Gone Girl:  

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike star in this film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel.  Flynn also wrote the screenplay so any criticism of the film is on her shoulders.  Not much to criticize though.  Affleck is Nick Dunne and Pike is his wife Amy.  They aren’t getting along particularly well, and after one inflammatory argument, he heads to work in the bar that he co-owns with his sister, and when he returns home, she is gone.  Soon, foul play is suspected, and Nick is the prime suspect, and there begins a cat-and-mouse game with a different outcome from the novel.  Well worth seeing! Rated 14A.

A Walk Among the Tombstones:  

Based on the Matthew Scudder private detective novel by Lawrence Block, we have Liam Neeson playing Scudder who is approached by an organized crime kingpin to take on the task of finding the men who kidnapped and then murdered his wife.  Scudder refuses the case, but soon, in the wake of another similar crime that hits closer to home, decides to go after the perpetrators.  Neeson is excellent as always, his character is smart, well-versed in martial arts, and not likely to take guff from anyone.  This is the second Matthew Scudder film … the in the first, he was played by Jeff Bridges in “8 Million Ways to Die.” Rated 14A.

The Two Faces of January: 

Viggo Mortensen and Kristin Dunst star as a power couple, Chester and Collette MacFarlane, cruising the Grecian Islands, soaking up the sunshine, and appearing for all the world, like sophisticated rich people enjoying what their money can buy.  A  seeming chance encounter with a man named Rydel (played by Latino actor Oscar Isaac) soon has the three enjoying dinner together, with Rydel clearly taken with the young wife of Chester.  Later, Chester asks a favour of Rydel, and before he knows it, Rydel is implicated in a murder.  A better-than-average mystery. Rated PG.

The Big Lebowski (1998):

Jeff Bridges is “The Dude” Lebowski who gets caught up in a mistaken-identity caper when thugs confuse him with another Lebowski, a wealthy, connected man.  The Dude is the ultimate slacker, a guy who makes an art form out of being lazy, and once the mistake occurs, he enlists the help of his pal Walter (John Goodman) to sort things out in a most unusual way.  Written and directed by the Coen Brothers, the film is a classic in its own way. Rated 18A.

The Best Defense (1984):  

Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy team up in a different kind of military film in which Moore is Wylie Cooper, inventor of a leading-edge tank, and Murphy is Landry, the Army officer that has to take the machine into battle.  Nothing is quite what it appears to be, as Landry’s company appears to be on the verge of going out of business … but soon both a comedy and a drama break out.  Dated, but interesting to see Dudley Moore at his best.  Rated 14A.