Moana
Aledo Opera House, Aledo IL
Blue Grass Drive-in, Blue Grass IA
Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Davenport IA
FilmScene, Iowa City IA
The Last Picture House, Davenport IA
Marcus Sycamore Cinema, Iowa City IA
Putnam Museum & Science Center, Davenport IA
VIP Cinemas, Moline IL
Voy 61 Drive In Theatre, Delmar IA
(Hyperlinked titles take you to Reader reviews; IMDb hyperlinks take you to the films’ Internet Movie Database pages or other sites with film information.)
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Arctic: Our Frozen Planet (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Backrooms:Everything Must Go Edition w/ Bonus Footage (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, FilmScene at the Chauncey) - Twenty-year-old director Kane Parson's visual sense is so stunning, and his compositions so foreboding, that you could easily mistake images here for those of much-older masters, past and present. IMDb listing.
Bad Counselors (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema: opens Wednesday, July 22) - IMDb listing.
Barbie (PG-13; The Last Picture House Rooftop: Thursday, July 23, 8:45 p.m.) - That Greta Gerwig is able to make statements about corporate greed without equivalent corporate interest, and deep-rooted patriarchy in the guise of PC-friendly “wokeness.," while delivering ginormous laughs and making you cry constitutes something of a miracle. IMDb listing.
The Bay (not rated; VIP Cinemas) - IMDb listing.
Bugs! (not rated;; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - The 3D effects make the film's creepy-crawly world pop in enjoyable fashion, and the bugs' life-and-death struggle makes for endlessly intriguing viewing IMDb listing.
Demolition Man (Rl FilmScene on the Ped Mall Rooftop: Sunday, July 19, 8:35 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Disclosure Day (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas) - I found myself raising a cocked eyebrow at Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller in the first five minutes, and the last five minutes, and during many of the 130 minutes in between. IMDb listing.
Dream Big: Engineering Our World (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Early Man (PG; FilmScene at the Chauncey) - There's absolutely nothing educational in Nick Park's divinely silly 80-minute lark – unless you somehow still need to learn that the Aardman brain trust is filled with flippin' comic geniuses. IMDb listing.
Elephants: Giants of the Desert (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Evangelion: Death (True) (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX: Tuesday, July 21, through Thursday, July 23) - IMDb listing.
Evil Dead Burn (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Blue Grass Drive-in, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - In addition to not being fun, or even remotely funny, this gore-fest denies us even one character whose survival you're invested in. IMDb listing.
Extreme Weather (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Flight of the Butterflies (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - A bit pokey, but the slow, unspeakably beautiful explosion that is the butterflies' mass exodus is enough to make you believe in God - or, at the very least, in the gods of nature docs. IMDb listing.
Gail Daughtry & the Celebrity Sex Pass (R; VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - David Wain's latest is perhaps the most purely satisfying goof of its kind since 2021's already-kinda-legendary Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar. IMDb listing.
Hadestown: The Musical (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, The Last Picture House, Marcus Sycamore Cinema: opens Thursday, July 23) - IMDb listing.
Hidden Universe (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Hot Rod (PG-13; The Last Picture House Rooftop: Wednesday, July 22, 8:30 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
How to Train Your Dragon (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX: Monday, July 20, and Wednesday, July 22) - This live-action remake boasts lot of terrific visuals, certainly, but also a scope made run-of-the-mill through too many similar fantasies of its type and figures and narrative beats that now, ironically, appear distractingly cartoonish. IMDb listing.
Into America's Wild (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
The Invite (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, The Last Picture House, FilmScene on the Ped Mall) - It's really only the aggressively off opening quarter that kept me from loving Olivia Wilde's marfital comedy, and even that becomes something close to a distant memory by the finale. IMDb listing.
Jackass: Best & Last (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas) - An ecstatic, collective middle finger to aging and chronic pain and death - not a world I want to live in, but one I'm always delighted to visit. IMDb listing.
Jerusalem (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - This visually spectacular, 45-minute edu-tainment on Israel's "cradle of civilization" is really quite a glorious piece of work. IMDb listing.
Jurassic Park (PG-13; The Last Picture House Rooftop: Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18, 8:30 p.m.) - A movie whose visuals and sound design still hold up remarkably well, and a film that pretty much wipes the floor with the relative posers of Chris Pratt's Jurassic World offerings. IMDb listing.
Leviticus (R; FilmScene at the Chauncey) - I sincerely hope that some enterprising grad-school students write thesis papers on this clever, surprisingly sweet freakout, because good lord is this thing rife with thematic elements deserving of in-depth exploration. IMDb listing.
Masters of the Universe (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - This sword/slorcery/sci-fi is quick-witted, fast-paced, blessedly inconsequential, and awfully damned funny – so funny, in truth, that the eventual, traditionally dreaded sentimentality and schmaltz proves legitimately affecting. IMDb listing.
