Though the mayhem on screen, which ranges from hand-to-hand combat to a high-flying, high-tech dogfight, is treated with restraint, touches of vulgarity may give some parents of older teens pause. Weighing on the other side of the scale, however, is the racial empowerment that drives the narrative and the significant themes the film tackles in...Read More
That rustling sound you hear is famed children's author Beatrix Potter spinning in her grave, distressed at what has been done to her beloved characters in "Peter Rabbit" (Columbia).Read More
Can a lovelorn yet sensuous cleaning lady in 1962 Baltimore find true love with a blue and yellow and sometimes glowing fish-man from the Amazon?Read More
The spotlight shines brightly on British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour" (Focus), a historical drama about political leadership and backroom intrigue during a pivotal moment of World War II.Read More
True military adventures don't come any more rousing than "12 Strong," the story of a tiny Special Forces unit that won a significant early victory against both the Taliban and al-Qaida in the weeks after 9/11.Read More
"Hostiles" works from the premise that not only were white soldiers in the 1890s aware of their complicity in the decades-long genocide of Native Americans, they could feel immense, paralyzing guilt about their actions.Read More
Director Steven Spielberg, working from a script by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer, aims to make a rouser along the lines of 1952's "Deadline U.S.A." And, according to that film's formula of a crusading newspaper in financial peril triumphing over government secrets and crooked politicians, he succeeds.Read More
By turns suspenseful, darkly comic and stridently moral, "All the Money in the World" (Sony), a slightly fictionalized account of a famous kidnapping, makes a strong case that immense wealth not only can't buy happiness, it also imposes depths of misery that few ever know.Read More
More than a few parents have, no doubt, had occasion to be alarmed at how easily — and how often — kids become absorbed by gadgetry these days.Read More
Producers of the new docudrama "The Sultan and the Saint" seize the opportunity created by renewed interest in Francis to tell, to their credit, a chapter from his story not as well-known as others.Read More
The book is a brief one, so it's not surprising that the film's plot feels somewhat padded. But good values go a long way in masking this defect and in maintaining a receptive mood among viewers.Read More