Culture

Back in the early 1960s, French author Pierre Boulle published a novel about a world in which civilized simians dominated degenerate humans. When his book was brought to the big screen in 1968's "Planet of the Apes," starring Charlton Heston, the film was sufficiently successful to give rise, over the decades, to numerous sequels.

John Krasinski wrote, directed and plays a prominent role in the generally wholesome fantasy "IF" (Paramount). Yet, while the good intentions behind his film are evident, it ends up registering as a sweet but flawed piece of entertainment, one that gets in its own way by trying too hard to be liked.

Screwball comedies showcasing couples verbally duking it out in the battle of the sexes comprised a significant and often winning subgenre during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Whether the sparring partners were Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur or William Powell and Carole Lombard, audiences were likely to enjoy every round.

A blending of historical facts and Southern gothic fiction proves unstable in the biographical and literary drama "Wildcat" (Oscilloscope). As a result, director and co-writer Ethan Hawke achieves only mixed results as he seeks to introduce viewers to the life and works of Catholic author Flannery O'Connor.

"We're in the Nazi killing business, and cousin, business is a-boomin'" blithely declares Brad Pitt's character, U.S. Army officer Lt. Aldo Raine, in the 2009 film "Inglourious Basterds." The same might be said by the core cast of the fact-based World War II action comedy "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" (Lionsgate).

Behind "We Grown Now" (Sony Pictures Classics), a drama influenced by real-life events, looms the 1992 murder of 7-year-old Dantrell Davis in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing project. The crime had far-reaching consequences.

Moviegoers tempted by a title like "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" (Warner Bros.) are presumably not in search of Shakespearian levels of dramatic insight. Even so, the disparity between the reasonably impressive special effects on offer in the film and its low-grade human interaction remains noticeable.

Toward the end of "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" (Columbia), the fifth film in a supernatural comedy franchise that dates back to 1984, Bill Murray's Peter Venkman says to a group of other characters, "I knew you had one more dance in ya!" Sadly, a different verdict might have to be rendered about the venerable series itself.