Non-Stop:

Liam Neeson is Bill Marks, an ex-cop now an air marshal with personal problems, working a flight from London to New York.  He gets a text message on his secure device, clearly coming from inside the aircraft.  It asks for a $150 million ransom, or the plane will be blown out of the sky.  The catch:  the bank account info is his own … he is being framed by someone for reasons unknown.  Excellent action-thriller with many possible suspects on board … keeps us guessing as to whom the bad guys are, but it’s not easy to figure it all out. Also stars Julianne Moore and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o.  Rated 14A.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit:   

Chris Pine (Star Trek) stars in the title role in an origins story that is a reimagining of the Jack Ryan character previous played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck, all having done, I think, a better job.  Also, the story as to how a CIA analyst ends up as an operative on the ground with half the world after him has been told more effectively in such films as Clear and Present Danger, and Sum of all Fears.  Based on characters created by Tom Clancy, Harrison Ford also stars.  It’s a serviceable action-thriller, but nothing very special.  Rated 14A.   

Devil’s Knot:  

Canadian director Atom Egoyan has taken on a difficult subject here: the true story of the murder of three young children, with the accused murders a group of teens alleged to be part of a Satanic cult.  There are some scenes that are very difficult to watch as the courtromm drama plays out the actions that led the accused to this point.  Reese Witherspoon, Bruce Greenwood, and Colin Firth star in what is a well-made dramatic depiction of a horrific series of events. Rated 18A.

Enough Said (2013):

In one of his last films, this one released after his untimely death, James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) is a divorced dad named Albert with little interest in any new relationship when he meets Eva (Seinfeld’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus) at a backyard pool party.  Eva is also divorced but she’s looking for something to break up her monotonous life.  The hook here is that Eva makes a new friend, one of her massage clients, Marianne (Catherine Keener) and as her relationship with Albert slowly develops, she figures out that he is the ex-husband of Marianne … and now it’s too late to tell either one of them.  A very nice story for people of a certain age!  Rated  14A.

Runner Runner (2013):

Justin Timberlake is a college student who bets his tuition on the outcome of an online poker game that he has mastered … but he loses despite the fact that he had cracked the code.  Desperate, he finds himself face-to-face with the game’s mastermind (Ben Affleck) who has a job for him, if we wants to make some “real” money.  Soon the cops, the mob, and his new partner are all after him.  A flawed film, but will worth a look on Netflix.  Rated 14A.