The Smashing Machine
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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Animation Mixtape (not rated; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Monday, October 6, 4 & 7 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Anemone (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
Are We Good? (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Marcus Sycamore Cinema: Sunday, October 5, and Wednesday, October 8) - IMDb listing.
Avatar: The Way of Water (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - For all of his shortcomings, James Cameron is to be applauded for crafting an emotionally gripping tale of tragedy and eventual uplift that doesn't skimp on the sublime visual panache. IMDb listing.
The Bad Guys 2 (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - More often than not, this animated sequel is quite funny. Better yet, it's smart funny. IMDb listing.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - With Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell trying their best under awfully trying circumstances, director Kogonada's and screenwriter Seth Reiss' romantic fantasy is even more of a godawful embarrassment than it otherwise may have been. IMDb listing.
The Big Picture and "An Evening with Topher Grace" (PG-13; The Last Picture House: Saturday, October 4, 7 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Bone Lake (Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
The Brides of Dracula (not rated; FilmScene at the Chauncey: Saturday, October 4, 10 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema: Tuesday, October 7) - IMDb listing.
BTS 2019 World Tour "Love Yourself" Speak Yourself" London (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX: Sunday, October 5, 1 p.m.) - Cinemark.com.
BTS 2021 Muster Sowoozoo Remastered (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX: Sunday, October 5, 3:30 p.m.) - Cinemark.com.
By the Stream (not rated; FilmScene on the Ped Mall) - IMDb listing.
Casper: 30th Anniversary (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, Voy 61 Drive In Theatre, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
The Conjuring: Last Rites (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Blue Grass Drive-in, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - Michael Chaves' purportedly final horror installment is largely silly, aggressively schmaltzy, and only randomly scary, but satisfying enough to earn its many callbacks and leave fans with a smile. IMDb listing.
Coyotes (R; Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
Dead of Winter (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - Having Emma Thompson star in this depey, contrived thriller. makes the film worthwhile. Having Judy Greer around as her chief nemesis makes it almost unmissable. IMDb listing.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
The Devil's Rejects: 20th-Anniversary (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema: Monday, October 6, and Wednesday, October 8) - Rob Zombie's horror thriller, psychopathic though it may be, is frightening as hell, sometimes funny as hell, and doesn't play by any traditional scare-flick rules. IMDb listing.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (PG; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, FilmScene at the Chauncey, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - This purportedly final installment is gorgeous, amusing, moderately touching, and agreeable as hell. It just isn't in any way interesting. IMDb listing.
Dracula (not rated; The Last Picture House: Wednesday, October 8, 7:15 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Eleanor the Great (PG-13; VIP Cinemas) - This dramedy finds its 94-year-old star June Squibb transcending her material through conviction, pluck, and a lifetime of acting resources that make an otherwise iffy movie not just a treat, but a genuine occasion. IMDb listing.
Elephants: Giants of the Desert (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie (G; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
Get Out (R; The Last Picture House Rooftop: Friday, October 3, and Saturday, October 4, 7 p.m.) - Jordan Peele’s achievement is so thrillingly scary-funny, and so deeply satisfying, that it might take you hours or days to also recognize it as one of the angriest genre entertainments ever made. IMDb listing.
Good Boy (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
Hamilton (PG-13; VIP Cinemas) - As a record of filmed theatre – especially considering that Lin-Manuel Miranda's achievement is probably the greatest musical-theatre offering of the last 20 years – this piece of filmed live theatre might have exactly zero peers. IMDb listing.
Hari Bahadur Ko Jutti (not rated; Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - MarcusTheatres.com.
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (PG-13; Marcus Sycamore Cinema: Sunday, October 5, 3:30 p.m., and Monday, October 6, 7 p.m.) - Alan Rickman seems so shrewdly tied in to readers' hunger for a new installment - and their passionate "Is Snape a villain or isn't he?" debate - that, with very little screen time to do it in, he practically emerges as the film's star. IMDb listing.
Him (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, FilmScene at the Chauncey) - Justin Tipping's bloody, joyless offering is one hyperactive perils-of-football-worship montage after another, and astute and timely subject matter is forgotten in pursuit of thrills that never emerge. IMDb listing.
The History of Sound (R; FilmScene on the Ped Mall) - This isn't the next great, epically scaled, big-screen gay romance, but for those of us who are still pining for one nearly two decades after Brokeback Mountain, there's still enough here to satisfy. IMDb listing.
Idly Kadai (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - IMDb listing.
Jaws (PG; Voy 61 Drive In Theatre) - Steven Spielberg never more-deftly interwove the hilarious with the horrifying the way he did here, and with so little fuss, to boot. IMDb listing.
Jurassic World Rebirth (PG-13; VIP Cinemas) - Gareth Edwards' direction kept me from hating this dino-sequel, but I did kind of hate the fact of its existence – some $180 million spent in service of something this profoundly, infuriatingly mediocre. IMDb listing.
Kantara a Legend: Chapter 1 (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - IMDb listing.
The Long Walk (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - For a thriller whose very premise hardly promises fun, this Stephen King adaptation gets less and less fun as it progresses, and when the end credits finally rolled after 108 increasingly harsh minutes, I wasn't cathartically wiped out so much as deeply relieved. IMDb listing.
Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaoahs (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - This edu-doc ries to do too much in too little a time and engages in too much chronological leap-frogging, but it's never less than interesting, and those mega-screen vistas of Egypt are truly stunning. IMDb listing.
Museum Alive! (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - Putnam.org.
Night of the Living Dead (R; The Last Picture House Rooftop: Thursday, October 9, 7 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (R; The Last Picture House Rooftop: Tuesday, October 7, 7:30 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
One Battle After Another (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, The Last Picture House, Blue Grass Drive-in, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - You leave Paul Thomas Anderson's obscenely enjoyable comic thriller on such a high of filmmaking bravado, narrative ingenuity, and performance pleasure that you don't want to – you practically can't – come down from it. IMDb listing.
Perfect Blue (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX) - IMDb listing.
The Smashing Machine (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, The Last Picture House, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - IMDb listing.
Spider-Man (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Syacmore Cinema: Friday, October 3) - Though occasionally overscaled and often overwritten, Sam Raimi's trilogy-starter remains a zippy, entertaining spectacle. IMDb listing.
Spider-Man 2.1 (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Syacmore Cinema: Saturday, October 4) - Sam Raimi's superhero followup is almost ridiculously enjoyable, a rare sequel that manages to leave you craving even more. IMDb listing.
Spider-Man 3 (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Syacmore Cinema: Sunday, October 5) - It's only the occasional inspirations that keep you from bolting from the auditorium during the hellishly bad ones. IMDb listing.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 (R; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Marcus Sycamore Cinema) - Dull, stagnant, personality challenged, fright free, and deeply unnecessary as a redo of Bryan Bertino's low-rent shocker that I did and would still place on my 2008 10-favorites list, the 2024 version of The Strangers was truly awful. This one is a little bit worse. IMDb listing.
The Summer Book (not rated; FilmScene at the Chauncey) - IMDb listing.
Superpower Dogs (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - Daniel Ferguson's edu-doc 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.
Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl (not rated; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX, VIP Cinemas, Blue Grass Drive-in, FilmScene at the Chauncey, Marcus Sycamore Cinema: Friday, October 3, through Sunday, October 5) - IMDb listing.
Tron: Ares -- Early-Access Screening (PG-13; Davenport 53rd 18 + IMAX: Wednesday, October 8, 7 p.m.) - IMDb listing.
Wild Rescue (not rated; Putnam Museum & Science Center) - IMDb listing.
