THE FIRST PURGE

1/2 PG-13, 125 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. One of the nicest things about “Ant-Man,” the 2015 origin story of the eponymous Marvel superhero, was its modesty and congeniality: Sure, “Guardians of the Galaxy” had already come out, injecting welcome humor into a genre that had all but succumbed to self-seriousness and bellicosity. But as “Guardians” and, later, “Deadpool” doubled down on the snark, “Ant-Man” kept things light, its playfulness made all the more endearing by the boyish, twinkle-eyed persona of its star, Paul Rudd. Returning in the title role, Rudd brings those same exuberant values to bear on “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” which makes up in brio and adorability what it might lack in narrative complexity. As the movie opens, Rudd’s “real-life” alter ego, Scott Lang, is finishing up his house arrest since the mayhem of “Avengers: Civil War.” With only three days to go, he spends his time fooling around on his drum machine, practicing card tricks and amusing his daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), by staging pretend heists with Rube Goldberg-like contraptions and props. Ostensibly, Lang’s past life of crime will now be erased by the domestic duties of a single dad and the security firm he runs with his former cellmate, Luis (Michael Peña). But before the LoJack comes off, he’s drawn into another adventure. — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

BOOK CLUB

PG-13, 104 minutes. Through tonight only at Westbrook. Four older women choose an unlikely title for their group-read: “Fifty Shades of Grey.” These female characters are played by some of the best actresses around — Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen — and seem far too intelligent to endure more than a few pages of James’ artless ode to female passivity. — Rafer Guzmán, Newsday

1/2 R, 97 minutes. Through tonight only at Waterford. Still playing at Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. The latest “Purge” is an erratic, fairly absorbing and righteously angry prequel. It sets up scenarios in which African-American and Latino resistance fighters rebel against the dear white people exploiting them for bloody political gain. Honestly: There is no avoiding politics and messaging with that setup. When last we purged, two summers back with “The Purge: Election Year” (2016), our current president was a few months away from the White House. Now, with a new James DeMonaco script directed by second-time feature filmmaker Gerard McMurray, “The First Purge” imagines what went down, and why, with the initial 12-hour crime-and-murder spree allowing an angry, disenfranchised U.S. citizenry to blow off steam with zero consequences. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

GOTTI

H1/2 R, 105 minutes. Westbrook.

From Massapequa to Manhattan, from his first mob hit in 1973 to his ascendancy as Mafia boss in the 1980s, to his continual beatdown of prosecutors’ cases to earn the nickname the Teflon Don, John J. Gotti became a celebrity followed by so many paparazzi it’s surprising none got whacked. Because no matter how much a folk-hero halo he gets in this film — based on the book “Shadow of My Father” by his son and successor, John A. “Junior” Gotti — Gotti the elder was more made man than family man. That point is glossed over in favor of mob-movie clichés about honor, manhood, being a standup guy and all those other things that get tossed out the window the minute you order a hit on Paul Castellano. Directed by Kevin Connolly (Eric “E” Murphy in “Entourage”) and starring John Travolta, “Gotti” is a connectthe-dots disaster — the don’s greatest hits, so to speak — without discernible theme or cohesive narrative. — Frank Lovece, Newsday

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION

PG, 97 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. It’s all about the zing. If you are not up on monster speak, the term zing refers to what happens once in the life of a vampire, mummy, werewolf, etc. It’s that moment when they know they have found the one true love in their life. In the case of “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation,” Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) learns it’s possible to zing more than once as he meets the new once-in-a-lifetime love of his life during a monster sea cruise. While Dracula zings again, this third offering in the offbeat look at the world of ghouls and monsters doesn’t come close to having the same zing as the first or second offering. It’s fun, and director Genndy Tartakovsky knows how to keep the action moving because of all his work in television animation, but the change of approach when dealing with Dracula coupled with the setting switch leaves the production just a little light on zing. “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” picks up with the getaway destination for creatures doing booming business. Things are going so well that a break is needed and the group books passage on the first monster cruise, which will take them from the Bermuda Triangle to the found city of Atlantis. The trip becomes a monster version of “The Love Boat” as Dracula does what he has thought was impossible: He falls in love again. — Rick Bentley, Tribune Content Agency

INCREDIBLES 2

PG, 118 minutes. Through tonight only at Niantic and Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Still playing at Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. After his highly successful feature film “The Incredibles” picked up the Oscar for best animated film in 2004, director/writer Brad Bird (“Iron Giant”) said he would make a sequel once he had the right idea. It’s been 14 years, and Bird finally has hatched an idea that resulted in the follow-up to the tale of the superhero family. Bird should have spent a little less time pondering what to do with the Parr family. Because while “Incredibles 2” is a fun family film, the multiple storylines Bird has woven through the production often get tangled. — Rick Bentley, Tribune Content Agency

