Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2:  

Six years after the original Paul Blart movie, Kevin James officially gets the Jerry Lewis crown for what is a silly, slapstick, nonsensical movie that is suitable for all family members, which has some very funny bits, and which offends no one.  Critics call this foolish, idiotic, simplistic, and a waste of talent.  I see it as a movie that fills a valuable need – watching Blart’s hapless behaviour as he attends a security guard’s conference in Miami Beach with his teenage daughter in tow … and it’s not long before she is kidnapped by the bad guys, and Paul Blart springs into action, in a pudgy sor to way.  No Oscars here, but it’s the kind of film that Lewis would have made in the ‘60s that just made audiences laugh. Rated PG.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel:  

After the delightful original from 2011, this sequel is most disappointing.  Gone is the charm and enthusiasm exhibited by Sonny (Dev Patel), young proprietor of the little hotel in India that has attracted a number of retirement-age Brits, and also gone is a script full of hope, happiness, and promise.  Sonny’s character is now a scheming, uncooperative lout, the hotel denizens including characters played by Dame Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Bill Nighy are all much darker with hidden agendas, and the outcome is too small for the length of the journey.  By all means see it, but come with dramatically lower expectations.  Rated 14A.

The Longest Ride: 

Despite all the talent here, including a Nicolas Sparks book, and starring performances by new “it girl” Britt Robertson, and Kyle Eastwood (Clint’s son), the movie had the worst box office numbers of any of Sparks’ previous nine books-turned-to-movies.  An older man in a car crash (Alan Alda), begins to tell his story of lost love from his hospital bed, and two parallel stories play out, one following the old man’s youth, and the other dealing with the troubles of the new young couple.  Lots of eye-candy here – Eastwood is a great new star – but a script that falls short, and a movie too long by 20 minutes at least.  Rated 14A.

Iron Man (2008):   

Robert Downey, Jr. surprised all observers when he stepped into the role of industrialist Tony Stark, and the suit that made him a superhero in an instant.  This really kick-started a whole new aspect of the Marvel universe as Ironman with the origins story that begins with a nearly-dead Stark in a cave in Iraq after a roadside bomb nearly kills him, and ends with a battle of giants as he has to wrestle control of his company away from a rival who has betrayed him.  Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges also star.  Rated 14A.

Pacific Rim (2013):  

A tremendous special effects film done in the style of old Godzilla movies, but updated with giant robots defending humankind against incredibly huge monsters attacking from the sea is worth seeing again and again … or for the first time.  It’s a near-future world, the earth has nearly lost the battle with intelligent creatures from a rift in the deepest ocean who come from another dimension, and time is running out. Idris Elba stars as a military commander with the excellent movie name, Stacker Pentecost.   I loved this movie!   Rated 14A.