JAWS is a tough act to follow and has been for nearly fifty years. Even the sequels didn't measure up. JAWS 2 was compelling in parts. The 2017 entry 47 Meters Down, like JAWS 2, was compelling in parts as well. The set-up is a simple one: During a holiday, two sisters cage dive in Mexico when the cable to the enclosure snaps and leaves the pair stranded on the ocean bottom with rapidly depleting air tanks and Great White Sharks impeding their escape. It's worth a look and a good number of ticket buyers thought so as well. On a $5 million budget, it grossed $62 million and spawned a sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged which for its budget was successful as well. PG-13. C+.

With veteran talent Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Kimberly Elise, and a solid supporting cast, I thought Ad Astra would boil with intensity. However, the filmmakers produced a slow-burn, psychological science-fiction story. Not a knock, but it wasn't what I expected.

Pitt's U.S. Space Command Major Roy McBride has a mission: A detected cosmic power surge threatens all life on Earth. Roy's father, astronaut H. Clifford McBride played by Jones, was the lead on the space station Lima Project. Its mission was to find extraterrestrial life on Neptune and all other faraway places. He was sent there twenty-nine years earlier. It's believed the space station was the source of this surge. Also, the space program assumed Clifford was dead, but now Roy's superiors think he's alive. He takes this chance and travels to Mars to communicate with him. That fails, so he elects to board a ship headed for Neptune to seek his father and stop this space surge. The problem is he's not invited, and the crew makes that clear with tragic results. I won't go any further with the plot. I liked the explored thought processes of the younger McBride. Jones' elder McBride was a slow but understandable burn himself. Think Quint from Jaws or Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. The Special and Visual Effects were excellent. 

This was probably an IMAX screen dream. Beautiful. Full of wonder, contemplation, and tragedy, I thought it lacked more action. It's not too much of a quibble. Just expect more Annihilation rather than ALIENS . PG-13. B+.

I've been an ALIEN film series fan for a long time. Through the good, bad, and ugly, they're grand entertainments. ALIEN and ALIENS were the best of the first four. Prometheus rebooted the story pre-ALIEN and was very interesting. Its sequel, ALIEN: Covenant, starts about a decade after Prometheus. A colony ship of 2,000 and over 1,100 embryos on its way to Origae-6 is still seven years away from this destination when a cosmic event damages the ship and wakes the crew. Walter, an advanced model android, is the only one awake. He ensures the Covenant maintains its course. This cosmic event arouses the stasis of colonists and even causes one to lose his life.

As the crew deals with the tragedy, the ship's communications detect a human voice. The colonists investigate its origins. What they find is a habitable planet. Now the question they faced was to return to stasis for another seven years or explore the place where the strange signal emanates. No one wants to go to sleep.

Once on the possible new home surfaces, they encounter strange clues that set the colonists on edge. Soon after, the colonists become infected, and that changes the situation. From there, it's human versus Alien. They also meet the android David from Prometheus. He protects them and houses them amongst the planet's architecture. ALIEN: Covenant's tension builds as the motives of the humans and non-humans collide. This one deserves another sequel. We'll wait and see. Disappointed with the box office returns, 20th Century Fox canceled a sequel. Rated R. B+.

Well, well, well, look who’s back wreaking havoc in outer space. The xenomorphs in all their life cycle stages! Enter the world of ALIEN ROMULUS. A Weyland-Yutani exploration ship discovers, if you can believe it, wreckage from the Nostromo, the ill-fated cargo ship that Lt. Ellen Ripley detonated after her initial encounter with the titular character. Also, the crew garners and lasers a giant space rock in half that exposes the corpse of an alien warrior. Uh-oh.

Then we follow Rain Carradine, who believes she can finally leave the mining colony where she works for a new life on Yvaga III, where she can see the sun regularly. Human resources tell her there’s a shortage of workers for the colony, so she has to stay for a few more years. Not just her, but brother Andy, an artificial person, his term. If she ever gets to Yvaga III, they won’t allow Andy to go because of his synthetic nature. Plus, the planet is light-years away. Not the only one wanting to leave over the working conditions and loss of family because of the environment, she teams up with her ex-beau Tyler, his pregnant sister Kay, Tyler and Kay’s cousin Bjorn, and Navarro, a pilot and Bjorn’s girlfriend. They all want a better life on Yvaga, too. The problem is their ship doesn’t have enough cryo-fuel to complete the journey to the planet. They scouted out an abandoned outpost or space station with those resources before contact with Rain. If Andy can go too, she’s down. Besides, Tyler swears it’s only a thirty-minute scavenger hunt, and they’re gone. We viewers know better, don’t we?

With this setup, the group encounters more than they bargained for when the derelict outpost or space station isn’t so derelict. The rollercoaster ride amplifies here with surprises galore, one of which blew my socks and toe-knuckle hair off. I don’t watch trailers of the movies I want to see as the studios show too much of the story. I don’t know if the ALIEN ROMULUS trailer tipped its hand on one of those surprises, but it provided an interesting plot thread.

The characters weren’t bone marrow deep, but they hooked me in their predicament. Rain makes for a tough heroine like Ripley and Daniels from ALIEN: Covenant. Andy was another favorite and critical to the technological part of the proceedings. Writer-Director Fede Álvarez of Don’t Breathe (a creepy good one) knows his way around the movie’s suspense, thriller, action, horror, and science fiction. He infuses the familiar xenomorph legend with the suspense, thrills, action, and horror we expect, but then raises the bar with scenarios we haven’t seen yet. Nifty, nifty, nifty. The VFX and FX were exceptional. I liked the references to the other movies in this forty-five-year span of the “In Space No One Can Hear Your Scream” franchise. My mind flashed back to ALIEN, ALIENS, ALIEN: RESURRECTION, and ALIEN: Covenant, but not detrimentally to me. ALIEN ROMULUS stands on its own as one of the better sequels in the series.

Leaving out the crossover movies Alien vs. Predator and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, I’d rate ALIEN ROMULUS third best in the series behind ALIEN and ALIENS. This sci-fi/thriller gets three and a half stars out of four. Rated R. B+.

