Team Efforts 

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE. When they're really cooking, Guy Ritchie movies can deliver a thrilling, funny, well-appointed (if slightly vapid) pastiche of Brit-crime in a heightened, mid-century American vein. That he has produced more (artistic) misses than hits is perhaps a function of over-productivity or the demands of a myopic market place. Fortunately, it's neither here nor there in the case of his latest.

Supposedly drawn from Winston Churchill's recently declassified confidential wartime files, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare describes, in brief, broad strokes, the ostensible birth of British special operations. Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill), an officer with a checkered but untold history, is released from royal prison to head up his own department of dirty tricks. Assisted by a cadre of strategists and killers, including Danish maniac Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding), fellow officer Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer) and Irish emigre Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), he is charged with infiltrating a German-controlled harbor and disabling the ship responsible for resupplying the North Atlantic U-boat fleet. Agent Marjorie Stewart (Eiza Gonzalez) and genteel club-owner turned operative Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) provide clandestine ground support.

It is entirely possible I am entering the phase of life wherein World War II history becomes an object of inordinate fascination, but I don't think so. Rather, this seems to be a case of a ripping good yarn, well told. Breezy and violent, with the principal cast, Cavill especially, appearing to have a ball sailing around shooting Nazis, it represents entertainment for entertainment's sake. It may have some pretensions to historiography but, folded in as they are to the grand-scale set-piece action of the thing, they don't distract from its enjoyability. R. 120M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

ABIGAIL. From the directors of Ready or Not (2019) and Scream VI (2023), Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, Abigail is a kidnap thriller with a significant twist. That twist, of course, has been mightily spoiled by the movie's marketing. It's a bewildering, self-defeating maneuver and one that may have prevented this from becoming an old-fashioned word-of-mouth phenomenon; no use crying over it now. I will, for the unlikely benefit of the uninformed, try to avoid spoilers.

A group of misfits are brought together by a mysterious handler called Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) to kidnap the daughter of a rich and powerful man. The grab goes off without a hitch but then the crew is ordered to wait for 24 hours in the victim's country house. Tensions mount as they begin to understand each other's weaknesses and the gravity of the crime they have committed. And then things start to get bloody.

Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are shaping up to be Hollywood's 21st century splatter masters, with a focus on the socio-politics of horror film final girl characters. In this case, Joey (Melissa Barrera) is our window into the narrative, a recovering addict and combat medic estranged from her young son. It falls to her to navigate the group dynamics of the Ex-Cop (Dan Stevens), the Hacker (Kathryn Newton), the Muscle (Kevin Durand), the Wheelman (Angus Cloud) and the Marine (William Catlett) — they all have half-clever assigned aliases, but that's part of the fun — as the actual motive behind their assignment becomes clear.

The script, by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, uses some familiar tricks and tropes, but is self-aware enough not to be tripped up by its influences. And the directors, with their trademark camera moves, warm-toned lighting schemes and fountains of gore, bring a knowing sense of genre conflation to the whole affair. Even with the big surprise ruined, Abigail is still an enjoyable, darkly funny riff on genre with a more significant investment in character than most. R. 109M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

SASQUATCH SUNSET. The headlines have it that audiences are walking out of this locally filmed feature in disgust. While it is true that there are more bodily functions detailed here than many would prefer, the only offensive aspect of it is that creators David and Nathan Zellner have painted the Bigfoots as forest morons with precious little ability to adapt or assimilate information, much less preserve their own lives. Despite that betrayal of my manufactured belief in this cryptozoological marvel, I still found it to be beautifully photographed and more or less compelling.

Chronicling a year in the life of a group — family? pod? squad? — of the titular creatures (including Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough), with grunts and gestures the closest thing to dialogue, Sasquatch Sunset depicts a lot of walking around, some misadventures with intoxicants, unwanted sexual advances and a rather vivid live birth.

Whether or not this movie — I hesitate to say "a movie like this" because, well — needs to exist is probably beside the point; it's here and is surprisingly well executed, at least technically. That it lacks a storyline, instead settling on a sort of sumptuously shot, warts-and-all nature film "narrative" will likely be too much (or too little) for the audience at large. It contains comedy and tragedy, it's only fair to say, but untethered as they are to a true connection with the characters, they play as more ironic than emotionally affecting. R. 189M. BROADWAY, MINOR.

John J. Bennett (he/him) is a movie nerd who loves a good car chase.

NOW PLAYING

ALIEN (1979). Sigourney Weaver stars in the classic sci-fi office drama on the spaceship Nostromo. R. 117M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

BOY KILLS WORLD. Bill Skarsgård as a deaf fighter and Famke Janssen as dystopian villain in a wacky, bloody action-comedy. With Yayan Ruhian. R. 115M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

CHALLENGERS. Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor play pro tennis while player-turned-coach Zendaya serves. R. 131M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK, MINOR.

CIVIL WAR. Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura play a photographer and writer travel from New York to Washington, D.C. to interview the president (Nick Offerman) amid a future American conflict. R. 109M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK, MINOR.

DUNE: PART TWO. More Zendaya in the second installment of the spicy sci-fi epic. PG13. 166M. BROADWAY.

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE. Remaining original cast members (Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, Annie Potts) team up with a new generation. With Paul Rudd. PG13. 115M. BROADWAY.

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE. Bring back the Mothra twins, you cowards. BROADWAY.

KUNG FU PANDA 4. Jack Black returns to voice the roly-poly warrior with legend James Hong, Awkwafina and Viola Davis. PG. 94M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

SHREK 2. The ogre meets the parents. PG. 93M. BROADWAY.

SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE. Anime based on the series. PG13. 110M. BROADWAY.

UNSUNG HERO. Big Christian music family biopic about the Smallbones. PG. 112M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.

Fortuna Theatre is temporarily closed. For showtimes call: Broadway Cinema (707) 443-3456; Mill Creek Cinema 839-3456; Minor Theatre (707) 822-3456.