JURASSIC PARK: FALLEN KINGDOM

1/2 PG-13, 128 min. Through tonight only at Niantic. Still playing at Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. The best thing “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” has going for it is director J.A. Bayona, who takes a mediocre script by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow and directs the living daylights out of it. This installment may have merely shallow ideas, but it’s easy to be distracted in the moment by the verve and style “The Orphanage” auteur brings to the beloved dino franchise. It just won’t stick with you the second you leave the theater. The story of “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” is transitory and transitional. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency

LITTLE PINK HOUSE

Not rated, 98 minutes. Through tonight only at Lisbon. This drama focuses on Susette Kelo’s fight to save her Fort Trumbull home in New London from eminent domain.

OCEAN’S 8

PG-13, 110 minutes. Through tonight only at Lisbon. Still playing at Stonington, Westbrook. Despite a screenful of terrifically skillful talents, “Ocean’s 8” never quite gets its ensemble act together. It’s smooth, and far from inept. But it isn’t much fun. That’s all you want from a certain kind of heist picture, isn’t it? Fun? Sandra Bullock takes the linchpin role of Debbie Ocean, sister of Danny, played by George Clooney in the three “Ocean’s” movies of widely varying quality directed by Steven Soderbergh. Bullock seems dead-set on not just deadpanning her way through this reboot, but going beyond deadpan to uncharted regions of sphinxlike minimalism. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO

R, 122 min. Through tonight only at Stonington. Starts Friday at Lisbon. Actor Taylor Sheridan made a name for himself as a screenwriter with 2015’s “Sicario,” a twisted tale about the U.S. government’s complicated relationship with Mexico, the southern border and drug cartels. The morally bleak “Sicario” was a unique example of modern political noir. Sheridan has returned for the sequel, “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” with Italian director Stefano Sollima taking over directing duties from Denis Villeneuve. The world expands in this follow-up, but it’s just as cynical and hopeless as we remember. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content PG-13, 102 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. The hardest working man in showbiz, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson debuts his third blockbuster action flick in nine months this weekend. The descriptively titled “Skyscraper,” which comes on the heels of “Rampage” and “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” is written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who directed Johnson in the very funny buddy comedy “Central Intelligence.” “Skyscraper” — a sort of reverse “Die Hard,” where a family man breaks into an imposing structure to save his family — scoots by on the thinnest of premises, and an even thinner script. While it’s a completely disposable story, “Skyscraper” is fascinating simply for Thurber’s fascination with evolving Johnson’s star persona. In “Central Intelligence,” he cast Johnson against type, uncovering his goofy comedic talent. In “Skyscraper,” Thurber takes Johnson to a darker, grittier place. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

PG-13, 143 minutes. Westbrook. The grouchy but somehow sexy curmudgeon that Harrison Ford created in the 1977 film and its sequels is shown here as a young man. As rendered by the moodily attractive Alden Ehrenreich, this Solo bears only a glancing resemblance to the gruff, irreverent flyboy Ford portrayed so winningly. — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

TAG

R, 100 min. Through tonight only at Stonington. Still at Westbrook. This genial comedy is about best buds who have been playing the same game of tag for 30 years. — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS

1/2 PG-13, 96 minutes. Madison Art Cinemas. It’s about as human and interesting as stories get: Three men meet for the first time, and discover they are identical triplets separated at birth. Reunited by chance in 1980, the three teenage siblings — Edward Galland of New Hyde Park, David Kellman of Howard Beach and Robert Shafran of Scarsdale, N.Y. — found they shared not only physical attributes but mannerisms, habits, likes and dislikes. Their heartwarming story and head-spinning similarities turned them into media darlings: They popped up on television talk-shows, appeared in a movie with Madonna and used their fame to open a Manhattan eatery called Triplets. There were few signs that their story would be revealed as part of a dark conspiracy, or that one of the siblings would meet a sorrowful end. “When we first got together, everybody said, ‘Are you guys angry?’” Shafran recalls. “We said, ‘No, we’re just happy we found one another.’ And we really, really were.” The first feature documentary on the triplets, Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers,” tells a different story than what the public saw in 1980. It wasn’t until 15 years later that the triplets — born at what was then Long Island Jewish Hospital (now Long Island Jewish Medical Center) in New Hyde Park — learned they had been part of a clandestine behavioral study conducted by a prominent psychiatrist with the help of a now-defunct adoption agency, Louise Wise Services. Around the same time as that discovery, one of the triplets killed himself. The story instantly captivated Wardle. “At the heart of this story, you’ve got a compelling human family drama,” he says. “But then you’ve got these much bigger themes that allow you to explore free will, destiny, nature versus nurture.” — Rafer Guzmán, Newsday