Based on the 1995 book, All The Money In The World, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Christopher Plummer, and Michelle Williams, tells the story of the 1970s kidnapping of John Paul Getty III and his billionaire oil baron grandfather J. Paul Getty who doesn't want to pay the ransom for his grandson. I have to say from the beginning that Plummer's portrayal of Getty must have been a hoot to play. I watched with my mouth agape. Wahlberg plays James Fletcher Chace, a former CIA operative and Getty's security advisor who works with the grandson's mother, Gail, played by Williams. It's a powder keg of triad relations that propel the story forward. Plummer won an Academy Award nomination for his role. Even if you know the story, watch it for no other reason than the Plummer performance. Rated R. A. 

Two brothers, one in the crime business and the other staying away from it, get locked in together robbing a bank, then taking an ambulance and the paramedic hostage in an attempt to get away. Ambulance is a high-concept wild ride directed by Michael Bay of the Bad Boys and Transformers franchises.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II of Aquaman and Candyman fame and Jake Gyllenhaal of Prisoners and Nightcrawler, play the brothers. Mateen was the less high-strung to Gyllenhaal's character who, I think was bi-polar. Wow, up and down like the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Some harrowing action sequences and varied human emotions on display punctuate this heist thriller. Rated R. B.

A spinoff, prequel, and a part of The Conjuring Universe, Annabelle begins with a husband and pregnant wife couple named John and Mia Form. A pair of cult members break in and assault the Forms' next-door neighbors. John runs to investigate. As he does, the cult woman finds her way into the Forms' house. Soon after, so does the man. It turns out that the female killer is the estranged daughter of the murdered couple next door. The police arrive and kill the male intruder. Meantime, the Higgins' daughter, enamored of a vintage doll within a collection in the unborn baby's room, slits her throat. Blood drops seep into the vintage doll's eyes as she dies. Her name? Annabelle.

From that point onward, the paranormal manifests itself with increased frequency. I was glad to see at least a good portion of a horror movie that the husband stuck around. But as these horror tropes go, it wasn't all the time that ratchets up the tension of a mother with a newborn vulnerable to evil supernatural encounters. The couple enlists the help of Father Perez and local bookseller Evelyn, played by Alfre Woodard, who researches the background of the killer couple with Mia to battle the threat. Will they be enough and be in time to stop the hauntings and save the family?  

Annabelle wasn't a scary movie, though you feared for the family's safety. Annabelle was a box office smash on a super low budget that paved the way for two sequels. Rated R. C.

Okay, I struggled with it in the Sherlock Holmes movies and did here too. Even though the British accents were hard to understand, I still enjoyed this sci-fi/horror/comedy from across the pond. What looks like a July 4th night, a meteor crash lands in the city. In a fortuitous encounter, a local resident Samantha Adams played by Jodie Whitaker, gets mugged. Her attacker was a lower-level teenage crook named Moses, played by John Boyega. Moses and his crew of young thugs happen upon a crash-landing site. Something not of this world awaits. But that doesn’t faze these kids. Get out your machetes, baseball bats, explosive fireworks, and whatever else you have, and kill that thing! Mission accomplished. But it comes at a price when several more rain down on the city. The kids believe they must protect the block. What follows is a Dow Jones ride of horror and comedy. Who will survive the night? Attack the Block was a fun time with a sequel in development. Boyega at times looks like the younger Denzel Washington in Glory. Rated R. B.

FYI: In R-rated movies, you can expect content for mature audiences. Disappointing in some instances, but you know that going in. PG-13 isn't what it used to be. These movies are hard R ratings in my book. I wish this were different, but it is the prevailing content of the long moment. That genie's out of the bottle, but I just wanted to give you a heads-up.

They're back! Bad Boys Ride or Die Miami PD Detectives Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett, embodied by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, respectively, explode on the silver screen in their fourth action/comedy adventure.

The story starts on a surprisingly spiritual note. It's Lowery's wedding day, and the guests enjoy themselves until a health crisis sends Burnett to the hospital. Lawrence and the script imbue the situation with layers of mystery, both heartfelt and comedic. Not outdone, Smith's Lowery character deals with his mental challenges, which prove more dramatic than comedic. Also, Lowery's son and convict Armando Aretas, acted by Jacob Scipio (See Bad Boys for Life), plays a big role in the proceedings. Watch for a breathtaking scene from Burnett's son-in-law, Reggie. Wow!

The primary plot line involves a trail of dirty money for illegal drugs that involves cartels pointing to Lowery and Burnett's boss, Captain Conrad Howard, played posthumously by Joe Pantoliano, and his financial account worth millions. Every action/thriller needs a nasty villain, and that role's fulfilled by Eric Dane in the person of James McGrath, a former Army Ranger turned DEA officer. He leads the minion brigade with evil plans and agendas. The script by Chris Bremner and former LAPD detective Will Beall tie-in the case to past films that provide a clever labyrinth for Howard and another blast from the past, Fletcher, played by former NBA legend John Salley, to continue their characters in this latest sequel. Lowery and Burnett won't allow their boss's name to rot with scandal and, with the help of some other Miami PD officers, run their investigation. Other developments include a potential major break in the case from Aretas, hostages, which initiates a U.S. Marshals fugitive hunt led by Howard's daughter, Judy, played by Rhea Seehorn, who wants Aretas by any means necessary, and political power plays.

Smith and Lawrence fit together like a hand in a glove. I like how they allow themselves to age and grow in the relationships we've come to experience with them. They still exude the partnership humor from the past, but since Ride or Die, the stories reflect more mature men with growing families that deepen our care for what happens to them all. 

The screenwriters and directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who helmed Ride or Die's predecessor, For Life, keep the energetic action sequences popping within the convoluted plot. Credit to the cinematography and the editing, too.

Bad Boys Ride or Die will enthrall you with its action and comedy, but expect profane and sexually charged language, extreme violence, and brief nudity. Rated R. A-.

