Kurt Jensen

It takes nearly an hour of gunfire, car chases and flying fists for the plot of “Shelter” (Black Bear) to emerge. That it’s another of Jason Statham’s pictures in which he plays a brooding loner who eventually avenges old wrongs. Yet the film almost sneers at viewers for expecting exactly what they get.

“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” (Sony) is the fourth installment in a splatter-stained franchise centered on zombies that reaches back to 2002. Not only does the film maintain its predecessors’ tradition of bloodletting, it also features a devil worshipping theme and abundant instances of gratuitous nudity.

There is not one ounce of cynicism in “Song Sung Blue” (Focus), the fact-based tale of a Neil Diamond cover band from Milwaukee. And therein lies immense power.

As a mystery in which no one is who they appear to be, the psychological horror film “The Housemaid” (Lionsgate) has a lot of entertaining suspense to offer viewers. Yet the movie is also a gory revenge fantasy that dabbles in grotesquery and sadistic behavior, thus severely circumscribing its appropriate audience.