Flix At :48

Comedy film director Jonathan Levine (50/50, 2011) manages to nicely mix raunchy humor, awkward attraction, and watered-down political ambition. Established comedic actor Seth Rogen (The Disaster Artist, 2017) plays an over-zealous political journalist who quits his job and finds himself recruited by the U.S. Secretary of State (a noble Charlize Theron, Atomic Blonde, 2017) as a speechwriter. But the Secretary of State happens to be the journalist's childhood babysitter he was in love with.

With a running time of over 3 hours, I thought I might need a colostomy bag to get through this film. But like many Marvel superhero films, it's a long ride but an entertaining one.

While watching this movie I started to get hungry since I hadn't yet eaten dinner. And my thoughts about what I might eat after this movie were more interesting to me than the movie I was watching.

While watching this movie, I was not enveloped in the story as much as I was wondering why the producers of this film thought it was a good idea.

As part of Disney Film Studios' path to taking over the world this year, with numerous films scheduled for release in the coming months, Dumbo is the studio's first mediocre step in this path for 2019.

When an ordinary family of 4 takes a summer vacation together at a peaceful lake house, their sun-filled fun is disrupted when another identical family of 4 starts terrorizing them. How can this ordinary family fight against real people who look exactly like them, move like them, and think like them? This tale of bloody survival takes viewers to a dark hall of mirrors, an eerily empty beach, and a strange, sterile underworld covered in white tiles.

Captive State takes us to a Chicago far into the future when Earth is under the occupation of a mysterious, and dominant, alien race. But instead of a future that is sexy, fast, or technologically advanced with lots of smooth glass and polished steel, this Chicago is dreary, dirty, dilapidated, and under constant surveillance.

I think I have seen the first film of 2019 that doesn't completely suck or disappoint. Brie Larson (Kong: Skull Island, 2017) plays Carol Danvers, a pilot for the U.S. Air Force who survives a strange explosion that infuses her body with super-human strength, flight, and fists of blazing heat. I don't know how the Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps doing it, but this film manages to be funny, exciting, and memorable as Carol Danvers learns to control her powers and understand her place in the universe.

Twenty-two-year-old actress Chloe Grace Moretz (Hugo, 2011) plays a timid waitress in New York City who finds a forgotten purse on the subway. How convenient to find a woman's ID right inside the purse too!

Comedic actor and writer Stephen Merchant (Logan, 2017) has given us an unlikely story of family, courage, and wrestling.