Gina Rodriguez takes on a drug cartel in Columbia Pictures, Miss Bala from director Catherine Hardwicke. Gloria Fuentes (Rodriguez) is a make-up artist living in Los Angeles who takes a vacation to her home of Tijuana, Mexico to help her friend Suzu (Cristina Rodlo) in a beauty pageant. One night the friends go to a nightclub where Suzu hopes to favor her odds in the beauty pageant by mingling with the judges.
The legend of “King Arthur” gets an update in 20th Century Fox’s The Kid Who Would Be King from director Joe Cornish. Alexander Elliot (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) is a young lad living in England who spends his days avoiding local bullies Lance (Tom Taylor) and Kay (Rhianna Dorris). Alex’s best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) is also a victim of the bullies, until one day Alex decides to stand up for Bedders and ends up with detention.
Director M. Night Shyamalan closes out his Eastrail 177 trilogy with his latest film, Glass from Universal Pictures. Serving as a sequel to both 2016’s Split and 2000’s Unbreakable, Glass find David Dunn (Bruce Wills) utilizing his superhuman strength to fight crime using the alias, “The Overseer.” Meanwhile, in the two years since Split, Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) who has multiple personality disorder is continuing his evil deeds. When David learns that Kevin is holding a group of cheerleaders captive he springs into action. During the attempted rescue, David encounters “The Beast,” the most menacing of Kevin’s personalities.
Remaking a children’s classic is hard. Building upon one as a sequel 50+ years later with an entirely new cast is harder. You want the film to stand on its own without distancing itself too far from the original. Mary Poppins: Returns handles this balance fairly well. Directed by Chicago’s Rob Marshall and produced to the nines by Disney, the film does the impossible; it almost lives up to the original.
There is one every single year. Preying on the divisiveness of racial politics with the notion that we are more similar than we are different. The Oscar-bait race film is a delicate breed of manipulation, white guilt, and genuine feels. In past, these films do great at the Oscars but age rather poorly (see The Helpor The Blind Side). Tired tropes such as the white savior and the magical negro grace our screens and because race is such a tricky subject to navigate
