The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part:

Everything isn’t quite as awesome at it used to be when Emmett (voice of Chris Pratt) found out that he was “The Special,” and went on some wild adventures with Lucy (voice of Elizabeth Banks), and that’s because the Duplos, an alien race have invaded Bricksberg.  What could they possibly want from Emmett and his friends? And why are they invading in the first place? Those are the questions that will have to be answered, but some of Justice League people who could help have chosen to head off to fight other battles, including Wonder Woman and Superman.  Batman (voice of Will Arnett) stays behind, but he builds a walled mansion and just doesn’t want to be bothered. All of this works magically for those who were fans of the first movie, and who are interested in the continuing adventures of Emmett and his friend, but this is either a love it or don’t care for it genre.  I am partial to the original Lego movie, so I found this one good fun, with some very creative dialogue and some interesting turns. Will Ferrell is back as Mr. Business, and this time he gets his comeuppance. Rated PG.

What Men Want:

 Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures) is the lead, a woman named Ali, who is disadvantaged on the job by an old boy’s network that keeps here hemmed in ... when she develops the ability to hear what men are thinking, everything changes in the fantasy.  Billed as a romantic comedy, there isn't much romantic here, comedy is a stretch, and the basic principle really doesn't work.  If this is supposed to be about women's empowerment, I think someone missed the bus, because the suggestion is that women can only rise to the top when they know what men want.  I don't think so!  Tracy Morgan, Shaquille O'Neal, and Richard Roundtree also star, and there's a nice little role for Shark Tank's Mark Cuban also.  Rated 14A. 

The Prodigy:

This horror thriller stars Jackson Robert Scott, who made his screen debut as Little Georgie in Stephen King's "It," the little boy in the yellow raincoat who became the first victim of Pennywise the Clown.  Now he's the evil one in what is, sadly, a highly predictable story that, while offering some plausible tension, really doesn't show us anything new.  Kids possessed by something evil go back to the Omen movies from the late '70s when their families - especially their mothers - try so hard to love them, but in the end have to agree that something very, very wrong is happening.  And there is only one way out.  It's okay, horror fans will be okay with it, but nothing much to see here.  Rated 14A. 

Wonder Woman (2017):

Director Patty Jenkins has done a masterful job with this origins story in which Gal Gadot stars as perhaps the greatest superhero of all time, and certainly the most influential female one.  Chris Pine plays Steve Trevor, a WWI pilot who crashes his plane on the all-but-invisible island, home of the Amazons.  Diana, daughter of the Queen of the Amazons, saves him ... and in her first travels outside the boundaries of the protected isle, against her mother's wishes, she takes up her weapons to fight in the war ... and she is in for a very big surprise, as the outside world is much more wicked and evil than anything she could have imagined.  Rated 14A.

Little Women (1994):

Keeping with the theme of strong women, another female director, Gillian Armstrong of Australia, wanted so much to capture the look and the feel of the March sisters growing up in post-Civil War America, that she recreated the house in which author Louisa May Alcott lived - the place where she both wrote, and set her story - so that what we see on screen is the closest approximation possible to the actual setting.  This was Clare Danes movie debut, and also stars Winona Ryder and Christian Bale.  Rated PG.