The Matrix Resurrections (2021):

If you were a fan of 1999's "The Matrix," and its two sequels in 2003, you will be delighted, 18 years later, to revisit the digital world in which machines rule, and human beings are hooked into a power grid for the rulers, with their brain waves generating energy to run that world. I have not revisited the world of "The Matrix" since seeing the two subsequent movies, "Reloaded" and "Revolutions," so I was a little rusty in terms of what was going on in this new action-thriller until I got into the groove. Keanu Reeves is back as Neo, although in the early going he isn't Neo at all, but rather a video game creator named Thomas Anderson whose career was built on his Matrix game, and who believes that the world in which he lives is the real thing, modern day San Francisco. We learn quickly though that Thomas isn't in the real world at all, but rather, is back in a pod hooked up to life support equipment, with the machines creating his life which runs in a continuous loop. More than 60 years has elapsed in real time since he escaped from The Matrix, along with his love interest, Trinity (Vancouver's Carrie-Anne Moss), and we learn that she is there too, back in a pod, and that the two of them are essential to the continued existence of this digital world. Laurence Fishburne was not invited back to reprise his role of Morpheus, which now falls to Yayah Abdul-Matteen II, nor was Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith, who had scheduling problems with another project. Jada Pinkett-Smith is back from the original film, and so are special effects by the trainload that keep us focused on which world, the real one, or the digital construct we are in, and the parade of characters both real and digital that keep us guessing. The movie is long at 2:48 and it tends to slump in a few places, but once you get the drift of what is going on, the time passes quickly. Reeves and Moss are great together once again, and the complicated plot forces us to pay close attention. A worthwhile movie, with a short scene at the end of the credits, which are 13 minutes long, that was barely worth staying for. Rated 14A.

A Journal for Jordan (2021):

Based on actual events, the short version of this movie is that an American soldier, killed by an IED in Iraq post-911, has left a journal for his infant son, telling the boy, when he's ready, how to live a good life. The long version is that it's 2:11 length seemed endless, making me wonder, for much of the first hour, if anything was ever going to happen. Based on the memoir by Dana Canady, initially a New York Times reporter when she met First Sgt. Charles King (Michael B. Jordan), later his girlfriend, then his fiancé, and finally, the mother of his child, I give her credit for demonstrating character flaws that made her an unlikeable person, making me wonder what Jordan's character saw in her. Canady (Chante Adams) could have presented herself in a more favourable light, but she chose to tell the truth, demonstrating that Sgt. King was a more honourable man than she was a woman - he consistently wanted to do the right thing, while she constantly pined about what she wanted that she wasn't getting. She was selfish and self-centred in much of her behaviour. By the third act, in the days following 9/11 with Sgt. King deployed to Iraq and with Dana pregnant with their son, the action and the drama picked up significantly. We know from the beginning that the Sgt. is killed in action, but it isn't until a now 12-year-old Jordan asks how his father died that we learn the details. The journal that Sgt. King completed turned out to be a textbook on how to live a good life and how to be a respectful person, which, in the end, is what the journey of life should be about. Have Kleenex handy! Rated 14A.

The Legend of La Llorona (2022):

Not connected to the previously released “The Curse of La Llorona” from 2019, this horror-chiller, shot in Mexico City, trades on the legend, one that some Mexican mothers still use to make their young kids compliant … “if you don’t behave, La Llorona will come for you!” La Llorona’s backstory is part fact and mostly legend. She was the most beautiful girl in her town, and when a wealthy rancher showed up, they fell in love, had two beautiful boys, and lived an idyllic life … until she caught her husband with another woman. Out of anger and spite, she drowned her two boys in the river, and, coming to her senses and realizing what she had done, she threw herself in the river and drowned. Because of her suicide, she was condemned to roam the land between death and life, always in search of young children whose lives she could trade for her lost children. The story here picks up as a couple, vacationing in Mexico, find their son missing. The only thing a search turns up is that maybe the child has fallen victim to La Llorona. Now it’s a race against time and the supernatural, to find the boy. Rated 14A.

The Adam Project (2022):

Canadian director Sean Levy (the "Night at the Museum" movies) helms this time travel twister in which a 13 year-old boy named Adam, grieving the loss of his father to a sudden death a year earlier, walks into his home's garage to find a wounded pilot hiding inside. Played by Ryan Reynolds, the pilot is also named Adam, and he turns out to be the young boy's older self who, in the future, is working on a project involving time travel, which is/was in its infancy at that time. He is on a secret mission, and he must collect his younger self, and go further back in time where the two of them can find their father before his death, and deal with some world-threatening issues that could destroy life on our planet. Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo also star. Rated 14A.

Robin Robin (2021):

This stop-motion animated film from the UK tells the story of a little baby robin who rolls out of her nest onto the ground, and who is saved, and then raised by a family of mice. As Robin gets older, she begins to realize that she is not a mouse, and that maybe she doesn't really belong with this family. A heart-warming story with an excellent message that both children and parents will enjoy. Gillian Anderson ("The X-Files") provides one of the major voices in this British made film. Rated G.