Film Review: “Five Nights at Freddy’s”

Grin and Fazbear it: Frightfully fun feature fares fine

Abby (Piper Rubio) gazes upon some potential new friends at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. 

If you’re looking to take the family out for a Halloween movie this week, you could do worse than Five Nights at Freddy’s. It’s rated PG-13, which already makes it more kid- friendly than most R-rated Halloween fare. The rating no doubt was purposeful, so as to allow legions of young fans access: the film is based on a hugely popular video game of the same name. I’ve never played the game, so I may not be the film’s target audience, but as a lightweight horror movie, it’s amusing enough for a mixed audience of game fans, non-fans, kids and adults. The scares are mostly fun, the gore level is mostly low, and the plot is mostly silly.

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Film Review: “Mack & Rita”

Keaton rises above sophomoric material in body-swap comedy

Never a good idea: Mack (Elizabeth Lail) tries out a regression pod in Palm Springs.

You have to hand it to Diane Keaton. At 76, she’s not afraid to embrace screwball comedy, pratfalls and all. What’s a shame, though, is that she doesn’t have a better vehicle for her comedic talents than the embarrassingly bad new picture Mack & Rita.

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