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Here's what's happening in theaters this weekend: A Disney princess gets a makeover, Liam Neeson brings the heat, vampires hang out, and a couple's relationship plays out through song.
Disney's live-action remake of "Cinderella" won't make anyone forget the 1950 classic. It is fun in its own right, mostly for the casting of Cate Blanchett as the uber-dramatic evil stepmother and Helena Bonham Carter as the flighty fairy godmother. Lily James plays the titular damsel, in a storyline that gives a bit of spine to the put-upon character. (Read The Cricket's interview with costume designer Sandy Powell.)
The other major studio entry this weekend is "Run All Night," a New York-based gangster action movie starring Liam Neeson as Jimmy Conlon, a washed-up mob hitman for a mob boss, Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). When Maguire's son (Boyd Holbrook) kills a couple of Albanian gangsters, and is about to kill Conlon's son (Joel Kinnaman), who witnessed the killing, Conlon kills Maguire's son first — prompting Maguire to unleash his troops to kill both Conlons. The action pieces are effective, but there's a whole lot of extraneous talk.
The best new movie opens at the Broadway: The musical "The Last Five Years," which tells of the ups and downs in a relationship between a struggling actress (Anna Kendrick) and an up-and-coming author (Jeremy Jordan). The two characters pour out their emotions through song, with the girl's story told backwards in time and the boy's told forwards — with a big duet in the middle. The songs, by Jason Robert Brown, are heartfelt and emotional. The performances, especially Kendrick's, are stellar.
"What We Do in the Shadows" is a funny mock-documentary that profiles a group of modern vampires in Auckland, New Zealand, dealing with day-to-day issues — such as keeping a clean house when there's blood all over. The writing-directing team of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement (who worked together on "Flight of the Conchords," and also star here) concoct some dry humor in this sharply detailed comedy.