X-Men: Days of Future Past:  

Time travel is the theme here as the X-Men are being hunted down and killed by Sentinel Robots who seem to anticipate every move in advance. The only possible help to save the mutants will come from someone’s ability to go back in time, to the days before the Sentinels became so powerful, and stop their development.  That job falls to Wolverine, the only one of the group deemed to be mentally tough enough to manage this dangerous excursion.  As is often the case with time travel stories, paradoxes are piled upon paradoxes and it’s a little fuzzy as to just what is really going on.  X-Men fans will love this one though, with all the usual characters, many popping up as their younger selves in the past. Rated 14A.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman:   

Time travel again, and despite its animated roots, the story is every bit as complex as that of the X-Men.  The WABAC Machine falls into the wrong little hands when Sherman violates the rules of time travel, and may well have destroyed the future.  That has Mr. Peabody, two-time Olympic medallist, business tycoon, and genius – not bad for a dog – face his biggest challenge yet in trying to get the stream of time corrected before a world-ending apocalypse befalls everyone.  Voices of Ty Burrell, Steven Colbert, and Dennis Haysbert among others.  Watch closely for lots and lots of Rocky and Bullwinkle trivia in the background of various scenes.  Great fun for a fan such as I!. Rated PG.   

Mercenaries:

When the best man for a job is a woman, what you get is a film that is like a female version of The Expendables, with a few other crumbs added for effect.  The mission is to get inside a high-security women’s prison to free someone wrongfully imprisoned and critical to a key political issue of the day.  An all-female team of operatives is sent in to do the deed, and if this sounds like a good idea so far, not so fast!  It’s a dreadful movie with bad writing, a plot that has been lifted directly from other similar films, and acting, even from a name like Vivica A. Fox that is something to behold.  It’s not even a so-bad-it’s-good movie.  It’s just bad. Unrated..

Nurse (2014):

Paz de la Huerta (she was Lucy Danziger on Boardwalk Empire) is a dedicated healer, and exceptional nurse during her day job … but at night, different story.  She lures men who are cheaters, and puts them to a grisly death.  Kathleen Turner plays her boss, the head nurse who begins to suspect that something is not quite right.  Also stars Judd Nelson. Rated 18A.

Rags (2012): 

A sort of throwback to the days when musicals reigned, in style if not in substance.  An orphaned young man (Max Schneider) bumps into a musical superstar (Keke Palmer) on the street, and before you can say, “hey, we should put on a show,” the fixings are on the way.  A feel-good movie with family appeal, this one also features a talented cast of young artists.  Set in the States, but filmed in Vancouver. Rated PG.