Nightmares and spiders on Friday’s film docket

Above : Zendaya and Tom Holland star in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which opens on Friday. (Photo/Columbia Pictures)

Movie fans whom I know all say the same thing: Theaters are largely empty.

It’s hard to say why. The pandemic may be one reason (probably the reason). But there may be others. Slates of movies that fans don’t find interesting or too many good movies available for streaming.

Whatever, attendance might pick up this coming weekend as two films designed to play well on the big screen are set to open.

“Nightmare Alley” : A remake of a 1947 movie starring Tyrone Power , this Guillermo del Toro thriller stars Bradley Cooper as a self-professed mind-reader who runs into his match – a scheming psychiatrist played by Cate Blanchett.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Sheri Linden wrote, “ ‘Nightmare Alley’ pays tribute to noir. But it’s also its own dark snow globe, luminous and finely faceted, and one of del Toro’s most fluent features.”

The New Yorker’s Richard Brody was more dubious. As he wrote, “The overdone décor and the overcooked acting serve merely as glitzy distractions from the tale’s lugubrious sprawl.”

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” : When a spell cast by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) goes haywire, opening a portal to other universes, Spider-Man (Tom Holland) has to pitch in and help.

Entertainment Weekly’s Leah Greenblatt wrote, “What seems at first like pure fan service turns out to be some of the best and by far the most meta stuff Marvel has done: tender and funny and a little bit devastating.”

Variety’s Peter DeBruge feels similarly. As he wrote, “Returning director Jon Watts … wrangles the unwieldy premise into a consistently entertaining superhero entry, tying up two decades’ of loose ends in the process.”

That’s it for the moment. I’ll update as the week progresses.