“BlacKkKlansman” (Biography/Crime: 2 hours, 15 minutes)

Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Michael Buscemi, Topher Grace and Harry Belafonte

Director: Spike Lee

Rated: R (Profanity, thematic elements, violence and sexual references)

Movie Review: Spike Lee movies have always been commentary photoplays about race, classism and government. He is just as bold with this screenplay, too.

“BlacKkKlansman” is an engaging movie adapted from Ron Stallworth’s 2014 book “Black Klansman,” which is based on some real-life events. Lee makes the movie more entertaining by creating a dramatization, where some characters and events are fictionalized. 

Ron Stallworth (Washington) is the first African-American police officer and detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department in 1979. He managed a successful infiltration of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter with the help of white detective Flip Zimmerman (Driver), who, unknown to others, is a non-practicing Jewish man.

Zimmerman pretends to be Stallworth in the face-to-face meetings. Together, the two men get deep enough during their investigations that they have interactions with David Duke (Grace), the Ku Klux Klan’s grand wizard and national director.

Director Spike Lee sets the tone for the movie, which he co-wrote, by implanting two scenes at the beginning. One dictates white supremacy as portrayed by Alec Baldwin, and the other, via a performance by Corey Hawkins as Kwame Ture, offers an opposite from the black perspective. The two men appear comparable; they both appear to be preparing for war, one as the oppressor and the other oppressed. 

The two scenes give motives for characters’ actions. Stallworth and Zimmerman are enforcing the law. Stallworth sees the matter as a movement, and Zimmerman sees law enforcement as a profession. Their foes see their duty as white supremacists as a crusade. The adversarial relationship makes “BlackkKlansman” an engaging movie.

Lee (“Do the Right Thing,” 1989; “Malcolm X,” 1992; “Jungle Fever,” 1991) delivers a thought-provoking movie while keeping it as amusing as it is dramatic. John David Washington is dynamic as Stallworth. He portrays the vice detective in a hip manner that is potent. His scenes with Adam Driver are dynamic. Driver is the more reserved of the two but he manages to play against Washington’s more outgoing character.

Other substantially engaging scenes happen between Washington and Topher Grace. Although the two men’s characters primarily communicate over the phone throughout the movie, their lines with each other are some of the movie’s most captivating, entertaining moments. 

This Spike Lee joint becomes slightly documentary-like during its conclusion. He also becomes slightly political, too, a distraction from a great story. 

Lee adds scenes about the recent altercations in Charlottesville, Va., and other places. The scenes distract as they remove audiences from the movie’s invitingly diverting setting. The last moments do not totally jibe with the rest of movie because their insertion is not a smooth transition as the beginning Civil War scene from “Gone with the Wind (1939),” which is referenced in the movie. 

Lee also references and inputs scenes from D.W. Griffith’s racist “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) that featured the Ku Klux Klan as saviors.

However, Lee is about making statements with his photoplays, so the last moments of the movie are his parting shot. Seemingly, he indicates the Civil War still lingers by showing parallel moments between then and now. The statement is bold, and his style resonates, an invigorating return of the classic Spike Lee cinema.

Grade: B+ (Racial tensions create bold entertainment.)

“Slender Man” (Horror/Mystery: 1 hour, 33 minutes)

Starring: Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair and

Director: Sylvain White

Rated: PG-13 (Disturbing imagery, sequences of terror, thematic elements and language including some crude sexual references)

Movie Review: The movie is about four suburban young women being terrorized by what they believe to be an urban myth, Slender Man. 

Like many modern horror movies, young women are the target of some malevolent entity. Apparently, the “Me Too” movement is leading with horrors and thrillers. Young women, mainly teens and early 20-something-year-olds, are often killed. The trend is becoming overly used, especially in uninspiring horror movies like this. 

A small town in Massachusetts is home to four women who do not have enough to do, so they summon an evil entity from another realm. Soon, they realize Slender Man is no internet lore. The being is real and tormenting them. 

If only Slender Man had taken these young women in an earlier scene, this cracked movie could end quicker. Sylvain White (“Stomp the Yard,” 2007) directs this mediocre piece.

“Slender Man” fails to be substantial in any form that matters. Parents appear missing in a Charlie Brown-type of way, only making appearances when needed for story elements. Young women enter a shadowy forest at night and blindfold themselves. Characters walk into dark rooms knowing something is possibly in the room, yet they do not turn on lights in many situations.

Yes, these onscreen personas deserve their demises because of stupidity. Audiences are thoughtless for buying tickets to see them in such a lackluster movie.

Grade: D (Slender material presented.)

“The Meg” (Science-Fiction/Action: 1 hour, 53 minutes)

Starring: Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, and Rainn Wilson

Director: Jon Turteltaub

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, peril, gore and strong language)

Movie Review: The movie is mostly tough-man quips and other inserted jokes. The moments may be diverting as comedy, but the scenes fail to make one believe the cast is in danger from a megashark. 

People in the action production yell, swim and fight a massive shark. Maybe the shark they are fighting is a loan shark, one that takes your money for a rip-off of “Jaws” (Director Steven Spielberg, 1975) and “Deep Blue Sea” (Director Renny Harlin, 1999).

Naval Capt. Jonas Taylor (Statham) faces an unknown threat when his vessel was attacked five years earlier. Now, a scientific team recruits Taylor to rescue three people, including his ex-wife, at the bottom of an unexplored part of the ocean. While the rescue options commence, the science team discovers a prehistoric shark, a Megalodon. The large fish dwarfs other sharks. Soon, the shark is loose and terrorizing people on Asian coasts.

Jason Statham is known for his macho roles in movies such as “The Transporter” (2002), “Crank” (2006) and “The Mechanic” (2011). He plays a similar, albeit redundant, role in “The Meg,” an unoriginal production directed by Jon Turteltaub (“National Treasure,” 2004).

The scenes consist of misplaced heroics and badly timed humor. The heroism is unintelligent valor, and the jokes fall flat. Characters are thinly developed. Together, the elements make “The Meg” a toothless shark.

Grade: D+ (The opposite of a megamovie.)

“Dog Days” (Comedy/Drama: 1 hour, 53 minutes)

Starring: Nina Dobrev, Tone Bell, Vanessa Hudgens, Finn Wolfhard and Ron Cephas Jones

Director: Ken Marino

Rated: PG (Language and crude and suggestive content)

Movie Review: For people looking for easy entertainment that makes the dog days of summer cooler, this dramedy works. It is a lightweight drama with plenty of comical moments that easily brighten one’s day. 

It does so by showing human interactions with their pet canines. The dogs make their lives content, and that happiness transfers to audiences. 

Several people in Los Angeles are connected via their pooches. The people find a respect for each other through their dogs. Friendships develop, romance happens and family connections become stronger.

Ken Marino (“Wanderlust,” 2012) helms the cast, mainly middling actors playing everyday people. The interactions of the cast work in an easy-going manner to deliver a decent screenplay. Even if it is nothing powerful, “Dog Days” delivers pleasing enough cast and narrative that it entertains audiences.

Grade: B- (Something to bark at on a hot day.)