Movie capsules: "Get Hard," "It Follows," "Home"

Compiled from El Paso Times staff and wire reports. Listings are subject to change.

The star rating system: Poor Fair Good Excellent

"Get Hard" (R): Kevin Hart finds himself shoehorned into a Will Ferrell buddy comedy in "Get Hard," a politically incorrect romp that only rarely romps. Ferrell is as fearless as ever, stripping down and looking foolish, willing to be out-of-touch and out of step. Hart has his manic moments. But in this buddy comedy, the buddies are not equal and that limits the laughs.

"Home" (PG): An alien on the run from his own people, lands on Earth and makes friends with the adventurous cat, Tip (Rihanna), who is on a quest of her own in this animated film. (No review)

"It Follows" (R): A few genuinely (and literally) hair-raising moments, a few knowing winks and a lot to think about lift "It Follows" above the horror pack. Sex, its consequences and a teenager actually grappling, in advance, with those consequences make this that rarest of rarities, a smart "dead teenager movie."

"Serena" (R): Bradley Cooper plays a Depression Era timber baron racing to clear cut the mountains before the Feds turn the land into the Smoky Mountains National Park. Then Serena (Jennifer Lawrence), a Westerner who grew up in timber wealth, crosses his field of view. Cooper and Lawrence get to do things on horseback, swing an axe like they've done it before and play intimate scenes that they've never had the chance to show off on screen. But,they don't create much heat.

Also in theaters

"A La Mala" (PG-13): "A la Mala" is a Mexican romantic comedy in the "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days/Failure to Launch/40 Days and 40 Nights" mold. Change the language to English, switch the starlet to Olivia Wilde, or this year's Olivia Wilde, and you've got a rom-com as shiny, shallow and cliched as anything Hollywood has turned out over the past dozen years.

"Black or White" (PG-13): "Selma" wasn't the only film about race to get short shrift from Oscar voters this past year. "Black or White" is a frank, touching and very well-acted melodrama about child custody and cultural perceptions of "blackness" and "the race card," and could have earned Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner fresh Oscar nominations.

"Cinderella" (PG): Director Kenneth Branagh delivers a lovely corpse of a fairytale, not helped by a blandly pretty lead (Lily James) and even blander Prince Charming (Richard Madden).

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Movie capsules: "Get Hard," "It Follows," "Home"