Smurfs reboot plays it safe

A century ago, evil wizards took hold of a set of books containing powerful magic spells.

- John Lui

SMURFS (PG13) 92 minutes, opens July 17

The story: Only one sentient book, Jaunty Grimoire (voiced by Amy Sedaris), has been left uncaptured, but brothers Razamel and Gargamel (JP Karliak) have not given up searching for it. Meanwhile, in the Smurf village, Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is helping No Name (James Corden) find his gift, so he can at last have a name and identity, like Worry Smurf (Billie Lourd) and Vanity Smurf (Maya Erskine). An adventure kicks off when Smurfette (Rihanna) leads a rescue team to find a kidnapped Papa Smurf.

If one keeps trying to launch a film franchise but keeps failing, then you might just be a Bad Luck Smurf or maybe a Stubborn Smurf, because in the 2000s alone, there were three tries at feature films about the blue creatures.