After the emotionally wrenching ending of "Avengers: Infinity War", we were due a purely fun entry in the Marvel canon. It arrives in fine form as ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, the follow up to the funny & enjoyable original in 2015. Paul Rudd is back as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, just days from the end of his house arrest. When a portal to another dimension that Scott was the only one to return from in his last mission is opened, Scott is reunited with his former love and partner Hope/Wasp and her father Dr. Hank Pym. They are attempting to recover Hope's mother, whose been trapped in the "phantom zone" like realm for thirty years. Evangeline Lilly (Lost) is great as Hope, exasperated that Scott left to fight with Captain America in the "Civil War" battle in Germany that led to his arrest. Michael Douglas is equally good as the clever Dr. Pym, unveiling a never ending series of suits and scientific breakthroughs like a more quiet and less well-funded version of Tony Stark. Michelle Pfieffer (The Witches of Eastwick, Scarface) is great on screen as Hope's mother and the flashback scenes of her and Douglas three decades ago are a triumph of CGI. Walter Goggins (Vice Principals, Justified) is our earthly villain in a predictable subplot that shows him chasing the tecnology for evil-doers. Hannah John-Kamen (Game of Thrones, Ready Player One) is our less than Earth bound Ghost. The action scenes are first rate, with a car chase through the classic hills of San Francisco made even more enjoyable when our heroes cars are shrunk and expanded to varying sizes that add a whole new dimension to a traditional movie chase scene. Michael Pena is back as Scott's friend Luis and is even better than he was in the original. His storytelling during a truth serum questioning is hilarious and just one of many solid choices from Director Peyton Reed that continue and build on the fun he created in the original film. Randall Park (The Interview, Veep) is the most inept FBI chief in history, which is great for us as he delivers a TON of great comic relief. He is the perfect, socially awkward foil to Rudd's deadpan delivery. At the center of it all is Paul Rudd (Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin) who looks like a super hero but brings many laughs with perfect comic timing. He's a riot. Throw in a great action music score by Christophe Beck (Edge of Tomorrow), songs from The Partridge Family, references to everything from "Them!" to "Animal House" and a fantastic closing title sequence and you have a really enjoyable, lightweight Marvel flick every bit the equal of the original. We kept asking ourselves when this film takes place in the timeline of the series. Stay tuned after that great End Title sequence for a post credits scene that will answer that question to perfection. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP have plenty of comic sting and deliver a fun-filled B+.

Proving that great MARVEL heroes can come in very small packages, ANT-MAN is everything that this summer's mega-bomb "Fantastic Four" wasn't: FUN, exciting, suspenseful and ENJOYABLE! Paul Rudd brings his usual charm and a lot more muscles to his role as newly released ex-con Scott Lang. Scott is determined to stay crime-free, but he is constantly offered "jobs" by his roommates, including Luis, hilariously played by Michael Pena (World Trade Center, American Hustle). The film opens with a sequence from 1987 that introduces us to brilliant scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) who has nearly perfected the science of shrinking inanimate objects and humans to the size of our title insect. CGI has now reached the amazing point where it appears that Douglas filmed these scenes at the same time he did "Romancing the Stone". The digital technology to recreate him in his youth is startling and far superior to the "plastic" looking younger Jeff Bridges just a few years ago in "Tron Legacy". In this early sequence, Pym realizes that his secrets are being immediately applied to military use and he walks away with the project. Flash forward to now, when Pym's protege Darren Cross has developed the shrinking technology to work on everything but humans. Cross wants Pym's original shrinking suit for the last piece of the puzzle and Pym wants Cross's new suit to keep it from becoming an advanced weapon. Pym hires Scott to steal Cross's new suit in a highly secure facility and the fun is off an running. Corey Stoll (The Strain) is excellent as Cross, especially when he dons the new suit and becomes the lethal Yellowjacket to Scott's Ant-Man. Evangeline Lilly is excellent as Pym's daughter Hope, who trains Scott in more than a few skills and provides plenty of family drama that's surprisingly powerful. Throw in Judy Greer as Scott's ex-wife, Bobby Cannavale as her new fiance who happens to be a police detective and you've got a cast that's just as comfortable with action & drama as they are with humor. And this is a laugh-FILLED movie. The visual effects are terrific without being tiresome and the climactic fight aboard a Thomas the Train village is as exciting as it is hilarious. Avengers fans will enjoy a long sequence with Ant-man up against The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) at the new Avengers training facility glimpsed at the end of "Age of Ultron". Also look for Agent Carter and Howard Stark in the 1987 flashback. I wasn't that excited about seeing Ant-man but I enjoyed every minute of it. After the dreary drivel that was "Fantastic Four", this was a terrific Marvel palette cleanser. Our tiny hero gets a B+.

