Resident Evil: The Final Chapter:

14 years since the first film in this franchise, and four years since the last one, offers up Milla Jovovich once again as Alice, who returns to where everything started, the underground hive at Raccoon City where the evil Umbrella Corporation first set out in its plan to take over the world.  At this point we are in a post-apocalyptic earth with few remaining human survivors.  Alice learns that the Corp now will make a final push to eliminate the last of the humans, so, with a small band of survivors, she returns to where it all began.  The events here take place immediately after the action in Resident Evil: Retribution from 2012.  Ali Larter (Heroes, Pitch) is back – she hasn’t been seen in this franchise since 2010.  This is thought to be the final installment in the series, with a spin-off TV series in the works.  Watch the motorcycle action – stuntwoman Olivia Jackson, doing some hard riding, is seen to crash.  That crash is real, and resulted in serious injury, causing her ultimately to lose an arm.  Rated 14A.

XxX: The Return of Xander Cage:

This is a bit of a stretch, because extreme athlete Xander Cage, also a top government secret operative on the side, was dead at the end of the first movie in this series of two.  But, when a movie makes a lot of money, and when Vin Diesel is the title character, it makes sense financially to do it again, so Cage is resurrected and here we go again.  At play here is Pandora’s Box, part of a military satellite that fell out of the sky causing great mayhem when it landed on a populated part of Brazil where Samuel L. Jackson’s character is trying to recruit a replacement for the departed Cage.  Fast forward to the part where they see that Cage is very much alive, he is re-recruited, and the chase is on.  Cars, skate boards, skis, motorcycles, all come into play as chase scene after chase scene tires us out.  There are only so many explosions you can watch, car crashes you can see, and stunts that are unbelievable, before you sit back, numb and just letting it all wash over you.  Hardcore action fans will like this, maybe … although they did not show up at the box office to support this did.  But Diesel is always a draw … except for this time. Rated 18A.

The Space Between Us:

Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game, Hugo) stars as Gardner Elliot, the first human being born on Mars.  His mother was an astronaut who learned, after having blasted off for the red planet on a major expedition, that she was pregnant.  On arrival on Mars, she dies in childbirth leaving Gardner all alone in the world, as she had never indicated to anyone who his father was.  Gardner begins an online relationship with a young woman named Tulsa (Britt Robertson) and ultimately gets the opportunity to go to Earth, to visit the home planet.  There he experiences wonders that he had never imagined, as, in his whole life prior to this, he had only met 14 people.  Now it’s an entire planet full of humanity.  There’s bad news though – doctors learn that his Martian tissues and organs are failing at an alarming rate in Earth’s higher gravity and thicker atmosphere, and he needs to be sent home in order to survive.  But he and Tulsa go on the lam, looking for clues to his father’s identity, and developing their own relationship.  Also stars Gary Oldman. Rated 14A.

Battleship (2012):

This movie was hammered by the critics and was determined to be one of the biggest bombs of the year when it was released five years ago.  Other than the fact that star, Taylor Kitsch of Kelowna, BC plays a ne'er do well in the early going, a slacker of a Navy man who really doesn't remain consistent with his early character, I found this action-thriller based on the Hasbro Battleship game that we played as kids, a good ride.  Kitsch is Lt. Alex Hopper, and when it becomes clear that the US battleship armada is up against an enemy that it cannot fathom (no pun intended), Hopper seems to be the only one with both the fortitude and the smarts to figure out a way to save not only the oceans, but maybe the entire world, from what turns out to be an alien invasion.  Rhianna co-stars along with Liam Neeson.  It's a far better movie than what was presented by critics and reviewers, and in the fullness of time, DVD and on-demand sales included, it actually made close to $100 million over and above its production costs.  If you avoided it because of the bad press, you might want to think again.  Rated 14A.

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004):

This sequel to Vin Diesel's year 2000 turn in Pitch Black adds several layers to the character of Riddick, who can see in the dark, who moves as stealthily as the creature from Alien, and who uses a martial arts style that is unique and original.  Set in the distant future, this sci-fi thriller has Riddick having been pursued along the fringes of the known galaxy as his pursuers are set to cause his undoing.  Finding himself on an uncharted planet with a civilization that is interested in more than a casual way of getting rid of all of humanity, he sets out to save us all.  Dame Judi Dench co-stars, and said later that she had no idea what the movie was about, but that she had great fun making it.  Very good special effects, and the usual tough-guy performance from Diesel.  Rated 14A.