Movie & Television Reviews

The soul-deadening platter of splatter “Thanksgiving” (Sony) is intended as a comedic homage to exploitation horror films of the past.

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.

Viewers out for sweeping spectacle will likely come away from director Ridley Scott’s historical epic satisfied. But those seeking insight into the conquering French emperor’s personality will find there’s a hollow ring to star Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of him.

Though it includes some gory interludes, “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” (Ubisoft) is also educational insofar as it explores – and celebrates – the Golden Age of Islam.

Capsule reviews of theatrical movies available now for streaming or scheduled for broadcast on network or cable television during the week of Nov. 19, as well as notes on TV programming for the same week.

The relationship that writer-director Sofia Coppola’s screen version of Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me” charts is a strange mix of the respectable and the unsavory.

Attentive viewers will discern some positive moral values underlying the plot of the action comedy “Freelance” (Relativity).

James Wahlberg, once a convict, is now a film producer and has created a documentary about Mother Teresa that recently premiered in another country — Poland.