Blacklight (2022):

Despite the good intentions and the previous fine work that writer/director Mark Williams and star Liam Neeson have together, I found this action-thriller wanting in several main areas, and was disappointed in it from start to finish. Williams wrote and directed "The Marksman" in which Neeson starred, as well as "Honest Thief" for Neeson, and "The Accountant" for Ben Affleck. Here, Neeson's character is Travis Block. He is a sort of Government agent, but not really - all of his assignments for the past 20 years have been off-book, and his job has been reigning in FBI agents who have gone astray. He has a daughter and granddaughter from whom he has been somewhat estranged, largely because of his work over the years which has been unpredictable and largely unexplainable. A young woman, a rising political star is killed in an apparent accident, but we as an audience know better - it's murder, and it's the FBI that was responsible. When an agent, Dusty Crane, who was part of the plot, wants to come clean by going to the media, bad things begin to happen. Travis Block's job is to handle him, but it does not go well, and soon corruption at the top level of the Bureau has Block's family in the sights if he does not comply. There is nothing remarkable about the film, it's predictable, and many of the plot devices really don't make a lot of sense. I like Neeson a great deal, but he is truly getting too old for this kind of stuff. Rated 14A.

Without Remorse (2021):

This Amazon Studios release actually has a longer official title - "Tom Clancy's Without Remorse." For those who know the book, you'll find this action-thriller nothing like the novel. The only similarity is that the main character, John Kelly/Clark (Michael B. Jordan) is a former Navy Seal. Beyond that, there are no similarities, a product of the nearly 30 years that this project has been in development. John Kelly, who has been a recurring character in Tom Clancy novels over time, returns to the States after an operation in Aleppo, Syria with his unit. Once home, team members, who had a major skirmish with the Russians on their last mission, began to be eliminated, and their families as well. Kelly's home is invaded, and his pregnant wife is murdered. He is seriously wounded, but survives, and devotes the balance of the movie to getting even. There are other Tom Clancy characters present, such as the CIA's Robert Ritter, played by Jamie Bell here, and by Henry Czerny in a previous movie, and the plot is a series of twists and turns involving nefarious characters at the highest levels of the Government, a clear and present danger from Russia, and an operation that takes Kelly and a team of operatives into Russian airspace, resulting in one of the best movie plane crashes that I have ever seen. Stay for the closing credits, as there is one more scene midway through that sets up the next movie in this series, which will be called "Rainbow Six." Rated 18A for violence.

Demonic (2021):

South African native and Vancouver Film School graduate Neil Blomkamp (“District 9”) wrote and directed this horror-thriller about an estranged mother and daughter and just how they got that way. South African actress Nathalie Boltt (“Riverdale”) is Angela, the mom who did many bad things over the years, leaving a number of people dead as a result. Her daughter Carly (B.C. born Carly Pope) has refused to talk with mom for some years because of the mother’s serious misdeeds, and now, mom is in a coma, and Carly is approached with the message that a small group of “interested parties” can help Carly contact her comatose mother. It becomes clear to Carly, almost too late, that there is a dark, supernatural underpinning to all of this, and that her mother’s previous behaviour may not have been her fault. Victoria native Michael J. Rogers (“Continuum,” “Fringe”) also stars, along with Alberta’s Terry Chen. Shot entirely in B.C., mostly in the Kamloops area. Rated 14A.

The Pentaverate (Limited Series) (2022):

Mike Myers both created, wrote, and stars as eight separate characters in this bizarre comedy in six parts, which is a direct spinoff of his "So I Married an Axe Murderer" movie from 1993. The premise has a group of five men who have been working to influence world events since the Black Plague in the 1300s, and who continue that work today. The influence they wielded was for the greater good, so it appears, on the surface at least, that these five are good guys. It falls to a Canadian journalist named Ken Scarborough (Mike Myers, who incidentally, is from Scarborough, ON) to make it his mission to expose the truth behind these influencers, and in the process, perhaps save the world. In addition to the characters played by Meyers, including conspiracy theorists, media moguls, and a top-rated far-right radio host, we get such guest stars as Keegan Michael-Key, and Ken Jeong, best known as a panellist on "The Masked Singer." 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.