John Mulderig

Some games are no fun, like playing cat and mouse with homicidal maniacs. Such is the desperate fate that befalls the main characters in the penny dreadful “The Strangers: Chapter 1” (Lionsgate). Why moviegoers would want to bear witness to their meaningless ordeal, however, remains a mystery.

Capsule reviews of theatrical movies available now for streaming or scheduled for broadcast on network or cable television as well as notes on TV programming for the same week.

What’s on the cards for viewers of the horror flick “Tarot” (Screen Gems)? As it turns out, not much. While the bloodletting on display in this inept production is relatively restrained, the characters are cardboard and the mythos explaining their bedevilment lame.

Capsule reviews of theatrical movies available now for streaming or scheduled for broadcast on network or cable television as well as notes on TV programming for the same week.

Capsule reviews of theatrical movies available now for streaming or scheduled for broadcast on network or cable television as well as notes on TV programming for the same week.

Screwball comedies showcasing couples verbally duking it out in the battle of the sexes comprised a significant and often winning subgenre during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Whether the sparring partners were Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur or William Powell and Carole Lombard, audiences were likely to enjoy every round.

Director and co-writer Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of Damien Lewis’ 2014 history “Churchill’s Secret Warriors” showcases some clever ruses and innovative, spur-of-the-moment thinking on the part of the U.K.’s Special Operations Executive (SOE). But the mission on which the main characters embark also involves the enthusiastic slaughter of extras by the dozen.

Intense and erotically charged, the psychological drama “Challengers” (Amazon MGM) is, in a word, challenging. Yet, while it trespasses into territory many may not wish to visit, the serious artistic intent behind the production redeems some of its excesses, though only for a small group of mature moviegoers.