Blackhat was one slow-moving thriller, which means it wasn't much of a thriller sad to write. Trying to score a box office hit outside his Mighty Thor character, Chris Hemsworth plays an ex-con computer hacker, Nick Hathaway. A Hong Kong nuclear power plant meltdown and certain Chicago Mercantile Exchange derivatives rise from computer hackers. The FBI, led by agent Carol Barrett, played by Viola Davis, and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) cyber warfare unit combine forces against the hackers. If successful, Hathaway's prison sentence will commute, say bye-bye to an ankle monitor and his U.S. Marshal shadow. 

This set-up should have viewers pinned to their seats, but they probably fell asleep. Hathaway has a romantic interest that tries to add dimensions to his story construct, but I didn't buy it too much. Since she's a part of the PLA and working with him, it's a natural tendency to fall in love with someone who faces life and death in a crisis with you. It had some moments, but not enough. The movie grossed $19 million at the box office on a $70 million budget. That was surprising since Michael Mann, famous for his successful dramatic thrillers like Heat, Collateral, and Public Enemies, directed the film. Rated R. C.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Okay, right from the jump. I miss Chadwick Boseman. He will forever be King T'Challa or the Black Panther. With that, I still liked this follow-up, but not as much as Black Panther. African American women did their thing. Angela Bassett's Queen Ramonda to Letitia Wright's Shuri to Danai Gurira's General Okoye. Their adversaries were a mesmerizing bunch of underwater blue people from the kingdom of Talokan led by the intriguing King Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The battle scenes are colorful, powerful, and simply full. A couple of nice surprises await the viewers. A good sequel, but as is often the case, the second film rarely tops the original. PG-13. B. 

I watched and thought back to 2019 through 2021. The social distancing, the masks, the vaccines, the empty store and restaurant fronts. The deaths. Six years before the global event called COVID-19, the medical thriller Contagion hit theaters. The disease reminded humanity that despite all our accomplishments on the planet, a microscopic entity could shut down commerce and transportation, flood hospitals with the sick, and then kill us. 

That's what Matt Damon faces when his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, suddenly takes ill. Spoiler alert: she doesn't make it. It's terrible to look at. My sympathy rushed to her and the rest of the family. And in multiple locations, people display mysterious symptoms that baffle stateside and international doctors. Enter Lawrence Fishburne of Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control (CDC). With help from medical professionals around the globe, including Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard, the race is on to find a cure. Just like the COVID-19 epidemic, everyone is a target, and no one is safe until the creation of a vaccine. All the principal cast, with Jude Law, give solid performances. 

A pulse-pounding thriller that, again, echoes the horrors of COVID-19 is like watching a pending car wreck in slow motion. You see it coming and wonder if you can get out of the way before the inevitable. PG-13. A.

I recall Sylvester Stallone saying about his creation of the movie Cobra that he wanted to take a Halloween or Friday the 13th type of story, the slasher horror film, and drop a cop in the midst and see what happens. Well, Deliver Us From Evil takes a similar approach. It uses the supernatural horror film genre and drops a cop in its midst. Right from the beginning, NYPD Sergeant Ralph Sarchie, played by Eric Bana, and his partner Butler, played by Joel McHale, investigate a couple of cases with a few strange clues: a domestic violence call involving a Marine and his wife. Then, they're called to the Bronx Zoo after a woman tosses her toddler into a moat that surrounds a lion enclosure. She sings lyrics to a 1960s song while clawing the surrounding ground. Sarchie and Butler also notice a painter inside of the enclosure. When Sarchie tries to talk to the man, lions chase him out of their pen. 

Authorities transfer the woman from the zoo to a mental health facility where Sarchie meets Priest Mendoza, played by Edgar Ramirez. The suspense ball rolls downhill when another domestic disturbance call comes through. A small family haunted by strange phenomena leads Sarchie and Butler to discoveries that shed more light on the prior cases. The story allows the police procedural aspect to shine with the cop pair doing their job. The paranormal element increases in intensity and adds tension as the story develops. That's solidified with Priest Mendoza declaring that demonic possession is the basis for human behavior and peculiar incidents. 

Based on the 2001 non-fiction book Beware the Night by Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool, Christian writer-director Scott Derrickson, who created an original screenplay here, knows his way around the supernatural with Hellraiser: Inferno, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and Sinister. Deliver Us From Evil is a mix of the two genres you don't see often unless the police presence is a secondary factor and not front and center, like Sarchie and Butler. It has some scary and freaky moments but doesn't provide the jolts that give the viewer the creeps. Rated R. C.

This movie was a little bit different for Sylvester Stallone. It was more of a psychological thriller with horror elements over his usual action and adventure stories. The casting wasn't bad at all. Tom Berringer, Robert Patrick, Charles S. Dutton, Stephen Lang, Jeffery Wright, Courtney B. Vance, and even Kris Kristofferson support Stallone. 

Stallone plays FBI Agent Jake Malloy, whose world plunges into alcoholism and even a suicide attempt over the murder of his partner by a serial killer who targets police officers. His fellow agent Chuck Hendricks, played by Dutton, convinces Malloy to go to a rehabilitation program for former police officers run by an ex-cop and alcoholic himself, Dr. John 'Doc' Mitchell, played by Kristofferson. Hendricks elects to stay in the winter wonderland that is Wyoming with Malloy. 

When a blizzard traps all occupants inside with communications also down, it's here that the 'Ten Little Indians' plot begins when a serial killer targets the inhabitants. Stallone chose an interesting character here. Unfortunately, the numerous studio stops and starts doomed the film to failure right from the start. Produced for a budget of $55 million, it grossed only $6.4 million. Titled D-Tox overseas and released in North America as Eye See You, there are moments, just not enough to lift the piece much above standard genre fare. Rated R. C.

I love Denzel Washington in anything, and he doesn't disappoint here. He pulls off the trifecta of roles as an actor, producer, and director in Fences. He plays an ex-convict garbage collector in Pittsburgh during the 1950s who, in his youth, was an excellent baseball player. But for the color barrier, he might have played in the Majors. From this backstory, we watch him as he settles down with his wife, played by Viola Davis. What a strong cast of characters! I loved watching Stephen McKinley Henderson and Denzel interact, and Mykelti Williamson. Excellent drama with humor sprinkled in despite the tough times of the fifties. Fences received many nominations and won many awards, the best of which was Davis' Best Supporting Actress wins at the Oscars and Golden Globes. PG-13. A.

