the quite real cloth and metal, the subtle gloomy lighting effects – that says “spooky.” All the best animated films with a hint of Halloween have been stop motion animation or digital efforts that duplicate that hand-molded model look — “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Coraline.” “The Boxtrolls” is from Laika, the studio that made “ParaNorman” and “Coraline.” This adaptation of an Alan Snow novel (“Here Be Monsters!”) is inventive and fanciful and almost certainly the best animated film of the year. It’s spooky and funny and a little twisted, with a little social commentary in the “ParaNorman” style. Start to finish, it’s a delight. Rating: Three and a half stars. 97 minutes. (PG) — Moore

“Dracula Untold” — So it wasn’t the rains that kept the Turks from getting their cannons to Vienna, seizing the city and ending Western Civilization in the late 15th/early 16th centuries. It was Prince Vlad (Luke Evans), hero of the Transylvanians, a misunderstood warrior with fangs and a taste for Turkish Type O. That’s the premise of “Dracula Untold,” a vampire tale that attempts an origin story for “Vlad the Impaler” taking him back to his days in service to the Turkish sultan. “Dracula Untold” is a straight two-genre genre picture (vampires, sword and sorcery), well-mounted, with whirlwinds of bats and gloomy, moon-clouded nights. Some battle sequences are viewed on the reflection of a shiny sword blade. Nice touch, (director) Gary Shore. The action scenes are otherwise a blur of singing swords and blood spray. Evans, a bit bland, at least wears the cape well. “Untold” might have been better left untold, but all things considered, not a bad genre film. This film is available locally in IMAX. Rating: Two stars. 92 minutes. (PG-13) — Moore

“The Equalizer” — This ridiculous and audacious thriller features some gruesomely creative violence, but it’s equally memorable for the small, gritty moments. And most of all, it’s got Denzel Washington going for it. Rating: Three and a half stars. 128 minutes. (R) — Roeper

“The Giver” — The beloved children’s novel by Lois Lowry becomes a movie starring Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep about a supposedly utopian society where everyone is comfortably numb to love and pain. For a story designed to touch our emotions and remind us of all the wonderful highs and all the devastating lows of a life undiluted, it’s not nearly as involving as you might expect. Rating: Two stars. 94 minutes. (PG-13) — Roeper

“Gone Girl” — Ben Affleck gives one of his best performances as the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. It’s a thing of beauty watching the characters from Gillian Flynn’s novel manipulate, stumble, recover and stumble again. This is a nutty film, and for the most part, I mean that in a good way. Rating: Three and a half stars. 149 minutes. (R) — Roeper

“Guardians of the Galaxy” — Chris Pratt plays the leader of a misfit band of anti-heroes, including a cynical raccoon and a walking tree, in this refreshing confection of entertainment, a mostly lighthearted and self-referential comic-book movie with loads of whiz-bang action, some laugh-out-loud moments and a couple of surprisingly beautiful and touching scenes as well. Rating: Three and a half stars. 122 minutes. (PG-13) — Roeper

“The Judge” — Robert Downey Jr. commands the screen as a hotshot lawyer who returns to his small hometown and defends his father (Robert Duvall) against a murder rap. But by the time all the ghosts and feuds have been put to rest, it’s surprising how little we care about these characters. Rating: Two stars. 141 minutes. (R) — Roeper

“Kill the Messenger” — Jeremy Renner’s performance as 1990s investigative journalist Gary Webb is one of the more authentic portrayals of an old-fashioned, telephone-working reporter in recent memory. This movie, a solid tribute to his work, is as much about what happens to Webb after the story breaks as it is about his investigative heroics. Rating: Three stars. 112 minutes. (R) — Roeper

“Left Behind” — Based on the book series, “Left Behind” is a well-intentioned but comically inept film painted in the broadest of strokes. The problem isn’t the premise — the effect of the Rapture on a plane’s pilot (Nicolas Cage) and passengers.

It’s the execution: Everything about this film feels forced, clunky and overwrought. Rating: One star. 105 minutes. (PG-13) — Roeper

“Let’s Be Cops” — The laughs are loud, lewd and low in “Let’s Be Cops,” a spoof of cop “buddy pictures” that is pretty much the definition of “an August comedy.” The last month of summer is typically a dumping ground for titles studios don’t have high hopes for. Sometimes, that’s due to the lack of marketable stars. Sometimes, they’re just too hard to market period. And sometimes, if they’re comedies, it’s because the belly laughs are few and far between. All of those apply here. Jake Johnson of TV’s “New Girl” is paired up with another generation of Wayans — Damon Wayans Jr. — in this farce about two Ohio losers losing their way through Los Angeles, a tough place to be a single guy with zero status. Rating: One and a half stars. 104 minutes. (R) — Moore

“Lucy” — Given the track record of writer-director Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element”), I was hoping this story of a woman (Scarlett Johansson) tapped into an ever-growing brain capacity would be a bold and inspired piece. What I got was a piece of something else altogether. As Lucy’s enhanced powers turn ludicrous, the plot becomes unintentionally hilarious. Rating: One-half star. 89 minutes. (R) — Roeper

“The Maze Runner” — This month’s “young adults save the future” film franchise is “The Maze Runner,” an indifferent quest tale about boys trapped in a gigantic maze with no idea how they got there. A teen boy (Dylan O’Brien) wakes up, screaming, on a freight elevator soaring up to a field, where it promptly drops its “greenie” or newby into a clatch of rustic boys his own age. He doesn’t know his name or anything else other than the English language. But the other lads set him straight. This is “Glades,” the glade. Some boys are “Builders,” some are “Runners.” They run through the vast walled maze that surrounds their encampment each day, coming home just before the huge walls creak shut on gigantic gears each night. The actors aren’t bad, with “Nanny McPhee” vet Thomas Brodie-Sangster standing out by being as skinny as a teen stuck in the woods, forced to fend for himself, and O’Brien, Aml Ameen, Will Poulter and Ki Hong Lee having decent screen presence. But all these literary underpinnings do not disguise a blasé, emotion-starved script, dialogue that ineptly repeats what the images have already shown us is happening, stagey scenes where characters poke each other in the chest to keep them from storming out of the camera frame. And the resolution to this puzzle is so botched it’s insulting, as if they’re daring us to laugh at the notion that this is merely “the beginning.” Rating: One and a half stars. 112 minutes. (PG-13) — Moore

“This Is Where I Leave You” — You’re going to gather Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver and other greats in the same room, and you’re going to make them engage in clichés? Across the board, I like the actors in this movie so much better than I like — or care about — the characters they play in this film, a family version of “The Big Chill.” Rating: Two stars. 103 minutes. (R) — Roeper