Black Panther:

This Marvel film could have been just another big-budget smash-em-up action thriller, but it is far more than that, taking influences from the James Bond and Bourne movies along with plot and character development that transcend the genre.  For sure you'll get your share of stuff blowing up, but you will also look into the character and the thinking of T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who returns to his African nation home of Wakenda to take the throne as part of a normal succession plan.  Oscar-winner Lupita N'yongo is his ex-wife, but still a close ally, and Angela Bassett tears up the scenery, and the jungle, as the queen mother.  The hook here is that Wakenda looks just like a normal third-world African nation on the surface, but underneath it is something quite different, decades ahead of the rest of the world in technology, because of a mother lode of a mystic mineral that has allowed for the development of a highly futuristic society with special effects that would be comfortable in Blade Runner or in Geostorm.  Because of the African setting, we don't get the sense that this is a "black" movie, but rather is a movie set in a place where whites are in the minority and that's just a fact.  I enjoyed the fact that the big villain here was not some off-world creature or race trying to dominate humans, but rather a diabolical character named Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) whose motivation is deeply rooted in betrayal and resentment, and who, despite his evil nature, is easy to understand and is an easy character with which to sympathize.  Visually stunning with a remarkable story that touches on race, gender, walls around nations, and what we could all become if we allowed ourselves the honour, this movie is virtually flawless and is one for which the sequel will be thirsted after like a dehydrated desert traveller seeks water.  Rated 14A.

Samson:

I would say that this movie, based on the Old Testament story in the Bible of a man who had supernatural strength rooted in his hair, is perfectly awful, but as we know, nothing is perfect.  The film is a mish-mash of bad acting, a story that can't keep itself straight despite the source material, and some of the worst wigs and fake beards since Edward G. Robinson's turn as Dathan in The Ten Commandments.  Unfortunate, because in 1949 Victor Mature played the role with gusto in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah; a 1996 version with a badly cast Eric Thal was tolerable ... suffice to say, for this poorly-crafted tale, the Book was better.  Rated PG.

Bent:

Good cast in this crime thriller which stars Karl Urban, Sofia Vergara, and Andy Garcia.  It’s a revenge movie in which Urban’s character, Danny Gallagher, is a police detective involved in the take down of a mob boss that goes badly wrong, with Danny’s partner accidentally shooting an undercover office working the case.  The evidence makes it look as if Danny is a bent and dirty cop, and he receives a prison sentence for his role in what appeared to be significant wrongdoing. When he gets out of jail, his sole motivation is to get the gang leader who set him up, but it seems as if everyone else on the case is a little on the bent and dirty side too, and Danny doesn’t know whom he can trust.  Rated 14A.

 The Conjuring 2 (2016):

Based on one of the most critically documented hauntings ever, real life ghost experts Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga) travel to England and investigate what has come to be known as the Enfield Haunting.  The family living in a home see the beginnings of strange activities, dishes flying off countertops, doors slamming, and soon are living in a full-blown battle zone between the powers of this world and some other one.  A tale of demonic possession and a conspiracy to spin the tale in a different way plays out with exceptional results.  Rated 14A.

Candy Jar (2018):

Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron plays a key role in this Netflix original that tells the story of a pair of high school debaters, one black, one white, who invariably take opposing ends of every issue.  With the opportunity to get into the right college hanging in the balance, the question becomes whether they can manage better together or apart.  Helen Hunt also starts.  Rated 14A.