“The Woman King” should be a contender for a gold crown come Oscar time. Viola Davis leads a stellar cast in this action-packed historical epic about an elite unit of female […]

America’s dad wants to be a real dad. Tom Hanks stars as Geppetto in the Disney Plus live-action remake of the 1940 animated masterpiece, “Pinocchio.” Cynthia Erivo plays the Blue Fairy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt provides the voice of Jiminy Cricket and Keegan-Michael Key is the duplicitous Honest John. Hanks re-teams here for the fourth time with […]

When it comes to the comic mockumentary “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul,” you can thank heaven for one thing: the outstanding performances from Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown. They play the first lady and pastor of a megachurch, preaching the gospel of prosperity. But a sex scandal complicates their comeback efforts. This dark […]

The Idris Elba film fest continues for the second week in a row with the ambitious fantasy, “Three Thousand Years of Longing.” Elba plays a genie who emerges from a bottle to grant scholar Tilda Swinton three wishes. What follows is an off-beat philosophical meditation on human desire. This earnest effort was written and directed […]

Who is the king of the jungle, man or beast? Idris Elba finds out the hard way in the unnerving new action thriller, “Beast.” A widower doctor takes his estranged teenage girls to Africa to visit a wildlife preserve. They encounter an enraged lion out to kill all humans after his pride is wiped out by […]

If “Men in Black” had been about vampires instead of aliens, it may have looked a bit like the tongue-in-cheek horror movie, “Day Shift.” Jamie Foxx plays a rogue vampire hunter in suburban LA. He tries to get back in the vampire hunters union, but has troubles with his new union steward, played by Dave […]

Brad Pitt is a charismatic, Oscar-winning actor. His considerable efforts and some outstanding stunt choreography aren’t enough to save the over-the-top action comedy, “Bullet Train.” Pitt plays an assassin sent to Japan to recover a mysterious briefcase on the world’s fastest train, only to find himself confronting an assortment of colorful bad guys. The frantic action […]

File the animated action comedy “DC League of Super Pets” under the ‘pleasant surprises’ category. Krypto, Superman’s dog, puts together a crew of rescue pets to save his master and the other members of the Justice League when their lives are threatened by a super evil guinea pig. Okay, okay, I thought this one would […]

Jordan Peele’s ambitious and inventive sci-fi horror entry “Nope” is one part brilliant and three parts frustrating. It’s as if M. Knight Shyamalan had decided to remake Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” with the goal of creeping us out. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer play proprietors of a horse training ranch who attempt […]

The troubled life of former Kansas City Royals first baseman Willie Aikens gets the inspirational biopic treatment with “The Royal.” It’s currently showing theatrically at the Screenland Armour and is available on multiple streaming platforms. Amin Joseph plays Aikens who clung to his dignity after serving years in prison on drug charges. “The Royal” is an instructive […]