The Will Smith action/sci-fi film, Gemini Man, tells the story of Smith's retiring Force Recon Marine Scout Sniper that is targeted by his younger clone the product of an evil private military outfit. Talk about Hollywood's 'development hell' cycle, this screenplay apparently lived it to infinity. I didn't buy all of the special effects but the film did have some thrilling moments and I'm a fan of Smith's. Overall, audiences around the world didn't find it so compelling a story and the industry considers Gemini Man a box office bomb. It was. PG-13. C+.

Gerard Butler stars in Greenland, a disaster film about a comet that descends upon the Earth with a vengeance. After meeting Butler's family, the film starts their journey when his phone and TV send messages that his family has been selected for emergency evacuation as the comet wreaks havoc across the skies and on the land. From his upset neighbors wondering why they haven't received the same messages to begging to tag along with Butler's family, the suspense and horrifying situation build to the end. The Earth has encountered these space rocks like Russia's Chelyabinsk meteor, which caused nearly 1,500 injuries and damaged over 7,200 buildings. The Bible alludes to a similar event in Revelation 8:10-11. That's what makes this film even more terrifying. It's going to happen someday. A sequel is in the works. PG-13. B+.

Based on the 2006 novel by Christian superstar novelists, Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, House is a low budget horror movie that had a few scares or shocks. One day such excellent storytellers like Peretti and Dekker will get the 'A' treatment in adapting their work with bigger budgets, names in talent and distribution. Remember Three by Dekker? Unfortunately, this movie had none of those. Rated R. D. 

Well, Jurassic World Dominion has all the requisite chase scenes from the dinosaurs we're familiar with and some new ones we haven't seen until now. The gang's back together again for the last time with Owen and Claire, doctors Ellie Sattler, Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, and Henry Wu, and the young Lockwood child with a twist. But just because they're all in the film doesn't mean it's a good one. The story felt scattered with too many storylines, but this same structure is what makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe films so good. I wasn't feeling it so much here, though. It's time for some fresh faces in this franchise. These movies make over a billion dollars at the box office, so more are coming. Yeah, I just checked. Look for Jurassic World Rebirth in July 2025. PG-13. C.

In the vein of A Time to Kill and Ghosts of Mississippi, Just Mercy stars Michael B. Jordan as young defense attorney Bryan Stevenson who has to defend Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx who plays death row inmate Walter McMillian wrongfully convicted of the murder of a young white woman in the south. The film is based on Stevenson's memoir that chronicles his helping poor and disadvantaged African American prisoners.

Jordan and Foxx, who both won acting honors via the NAACP Image Awards, were outstanding. Set in the late 1980s, Just Mercy is emotional, cerebral, and sad that these injustices still occur today. Brie Larson, better known as Captain Marvel, and O'Shea Jackson, better known as Ice Cube's son, and other lesser-named actors were good. A compelling story based on truth and fact will keep the viewer glued to the screen. It was a box office hit with critical acclaim, too. PG-13. A. 

Led by the Magnificent One, Denzel Washington, The Magnificent Seven depicts a thrilling western action/adventure. He is quiet, confident, and mellow until the gun cylinders spin. Bounty Hunter Sam Chisolm rides into town in his signature black with an aura of dread. His characters always command the screen, so what else is new with Denzel? Other cast members include quirky Vincent D'Onofrio and Jurassic World's quick-witted Chris Pratt. What isn't new? Washington's team-up with actor Ethan Hawke (Training Day) and director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer). The collaboration works again.

Based on the 1960 film, a remake of the Seven Samurai (1954) by Akira Kurosawa, Chisolm travels the Old West to gather his gunslingers from various backgrounds and backstories to defend the rights of a mining town under siege by a greedy, driven, hateful villain named Bartholomew Bogue played by Peter Sarsgaard. For the Seven, check out the Marvel/DC Comics type of character breakdowns in the trailer. Pretty cool.

The recent widow, Haley Bennett, played by Emma Cullen, declares to Chisolm: "I seek righteousness. But I'll settle for revenge." Bogue kills her husband after the town fails to comply with his rather measly pittance for Rose Creek's land in return. For the cold-blooded murder, Chisolm assembles his hired crew to do just that. The fun is in the interaction of the Seven, though I'd like to have seen more character depth for these interesting outlaws. On the other hand, the town folks' character development gets short thrift in light of the initial emotions of the film.

The Seven convince the mining townspeople of Rose Creek to prepare to fight back with them. Several slam-bang action pieces punctuate the tale, including a humdinger of a finale. Watch for rough and tough language issues amidst the gunplay. For over two hours, The Magnificent Seven is worth the price of admission. Oh, and Denzel with the mutton chops? Pretty cool. PG-13. B+.  

Monster House is a spooky, fun romp in a neighborhood that sports a house with attitude. But why? Well, for one, it's Halloween, and two, the lone occupant, the elderly Horace Nebbercracker, voiced by Steve Buscemi, probably knows the answer. Well, some other folks in the neighborhood want answers, too. Kids led by D.J., Chowder, and Jenny put on their detective hats and investigate the strange occurrences. Let the scary fun begin! Excellent animation, characters, frights, and comedy compel this story toward the big reveal climax. Boy, even kids' movies cost a fortune. PG. A. 

Roland Emmerich has made his living writing, producing, and directing bombastic science fiction and end-of-the-world entertainments like 2012, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, and Stargate. Most have done well with the critics and at the box office. No one hits a home run every time at bat. Moonfall represents that.

