Film Previews

“The Naked Gun”

• PG-13 | 85 minutes
• Director: Akiva Schaffer
• Writers: Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, Akiva Schaffer
• Stars: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser

Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) steps into his father’s shoes to lead the Police Squad and save the world. With a particular set of skills and a penchant for chaos, Drebin Jr. navigates a series of hilarious misadventures in this action-packed comedy. Starring Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, CCH Pounder, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston, Liza Koshy, Cody Rhodes and Busta Rhymes.

“Weapons”

• R | 128 minutes
• Director/Writer: Zach Cregger
• Stars: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich

“So this one Wednesday is like a normal day for the whole school, but today was different,” a young narrator says off-screen. “Every other class had all their kids, but Mrs. Gandy’s room was totally empty.” We see footage of the 17 children who got out of bed at 2:17 a.m., ran into the darkness with outstretched arms, and apparently “never came back.” The school principal (Benedict Wong) eventually advises Gandy (Julia Garner) to stay away from the school; Josh Brolin is playing a missing kid’s father who is suspicious about why only her class was affected, and he does not seem to be the only parent with concerns. The two-minute trailer also gives us cryptic shots of Gandy entering a dark classroom of children, a car accident happening in broad daylight, and lots of screaming.

“Honey Don’t!”

• R | 88 minutes
• Director: Ethan Coen
• Writers: Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
• Stars:  Margaret Qualley, Chris Evans, Aubrey Plaza

In “Honey Don’t!,” the latest film in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s intended lesbian B-movie trilogy, Margaret Qualley plays Honey O’Donahue, a tough but glamorous private investigator in Bakersfield, California. Honey is typically in the business of infidelity, taking cases involving suspicious spouses and their philandering partners. But at the start of Coen’s prankish film, the sleuth finds herself drawn into a higher-stakes mystery. The death of a local woman leads Honey down a slippery path involving religious cults, megalomaniacal pastors and an unexpected romance.♦