1. LEE DANIEL’S THE BUTLER:   

There is a strong lobby to get Oprah Winfrey a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this exceptional film in which Forest Whitaker portrays a based-on-fact-sort-of White House butler who left a sharecropper’s life in the Deep South to become one who served a total of eight presidents, raised a family, and made a significant contribution to African-American culture.  The performances are all first-rate, especially that of Alan Rickman and Jane Fonda as Ronald and Nancy Reagan … although I had a hard time buying Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Much of the “facts” have been given the Hollywood treatment, which doesn’t diminish the value of the entertainment … just don’t take it as history. Rated 14A.

2. ENOUGH SAID:  

James Gandolfini’s final movie before his premature death, is a very kind, and very-well scripted view of two divorced people (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss & Gandolfini), each with grown children, each lonely in their own way, who find one another, lose one another, and hope to find one another again.  A small film that had limited distribution, it’s a fitting tribute to the body of work that was James Gandolfini’s, and his character is said to be very much like his real-life personality, unlike his Tony Soprano role.  Rated 14A.   

3. RIDDICK:    

Vin Diesel is back for a third time as the title character here, occupying a future time and a future world in which he sees in the dark, doesn’t suffer fools well, and survives at any cost.  The special effects are fine as Riddick finds himself hunted on an alien planet, but soon, the hunted becomes the hunter.  Diesel owns the rights to the Riddick franchise and produced and financed this film himself.  Great sci-fi action-adventure! Rated 18A.

 IMMORTALS  (2011): 

This sword-and-sandal epic in which Theseus (Henry Cavill), a mortal, is chosen by Zeus (Luke Evans) to seek out the terrible device and destroy it, before all of earth and all of heaven is destroyed.  It is the evil King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) who controls the fate of the world, and it is the task of Theseus to change that.  Good action picture!  Rated 14A.

 FAY GRIM (2006): 

Parker Posey reprises her role from 1996’s “Henry Fool,” a taught spy thriller.  The action picks up when a CIA operative (Jeff Goldblum) forces Fay to seek out notebooks owned by her on-the-lam ex-husband Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan) because they contain information that might compromise the security of the United States.  An overlooked pleasure – good movie!  Rated 14A.

13/13/13 (2013):   

It’s that end-of-the-world Mayan calendar thing again, with a different twist.  Because the world has been playing fast and loose, adding and extra day every five years, the world’s end kind of sneaks up … and when it happens, it’s not really the end, it’s a new day for the few survivors, who now have to face a world controlled by demons.  Not a bad horror-thriller.  A largely no-name cast takes us down this strange and frightening road.  Rated 18A.