A biographical sports drama, triumph-of-the-underdog crowd-pleaser, and video-game “adaptation” all rolled into one, director Neill Blomkamp's Gran Turismo opens this upcoming Friday – though if you reside in the Quad Cities, it's understandable if you thought it actually opened several weeks prior.

In both form and practice, the movie might frequently remind you of Ridley Scott's Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, and Joe Carnahan's The Grey, which remains the finest of the gazillions of macho-badass thrillers clogging Liam Neeson's resume. It's unfortunate that Øvredal's handsomely produced, fiercely acted endeavor isn't half as scary as those aforementioned titles.

Held in tandem with the weekend's Bill Bell Jazz & Heritage Festival and Rock Island's annual Family Fun Day, the August 19 Pulling Focus Black Film Festival's Winner's Showcase finds the Azubuike African American Council for the Arts partnering with Polyrhythms and the MLK Center for the first time in this celebration of African American and Black Diasporic voices.

Are we to make anything of the fact that, at one point during the extended action climax of Meg 2: The Trench, star Jason Statham literally jumps a shark?

Held in conjunction with the Davenport venue's current exhibition Los Desconocidos: The Migrant Quilt Project, the "Quilts" episode of PBS' Craft in America will be screened on August 17, offering guests a chance to learn about contemporary quilters from diverse traditions as we celebrate the important role quilts have played in our country’s story.

If you take one step beyond the promise of Haunted Mansion's cast and ask yourself “Are these distinctive talents going to blend?”, you'll have some idea of the inherent disappointment in director Justin Simien's “adaptation” of the popular theme-park attraction.

Presented in conjunction with the venue's current exhibition The Life & Art of Charles M. Schulz, the box-office smash The Peanuts Movie will enjoy a special August 10 screening in the Figge Art Museum's John Deere Auditorium, the film lauded by Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus as "a colorful gateway into the world of its classic characters and a sweetly nostalgic ... treat for the adults who grew up with them."

Maybe the highest praise I can offer Greta Gerwig's Barbie and despite a few missteps, the writer/director's latest is worthy of massive praise – is that whatever you think the movie is going to be, it isn't going to be that.

“I'm going to need a few more details.” “They just get in the way.” This exchange between characters played by Hayley Atwell and Simon Pegg takes place roughly two hours into the 160 minutes of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and I'm not sure I've ever before heard dialogue that so wholly encapsulated the experience of its movie.

Lauded by the New York Times' A.O. Scott as "big-screen perfection ... exceptionally well-written, full of wordplay and lively argument." current Barbie visionary Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age masterpiece Lady Bird enjoys a Bettendorf Public Library screening on July 28 in conjunction with the summertime "Find Your Voice" series, a program focused on works about people from marginalized communities that have been historically underrepresented in film.

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