The Metropolitan Opera: The Merry Widow Summer Encore (not rated; VIP Cinemas: Wednesday, July 22, 12:40 p.m.) - MetOpera.org.
Michael (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - Jaafar Jackson and the concert scenes are, for the most part, genuinely thrilling, but when this Jackson bio-book moves off the stage, it's oftentimes painfully terrible. IMDb listing.
Minions & Monsters (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Blue Grass Drive-in, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - It's hard to think of a more ticklish recent ode to cinema than thios animated sequel, which would've been just about perfect if its monsters were ditched entirely. IMDb listing.
Moana (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Voy 61 Drive In Theatre, Blue Grass Drive-in, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - Another unconscionable yet sadly inevitable Disney cash grab. IMDb listing.
The Monuments Men (PG-13; Aledo Opera House) - This professionally rendered but alternately lofty and cutesy-poo World War II adventure appears so enraptured by its own high-mindedness, and so charmed by its (unfunny) baggy-pants comic turns, that it's nearly insufferable. IMDb listing.
Motor City: Early-Access Screening (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX: Wednesday, July 22, 7 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - This edu-doc tries to do too much in too little a time, but it's never less than interesting, and those mega-screen vistas of Egypt are truly stunning. IMDb listing.
Mysteries of the Unseen World (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - One of the fastest-moving, most visually resplendent edu-tainments the Putnam has ever housed. IMDb listing.
National Parks Adventure (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - This expectedly gorgeous endeavor is also unexpectedly, even thrillingly, varied in presentation: sensationally informative, joyfully inspiring, and even laugh-out-loud funny. IMDb listing.
The Neverending Story (PG; VIP Cinemas: Sunday, July 19, and Wednesday, July 22) - IMDb listing.
Night of the Comet (PG-13; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Monday, July 20, 7 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Obsession (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Blue Grass Dtive-in, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - This is Curry Barker's chance to give Gen Z a Fatal Attraction of its very own, and if his movie doesn't wholly succeed … . Well, Adrian Lyne's 1987 smash had major problems, too. IMDb listing.
Oceans (G; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
The Odyssey (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, The Last Picture House, FilmScene at the Chauncey, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
One Crazy Summer (PG; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Wednesday, July 22, 10 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
The Pout-Pout Fish (PG; Marcus Sycamore Cinema: Sunday, July 19, through Wednesday, July 22, noon) - Overall, the animation is fine, the dialects add regional flavor, and Elise Allen's and Elie Choufany's screenplay does boast admirable verbal and visual gags of the SpongeBob SquarePants variety. IMDb listing.
Scary Movie (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - This comic spoof is frequently thisclose to being timely without ever really getting there. IMDb listing.
The Sheep Detectives (PG; Aledo Opera House) - While I giggled a lot and smiled almost constantly, it wasn't the jokes that, for three days following my viewing, made me unable to even think about the movie without welling up. IMDb listing.
Sia: Nostalgic for the Present (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX: Thursday, July 23, 6:15 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Supergirl (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - Given how bored I've been at so many cinematic superhero origin stories over the decades, I feel silly for wishing that Craig Gillespie's adventure had merely been a superhero origin story. IMDb listing.
Superpower Dogs (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - Daniel Ferguson provides enough globe-trotting action for a James Bond flick, treating us to first-rate training footage and re-created missions in locales ranging from the Canadian Rockies to the Italian coast to a debris-strewn site near New York's Ground Zero. IMDb listing.
T. Rex (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Time & Water (PG; FilmScene at the Chauncey) - IMDb listing.
Top Gun (PG; Blue Grass Drive-in) - This squarem silly Tom Cruise smash still features plenty of guilty pleasures, plus a few legitimate pleasures. IMDb listing.
Top Gun: Maverick (PG-13; Blue Grass Drive-in) - Had the film and its star actually embraced Tom Cruise's human fallibility, this corny, retrograde, occasionally quite-entertaining outing might've really been something. IMDb listing.
Toy Story 5 (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Blue Grass Drive-in, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - To not have fun at this movie, I think you'd have to actively try to have a bad time – which isn't to say that we didn't deserve a better one. IMDb listing.
Wild Rescue (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
The Wild Robot (PG; VIP Cinemas: Tuesday, July 21, through Thursday, July 23, 10 a.m.) - My favorite 10-year-old and I watched nearly all of this animated adventure comedy in a state of grinning, open-mouthed rapture, and the only thing that would've made us happier, we agreed, was watching it all over again the instant it finished. IMDb listing.
Young Washington (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Blue Grass Drive-in, Aledo Opera House, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - For all of the film's squareness and late-in-the-day silliness, writer/director Jon Erwin, his subtly magnetic lead, and his deeply impressive supporting ensemble delivera true American hero to root for. IMDb listing.
