A Cure for Wellness:

This very strange film did not do well at the box office, and it’s no surprise as it is very difficult to embrace.  The story, with a sort of sci-fi twist is good enough, but the characters are all drawn and directed in such as fashion as to have us care for none of them.  Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) is a bright, highly ambitious up-and-coming executive in a New York investment firm who is handed an assignment from his bosses that comes with an ultimatum.  Go to a spa in the Swiss Alps and secure the company’s CEO and return him to the City, or face dire consequences.  The Securities Exchange Commission is investigating, the firm has been up to no good, and Lockhart has been implicated.  It’s jail for all of them unless he gets the CEO back, who was supposed to have been on a two-week vacation, but who seems to have disappeared.  En route to the spa, high up a mountain road, Lockhart’s taxi driver hits a deer and crashes the car.  Lockhart awakens three days later in the hospital portion of the spa, with a huge cast on what he is told is a broken leg from the car accident.  No worries … the head doctor (Jason McIsaacs) will have him all better in no time.  Lockhart learns quickly that most of the well-heeled clientele here cannot leave of their own accord, and he finds his CEO, but learns that something is dreadfully wrong.  Good premise, but it’s all just too weird!  Rated 14A.

A United Kingdom:

This true story is one of those clash-of-culture stories that could have been a movie script, but it would have been too unbelievable.  Instead, the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction premise plays out.  David Oyelowo is the real-life Prince Seretse Khama who, during the late 1940s, is a law student in Britain, rounding out his education before returning home to what would eventually become the African nation of Botswana to take over the throne from his father.  While at school, he meets and falls in love with Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike).  When the couple arrive in Africa, the Prince, soon to be King, expects a little controversy over the issue of his having a white wife, who will become queen, he has no idea of the backlash that is about to occur, not only in Africa, but around the world. In an Apartheid world, the optic of a white queen and a black king don’t sit well with many nations.  King Khama and Queen Ruth are determined to bring peace and prosperity to their people, and are determined to live their lives, but the challenges are enormous.  Excellent performances here and shot on location, and in the actual palace that was home to the real-life monarchs. Rated 14A.

Aftermath:

A different kind of role for Arnold Schwarzenegger here – no superhero stuff, no tough guy … just a man who loses his wife and daughter in a tragic plane crash while he awaits their arrival home.  There is a mid-air collision, and there are no survivors.  Arnold’s character Roman, a construction foreman, learns over time, that the accident was a result of an error on the part of an air traffic controller named Jake (Scoot McNairy) who, after the investigation, is ushered into a protection program under a new identity, separated from his family, for his own safety.  Roman decides he will track him down and extract his revenge, and he ultimately finds the young man, and another tragedy follows. Rated 14A.

Mr. Warmth:

The Don Rickles Project (2007):  This remarkable documentary by John Landis (The Blues Brothers, Michael Jackson's Thriller) could only have been made by someone with the strong connection to the source material that exists here.  Produced a decade before his death, we see a lot of Rickles, but we also get a lot of the friends that were a part of his life.  Best friend Bob Newhart and wife Ginny talk about vacationing with the Rickles all over the world.  Frank Sinatra was a big fan and a big friend, as was Clint Eastwood and Johnny Carson.  Worth the price of admission all on its own is the tape of Rickles on the Tonight Show with a guest host, pounding on Johnny's desk, and breaking his wooden cigarette box.  The next night Carson is on the air, finds the broken box, learns who is responsible, and takes his camera across to the next studio where Rickles was shooting his sitcom CPO Sharkey, and confronts him on the spot.  Some Dean Martin Roast footage as well.  Very good fun.  Rated 14A. 

Code of Honor (2016):

Steven Seagal is his typical one-man-army self here as he tries to rid his city of crime by sitting up in a tower and shooting every bad guy who comes by.  Organized crime, street crime, greasy politicians - they all come into his sights.  Seagal is 65 now, and he has put on a lot of weight, so most of what we see here are night shots of the man cloaked in black, squeezing off shots as necessary.  He is a Special Forces Colonel, and uses an interesting device - "B" actor Craig Sheffer playing a former army buddy who is also Special Forces ... and it's Sheffer's character who does all the hand-to-hand combat, something that would have been Seagal's territory in earlier times.  Very, very standard movie - so if you like Seagal and what he does, this will work just like so many others that look the same.  Rated 14A.