Alex Garland knocked me out with his 2014 mind bender "Ex Machina", one of my top 3 films that year. For my money, he's topped that film with his new film, ANNIHILATION. Engaging from its opening moments, we meet Lena (a terrific Natalie Portman) as she tries to find her footing after the death of her husband, Kane. A military man often dispatched on secret missions, he never returned nearly a year before, leaving Lena devastated and immersed in her role as a botany professor at John Hopkins. But suddenly, Kane walks into their home. Quiet, disoriented and not himself, he falls very ill and Lena is immediately whisked away into a massive military operation. A "shimmer" has appeared. A massive, slowly growing wall of prismatic light to which many soldiers, drones and machines have gone into, yet none have returned. With seven years in the military before her teaching career and her husband lying near death in a secured hospital bed, Lena joins a mission to enter the shimmer to divulge its secrets. What happens from there, wont be divulged by me, as the brilliance of the world that Garland creates is that it's wholly new, dreamlike, trippy....hard to describe. Garland merges elements that feel like "The Andromeda Strain", "Predator" and "2001: A Space Odyssey", wrapped in a "Contact" sheen with some serious "Aliens" gore & tension, then polished into something more cerebral. The hardest part of setting up a film this smart is that the ending is bound to disappoint, but for me, it never wavers, offering a thrilling last half hour that visually blows your mind without falling into CGI madness. Portman is at her best here, creating an intelligent action hero on par with "Aliens" Ripley and equally adept with a machine gun. Oscar Issac (Inside Llewyn Davis, Star Wars:The Last Jedi) is one of my favorite actors and he matches Portman scene for scene as her husband Kane. Half of his role is in clever flashbacks or snippets of his mission and he's equally as good portraying the very different man that returns. The all-female team around Lena on her mission to the shimmer is excellent. Jennifer Jason Leigh (just as good here as she was in "The Hateful Eight") is Dr Ventress, a psychiatrist and team leader of the expedition. Gina Rodriguez (Jane The Virgin, Deepwater Horizon) is the volatile Anya, US newcomer Tuva Novatny is a thoughtful Swedish scientist recovering from a loss and committing all to the mission and Tessa Thompson (so great as Valkyrie in "Thor: Ragnarock") is a grad student who begins to unravel the mysteries of the world inside the shimmer. The sound design and photography is excellent, with otherworldly sounds and voices throwing you off balance inside "the event". The offbeat music score by Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow is equally good, working in tandem with the sound design to mess up your bearings and build tension. Garland's screenplay pulls you in, building suspense and tension from the first scene and unwrapping an intelligent mystery. I'm sure that every time I watch it, I'll learn more and SEE more. Garland never dumbs down the mystery to make it easy for you. The final half hour can be interpreted many ways. The final scenes will create plenty of dialogue for viewers. A day later, I'm still trying to connect some of the pieces and its got me thinking. ANNIHILATION is a thriller, but a damned smart one. There's plenty going on inside the shimmer. The fascinating journey there gets an A+.

If someone asks what your favorite Woody Allen movie is, the easy answer is ANNIE HALL. While I like "Manhattan" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors" better, Annie is certainly in the top three. At his comedy writing and performing best, Woody stars as comedian Alvie Singer, narrating the tale of his life with hilarious flashback observations on his childhood, family and relationships. Diane Keaton is new girlfriend Annie Hall, and its one of her best performances, eccentric, sweet and funny. Everyone from Paul Simon, a young Christopher Walken and Tony Roberts to the smallest bit player are perfectly cast and brilliantly played. Woody's asides on life and relationships are damn funny and often touching too, as he struggles with relationships, jealousy, falling in and out of love and the difference between LA and NYC, all with some of the best punch lines in film history. Woody breaks a lot of rules here, turning to face the camera and address the audience directly to introduce flashbacks, but somehow never falling out of character as Alvie. Best quotes: (after sex with Annie): "that's the most fun I've ever had without laughing" (Arriving In California): ANNIE: "It's so clean out here!" ALVIE: "That's because they don't throw their garbage away, they turn it into TV shows." It's a brilliant film, as funny the tenth time as it is the first. Annie gets an A+. La-di-da, La-di da.....

