Friday Movie Pile: Feb. 23, 2018

Welcome to the Friday Movie Pile, where we dump all the new movies into a pile on the floor and roll around in them. It makes a mess and accomplishes nothing, but it’s good, wholesome fun. Let’s get to pilin’!

Annihilation (wide; R, 1:55)

Plot: Natalie Portman leads a team on an expedition into a mysterious region to find out what kind of messed-up sci-fi shiz happened to her husband there. Based on Jeff VanderMeer’s novel.

Director: Alex Garland (Ex Machina)

Stars: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac

Buzz: It’s sitting at 90% at Rotten Tomatoes, with a Metacritic score of 81/100. Film Twitter has a lot of “general audiences are going to hate this movie” sentiment, which you should take as a challenge. Here’s my review.

Game Night (wide; R, 1:40)

Plot: Dark comedy in which six friends play an interactive mystery game that turns out not to be a game. Hilarity and mayhem ensue. You know how it goes.

Director: John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who made the Vacation reboot (but don’t hold it against them)

Stars: Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler, Jesse Plemons

Buzz: R-rated comedies are hit or miss (Jason Bateman comedies even more so), but this one is hitting — 85% at Rotten Tomatoes, 66/100 at Metacritic. (My review.)

Every Day (wide; PG-13, 1:35)

Plot: Teen-centric romantic drama about a girl who falls in love with someone who wakes up in a different body every day. (Not a different bed, a different body.) (Well, a different bed, too, but not in a trashy way.) Based on David Levithan’s novel.

Director: Michael Sucsy (Grey Gardens, The Vow)

Stars: Angourie Rice as the girl, Maria Bello as her mom, and a whole bunch of people (male and female) as her body-hopping soulmate.

Buzz: Orion didn’t screen this for critics in a lot of cities (Orion is barely a distributor), so there aren’t many reviews up yet, but so far they’re middling: split half and half on Rotten Tomatoes, average score of 54/100 at Metacritic. (I caught it Thursday night. It’s fine. Angourie Rice has a young Amy Adams thing going.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyp2pYUEVZo

Operation Red Sea (limited; NR, 2:22)

Plot: It’s an action flick, based on a true story, about an elite Chinese Navy force taking on terrorists and a coup and whatnot.

Director: Dante Lam

Stars: Zhang Yi

Buzz: Only a few reviews are up, but they’re all roughly positive, especially with regards to the action. Bone-crunching violence knows no language boundaries.