Moonfall stars Patrick Owens, Halle Berry, Michael Pena, and Donald Sutherland. The premise? Two former astronauts, Owens' Brian Harper and Berry's Jocinda Fowler, and one amateur conspiracy theorist, John Bradley, who plays K.C. Houseman, need to solve the problem of our moon falling out of orbit. Say what? Now, that's an idea ripe for exploration via the science fiction/thriller genres. My issue with the story was its believability in this respect. Without going into too much of a spoiler alert mode, events cause some shuffling of personnel that should doom our planet to ultimate destruction. James Cameron said on his casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator: "...But the beauty of movies is that they don't have to be logical. They just have to have plausibility. If there's a visceral, cinematic thing happening that the audience likes, they don't care if it goes against what's likely."

In light of Cameron's statement, Moonfall  doesn't cut the mustard. I didn't buy Harper, Fowler, and Houseman's solution for the consequences of those personnel shuffles. With this cataclysmic event, folks, it's all hands on deck regardless of the circumstances. If informational changes dictate recalling personnel needed, then do it.

Going along for the ride, and no lie, it was one because the FX and VFX were spectacular. The mystery of what's happening to our moon is mesmerizing. With a budget of around $140-145 million, it's the most expensive independent film ever made. It only grossed about half of that. Too bad. Moonfall  could've and should've been a global hit or at least broke even at the box office. Unfortunately, the moon wasn't the only thing to fall in this case. PG-13. C-.

I sometimes wonder if werewolves and vampires will ever die. Slow and silent or with the screams of a banshee. Hollywood always comes up with some variant to keep the mythos alive. Well, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) dipped their creative toes into those gothic waters with the release of Morbius. Played by Jared Leto, Dr. Michael Morbius suffers from a rare blood disease that has crippled his body and his life from his youth. Decades later, he believes his work with artificial blood, the fusing of human and vampire bat blood, will be the cure for normalcy. He gets help from Dr. Martine Bancroft played by Adria Arjona, and they get the breakthrough they seek. But like other bodily metamorphosis films, The Incredible Hulk, Venom, and Spiderman, what can go wrong will go wrong.

I won't divulge too many plot points. Knowing this is an origin story, the focus stayed on Morbius for most of the film. The villain came onto the scene a little later than usual for most screen stories. Leto was okay in the title role. It just felt like I've seen it all before. One surprise I found was the FBI Agent Simon Stroud played by Tyrese Gibson. He came off like he was bored. When his partner mentioned they found some bodies drained of their blood, Stroud gave a lackadaisical response like he'd been there and seen that. He wasn't interesting at all. Some creepy effects and surprise appearances aren't enough to give Morbius a high grade. But, the box office doubled its budget, so it was a commercial success. PG-13. C.

Kenneth Branagh has taken part as an actor, producer, and director of motion pictures for a long time. Agatha Christie's novels, short stories, stage plays, and poetry have endured longer than Branagh's been alive. One hundred and thirty-one works of literary art since 1921. 

But perhaps her most endearing and enduring works involve Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot. Branagh tackles the fourth adaptation of Christie's Murder on the Orient Express with his three-pronged talent, including playing the detective character himself.  

There's much depth of character and story here. Like the Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey, Jr., which I also enjoyed, it was tough to understand some dialects. As the title suggests, a murder occurs on a 1930s train service called the Orient Express. But before that trip and subsequent case, enjoy Poirot's quirky Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) character decipher clues, and detect the culprit at a church in Jerusalem. I knew then I was in for an entertaining cinematic experience. 

The passengers on the Orient Express I enjoyed watching the most aside, of course, Branagh's Poirot, Michelle Pfeiffer's Caroline Hubbard, Judi Dench's Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, Johnny Depp's Edward Ratchett, and Leslie Odom, Jr.'s Dr. Arbuthnot.

This is one maze of a mystery. I'm sure I'm not the only one who experienced the jaw-dropping moments. That might only stand up for those who haven't read the story. I certainly hadn't. Now, I have to get caught up and check out the 2022 release of Death on the Nile adaptation from Mr. Branagh. It can't be all bad, either. Wonder Woman is in it. PG-13. A.

Jordan Peele did it again. But in a bit of a different way. He introduces a Western science fiction/horror film titled, Nope. Viewers can always count on a thrilling ride with Poole's offerings. I don't want to give away too much for those who haven't seen it, but brother and sister, acted by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, play horse wranglers struggling to stay afloat despite their TV deals. One day metal objects rain from the sky and kill the siblings' father, played by the underutilized Keith David. From that auspicious beginning, the drama, suspense, science fiction, and horror converge and amplify the clever and mysterious goings-on. After Get Out and Us, which I didn't see in theaters, I saw this on the big screen. Unconventional and creepy, as is Peele's custom, Nope is a winner. Rated R. A. 

The Ocean's series made big box office noise in its run in the 2000s. Ocean’s 8 puts a spin on the former movies’ all-male casting. The women take center stage this time. Led by Debbie Ocean, played by Sandra Bullock, she was just released from a five-year stint in prison. Once a criminal, always a criminal? Well, yes, for her. Nothing more than a little petty larceny in her heart, folks. No! She has a Moby Dick of a heist in mind with all-star help to do it. Her team includes my favorites, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, and Helena Bonham Carter. This was a caper or hybrid crime-comedy where the film used a lighter tone in its execution. That’s fine, but any story or any genre needs a villain. If the person I thought was the villain, it was a weak choice or not fully realized in the script or on screen. Plus, more resistance to their plans would ratchet up the tension. But again, a lighter tone was the goal. It was a fun ride. PG-13. B.  

From The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Split, Glass, Signs, The Village, The Visit, and Knock at the Cabin, Writer-Director M. Night Shyamalan knows how to entertain an audience. Shyamalan's horror/thriller, Old, fits the bill, too. 

What can be better than a warm, tropical, secluded beach to enjoy a vacation? Nothing much, or so a group of visitors thought. From a soon-to-be-divorced couple with a pair of young children to a rapper with his girlfriend to a surgeon, his wife, an elderly mother, and a young daughter, and ending with a married nurse and his psychologist wife. An interesting cadre of characters. 