The creators of The Conjuring series really have a good thing going at the movies, consistently turning out very good, truly scary flicks of the first order. ANNABELLE CREATION is no exception. 12 years after the tragic loss of their daughter, Samuel and Esther Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia & Miranda Otto) decide to open up their large country home to a Catholic orphanage. Unfortunately for the girls but luckily for us, a very nasty demon is excited for visitors (souls). What all the films in this series do so well is create tension that builds and builds as we meet people we care about that are then plunged into horrifying scenarios. The girls are well cast. Talitha Bateman is terrific as Janice and Lulu Wilson as Linda is especially good. The minute you see the slow moving, wall mounted chair that moves up the long staircase, you just KNOW someone is going to have a horrifying ride in that thing. They do. When two girls hide under a sheet with a flashlight telling scary stories, you know that something very uncomfortable is going to happen. It does. Add in a very creepy scarecrow, a dumbwaiter from hell and a small room covered with pages from the Bible and you've got another winner in the Conjuring series that delivers real tension and fun scares. Fans will also get glimpses of that truly horrifying Nun from Conjuring 2 that is apparently getting her OWN stand alone film. I'm already freaked out. ANNABELLE CREATION is original, fun and scary as hell and a far superior prequel to the original Annabelle film in 2014. It elevates the first Annabelle film by teeing it up in a brilliant way that closes this film. A perfect Halloween flick, CREATION gets a B+.

For those of you, like me, that found "The Conjuring" to be one of the scariest horror films in recent memory, you'll probably be intrigued by a prequel that highlights just one scary piece of that film, ANNABELLE. This film details the back story of how this creepy Victorian doll became an evil addition to any playroom. A young couple is decorating their home, getting ready for their first child. The husband buys Annabelle to complete his wife's doll collection in the nursery (next time go with a stuffed animal). When the couple is witness to a murdering rampage by a satanic cult next door in their idyllic neighborhood (think Manson family madness) that spills over into their own home, a killer's blood spills into the doll and it takes on a scary life of its own. It's a tribute to the filmmakers that Annabelle never becomes Chucky, but simply inspires enough strange happenings and evil presence to provide some fun shocks, thrills and scares. This is one of those films where the husband leaves the wife alone so many times after the damn doll has attacked her, set the house on fire and caused assorted mayhem that you start to wonder if the husband and the doll have something working..... This is an old school horror movie, with 99% of the scares coming from noises or a person suddenly standing where the filmmakers know you will be looking. In that respect I'll give it some props, but it's a mere ghost of a reflection of the terrific "Conjuring" and barely scares up a C. That one scene with the fast moving little neighbor girl that morphs into the satanic killer woman, that one will get you! If only the other hour and a half lived up to that fleeting moment.

I'm not sure how many times French Writer/Director Luc Besson can keep making different variations of the same theme, but as long as they are as entertaining as ANNA, I'm not sure I mind. Riffing on 1990's "Le Femme Nikita" and 2014's "Lucy", Besson delivers a time hopping, intriguing thriller about Anna, a stunning fashion model/assassin with a very special set of skills. As the fluid time frame makes your brain hurt with "six weeks ago" "5 years ago", "4 weeks later" title cards, we watch Anna's most brutal missions, her recruitment and her training. The film's structure elevates the story, with us often seeing a killing several times, with each view more informed than the last on what's really happening. Newcomer Sasha Luss is stunning and lethal as Anna. With long, brutal fight scenes that reminded me of "Atomic Blonde" and "Kill Bill", the action is fast & furious and Luss delivers. Helen Mirren is senior trainer Olga, the toughest boss in Moscow. Mirren's having fun being as far from glamorous as possible. Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast) is Anna's Soviet trainer Alex and Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Inception) is a CIA boss who zeroes in on Anna in every way possible. Just when you think you've had enough of the time shifts, ANNA saves its best tricks for its last 15 minutes. Savaged by critics and buried with a low profile release after Besson was accused of misconduct on set, ANNA was a bomb in theatres. It's a shame for Luss, who emerges as a formidable new female action hero. Familiar but less than predictable, ANNA gets a B.

