New at AMC Showplace 10 Theaters in Mattoon this weekend:
- “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them“ (PG-13)
The new “Harry Potter” spinoff is the first of five movies set in the same wizarding world.
It’s actually based off one of Harry’s textbooks from Hogwarts. You may remember that J.K. Rowling published it in 2001 to help benefit Comic Relief. It included handwritten notes from Harry on some of the entries, plus a foreword written by Albus Dumbledore.
In the movie, Eddie Redmayne plays the book’s author, Newt Scamander. He’s a wizard from the 1920s who comes to America with a magical zoo hidden in his suitcase.
Unfortunately, a non-magic user gets his hands on the suitcase and accidentally releases a lot of the creatures, which gets Newt in trouble with the American version of the Ministry of Magic . . . the Magical Congress of the United States of America.
Colin Farrell is the wizard hunting them down . . . and the two lady wizards who help Newt avoid the law so he can recapture the beasts are played by Katherine Waterston from next year’s “Alien” prequel, and A Fine Frenzy singer Alison Sudol.
The rest of the cast includes Ezra Miller from the new “Justice League” movies, Zoe Kravitz, and Ron Perlman as a goblin who owns a magic nightclub.
But, more importantly, Johnny Depp also makes a brief cameo as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelward. And that will serve as a lead-in for him appearing in the sequels.
If any of you nerds know your “Harry Potter” history, you should know that “The Deathly Hallows” is all about Voldemort wanting to get his hands on the most powerful wand in the world, the Elder Wand . . . which Dumbledore won after a duel with Grindelward.
- “The Edge of Seventeen“ (R)
Hailee Steinfeld plays an awkward teenager trying to come to grips with her best friend dating her brother, while desperately searching for a relationship of her own.
Woody Harrelson is a teacher she turns to for advice, Kyra Sedgwick plays her mother, and the guy who played Ryder Lynn on “Glee” is her brother.
- “Bleed for This“ (R)
Miles Teller plays a boxer who fought his way back to the ring after a car accident left him with a fractured neck and the prognosis that he’d never fight again. Aaron Eckhart plays his trainer. It’s based on the true story of Vinny “The Pazmanian Devil” Pazienza.
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