However, something odd begins: The group discovers they all age. Bodies take on various horrific maladies. Some a sight to behold. What is going on here? As terrifying as this predicament presents to its cast, the mystery of why it's happening will arrest your attention too. So, get your goggles, snorkels, and fins, then dive into Old. In fact, don't dive into it. Don't even book a trip. That's already been done. PG-13. B+.

The Olympus Has Fallen premise is simple: The White House is taken hostage by North Korean terrorists who want the U.S. to pull out of the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ in the Korean Peninsula. If they don't, they'll open the 'Gates of Hell.' Gerard Butler stars as former Secret Service Agent Mike Banning. He loses his position when he saves President Ben Asher's life (Aaron Eckhart) instead of his wife Margaret's (Ashley Judd) during a winter storm. Nearly two years later, a South Korean delegation arrives at the White House to discuss the trouble in the region. That's when the North Koreans make their move. Director Antoine Fuqua keeps the action and suspense tight and right with good twists in the screenplay from first-timers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt. The cast is solid and stars another favorite of mine Morgan Freeman. Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Angela Bassett, and the late great Robert Forster also join the cast. I feel the best of the Has Fallen series with a part 4 in the works too. Rated R. B+. 

Jason Statham starred in many action films for years, notably The Transporter and The Expendables movies. He has more success in ensemble pieces like The Expendables and the Fast & the Furious series. Statham stars in Safe as a former NYPD detective/assassin who did the down-and-dirty jobs for the mayor's office. He turns to mixed martial arts in his down-and-out state and accidentally wins a fixed fight that runs afoul of some Russian gangsters. They don't like it, and they want him dead. They didn't get him, but they did get his pregnant wife. He's ashamed of his past work, so he exiles himself, which also saves him from associating with anyone else who will die by the guns of the Russian Mafiya.

Now, unbeknownst to him, an Asian child with an extraordinary gift of recall with numbers for the Chinese Triad finds herself in the middle of a gang war when these same Russian mobsters want her as well. Not outdone, those same NYPD colleagues also try and catch the little girl. Why? For several reasons, but most importantly, she will lead them to a stash of cash worth millions. You can guess from here that Statham and the girl's lives cross paths. They don't have anyone else to help them, so they need to band together to survive. The chase is on with the body count akin to some war movie. Safe is one of Statham's better individual starring efforts. Not so much here, but that tough facade has shown some vulnerabilities over the years. That can only make his characterizations more compelling. Rated R. C+.

A smile can change someone's world, make their day, and encourage another. Perhaps it can give someone a moment of joy. But we're talking about another kind of smile. This SMILE is the 2022 psychological, supernatural horror movie. How can something as benign as a smile turn so malignant? That's the mystery at the heart of this tale. Therapist Rose Cotter, played by Sosie Bacon, encounters her first smile when a mental ward hysterical patient declares that something is terrorizing her, something is following her, and moments later, that something induces her to commit suicide. Rose feels horrified. But this is just the start. 

She begins to see and hear things. As these experiences ratchet up, her fiancé, colleague, and former boyfriend/cop question her sanity. I was glad about this, though. Who does a therapist turn to when they need help? Their therapist. It's like us men with directions. Don't be so stubborn or prideful in seeking help from getting lost. Rose uses what is available to her, and that includes intestinal fortitude. And she needs it all. Her ex-beau proves a bit more helpful than most as her psychosis escalates, and the viewer is along for the emotionally jarring ride.

Rose discovers an enormous piece of this terrifying puzzle so the story can proceed in a certain direction, but I didn't want it to. I hoped against hope, to no avail for Rose. Whoa. Despite similarities to other horror offerings, SMILE was a huge box office hit. SMILE 2 is currently in theaters. Rated R. B.

Snowpiercer is a compelling dystopian science fiction/thriller. The world governments' solution to climate control is injecting an aerosol into the earth's atmosphere. However, this fails and creates a new ice age, and the result is an ecocide or the destruction of the planet by human hands. So, the Wilford Company created the Snowpiercer, a state-of-the-art, self-sustaining train that circles the earth in sustained motion to keep a certain number of humans alive for many years. The train cars' different sections house the poor underclass in the rear and the wealthy upper class in the front. The rear of the train isn't happy and elects to revolt against the armed guards that protect the upper crust for survival.

I wasn't sure if Snowpiercer had enough story to hold my attention, but I was wrong. Wow! Captain America himself, Chris Evans, playing Curtis Everett, leads the poor citizens against the oppressive establishment. And speaking of that establishment, Tilda Swinton of Doctor Strange/Avengers: Endgame, plays a wicked monster of a character in Minister Mason! Second in command on the train, I wanted to reach through the screen and choke her out! I'm guessing she had some time with this performance. First in command is Ed Harris as Wilford, the super train's creator. He's creepy in another type of way compared to Minister Mason.

Since this is a South Korean/Czech Republic production, the other starring names might not be as familiar to U.S. audiences. But they're solid. The film has The Help, Ma, and Hidden Figures star Octavia Butler in the cast. Also, the late great John Hurt, notably of ALIEN fame, plays mentor to Evans' Everett.

Be prepared for twisty plot points, revelations, and intense gory battles. Snowpiercer surprised me with its creativity and sustained tension throughout. Rated R. B.

Why didn't Pixar release Soul in theaters? COVID-19 strikes again! It was released on Disney+ and then released theatrically in January 2024. It did well considering the markets that saw it streaming on Disney+.

Soul tells the story of middle-grade pianist teacher Joe Gardner, voiced by Jamie Foxx, who finally gets his big jazz gig break when he falls down some New York City steps and slips into a coma. From there, he experiences an interesting afterlife journey to reclaim life on Earth to live out his long-sought-after dream. He learns some lessons in funny, heartwarming, and thoughtful scenarios. Soul received three Academy Award nominations while winning two, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score. It also made history as the first Pixar film to feature an African American lead. PG. A+.