Woody Allen's 2015 drama IRRATIONAL MAN travels a similar path to his terrific "Crimes and Misdemeanors" with less likable characters at its core. Joaquin Phoenix stars as the heavy drinking, moody, controversial college philosophy professor Abe, who finds himself in a small town and a new college. Very depressed, he shares his darkness with a romantically interested fellow professor Rita (Parker Posey) and his favorite student Jill (Emma Stone). Abe is a disillusioned man. After spouting many years of philosophical beliefs, he finds himself shocked with a realization that he (and therefore humanity) has no control over his life, his hopes and his happiness. Jill (Stone) brings him a different perspective, bringing a youthful exuberance to her world views and constantly trying to pull him out of his funk. Midway through the film, Abe and Jill overhear a conversation in the booth next to them in a diner. A woman is about to lose custody of her children due solely to a judge's friendship with her loser husband's lawyer. Abe is energized instantly with the fact that he can change and improve this woman's life... By murdering the judge. Since there is virtually no connection between him and the judge or him and the woman, it should be the perfect crime. Right? What follows is a thoughtful and suspenseful tale of what paths we all choose and the repercussions or our actions. Phoenix is very good, if in his somewhat typical vein of disconnection, as a man who has spent his entire life teaching students historical philosophy while wrestling with the fact that the foundation of his teachings is potentially just meaningless bullshit. Stone is terrific and Posey is very strong. The photography by Darious Khondji (Se7en, Alien: Insurrection) is beautiful and makes the most of every location. Abe has become impotent literally and in his ability to interact with others. His humanity is fading. Can he rediscover it by murdering a stranger? Does the good that murder would bring an innocent woman and her children outweigh taking a man's life? The answers, and Abe and Jill's path through discovery, may not be as easy as they seem. Irrational and interesting, this tale gets a B.

I had forgotten just how hilarious 1978's ANIMAL HOUSE is and it still holds up nearly 40 years later, with laugh out loud scenes from start to finish. The Delta's are the worst fraternity in modern history, racking up grade point averages of "ZERO point ZERO" and having the time of their lives. John Belushi, fresh from his debut on SNL, is Bluto, knocking off one classic comedy scene after another. Tim Matheson is Eric Stratton (damn glad to meet you!) and John Vernon is Dean Wormer, determined to shut down Delta House once and for all. There are so many classic scenes, just as funny today as the day they were filmed. The horse in the Dean's office, Neidermeyer's "Is that a PLEDGE PIN, Mister!!", the toga party, Flounder's joyride, the food fight and my personal favorite, Belushi's ladder maneuvers when peeking in the second floor sorority windows. Belushi knows how to work an eyebrow for maximum effect, hilarious! Director John Landis shows the same fondness for smashing cars and weaving music into the story that he would build on later with "The Blues Brothers" and keeps things quick & loose. Donald Sutherland & Tom Hulce's scene when Pinto gets high for the first time is priceless, Belushi's love of folk music in the stairwell and the devil & angel on Larry's shoulders are still damn funny. A priceless comedy from back in the day when we were all a LOT less sensitive, ANIMAL HOUSE is a riot from start to finish. "Food fight!!!" "That boy is a P-I-G, Pig!" "Guess what I am now......" "What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! Forget it, he's rolling..... They were on a roll indeed, with one of the biggest box office comedies of all time, that gets an A+.

