Reel-View Ratings: The Bigger The Beard, The Better The Movie

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CREED

The premise of Creed initially seems to grasp a little too desperately at some kind of Rocky sequel relevance. The son of Rocky’s former rival Apollo Creed, Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), decides to follow in his father’s footsteps, with aging Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stal-lone) as his mentor. Training montages, dramatic arguments and a teeth-achingly-high-stakes fight ensue. It sounds like it should be a parody, and yet it’s actually pretty good, despite and because of all that legacy. There’s heart beneath the tropes, as well as several beautifully filmed scenes that push the cinematic limit. Yes, it does fall back on clich at times, but let me tell you something you already know: It’s a Rocky film at heart. Opens Nov. 27 in wide release

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THE GOOD DINOSAUR

For every Pixar masterpiece, there has to be a Pixar film that is, well, just OK. The Good Dinosaur falls in that latter category, a beautiful testament to the artistic and aesthetic potential of animation that also kind of feels like every other animated film about talking animals ever made, ever (except with dinosaurs instead of, say, lions). In a world where dinosaurs never went extinct, young Apatosaurus Arlo gets separated from his family after the death of his beloved father (ahem) and befriends a human named Spot on his difficult journey home. Heartwarming albeit generic friendship ensues. It’s great! It’s fine. It’s Pixar. But it’s not going to be one of their classics.

Opens Nov. 27 in wide release

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PAULETTE

The setup of a brassy matriarch getting into the drug business is, at this point in time, a clich . But breezy little French film Paulette tries to revive the premise with a grandmotherly patisserie baking the best damned weed brownies/cakes/desserts you’ve ever eaten. But Paulette (the late Bernadette Lafont) is acidic, racist and nasty, and even when she has her inevitable change of heart later, you still just don’t really like her (even if you are reluctantly enthralled by her antics). The movie itself is also uneven, full of giggles one minute and meandering and uneven the next. Kinda sounds like Weeds, doesn’t it?

Plays at 2:45 and 7:15 p.m. Nov. 27 and 1, 4 and 7:15 p.m. Nov. 29 at the Movie Museum