‘FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES’: Debuting on the eve of the millennium in the year 2000, the “Final Destination” franchise gave a generation of millennials some very specific phobias, including lumber trucks, lawn mowers, shower curtains, roller coasters, etc. Devon Sawa played the psychically gifted Alex whose bad dream set off this violent string of events; in “Bloodlines,” the dreamer in question is Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana). Her night terrors are causing her to flunk out of college, and her roommate demands she go home and get some answers so that she can get some sleep. “Bloodlines” reinvigorates “Final Destination” in a way that makes its predecessors proud, utilizing a family tree death order structure that links a horrific event from 1968 to the freak accidents that now plague Stefani and her extended family. The connective tissue to the previous films takes the form of the late, great Tony Todd, who reprises his role as a wise coroner who offers guidance and advice to our characters, frantic to halt their impending doom. Larger existential questions, philosophical quandaries and mental health themes are present if you want to look for them, but “Final Destination: Bloodlines” also revels in the gleefully gory and low-brow bloody thrills that are the hallmark of the franchise. The shockingly wild death traps are enough to keep you gasping while pondering how to try and make meaning out of a world that’s out to get you. 1:50. 3 stars. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

‘JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE’: “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” (or, “Jane Austen a gâché ma vie”) is a catchy, provocative title for writer- director Laura Piani’s debut feature, but it is a bit of a misnomer. Her heroine, Agathe (Camille Rutherford) might harbor that fear deep inside, but it’s never one that she speaks aloud. A lonely bookseller working at the famed Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, she gets lost in the love notes left on the shop mirror, and complains to her best friend and co-worker Felix (Pablo Pauly) that she was born in the wrong century, unwilling to engage in casual “digital” connection. Deeply feeling and highly imaginative, perhaps she believes she’s alone because she won’t settle for anything less than a Darcy. “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” is the kind of warm romance that will make any bookish dreamer swoon, as this thoroughly modern woman with old-fashioned ideas about love experiences her own Austen- esque tumble through her own emotions. In French and English with English subtitles. 1:38. 3 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh

‘LILO & STITCH’: The roughhouse charmer “Lilo & Stitch” from 2002, one of Disney’s more freewheeling animated 21st- century mashups of slapstick and heartstring-plucking, has already spun off TV and sequel iterations and a lot of merchandise. The film presented a rollicking friendship between a six- legged koala-like alien being, new to our planet, and an exuberant Hawaiian Island preteen who has wished, ardently, for a true friend and a fellow chaos agent. Stitch and Lilo are now in a live- action movie. The new “Lilo & Stitch” constitutes adequate if wearying fan service at best, and at worst, a new reason to check in with your dentist about a mouth guard for apparent teeth-grinding. While Disney has no financial imperative to modify a business plan centered on what they’ve already made they do have a creative imperative. They have an obligation to their own future, and to the film medium’s. It can’t be lost on the creative artists involved with each new Disney drag-and-drop, including “Lilo & Stitch”: Live-action recycling makes characters you know and love more “real.” And too often, that realism comes with only trace elements of real charm or magic. 1:48. 2 stars. — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

‘MISSION IMPOSSIBLE — THE FINAL RECKONING’: The clock has run out on Ethan Hunt. Then again, Tom Cruise seems to do almost everything like he’s running out of time. After three decades and eight films, everything that star- producer Cruise has left on his “Mission: Impossible” bucket list comes down to this. Every jaw-dropping stunt, every unexplored location, every friend and foe, new and old, he has to fit it all into “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” and like Ethan Hunt, he just might die trying. Cruise has one final message to impart with this series, and he’s hoping it won’t self-destruct in five seconds — it’s too important. Cruise wants to save us from ourselves through the magic of the movies, and he’s putting his body on the line in order to do so. It may be a futile fight, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to do it anyway, with hope and optimism, and an inherent belief in the goodness of his people. 2:49. 3 1/2 stars. — Katie Walsh

‘THUNDERBOLTS*’: With its adorable little asterisk in the title, “Thunderbolts*” goes further than most Marvels in its focus on psychological torment, mental health and, more broadly, a shared search for self-worth among a half-dozen also-rans who learn what it takes to be an A-team. Their sense of shame isn’t played for laughs, though there are some. Mostly it’s sincere. And it’s more effective that way. “A” stands for Avengers, among other things, and with the legendary Avengers AWOL for now (hence the asterisk in the title), there’s a vacuum in need of filling. Targeted for elimination, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus returning for duty as U.S. intelligence weasel Valentina, the combatants of the title have their work cut out for them. Whom can they trust? If not Valentina, taking a more central role this time, then whom? Joining forces are Yelena/Black Widow (top-billed Florence Pugh); her gone-to-seed father, Alexei/Red Guardian (David Harbour); the tetchy John Walker/Captain America (Wyatt Russell); Antonia/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko); the quicksilver invisible Ava/Ghost (Hannah John- Kamen); and the Winter Soldier himself, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), whose entry into the “Thunderbolts*” storyline is most welcome. Their mission: To neutralize as well as rehabilitate the all- too-human lab experiment known as Bob, aka The Sentry, aka The Void, played by Lewis Pullman. He’s Valentina’s little project, more dangerous than anyone knows. And there you have it. The 36th MCU movie, if you’re interested. It’s the most pretty-good one in a while. 2:06. 3 stars. — Michael Phillips

RATINGS: The movies listed are rated according to the following key: 4 stars, excellent; 3 stars, good; 2 stars, fair; 1 star, poor.