Poltergeist / ** (PG-13)

Eric Bowen: Sam Rockwell

Amy Bowen: Rosemarie DeWitt

Kendra Bowen: Saxon Sharbino

Griffin Bowen: Kyle Catlett

Madison Bowen: Kennedi Clements

Carrigan Burke: Jared Harris

Dr. Brooke Powell: Jane Adams

Boyd: Nicholas Braun

Sophie: Susan Heyward

20^th Century Fox and MGM present a film directed by Gil Kenan. Written by David Lindsay-Abaire. Based on the 1982 screenplay by Steven Spielberg. Running time: 93 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense frightening images, brief suggestive material, and some language).

There are some who are calling the present period in cinematic history the Golden Age of Independent Horror. It is true that there have been a good deal of innovative horror films released over the past decade. We’ve seen the rise of Spanish and Korean horror masters, like Guillermo del Toro and Joon-ho Bong. “Saw” changed the horror landscape forever. The first “Paranormal Activity” was original and genuinely frightening. And even as recently as this year we’ve seen innovative horror films like “It Follows”. Perhaps, however, horror directors are getting a little full of themselves and are forgetting the basics of filmmaking as they apply to horror.

Mad Max: Fury Road / **** (R)

Max Rockatansky: Tom Hardy

Imperator Furiosa: Charlize Theron

Nux: Nicholas Hoult

Immortan Joe: Hugh Keays-Byrne

Slit: Josh Helman

Rictus Erectus: Nathan Jones

Toast the Knowing: Zoë Kravitz

The Splendid Angharad: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film directed by George Miller. Written by Miller and Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris. Running time: 120 min. Rated R (for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images).

They say it is a fine line between genius and madness. When I was in college, we had a professor that might’ve proved this adage. He was a brilliant teacher and director known for sometimes spectacular behavior to get what he wanted out of his casts. As a teacher he loved to ask his students each Monday which movies we had wasted our money that weekend. He chortled at the latest “artistic” cinema we’d consumed as some sort of deep commentary on society, but… get him talking about George Miller’s post-apocalyptic adventure “The Road Warrior” and you’d hear him extemporize about the genius of modern cinema.

Avengers: Age of Ultron / *** (PG-13)

Tony Stark/Iron Man: Robert Downey, Jr.

Thor: Chris Hemsworth

Steve Rogers/Captain America: Chris Evans

Bruce Banner/Hulk: Mark Ruffalo

Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow: Scarlett Johansson

Clint Barton/Hawkeye: Jeremy Renner

Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver: Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch: Elizabeth Olsen

Ultron (voice): James Spader

J.A.R.V.I.S./Vision: Paul Bettany

Nick Fury: Samuel L. Jackson

Walt Disney and Marvel Studios present a film written & directed by Joss Whedon. Based on the Marvel Comis characters created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. Running time: 141 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, and for some suggestive comments).

POW! KRACKOOOM! KCHOW! BAMM!

These words typically associated with comic books could easily fill in for the sound effects in the opening sequence of “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, the second film in the “Avengers” franchise and eleventh overall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, these and similar words could fill the soundtrack of almost the entire nearly 2 ½ hour running time of the movie. It is wall to wall to ceiling to floor action. It even has a little bit of the science fiction themes and soap operatic elements that sold so many of the children of the 80s on comic book culture.

For those who are doing their best to consume everything MCU they possibly can, the plot picks up the moment where this past week’s TV episode of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” left off. I was disappointed not to see at least a brief cameo by Agent Coulson, however. For those of you who just want to kick off your summer with a balls-out smash blockbuster action spectacular, don’t worry, you don’t need to have seen one second of the television show to understand and enjoy what’s happening on the big screen.