Power Rangers:

Although this is the third big-screen movie based on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers of television series fame, it has no connection with the two previous movies from the 1990s, but rather is a reboot of the original TV franchise.  We have five high school students, all outsiders, more inclined towards “nerdism” than athletics, who stumble across what turns out to be an alien spaceship.  They learn that they can develop superpowers and spend significant time understanding what it is they can become.  Just when things look very easy, with the superpowers beginning to settle in, they find that the original aliens had major enemies who are now targeting the students.  Donning their alien crystal suits, they become the Red, Pink, Black, Blue, and Yellow Power Rangers, setting out to save the world from alien attack.  The earlier Power Rangers movies were PG-rated and relatively innocuous, while this one, not a big box office success, was a 14A rated, much tougher version.  Reasonable entertaining, with some good special effects.  Rated 14A.

CHiPs:

40 years after the television series began, which aired from 1977 to 1983, this alleged remake takes the title, the California Highway Patrol, and two cops, one Latino, one white-bread, and ignores everything else.  Nothing in this movie, written, directed, and starring Dax Shepherd, is even remotely a resemblance to the source material.  In the TV series, Jon and Ponch were a pair of straight-arrows, bringing law and order to the highways.  Here, Jon (Shepherd) is a former pro-motorcycler coming off a bad marriage, who ends up on the Highway Patrol, teamed with Ponch (Michael Pena) who is a hot-shot, a guy who plays it close to and over the line, and who is secretly an FBI undercover agent.  Teamed up with Ponch, Jon soon learns that they are investigating a major heist that may involve some bad cops.  What’s bad here is the script which subscribes to the naughty teenage boy school of raunchy humour.  The best thing about it is that we know exactly who to blame for what turned out to be a box office disaster – Dax Shepherd.  This was his baby, and he’s welcome to it!  Rated 18A.

T2 Trainspotting:

Ewan McGregor is back as Renton, who, 20 years ago embedded in the harsh underbelly of the drug scene in Edinburgh, Scotland, he scammed his friends and ran off with the money.  He returns in this sequel, to see the impact of two decades.  Some things are remarkable different, and others are just the same, the grief, the hopelessness and the hurtling towards a bad death remain, and Renton’s pals, those he betrayed, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie, are most interested in evening old scores.  Fans of the original, which was a stark and brutal look at the world of the heroin trade at the street level, will find even more grit, more honesty, and more lost hope than in the first movie.  Others may wonder why anyone would want to wallow in this cesspool.  Some remarkable performances, but a bleak and forbidding story.  Rated 18A.

The Secrets of Emily Blair (2016):

William Reagan (Will Kemp of the TV series Reign where he played Lord Darnley) is alarmed when he sees dramatic changes in his fiancée Emily Blair (Ellen Hollman of the series Badlands).  It's clear that she has been demon-possessed, and that she is headed down that long, slippery slope to ultimate eternal doom, and he turns to an old friend, Father Avatal (Colm Meaney) begging for help, hoping that the good Father can perform an exorcism.  The ties to the movie The Exorcist are all over this film - Emily's last name is "Blair," and it was Linda Blair who played the possessed girl in The Exorcist.  Her name was "Reagan" which is the name of her fiancée in this film, and her residence is located in Friedken, which is the name of the author of The Exorcist.  With all of that, it's a fairly standard possession story, but still one that will scare you more than just a little!  Rated 14A. 

When the Bough Breaks (2016):

Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall star as an upwardly mobile couple, John and Laura Tyler, who are unable to have children, and hire a surrogate named Anna (Jaz Sinclair) to carry their baby.  As Anna's pregnancy progresses, she becomes more and more unbalanced mentally, and soon develops the feeling that John loves her and that he will leave his wife once the baby is born, and take up with Anna.  She stalks him, shows up at the law firm where he works and creates significant damage to his reputation, and when he does not return her affections, decides that perhaps taking Laura out of the picture might do the trick.  A better than average thriller, with some twists and turns that are real surprises.  Rated 14A.