Fall (2022):

This survival thriller is about as sparse as movie-making gets in terms of cast, setting, and where the heart of the action is concerned. There are no elaborate sets here, and a lot of character-driven action ensues. The film opens with a trio of rock climbers, two women and a man, climbing the straight-up granite cliffs of El Capitan in California's Yosemite National Park. They are Becky (Grace Caroline Curry of the TV series "Revenge"), Hunter (Virginia Gardner of "The Goldbergs'') and Dan (Mason Gooding) who is Becky's husband. There is an accident and Dan falls to his death. Fast forward one year and Becky is an alcohol-soaked mess, not having dealt with the death of her husband in any sensible way. Hunter shows up for the first time in 12 months to help Becky heal by convincing her that she must climb her way out of her grief, and use the experience to spread Dan's ashes. Reluctantly, Becky goes along with it. Hunter has an ulterior motive as she has a YouTube channel on which she posts her adventures, and this one involves scaling a 2,000-foot-high television tower in California's Mojave Desert. The tower is abandoned and in disrepair, and as they arrive at the top, the ladder they have been climbing, rusted, weakened, gives way stranding them on a small platform. Of course, there is no cell service - they are too high up - and now it becomes a "MacGyver" adventure in trying to determine what few possessions they have can work to save them. By day three they are in bad shape - no food, no water, and no hope. The two actors are in almost every scene, and their plight high up on the tower is completely believable. They have just one length of rope 50 feet long, a drone that they were using for the YouTube video, and precious little else. There are some big surprising twists in both their relationship and their chances of survival that make this one a classic nail-biter all the way to the surprising conclusion. Rated 14A.

Bullet Train (2022):

Brad Pitt is the big star here, and Sandra Bullock gets top billing too, although only her voice is present throughout most of the film, and we just see her briefly at the end. If you took the style and the sass of "Pulp Fiction," along with its profanity and bad-guy-charm, rolled it up with the Cockney style of the Guy Ritchie movies "Snatch," which also starred Brad Pitt, or "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and then added the close-quarters action of the movie "Snakes on a Plane," you would have an idea of what this frantic and frenetic tale is all about. Most of the action takes place on a Japanese Bullet Train where we meet Brad Pitt's character, an operative known as "Ladybug," having an extended phone conversation with the voice of Sandra Bullock, his handler, who is instructing him to find a specific briefcase that is located somewhere on the train. For the first 30 minutes of the movie, I had no idea what was actually going on, as we jumped from character to character, mostly on the train, and mostly not offering a lot of info as to who they were - other than they too had an interest in the briefcase. By midpoint it all started to come together and make some sense, as we were clearly dealing with international assassins, and I liked the way plot threads were offered, left behind, and then returned to sew up the action. Stay put when the credits begin to roll, as there is a key scene that ties up a lot of loose ends about a minute into the credits. The director here is David Leitch - he worked as Brad Pitt's stunt double for several years in such films as "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," "Fight Club," and "Ocean’s Eleven." Rated 14A.

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022):

The general theme of this animated feature is not far off what we saw in "The Karate Kid," plus it cribs the plot from "Blazing Saddles," only it's all dogs and cats here! Hank (voice of Michael Cera) is just a regular hound dog who finds himself in a town full of cats. The cats need real help because an evil villain (voice of Ricky Gervais) wants the cat village destroyed and taken off the map. Hank wants to help, but there are a few problems. One, he has no skills to assist the felines. And two ... as everyone knows, cats hate dogs. In order to achieve the position of town Samurai and go paw-to-paw with the villain, Hank enlists the help of a reluctant teacher (voice of Samuel L. Jackson) who can teach him the ways of the Samurai, and help him get installed in a position to save the village. Additional voices by Mel Brooks, Michelle Yeoh, and Star Trek's Mr. Sulu, George Takei. The rating here is PG for a little unsavoury language, and some of the rude and crude cartoon humour that kids seem to love.

The School for Good and Evil (2022):

Netflix both co-produced, and acted as worldwide distributor for this action drama with supernatural overtones which sees best friends Sophie and Agatha (Sophia Ann Caruso of the TV series "Evil," and Sofia Wylie of "High School Musical") placed on opposite sides of a battle for the ages when they are swept away to an enchanted school where good and evil are taught and where the balance between these two factions is carefully controlled to keep the world safe. This is a fairy-tale in the truest sense with Sophie finding herself in the school of evil which is run by the acid-tongued Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron) while Agatha faces the school for Good under the auspices of the beautiful and kind professor Dovey (Kerry Washington). Ordinary boys and girls from all over the world are plucked from their regular lives and deposited in the school to determine how they will impact the fate of the world. Cate Blanchett is the voice of the narrator while Michelle Yeoh plays the enigmatic Professor Anemone. Directed by Paul Feig ("Bridesmaids," "Ghostbusters"). Rated PG.

The Stranger (2022):

One must always be careful about who their friends are. That is the overriding theme of this crime drama in which two men meet on a plane, both strangers to one another. Based on the real-life crime in which 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe was kidnapped and killed in 2003 and the lengthy police investigation that followed, resulting in the capture and conviction of the perpetrator, we have that to consider as Mark (Joel Edgerton) and Henry (Sean Harris) strike up a conversation during their flight. Henry is world-weary, having spent a lifetime doing physical labour, and he views Mark as something of a saviour to him. However, neither man is what he appears to be, and as a police dragnet comes closer in the background, they each share things that may or may not be true with one another. Rated 14A.