Friday’s openings redux: a small game of sniping

Turns out, other than a couple of "Surfs: The Lost Village" second-run screenings, only one other national release is coming to the area on Friday. The additional screening is as follows:

"The Wall": Doug Liman directed this films about two U.S. soldiers (John Cena and Aaron Taylor-Johnson) getting pinned down by an unseen sniper and struggling to survive. Not a video game (though someone is probably working on a version for gamers to play on their phones).

Some critical comments:

David Erlich, IndieWire: "Smaller than the sum of its stones, this taut psychological thriller is still sturdy enough, and every bit as compelling as some studio fare 10 times its size."

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: "Liman, for all his action acuity, struggles to make lying behind a wall exciting."

Peter Debruge, Variety: "Taylor-Johnson … gives a terrific performance under extreme conditions, totally convincing as a man alternating between panic and trust in the practical discipline of his training."

That's it for Friday. For the moment, at least.