Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 1 August 2025 - 7 August 2024

Coming home Monday! Whatcha got, Boston?

• The Naked Gun gets a "legacysquel", with Leslie Nielsen the heretofore unmentioned son of Leslie Nielsen's Frank Drebin bumbling through an adventure where Police Squad! Is being threatened with defunding. It's at The Capitol Theatre, Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, Assembly Row, Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Another sequel coming out this week is The Bad Guys 2, with the team of animal crooks blackmailed into one last heist as they try to go straight following the first movie. It's at the Capitol, Fresh Pond, West Newton, CinemaSalem, Boston Common (including RealD 3D & Spanish dub), Causeway Street (including RealD 3D), the Seaport, South Bay (including RealD 3D), Assembly Row (including Dolby CInema & RealD 3D), Arsenal Yards, and Chestnut Hill.
  
  Documentary Archcitection, in which director Victor Kossakovsky examines the use of concrete in buildings around the world, opens at the Somerville, Boston Common, Kendall Square, and the Seaport.
  
  Boston Common opens She Rides Shotgun, with Taron Egerton as a father who must train his daughter to avoid assassins.
  
  After opening Wednesday at West Newton, Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, the Seaport, South Bay, and Assembly Row, Together also adds the Somerville and CinemaSalem on Friday.
  
  Sketch, in which a kid's drawings come to life and wreak havoc upon her town, opens Monday (Wednesday officially, but with two days of previews) at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Causeway Street, South Bay, and Assembly Row.
  
  Kids matinees include Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory at Kendall Square Saturday/Sunday/Wednesday, Shrek at Fresh Pond Monday to Thursday, and Migration at South Bay Monday/Wednesday.
  
  Sunset Boulevard has 75th anniversary shows at Boston Common on Sunday and Monday. Concert film Dead & Company: Live In Imax from Golden Gate Park plays Assembly Row Sunday. There are Monday mystery previews at Boston Common, Causeway Street, Kendall Square, South Bay, and Assembly Row. Freakier Friday gets a non-mystery "Fan First Screening" on Wednesday at Assembly Row, while Boston Common shows it as a double feature with the first film that evening.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre opens Folktales, a Norwegian documentary about a school above the Arctic circle and the teenagers who go there to learn traditional skills and connect to their heritage before adulthood.
  
  The Coolidge also opens a new set of Akira Kurosawa Restorations, with Throne of Blood (Friday/Saturday), The Hidden Fortress (Friday/Sunday),Rashomon (Saturday/Sunday), Yojimbo & Sanjuro (separate admissions Monday), Stray Dog (Tuesday/Thursday), Red Beard (Tuesday/Thursday), High and Low (Wednesday), and Ikiru (Wednesday).
  
  The midnight films in August are horror movies involving kids, with The Bad Seed on 35mm film Friday and Battle Royale on Saturday. CatVideoFest 2025 plays Sunday afternoon; Big is the 35mm Big Screen Classic on Monday; Ghost (on 35mm film) starts a Tuesday "Swayze Days" series; and there's a 35mm Cinema Jukebox show of Detroit Rock City on Thursday.
• Apple Fresh Pond had Telugu-language action drama Kingdom open Wednesday (also at Boston Common Causeway Street), and this week picks up Hindi animated adventure Mahavatar Narisimha, Hindi-language romance Dhadak 2, Hindi-language action-comedy Son of Sardaar 2, which, near as I can tell, is not based on a Telugu version remaking a Buster Keaton silent like its predecessor (also at Boston Common), and Kannada-language horror comedy Su From So. Hindi-language romance Saiyaara is held over (also at Boston Common).
  
  Chinese comedy The Lychee Road continues at Causeway Street.
• This week's Friday Film Matinee at The Brattle Theatre is Hercules in the Haunted World. They also pick up the new one from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Cloud, with Masaki Suda as a crook who fears he is marked for revenge, playing a full schedule Friday to Sunday and matinees Monday/Wednesday/Thursday.
  
  They also play Singin' in the Rain to celebrate Donald O'Connor's 100th; continue Almania! With Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean on Monday and a double feature of 3 Women & Popeye on Tuesday; run Elmer Gantry in 35mm as part of the Summer of Satire on Wednesday; and continue "Women i the Waves" with a double feature of Kira Muratova's Brief Encounters & Márta Mészáros's The Girl on Thursday.
• The Harvard Film Archive has a quiet weekend of 35mm Mikio Naruse showing Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts (Friday evening); Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro (Friday night); Sincerity (Saturday night); and Summer Cloads (Monday evening)
• The Museum of Fine Arts begins the annual French Film Festival with Night Call (Friday), Trois Amies (Saturday morning), When Fall is Coming (Saturday afternoon), Holy Cow (Sunday morning), and The Count of Monte Cristo (sold out Sunday afternoon).
• The Seaport Alamo shows CatVideoFest 2025 on Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday, begins a Saturday swordplay series with The Tale of Zatoichi, starts cycling through the Harry Potter movies again with Sorcerer's Stone on Saturday/Sunday/Tuesday, plays Tales from the Hood on Monday, and has a Movie Party presentation of Clueless on Wednesday.
• The Somerville Theatre has Vanishing Point for Saturday's Midnight special. Monday/s Great Remakes double feature is Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56 & '78. The GreenScreen show on Tuesday is a 35mm print of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Wednesday's Summer Camp show is Grey Gardens.
• The Regent Theatre also has CatVideoFest 2025, twice a day on Saturday & Sunday.
• Landmark Kendall Square's Tuesday comedy classic is Wet Hot American Summer.
• Outdoor screenings listed at Joe's Free Films: Song of the Sea at the MIT Open Space and Despicable Me 4 at the Charles River Esplanade on Friday; School of Rock at the Prudential Center on Saturday; The Devil Wears Prada at TimeOut Market on Monday; and "interactive" night with The Super Mario Bros. Movie at the Somerville Library plus Turning Red at Greene-Rose Heritage Park in Cambridge, Despicable Me 4 at Castle Island, and Commitment Phobia at Goethe-Institut (RSVP required) on Wednesday; and Barbie at Somerville's Statue Park in Davis Square (which I guess is what we're calling Seven Hills Park now) on Thursday.
• The Embassy in Waltham is open all week with Fantastic Four.
  
  The Lexington Venue is open all week but Monday with Shoshana, Bad Shabbos, and The Last Class. The Danny Boyle/Benedict Cumberbatch/Jonny Lee Miller Frankenstein with Miller as Victor and Cumberbatch as the Creature plays Saturday morning, and the version with the roles reversed plays Thursday evening.
  
  The West Newton Cinema opens Sabbath Queen (including a special event with director Sandi Simcha DuBowski and Tufts Professor Heather Nathans on Sunday afternoon) and The Bad Guys 2, keeping Sorry, Baby, Fantastic Four, Together, The Last Class, and Bad Shabbos.
  
  Cinema Salem has The Bad Guys 2, Fantastic Four, Together, and Superman through Monday. Friday's Night Light show is The Heroic Trio. Light week for rep, with 42nd Street for the Wednesday Classic and Weirdo Wednesdays down the hall.

I'll be in Montreal through Monday, though I'm kind of kicking myself at not choosing an earlier flight so I can catch Cloud at the Brattle. Anyway, Fantasia through Sunday, then probably catching the last shows of The Lychee Road and Imax 3D Fantastic Four when I get home.