Sound of Freedom has smashed the box office since its release early last month. Based on the account of Tim Ballard, creator of the Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), whose goal is to rescue victims of human trafficking. With that background as its source, the film works as a drama, suspense, and thriller piece. Jim Caviezel stars as Ballard, a former Homeland Security Agent who has an astonishing record of nearly 300 pedophiles captured. A colleague asks him if that's enough, then he sets out to rescue one child. Then his goal increases to rescuing dozens of tender-age sex captives in South America. The ruses used by these predators are wicked. Ballard gets a small team of experts to help him against dangerous fiends. I admired Ballard's courage and resolve to take on such a hideous industry as human trafficking nearly single-handedly. I hope you see it. Love your family and friends, especially the little ones in your spheres of influence. What did Apostle Peter say in his first epistle? Chapter 5, Verse 8 reads: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." PG-13. A.

The Empty Man, a supernatural horror film, starts off in horrific fashion when in the mid-90s four mountain hikers find a crevice in a cave. One of them suddenly becomes fixated on an old, deformed skeleton. He silently and mysteriously trips out as do the others. They find an abandoned cabin and one of the women is chased by some wraith spirit of the ungodly skeleton creature. Soon after, three of them die. 

The story picks up from there in 2018 and follows ex-cop James Lasombra, in mourning after the loss of his wife and young boy in a car accident a year earlier. His neighbor's daughter goes missing but she leaves a message written in blood on the bathroom mirror: 'The Empty Man made me do it.' There's a ritual one has to do to summon The Empty Man, which is pretty silly in itself. Mystery lies at the heart of any horror tale. I followed Lasombra through his investigations and it led to a bit of a surprise ending. It reminded me of a better horror film, the low-budget and critical hit, The Last Exorcism, and an even more compelling story and box office/critical acclaim winner in Hereditary. Rated R. C-.  

The Equalizer is an origin story. I remember watching the late Edward Woodward play Robert McCall in the eighties TV series, which I liked very much. Now here comes one of my favorite movie actors in the titular role. Denzel Washington is a former Marine and intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). His quiet and lonely existence takes a turn with weekly after-hours encounters with a young prostitute, Alina, played by Chloe Grace Moretz. Each interaction grows more personal, but none leads to sexual intimacy. Robert watches her take abuse from some Russian mobsters and decides to intervene. From here, conflict ensues with a more dangerous Russian Organizatsiya threat led by Nicolai Itchenko (Marton Csokas). Robert encounters a web of killers and tries to save Alina from her human traffickers. The Equalizer boasts a sympathetic hero, a nasty villain, and good action. Rated R. B+.

This is a good one. The science fiction/horror thriller, The Invisible Man is a great update on the old movies of the same name. Elisabeth Moss is great and took its $7 million budget and turned that into $145M worldwide. This is worth a look. Rated R. A+. 

The Intruder is a pretty good psychological thriller starring Dennis Quaid, Michael Ealy, and the lovely Megan Goode. Production Company, Screen Gems, has been down this road before in this genre starring African Americans. Obsessed, No Good Deed, The Perfect Guy, and When the Bough Breaks. Small budgets from $8-$20 million apiece with box office returns ranging from $30-74 million. All profitable, normally panned by critics, but the target demographic loves them. The three main cast members are solid and so is the suspense via the psychological terror. This is one of the better ones in this genre niche and proved successful at the box office too. PG-13. B.

I don't miss many Denzel Washington films. The Little Things is a throwback psychological thriller with more emphasis on character than any exorbitant body count. Not only was Washington locked in, but so were Rami Malek as Denzel's police partner and Jared Leto as the criminal in question. Each actor gave a solid performance in a film that works better again as a character piece than a crime thriller. Warner Bros. released the film theatrically and streamed it simultaneously at some point, with more success on the small screen. It was a failure at the box office, just breaking even with the budget at $30 million. The Little Things has nothing on its more successful throwback predecessors: The Silence of the Lambs, Seven, or Red Dragon. Rated R. B. 

Liam Neeson made his bones and a mint with various older gentlemen thrillers in the past. This journey started with the 2008 action thriller hit, Taken. The Marksman is a thriller less about America's border crisis than one man's crisis of conscience to use his particular set of skills (trivia, trivia!) to help a family escape from drug cartel criminals. Hey, this is Liam Neeson! So, let the chase begin! This tale reminded me a bit of Clint Eastwood in The Mule. The Marksman represents another film with an emphasis on character over action. It has the requisite action sets that are compelling to watch because of him. He owns this genre of seasoned male action heroes; Denzel Washington may have passed him. Not many others do. Check out another of my long-time favorites, Kevin Costner, and his recent box office results in the same genre. PG-13. B. 

The Night House was a bit odd for me. Don't get me wrong it was a pretty good psychological horror movie but I got a bit confused as the story advanced it's narrative. No spoiler alert here, folks. Rebecca Hall's character is a solid depiction of frayed nerves and courage, but the plot had me scratching the ol' noggin a bit. Rated R. B+.

I’ve never gone to the movies and watched a full-on horror film. The Silence of the Lambs was a horror movie, but you know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about God v. Satan and man’s spirit and soul in the middle of battles for heaven and hell. The Pope's Exorcist stars Russell Crowe as the Vatican’s leading exorcist, Father Gabriel Amorth. It doesn’t take long for the action to start. Right from the jump, he has a case of possession and a unique way of dealing with the matter in Italy. Game on, viewers! The Pope, played by Franco Nero, has a dangerous case in Spain for Amorth. A widowed mother, her rebellious teenage daughter, and her young son move into an old, inherited family abbey. Odd things occur among the family and the construction workers rebuilding the home. Amorth gets help from a younger Spanish Padre, Father Esquibel. Iron sharpens iron as the two padres learn to trust and work together to save the family. There’s more to unpack in this story. I won’t give away too many plot details. As is the custom in the Catholic faith, some practices aren’t necessary for Christians today. And the film steered toward The Exorcist fifty years ago and a more recent film, The Rite, just over a decade ago. These plot twists may work in a movie, but in real-life Christianity, they aren't theologically possible. Ugh! I cringed! But make no mistake, the power of Jesus Christ is on full display against the powers of darkness. Crowe is excellent in a role tailor-made for him. If The Pope's Exorcist is a smash hit, and despite its theological flaws, I’d pay to see a sequel. Rated R. B-.

