F9 is #1 at box office

For the weekend of June 25-27, 2021, F9: The Fast Saga was the big winner, and its $70 million haul indicates that the box office is indeed on the road to recovery. Its opening wasn't as big at the eighth installment's $98 million opening, but it did open better than the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff. Audiences are making their way back to the multiplexes, and we're retuning to normalcy. F9 will inevitably join Godzilla vs. Kong and A Quiet Place Part II as the third movie of 2021 to pass the $100 million domestic mark.

Opens Next Week

THE FOREVER PURGE with Ana de la Reguera and Josh Lucas.

THE BOSS BABY 2 with the voices of Alec Baldwin and James Marsden.

Opens July 9

BLACK WIDOW with Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh.

Opens July 16

SPACE JAM 2 with LeBron James and Don CHeadle.

Opens July 23

OLD with Gael Garcia Bernal and Rufus Sewell.

GI JOE ORIGINS: SNAKE EYES with Henry Golding and Samara Weaving.

THE COMEBACK TRAIL with Robert DeNiro and Morgan Freeman.

Opens July 30

JUNGLE CRUISE with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

STILLWATER with Matt Damon and Abigail Breslin.

THE GREEN KNIGHT with Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander.

In the Heights - Movie Review

Starring Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Jimmy Smits, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Gregory Diaz IV, Stephanie Beatriz, Dascha Polanco, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Written by Quiara Alegria Hudes & Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Directed by Jon M. Chu.

★★★½ 

To bring Lin-Manuel Miranda's breakthrough 2008 Broadway play to the big screen, director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) opted to be as bright and dazzling as possible. The sky is blue, the sun is hot, the streets are alive, and the background extras are ready to dance on a moment's notice if a lead breaks into song. We get some classic dance homages (Busby Berkeley being the most obvious) and breakout vocals from some of Broadway's best.

Miranda is a smaller role here, as he's aged out of playing Usnavi, our protagonist, the Our Town Stage Manager of Washington Heights, a block of culture hanging on while inflation and small businesses closing threaten its existence. Usnavi is played by Anthony Ramos, whom Hamilton fans will recognize ("Me, I died for him"), and it's nice to see some other faces in unexpected roles. Brooklyn Nine-Nine fans should get a kick out of seeing Stephanie Beatriz as the very non-Diaz salon worker Carla. Did I know Jimmy Smits could sing before? I don't know, but he can.

These are fun people to hang out with for a couple hours. Is it meaty? At times. The plot isn't exactly complex. We know how transferring musicals to the big screen can go horrifically wrong (Cats, anyone?) but this one delivers.