Hey hey! Three new wide releases this week, plus reviews of the ones from last week that I didn’t see till they opened.
— “The Conjuring 2” (R) B+
— “Now You See Me 2” (PG-13) C-
— “Warcraft” (PG-13) R
— “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” (PG-13) B
— “Me Before You” (PG-13) C
The R rating for “The Conjuring 2,” like the one for “The Conjuring,” is for one reason: it’s scary. There’s no sex, nudity, strong violence, or profanity. (There are several violent images.) In both cases, it’s a rare instance of the R rating being applied sensibly:Â these movies are for adults, or for mature kids accompanied by their parents. But since the ratings are usually inconsistent, it’s annoying.
For example, “Warcraft” is chock-full of slicing, slashing, crushing, beheading, and other gruesome violence. Sometimes blood spatters on the camera lens. But it’s usually green blood, you see. From orcs. The human characters curiously don’t bleed very much when they are slaughtered. Hence, the movie is rated PG-13, sending the message that horrific violence is fine for kids to see as long as they don’t see the consequences of it. But if “The Conjuring 2” is R, “Warcraft” should be too.
ANYWAY. We reviewed this week’s releases on Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider, if you’d like to listen to me talk rather than read my words.
To get reviews and recommendations emailed to you each week, sign up for In the Dark. And please consider throwing a dollar a month into the Patreon tip jar to keep the reviews flowing like precious lifeblood. Thanks!