The Post stars Academy Award-winning heavyweights Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. Hanks works for Streep at the Washington Post, a struggling family business handed down to Streep. She must decide whether to take the 1.35 million shares to an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Hanks is tired of getting scooped by the New York Times amid the Viet Nam War, and there’s trouble. Ripped from today’s headlines, a security breach via an insider who’s stolen top secret documents on the war could damage the current Nixon administration. This is BIG. The Times scoops them on the story from their insider. Hanks must decide if it's worth the trouble when The Post’s insider gets a bigger piece of the top-secret pie that even The Times can’t match. Does he run with the story or not? Streep isn't altogether with it. In the prospectus for her IPO, the bank stipulates that if any catastrophic event occurs, scared investors could pull out. A conspiracy that spans several decades would indeed constitute a cataclysmic event. Get the IPO for the struggling newspaper or run the story that would put them in the big leagues in the industry and expose one whopper of a conspiracy? Not another word from me. Drama, Conspiracy, and Thriller all rolled into one package. What a pleasure to watch Hanks and Streep work. But the film has a strong ensemble cast as well. Oh yeah, Steven Spielberg directs. PG-13. A.

I guess at this point, much like zombies, vampires, and werewolves, shark movies will be here forever. This statement isn't a knock on my review of The Shallows. This film rocks. Simple set-up. A woman, Nancy Adams, played by Blake Lively, chooses a remote getaway beach in Mexico following her mother's death. After a few days of fun in the sun while surfing and meeting other water-loving locals, she notices an enormous dead whale floating some distance away while surfing. That's when a territorial Great White Shark knocks her off her surfboard. She swims to a nearby rock formation with barely room enough for her.

Now, the movie kicks into high gear with Adams not just fighting the Great White but the coming and going tide, other aquatic creatures, her physical wounds and fatigue, and the hope that help will come soon. Adams, a medical student who considers dropping out after her mother's death, uses her smarts in a cat-and-mouse, life-and-death survival encounter that is truly horrifying. Beautifully filmed, this horror/thriller's tension escalates until the nerve-racking climax. A critically acclaimed box office hit, no movie of its kind may ever be as high a caliber as JAWS, but The Shallows isn't bad. It isn't bad at all. PG-13. A.

The Taking of Pelham 123 was a remake of the 1974 theatrical release. Also, I didn't know that a TV movie was made of it too in 1998. Denzel Washington's Walter Garber, an NYC train dispatcher, versus John Travolta's Ryder. Ryder hijacks a subway train and gives the city an hour to pay him $10 million. Every minute passed that deadline and Ryder will kill a passenger. That's the setup. Now we audience members sit back and watch the cat-and-mouse game unfold at both the adversaries' sites. The late Director Tony Scott does what he does with that kinetic camera of his. He and Denzel had worked on films like Crimson Tide, Deja Vu, Man on Fire, and Unstoppable. I like to watch the pros who've been at their craft for a long time. They spar well enough, but the suspenseful situation still feels stoic. But that's the manner of the setup. With that static movement, Scott, Washington, and Travolta drive that drama with their words and limited actions. I haven't seen the 1974 version with the late great Robert Shaw. This isn't a terrible action/thriller. I've seen worse. Rated R. B-.

I reviewed M. Night Shyamalan’s Old last month. So maybe I’m on his train for a minute. The Village opens in a small rural community in the early 19th century. But the problem for the community is people are forbidden to enter the surrounding woods because a creature will take revenge for the infringement. That screams set-up! You know someone will do just that. And guess who comes a calling? Some hideous spiny monster. After the death of a child, someone from this poor community needs to go to the nearby towns for medicine for future issues as they arise. William Hurt leads the townspeople and is the best choice to go through the dangerous woods. Joaquin Phoenix volunteers despite the chiding of his mother, Sigourney Weaver. Neither man goes, watch the story and find out why. Instead, William Hurt’s blind daughter, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, does. Say what? What follows is a harrowing journey of courage, cowardice (not on her part), surprise, suspense, compassion, and a few hard-to-believe moments too. I have to say this, though. Shyamalan is in the right business. PG-13. B-.  

Trespass is vintage Walter Hill territory. The writer/director behind such hits as 48 Hrs., Another 48 Hrs., Red Heat, Geronimo..., and producer of the ALIEN films, loves the shoot 'em ups. He pits fireman Bill Paxton and William Sadler against criminal gang members Ice-T, Stoney Jackson, Ice-Cube, Glenn Plummer, De'Voreaux White, Tiny Lister, Tico Wells, and others. Give them an abandoned building in the hood that hides a secret worth fighting for, plenty of gunplay, and a fish-out-of-water story, and you have Trespass.

It's a pretty simple, though gritty, crime thriller that Universal Pictures counterprogrammed against the usual distribution slot in the spring or summer, and instead, it was released on Christmas Day! The strategy didn't work, and neither did the movie for audiences and critics alike. Rated R. C+.

Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, Jaz Sinclair, and Michael K. Williams star in this urban/domestic thriller in which John and Laura Taylor (Chestnut and Hall) have difficulty conceiving a child. In a last-ditch effort, they decide to use a surrogate. Displaying a salient, demure personality at first but in cahoots with her slimy boyfriend Mike (Theo Rossi), Anna (Sinclair) hatches a plan to take the baby, her fee, and split. However, Anna develops a love jones for John.

That's the storyline. Despite the excellent photography of New Orleans and the good-looking cast, the movie goes off the rails with some of its logic. If certain characters act intelligently based on their upscale careers the story ends. (More thorough investigations. Follow your first instincts. Call the police! RUN! I digress.)

Based upon the opening weekend box office numbers, When the Bough Breaks doesn't look like it will top its predecessors Obsessed, No Good Deed, and The Perfect Guy. Is the African American market tired of the urban/domestic/stalker/thriller? Is When the Bough Breaks just a Labor Day/annual/fall/miscalculation? We wait for 2017. I hope they can do it better than this. Or how about a little tweak to the genre or subject for a change of pace? PG-13. D.