If I Stay:  

Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick Ass) is excellent in a story in which she is tied into a script that doesn’t get the job done the way she might like.  She is Mia, a young woman involved in a terrible car crash with her family, who somehow finds herself outside her body watching her parents at  the crash site pass away … no one can see her, but she can see everything.  Soon she is in hospital walking the corridors as here body lies in the ICU balanced between life and death.   Does she stay or does she go?  Set in the US but shot in BC, I liked this okay, but didn’t think the payoff was quite worth the trip.         Rated 14A.

22 Jump Street:  

Channing Tatum and Jonah  Hill are back in the roles that they created two  years ago in a story that resembles in title only the TV series from the ‘80s that starred Johnny Depp.  This one is played for crude laughs as was the first, and the writers and director don’t even bother to try to disguise the fact that our two not-so-smart-cops, Jenko and Schmidt, are simply going to go through the same stuff that they did the first time – same jokes, same foolishness.  But who am I to talk?  This one made a bucketful of money at the box office and was enjoyed and appreciated  by its target audience, which apparently does not include me.  Rated 18A.

Into the Storm: 

If you saw Twister back in 1996, then you have pretty much seen this thriller in which a team of storm chasers track down the biggest tornadoes ever seen.  Sara Wayne Callies (Prison Break) and Richard Armitage (Strike Back) lead the team in a high-tech vehicle that is designed to ride out the worst storms imaginable.  Of course there is a high school football game in the path of the storm, a small town in which everyone is totally unsuspecting, and a lot of drama around characters who just need to get along better.  It was just fine for what it is, and the  special effects make it worth the ride all on their own. Rated 14A.

The Promotion (2008):  

Interesting character study as two managers (Doug played by Sean William Scott), and  Richard (John C. Reilly) vie for a promotion in their retail supermarket chain that is a make-or-break career move.  Doug is the shoo-in … he has paid his dues, has worked hard in the same store for years, and is ready to start a family.  The bosses say the job is his.  Almost.  Richard breezes in from the Canadian operation bringing more experience and something else.  The fight is on.  Worth a look! Rated 14A.

God’s Pocket (2014): 

One of the final, and most-overlooked performances by Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Mickey Scarpato  before his untimely death.  A small working class town is witness to an “accident” … Leon, Mickey’s good-for-nothing stepson dies in what was probably not an accident, and for most everyone it’s good riddance.  But not all … Leon’s mother suspects that something is up, and before her son can be buried, she wants answers.  Mickey has none … just a lot of guilt. Good drama, and a movie that just hasn’t been on the radar.Rated 14A.