Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022):

Seldom would I say that a movie smacks of perfection at every level, but this sequel to the 2019 original, itself a spinoff of the TV series that began in 2010 telling he sprawling saga of the Crawley Family from the turn of the 20th Century, through WWI and beyond, should satisfy even the most discriminating fan. With one exception, all the characters still alive during this story, set in the 1920s, make an appearance, and fit with the viewer like lost family members to be embraced after a long absence. All of the opulence, the wonderful dialogue, and the oh-so-proper mores and habits of the Crawley family are in full view, and it's a sumptuous and delightful experience. The Downton movie from 2019 in which the king and queen of England visited the palatial and stately home left many observers feeling like it had missed the mark, and in comparison, to this near-masterpiece, it did. The difference is in its director. Michael Engler, best known for "Sex and the City" directed the first Downton movie. He was replaced for this one by Simon Curtis ("Woman in Gold") who in real life is married to Elizabeth McGovern who plays Cora Crawley, wife of Robert, the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville). Engler has captured the essence of each character and has built in the requisite growth in their attitudes and in their lives accounting for the passage of time between stories. There are two distinct plots afoot here. One is that a motion picture company approaches the Granthams asking to use their home as a set for a feature film. There is resistance initially, but the fees that the producers will pay for the trouble are substantial, and could provide much-needed revenue to do major repairs on the roof and other parts of the structure, so an agreement is reached. The actors and crew shake things up as the staff and family work to accommodate this new breed of performers. The second has Violet, the Countess Dowager, inheriting a villa in the South of France on the death of what appears to be a long-ago lover who has never forgotten her, which has some of the family travelling across the Channel to view the property. Both stories mesh like the fine gears in a classic timepiece offering a beautiful outcome, closing the door, hopefully, to any further sequels, as the story ends perfectly and completely. Rated PG.

Memory (2022):

Liam Neeson, who said two years ago that he was all done with action movies, continues to buck that trend with this piece that is consistent with similar roles in the past. Neeson is often a former special forces operative or some other kind of ex-spy, now having to use his skills to save a family member or some other person in crisis. All the crisis stuff exists here, but this time Neeson's character, Alex Lewis, is a veteran hitman, working for many different organizations as a freelancer. It's time, he feels, to leave that business behind, as he begins to struggle with his ability to remember details. We learn early on that his older brother is in the late stages of Alzheimer's and it appears that Alex may be slipping down that same slope with the beginnings of memory loss. When a Mexican cartel boss calls him in for a job that requires the clinical expertise for which Alex is famous, to dispatch some enemies of the organization, Alex tells him that he won't take the job, that he is done. He offers no explanation, other than to say it's time to quit. He is told, coldly, that no one quits - and that the job is on. It's a three-part killing, the first part the easy dispatch of a bad guy, but when Alex finds that his second victim is a 13-year-old girl, he refuses to comply, as children are off-limits for his brand of death-on-demand. That does not sit well with the Cartel bosses, and now Alex is a target. At the same time, looking at a much bigger picture, an FBI agent, Vincent Serra (Guy Pearce) is on Alex's trail too, for previous murders. Despite the fact that reviews for this movie have been relatively poor, I liked it - I thought that Neeson was excellent at being an older guy at the end of the line rather than the perennial action hero. Playing a man his actual age, and struggling with the memory loss that makes getting his jobs done smoothly, added a level of tension that makes this a gripping story. There are many characters involved in targeting Alex and we get the feeling early on that this cannot end well. Nothing is predictable and every plot twist leaves us guessing what will come next as the usual stereotypes and story devices don't exist here. Rated 14A.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022):

This extremely odd, and highly original movie was a box office sleeper, having stayed in the top five movies for months before slipping off into the world of DVD and On Demand releases. In short, it’s about “verse-jumping,” or having the ability to move from one infinite universe to another. The protagonist here is Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) who runs a failing laundromat, manages a failing marriage, and deals with a failing relationship with her daughter, and her father who has just immigrated from China to the U.S. On top of all that, she is being audited by the tax department and her husband, a wimpy sort of guy, is surreptitiously trying to divorce her. In the midst of all this chaos, Evelyn learns that she can move from this version of herself to other versions in other universes. In some places she is a rock star, literally, and in others she sees raccoons governing the activities of humans. Behind all this is a sinister presence that could change everything for all humanity. A most bizarre film, but for sci-fi fans, it does the trick, although there is an ”R” rating on it for good reason.

The Sea Beast (2022):

Screenwriter Chris Williams, responsible for writing such popular Disney movies as "Mulan," "The Emperor's New Groove," and "Moana," jumps ship here to sign on with Netflix Animation, which produced and distributed this cartoon adventure in a mythical age where monsters routinely plied the seas. The story is about a girl named Maisie Brumble (voice of Zaris-Angel Hator), who stows away on the ship of the greatest of all sea monster hunters, Jacob Holland. The monster hunters are the most celebrated of all adventurers and Maisie idolizes him. When she is discovered on the ship, Jacob now finds himself with an ally he wasn't planning to have join him as he sails into one of the most dangerous parts of the sea. Rated PG.

Operation Mincemeat (2021):

This film, based on actual events in WWII, was released by Warner Bros in the UK theatrically, and is being released by Netflix in North America. Colin Firth stars in this ingenious story of an espionage operation in 1943 that turned the tide of the war when a pair of British operatives used a combination of a corpse and false identity documents to deceive the Germans at a critical point when a huge build-up of troops was set to quash the allies. It tells the story of those who fight in the shadows, and whose true exploits are sometimes unknown and lost in the fog of war and the mirage of history. Rated 14A.