A Star Is Born:

The fourth remake of this 1932 movie has been updated dramatically and now stars Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.  This was Cooper's debut as a director, and also his first on-camera singing assignment.   Cooper is Jackson Maine, a veteran country singer whose alcoholism and his age make him less and less desirable as a live act.  As his career is on a downwards spiral, he nonetheless is inclined to help Ally (Gaga) find fame and fortune as both a performer and a singer.  All the music and singing is done live here, at Gaga's insistence, no lip-syncing, no production tricks.  The film is exceptional, and Cooper deserves much of the credit here as both actor and director.  The tension in the story is derived entirely from Jackson Maine's behaviour.  He is an alcoholic, he uses cocaine and other drugs, and as his relationship with Ally evolves, we don't know what to expect next, because life with an addict, as anyone in the real world knows, is completely unpredictable.   I found it difficult not to think of Prince, of Michael Jackson, and of other excruciatingly talented people who lost their lives to the excesses of their fame.  Reading the closing credits tells us that almost every song was written by Lady Gaga, and each was top 40 single material. Could have done without all the F-bombs here, but still and outstanding movie with performances that will keeping you thinking about what you have seen for hours and days later.  This is a bona fide Oscar contender.   Also stars Sam Elliott, and Dave Chappelle.  Rated 14A.

Robin Hood:

Taron Edgerton (Kingsmen: Golden Circle; Eddie the Eagle) stars as Robin of Loxley in this very different look at the legend of the denizen of Sherwood Forest.  First off, no Sherwood Forest.  No band of merry men.  Despite all that, I quite liked the film, even though I'm a Robin Hood traditionalist. I think this Robin could easily be explained by living in a parallel universe, a standard ploy these days, which could explain the wardrope, a cross between ski-jacket chic, and the suits worn by characters from 1960s sci-fi movies, the ready availability of refined petroleum for the creation of Molotov cocktails, and a commentary about the Crusades that forecasts the radical Muslim attacks of the present day.  Shot in Croatia and Hungary, the landscapes are nothing like those of England, and as an origins story, it's a barn-burner of special effects and high action.  Corruption rules, and Robin (Taron Edgerton) soon finds himself in an alliance with a Moor from the Holy Wars (Jamie Foxx) who was on the opposite side back then, in this new fight to do right for his people.  Once you get yourself oriented to the fact that this isn't your daddy's Robin Hood, it's an interesting, and action-packed telling of the tale.  Rated 14A.

 Overlord:

This horror-thriller from producer JJ Abrams has just about everything a WWII story can throw at you ... evil German soldiers, mad scientists, an an over-the-top leather-coated commandant who leaps off the screen; it has supernatural creatures the result of medical experimentation on villagers in Nazi-occupied France; and it has American GIs on a mission. Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, is the big star here.  Initially, it appears to be a serious war movie based on an actual operation that had paratroops dropped behind enemy lines at night on the eve of the D-Day invasion.  The opening scenes that go on for 10 minutes or so, are the aviation version of the first minutes of Saving Private Ryan in terms of the absolute horror of war.  Men jammed into dozens of C-47 aircraft are headed for he jump zone.  Under constant attack from ground and air fire, the soldiers are sitting ducks as flack, shrapnel, and machine gun bullets from the Luftwaffe rip the planes apart, leaving these young men dying hideous, fiery deaths.  A handful of GIs makes it to ground in the dark of night, tasked with taking out an enemy radio tower in order to allow the coming invasion to provide Allied air cover.  But things start to unravel, with the movie morphing into what could have been a 1950s horror serial coupled with an early '60s Hammer Film in which nothing stays dead for very long.  They dodge superhuman Nazi creations, humble villagers before experimentation turned them into monsters with super strength.  The movie offers thrills, chills, and a good number of laughs because the action and the monsters are so broad as to be almost humorous. It's entertaining movie, in the end not terribly serious, but it gets the job done.  Rated 14A.

Conversations with a Killer:

The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019):  This Netflix original is a four-part series that takes a detailed look at Bundy, a convicted serial killer who was put to death in the electric chair in 1989.  Originally captured and jailed in Utah, Bundy escaped and committed several more sadistic murders before being recaptured, tried, convicted, and ultimately put to death.  During the final months of his incarceration, Bundy agreed to be interviewed and was recorded in many sessions where he spoke in detail about his crimes, and confessed to at least 30 murders, although most believe there were many, many more.  A sadistic sociopath, he never expressed any remorse for what he had done, and given the opportunity, said he would gladly kill again.  Rated 18A for graphic descriptions.

Black Earth Rising (2018):

This Netflix original traces the story of a woman who escaped the Rwandan genocides as a child and who now lives in London.  As Alice Munezero (Noma Dumazwni) she grows up working to escape the shadow of her past, becomes a gifted lawyer, but ends up fighting the same battle in court with a man who tried to help the Rwandans, but is now accused of genocidaly crimes.  John Goodman also stars.  Rated 14A.