The second film starring Tom Hanks as Professor Robert Langdon and far superior to the first, ANGELS AND DEMONS is a fascinating and exciting thriller. After the events of "The DaVinci Code", Langdon is surprised to be asked by the Vatican police to assist in tracking down some VERY dangerous folks in possession of a lethal new power that could change the world. Just as in the superior Dan Brown novel, the film takes us on a fast and furious path of discovery as Langdon solves one code and clue after another in trail of the bad guys. With a new Pope about to be appointed and several of the candidates kidnapped by the mysterious Illuminati, Langdon must track them down or a Cardinal will be killed every hour. Hanks is excellent throughout, conveying a ton of information and serving up the best scientific-teacher/action hero blend since Indiana Jones. But this is far more serious than any of Indy's adventures. There is a nasty new discovery capable of cleansing the Earth, along with intrigue inside and outside of the church that keeps us guessing whose side anyone is on for most of the film. In addition to that, the vial they are chasing to get back contains a mystery that challenges the foundation of the church, leading to some interesting discussions on science vs faith. Hanks is ably assisted by scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), Father McKenna (Ewan McGregor) and Cardinal Strauss (Armin Mueller-Stahl). One standout is Inspector Olivetti, played by the terrific Pierfrancesco Favino (World War Z, RUSH). He holds the screen anytime he's on it and drives the story forward with style. Director Ron Howard must have heard all the criticism on "DaVinci" because this film moves much more quickly and with more clarity. At 146 minutes long, it doesn't shortchange Brown's thrilling book, which was one of the best thrillers I ever read. Howard and team spent $150 million to bring the film to the screen and it wears the budget well, with a first class production led by a first class leading actor. Hanks has rarely been more likeable. Like Cary Grant in "North by Northwest", he's propelled through the adventure against time & odds, with the viewer along for the very enjoyable ride. The sound design is excellent (fire that bass up!) and the music score by Hans Zimmer is nearly non-stop, like some operatic adventure co-pilot to the countdown. I liked this even better on second viewing now versus when I originally saw it in the theatre in 2009. ANGELS AND DEMONS gets an A. It will be followed in October 2016 by the third Langdon/Hanks/Howard film adaption, this time of Dan Brown's superior INFERNO. It's just too bad they haven't filmed the second-best book of the Langdon series, "The Lost Symbol". Fingers crossed and codex's scrambled.....

Gerard Butler's film series as Mike Butler, Secret Service Agent wraps up in crowd pleasing style with this year's ANGEL HAS FALLEN. While critics deride the series, audiences love the films and I'm there with them, eating up the increasingly rare macho bravado and jaw dropping action. In what appears to be the last film of the series, we see Mike Banning dealing with aging and the realization that he's getting a bit long in the tooth for his role. Butler is self effacing and effective, remaining true to his duty to protect President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman, reliably great & believable). When a wide reaching assassination plot takes place, nearly killing Trumbull, Mike is framed as the man behind the coup. Danny Huston (Wolverine, The Aviator) is the head of a major arms manufacturer, Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother Where Art Thou) dials up his quirky to 11 as an opportunistic Vice President and Jada Pinkett Smith is Butler's worst nightmare as the agent in charge of the investigation. The movie morphs into "The Fugitive" mashed up with "In The Line of Fire" but its fast moving, loaded with great action scenes and Butler's drive for redemption at its core. The biggest weakness (and it's NOT a minor flaw) is that the real bad guys are easier to figure out than a "Murder She Wrote" episode, but by now, we come to these films to watch Butler kick ass and put the evil-doers in their place and on that score, ANGEL HAS FALLEN delivers repeatedly. The film's secret weapon is Nick Nolte as Banning's off-the-grid father. Nolte brings mystery and hilarity is large doses. He makes Rambo's home defenses look like a chain link fence. There is no better aging, on-screen duo than Butler and Freeman waving a patriotic action flag and putting the bad guys in their place. Redemption is a lot of fun to watch when it's done well. ANGEL HAS FALLEN is an enjoyable, pure-popcorn finale to the series and gets a B.

1971's THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN is a terrific sci-fi thriller that was cutting edge in its day and still delivers some great suspense. Based on an early Michael Crichton novel, the film depicts scientists race against the clock to discover why a returning satellite that landed near a small town has left nearly every citizen of Piedmont dead, killed within seconds. They soon discover an alien organism microscopic in size with the ability to reproduce quickly and travel by air. Isolated in an underground lab, a team of scientists are assembled to battle the organism. Arthur Hill and David Wayne lead the team, with able support from the grumpy Kate Reid and the "odd man out" James Olson. The computer technology when I saw this in '71 was amazing, now it looks hopelessly dated, but the story still keeps you engaged. Universal marketed this with a tag line that NO ONE WILL BE SEATED IN THE LAST 10 MINUTES. It's a great final ten minutes indeed as the worst case scenarios all come true at once and the facility built to keep the bug inside becomes an adversary to our heroes. Director Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, The Day the Earth Stood Still) is in top form and Gil Mille's strange, electronic music score is a great co-star. Deliberately paced, well shot and well designed, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN is a nice dose of seventies sci-fi that still plays well today. We'll give it a B.