Ocean's 8:

Written and directed by Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Sea Biscuit), this is pretty much the heist movie you would expect it to be, given its parentage.  It's a sequel of sorts, to the rebooted versions of Ocean's 11, 12, and 13, in which George Clooney starred as Danny Ocean, the master of the heist.  Here, Ocean has passed away, we believe, and his sister Debbie (Sandra Bullock) has just been released after five years in prison - five years during which she had the time, while in solitary, to plan the perfect caper - theft of a $150,000,000 diamond Cartier necklace.  On release from the Big House, she goes to work "putting the band back together," a cast of characters with whom she has worked before: Lou (Cate Blanchett); Amita (Mindy Kaling); Sara Paulson (American Crime Story); Constance (Awkwafina); Nine Ball (Rhianna); Rose (Helena Bonham Carter); and April (Midori Francis).  Each woman has a reason for being out of the business and each has to be convinced that a $15 million payday per person is a worthwhile reason to take the risk.  The compendium of crooks includes the now-mandatory computer expert and hacker, a sleight of hand artist, someone expert at fencing stolen goods, and a high-end fashionista with all the right contacts, and a $5 million tax bill.  More than half the movie is about the recruiting of the players, and the offering of just enough information to make the audience feel in on things.  Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) is the bigtime celeb who is picked to be the ladies' unknowing accomplice.  Of course there are the usual almost-got-caught moments as the teams assigned to guard the necklace begin to sense that something is wrong, and later we see James Corden as an insurance investigator who seems that he is on to Debbie Ocean ... but we haven't yet seen the twist that changes everything.  The film is entertaining - it gets you where you are going - and the cast is flawless.  Rated 14A.  

Superfly:

A remake of the 1972 movie, the story here sticks pretty close to that of the original, only the style has been ramped up a few hundred percentage points to accommodate the current gangsta rapper lifestyle.  The story of a street hustler, Youngblood (Trevor Jackson), a cocaine dealer who wants to make just one more big score before he retires, like the original Blaxploitation movies from the '70s that spawned this, it's all about glamorizing the lifestyle of the streets, with one exception .... it's director, known simply as "X," has spent the last 20 years creating videos for such rappers as Drake, Rhianna, and Kendrick Lamar, brings that style to the film, making it appear like one long, ultraviolent video ... if you're interested in the rap genre, and you appreciate this kind of rap scene, the movie will work well for you - well made, and offers exactly what this market wants.  Rated 18A.

Hearts Beat Loud:

Nick Offerman (The Office, Making It) is Frank Fisher, who has a struggling record store offering vinyl only, a deceased wife from a bike accident, and a wonderful daughter (Sam, played by Kiersey Clemons) who is about to head for the west coast to go to med school.   Frank is a former musician, and Sam is no slouch either. She sings a song for him that she wrote, and he thinks that it’s so good, they should record it, which he does in his own studio. Unbeknownst to Sam, Frank uploads the song, it goes viral, and suddenly everyone wants to sign them.  Sam wants no part of it – she just wants to head off to med school … but her dad is now becoming very insistent that they should become a band. Ted Danson also stars, in what is both a touching, and maddening movie that did not get a lot of distribution outside of film festivals. It has a nice touch though, and all the right things happen to the right people, there is still a lot of drama left over.  Rated 14A.

Extinction (2018):

This Netflix original wasn't produced by Netflix at all, and maybe that's why it is such a good sci-fi adventure.  It was produced by Universal for theatrical distribution, and for some reason, the studio had a change of mind and sold it off to Netflix.  The production values and special effects are excellent, and the story hangs together very well, as Michael Pena plays Peter, a husband and father with a blue-collar tech job, who has dreams about an alien invasion.  Soon, the dream becomes reality, and the earth, or at least the part where he lives, is under siege by spacecraft bent on destroying everything and everyone.  There is a great twist to the story that changes things, and even though it's complete unto itself, I would love to see a sequel.  Rated 14A.

How It Ends (2018):

I mentioned this Netflix original a few weeks ago when it was scheduled to appear, and at that time had only the company's press release, an end-of-the-world story with a good cast.  Well, now, having seen the movie, I would dispute the title completely.  Forest Whitaker and Theo James, along with Vampire Diaries alum Kat Graham, are part of a family that has to deal with how it ends. Theo's character has just learned that his girlfriend  (Kat) is pregnant, he is on the other side of the country on business, when everything shuts down ... the entire electrical grid, cell phones, airline arrivals and departures, everything.  With no news media, and a need to get home, he strikes out across country by car.  We always get the sense that the explanation is just around the corner, but sadly, it never comes.  Left me with one of those, wha-a-a-a-t?  feelings as the credits started to roll.  Rated 14A.