In Theaters: March 16, 2018

There are four wide releases this weekend.

7 Days in Entebbe

In 1976 an airplane from Israel was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists and landed in Africa to await ransom demands for the plane, passengers, and crew.  Spoiler alert: you don't mess with the Jews.

Any movie that prominently features Israelis kicking butt is worth a look in my book.

7 Days in Entebbe is rated PG-13 for violence, some thematic material, drug use, smoking and brief strong language.

I understand the movie is not sympathetic to Palestinians.  In other words, it's faithful to the source material.

I Can Only Imagine

It turns out there was a Christian rock song called I Can Only Imagine.  This is a dramatization of the story behind the song.

I don't get it either.

I Can Only Imagine is rated PG for thematic elements including some violence.

Love, Simon

Simon is gay.  This movie is about him coming out.

Normally this blog doesn't get very political, but here we are.  I'll just dive right in.

I don't care if people are gay.  In fact, I think I support coming out if you're gay.  I sympathize with the struggle at least a little.  I'm a straight white male and it still took me quite a few years to get to a point where I mostly don't care what other people think.

However, I must state clearly that I believe homosexual behavior to be wrong.

I almost want to see this movie because it looks like such a nuanced and true-to-life take on the subject matter.  But there was a shot of two men kissing in the trailer, and I can't bring myself to support that.

In any case, Love, Simon is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual references, language and teen partying.

Tomb Raider

It's time to take another swing at that video game movie curse.

For those of you who don't know, video game movies are always bad.  There has never been a good one.  Well, there have been okay ones, and by that I mean watchable.  But that built-in fanbase keeps the studios trying.

The Tomb Raider video game franchise itself was rebooted just a few years ago pretty successfully, and this movie is more an adaptation of the reboot.  It looks really over the top, and the villain looks as dull as can be.

Tomb Raider is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and for some language.

      Big Shot Critic