Short Redhead Reel Reviews for the week of May 8 – ECM Publishers

Rating system: (4=Don't miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)

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Arkansas (R) (2.5) [Violence, language throughout, drug material, and brief nudity.] [Opens May 5 on Apple, Amazon Prime, and On Demand platforms.] A wacky, violent, star-studded (John Malkovich, Vivica A. Fox, Eden Brolin, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael K. Williams), 115-minute crime thriller based on John Brandons bestselling novel in which two ambitious, inept, low-level drug dealers (Liam Hemsworth and Clark Duke) deliver drugs throughout the South for an anonymous and ruthless drug lord (Vince Vaughn) in Arkansas while posing as park rangers and trying to figure out for whom they work.

Armored (PG-13) (2.5) [Sequences of intense violence, some disturbing images, and brief strong language.] [DVD only] A decorated veteran (Columbus Short), who is working as an armored truck security guard and taking care of his artistic younger brother (Andre Kinney) after the death of their parents, is faced with a dilemma in this action-packed, tense remake of a French film when the reckless and foolish plan by his greedy coworkers (Laurence Fishburne, Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Skeet Ulrich, and Amaury Nolasco) to steal $42 million goes awry.

Brothers (R) (3.5) [Language and some disturbing violent content.] [DVD only] Superb acting highlights this gut-wrenching, intense, down-to-earth film about the anguish, tensions, and suspicions that ensue and escalate for a decorated, traumatized, distraught Marine captain (Tobey Maguire) when he returns home to his faithful wife (Natalie Portman), two young daughters (Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare), his ex-con brother (Jake Gyllenhaal), and his parents (Sam Shepard and Mare Winningham) in Maryland after serving four tours of duty in Afghanistan and being captured and tortured along with a private (Patrick Flueger) by zealous Afghan rebels.

Dinosaurs Alive! (NR) (3) [Streams FREE as part of the Omnifest at Home 2020 at the William L. McKnight 3M Omnitheater at the Science Museum of Minnesotas Omni Theater; for more information, log on to smm.org/omnifest or call 651/221-9444.] Michael Douglas narrates this educational, realistic, 3D, 40-minute, 2009 IMAX documentary that recreates dinosaurs such as the protoceratop, the plant-eating sizemasaurus, the armored tarchia, the tarbosaurus, the egg-thieving avoraptor, the sharp-clawed velociraptor, coelohysis, and the crocodile-like effigia as American Museum of Natural History paleontologists and graduate students search the Ghost Ranch of New Mexico for dinosaur fossils and follow in the footsteps of Roy Chapman Andrews as they explore beneath the sands at the Flaming Cliffs of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

The Living Sea (NR) (3) [Streams for $3.99 as part of the Omnifest at Home 2020 at the William L. McKnight 3M Omnitheater at the Science Museum of Minnesotas Omni Theater; for more information, log on to smm.org/omnifest or call 651/221-9444.] Meryl Streep narrates MacGilllivray Freemans beautifully photographed, educational, 45-minute, 1995 IMAX documentary that focuses on mans symbiotic relationship with the sea and scientists studying various aspects of our oceans, including wave dynamics, ebb and flow of tides, pollution effects on kelp forests, farming cycles of large clams, and marine life of humpback whales, cuttlefish, otters, coral, and jellyfish, from California and Hawaii to the Palau Islands.

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs (NR) (3) [Streams FREE as part of the Omnifest at Home 2020 at the William L. McKnight 3M Omnitheater at the Science Museum of Minnesotas Omni Theater; for more information, log on to smm.org/omnifest or call 651/221-9444.] Christopher Lee narrates this intriguing, educational, 45-minute, 2007 IMAX documentary that reenacts when hieroglyphics translator Charles Wilbour (William Hope) discovered more than forty royal mummies, including Rameses the Great, in the Valley of the Kings in July 1881 and showcases scientists Bob Brier and Angelique Corthals researching the secret of the 3,000-year-old mummification process and the best way to extract DNA from Egyptian mummies by creating a modern-day mummy.

National Parks Adventure (NR) (4) [Streams for $3.99 as part of the Omnifest at Home 2020 at the William L. McKnight 3M Omnitheater at the Science Museum of Minnesotas Omni Theater; for more information, log on to smm.org/omnifest or call 651/221-9444.] Robert Redford narrates this educational, stunning, 45-minute, 2016 IMAX documentary highlighted by extraordinary cinematography that gives the history of the national parks; showcases geysers in Yellowstone, the Colorado River rapids in the Grand Canyon, colorful scenery in Choppo canyon in New Mexico, beautiful lakes and landscapes in Glacier National Park in Montana, the majestic redwoods in Redwood National Park in California, magnificent land vistas in Yosemite Valley in California, gorgeous Canyonlands in Utah, breathtaking stone pillars in Monument Valley in Arizona, meandering Grand Tetons in Wyoming, beautiful Bear Lake in Oregon, myriad landscapes in Everglades National Park in Florida, salmon-eating bears in Denali National Park in Alaska, and iconic Central Park in New York; and follows adventurous climbers Rachel Pohl, Conrad Anker, and Max Lowe as they climb Devils Tower in Wyoming and ice walls in Pictured Rocks Glacier in National Lakeshore Park in upper Michigan.

Wild Ocean (NR) (3) [Streams FREE as part of the Omnifest at Home 2020 at the William L. McKnight 3M Omnitheater at the Science Museum of Minnesotas Omni Theater; for more information, log on to smm.org/omnifest or call 651/221-9444.] John Kani narrates this educational, beautifully photographed, 3D, 45-minute, 2010 IMAX documentary that showcases the astonishing annual migration of sardines, which are central to the Wild Coast ecosystem in South Africa, as they create a 10-mile-long shoal that feeds a multitude of marine life, including bottlenose dolphins, humpback whales, cape fur seals, and black-tipped, copperhead, and dusty sharks, and diving gannets, but the food source is threatened by its biggest predatorman.

Wendy Schadewald is a Burnsville resident.

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Short Redhead Reel Reviews for the week of May 8 - ECM Publishers

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero