Produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Chris Miller, the magical story of Puss in Boots continues with the feline crusader, played by Antonio Banderas, trying to restore his nine lives after using up eight.
According to the DreamWorks fandom page, the original title was Puss in Boots: Nine Lives and Forty Thieves, and it’s now Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The change most likely occurred because the story focuses on Puss getting his last wish to regain the eight lives he spent swashbuckling through fairytale land.
Directed by Janus Metz with a screenplay by Olen Steinhauer, adapted from his bestselling novel of the same name, All the Old Knives starts on a bleak winter morning in Vienna. CIA Chief of Station Victor Wallinger, played by Laurence Fishburne, visits veteran case officer Henry Pelham, played by Chris Pine, and delivers volatile news.
Ilyas Shushani, played by Orli Shuka, the Chechen extremist who masterminded a deadly hijacking that killed more than 100 airline passengers and crew in Austria eight years ago, has been captured by the agency. During interrogation, Shushani revealed that a mole in the Vienna station provided vital intelligence to the hijackers, resulting in the catastrophic loss of life. With this new information, Henry is assigned to reopen the case of Flight 127 and identify the traitorous double agent.
But the mission means revisiting painful memories and laying traps for old friends. Even for a spy as adept at compartmentalizing his emotions as Henry is, that’s no easy task. His first stop is a pub in London, where he surprises his former superior, Bill Compton, played by Jonathan Pryce, who was second in command in Vienna during the hijacking. Long since retired from the agency, Bill considers the incident ancient history. Still, Henry points out several disturbing inconsistencies in Bill’s story, suggesting he knows far more than he’s letting on.
With troubling investigation details piling up, Henry travels to Northern California to question another retired Vienna station colleague, Celia Harrison, played by Thandiwe Newton. Henry and Celia were once passionate lovers, more than just ex-coworkers, but their relationship fell apart after the hijacking disaster.
When they meet for a meal together at a stylish cliffside restaurant in Carmel, romantic sparks reignite as the two seasoned spies reminisce about their bittersweet past. But as night falls and the dinner conversation gradually becomes an interrogation, their intimate rendezvous becomes a sly cat-and-mouse game played by two experts, where the stakes are life and death.
As his second feature film, Danish filmmaker Metz found the script most intriguing because of its powerful emotional depth and the complex ethical questions it raises. “I fell in love with the script from the moment I read it,” says Metz. “It was a very compelling story about two CIA agents meeting for dinner, one tasked with interrogating the other. Essentially, it’s a love story interwoven with a spy thriller. There’s a whodunit plot that drives the film, but Henry and Celia’s tragic relationship anchors everything.”
Metz believes the film is about people forced to make difficult choices to preserve what they care about, regardless of the consequences. “It’s a story about trying to do the right thing at the right moment,” he says. “But the dilemma for Henry and Celia is that they are in a situation where that becomes next to impossible.”
Coming to us again from Stephen King’s classic thriller and directed by Keith Thomas, Firestarter is about a girl, played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong, with extraordinary pyrokinetic powers, who fights to protect her family and herself from sinister forces that seek to capture and control her.
For decades, parents Andy a new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic thriller from the producers of The Invisible Man, a girl with extraordinary pyrokinetic powers fights to protect her family and herself from sinister forces that seek to capture to control her.
For more than a decade, parents Andy, played by Zac Efron, and Vicky, played by Sydney Lemmon, have been on the run. They are desperate to hide their daughter, Charlie, from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her remarkable gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction.
Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative, played by Michael Greyeyes, becomes deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans.
Drew Barrymore played the girl with the powers in the first movie. The CGI special effects will prove most beneficial as a popcorn thriller with the technology today.
Directed by Damien Power from the bestseller No Exit by Taylor Adams, the movie follows Darby Throne, played by Havana Rose Liu. Darby is driving to see her mother in the hospital when a blizzard hits.
Darby end ups at a lodge where a handful of people are also waiting out the snowstorm, played by Dale Dickey, Daniel Rameriz, Dennis Haysbert and David Rysdahl.
She discovers a young girl, played by Mila Harris, locked in a van parked in the parking lot outside. Darby tries to find out who of the handful of people snowbound put the girl in the van.
Goodreads and IMDB helped with information about this movie, which will play on Hulu.
Based on the bestselling novel by faith-based novelist Francine Rivers and directed by D. J. Caruso, Redeeming Love is a powerful story of relentless love and perseverance as a young couple’s relationship clashes with the harsh realities of the California Gold Rush of 1850. The story is the retelling of Hosea and Gomer from the biblical account in the Old Testament.
Angel, played by Abigail Cowen, expects only pain from those around her. Sold into prostitution as a child, Angel survives with hatred towards herself and the men who use her. She meets Michael Hosea, played by Tom Lewis, a farmer who believes God wants Angel to be his wife. Dire circumstances force Angel to accept his proposal, but her wounded heart mends when Michael defies her bitter expectations.
As Angel encounters a love unlike anything she has ever experienced, feelings of unworthiness and shame cause her to run from a life she doesn’t think she deserves. As Michael sets out to find her, Angel discovers no brokenness that love can’t heal.
Cowan’s screen credits include I Still Believe, another faith-based movie.
How often have you wanted to return to Hogwarts and spend time with Harry, Hermione, Ron and the other delightful characters written beautifully by J. K. Rowling?
In 2011, before the release of the last Harry Potter movie, YouGov America reported that 18 percent of those surveyed had read all the Harry Potter books. And 31 percent had read at least one book.
The story of Harry Potter is over with the disintegration of Voldemort in the last book and movie. We can still appreciate the seven books and eight movies by re-reading and re-watching the telling of a fantastic story.
Perhaps that is why HBOMax brings us Harry Potter’s 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts on New Year’s Day. Viewers watch as actors reminisce about working on one of the world’s finest movie franchises.
Directed by Sean McNamara, in 1684 France, Louis XIV, played by Pierce Brosnan, – the Sun King – is the most powerful monarch on the planet.
His birthday and a rare solar eclipse are approaching, and he’s worried about the future of France. His spiritual advisor, Père La Chaise, played by William Hurt, comforts him.
His physician, Dr. Labarthe, played by Pablo Schreiber, informs him that scientists believe mermaids contain a life force that grants immortality.
Louis commissions Yves, a young sea captain played by Benjamin Walker, to search the North Seas for the heretofore-mythical sea creature.
Meanwhile, to help pay off war debts, Louis brings to Court Marie-Josèphe, played by Kaya Scodelario, the daughter of the mistress he always loved.
Orphaned at a convent since birth, Marie-Josèphe is educated and musically gifted yet bears inherent defiance of authority. Père feels he can use Marie-Josèphe to tap into the deep pockets of Lintillac, played by Ben Lloyd-Hughes, a wealthy young merchant angling for a position at court and using her musical abilities to satisfy Louis’ ear.
As the week of the Eclipse begins, Yves returns to Versailles, successfully capturing a mermaid played by Fan Bingbing. They order him to place her in a reservoir beneath the Grotto of Thetis and restore her to total health.
Marie-Josèphe discovers the mermaid, and the two quickly develop a mysterious communication ability. Kindred spirits forge an empathic bond based on a common thread: the mermaid, in her capture, has been separated from her children and yearns to be reunited, and Marie-Josèphe still longs to know her parents. Marie-Josèphe also falls in love with Yves, not knowing he is the mermaid’s captor.
Eventually, Marie-Josèphe finds out that Louis has planned not only to marry her off to Lintillac, whom she hates, but, worse yet, to kill the mermaid. When confronting Louis, she learns the secret that has shrouded her life: the King is her father. Her heart leaps at the revelation, but the King is more concerned with the future of France than building a relationship with his daughter.
In the end, Marie-Josèphe understands she must defy her father, her King, to rescue the mermaid.
“When I read the novel The Moon and the Sun by Vonda McIntyre, I completely fell under its magical spell. A King, a secret daughter, and an incredible mermaid that lived in the fountains of Versailles,” tells McNamara. “I love to make inspirational movies that delight audiences around the Globe. We adapted the book into the feature film The King’s Daughter.”
McNamara made films like Soul Surfer, Spare Parts, and The Miracle Season, branched out, and made a fantasy film that the audience appreciated. “When you meet the mermaid, I want you to feel her journey as she adapts to her new world and meets Marie-Josephe D’Alember.”
McNamara’s love for music and his love of the ocean come together as Marie-Josephe plays her cello and communicates magically with the mermaid.
Even the love affair between Yves and Marie-Josephe is one of the ages. “It’s pure and whimsical. In fact, after playing the roles in the movie, Kaya Scodelario and Benjamin Walker fell in love in real life and now have two beautiful children.”
Directed by Pierre Perifel and based on a popular Scholastic book series by Aaron Blabey, The Bad Guys is about five friends. A crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws tries to become model citizens and turn good.
After years of countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, they finally caught the gang. Mr. Wolf makes a deal, which he doesn’t plan on keeping, to save them all from prison. The Bad Guys decide they better be good.
The voice cast includes Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Anthony Ramos and Awkwafina.
Bringing back David Yates, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore introduces Mads Mikkelsen as Grindelwald, a wizarding villain that Johnny Depp played prior.
The rest of the cast includes Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne.
