Dante’s Peak 7 February 1997 rated PG-13, From the minute the screen opens you have action, adventure, blood, and guts. I have seen a lot of terminal movies, but nothing compares to Dante’s Peak. Action, adventure,

Starring Jeremy Foley as Graham Wando, Jamie Renee Smith as Lauren Wando, Pierce Brosnan as a vulcanologist as Harry Dalton, (without pointed ears he points out,) and Linda Hamilton as Rachel Wando.

While on vacation Harry Dalton is called and his boss wants him to report to Dante’s Peak to do an assessment. This happens all the time, and most volcanoes do not erupt. Meet Rachel, the mayor of Dante’s Peak. You also meet Graham a natural boy and his little sister Lauren, her children.

Now meet a volcano. Harry finds more than enough evidence to put the town on alert. However, the powers that be shut the idea down. What happens next is catastrophic. There are more deaths in this 1: 48-minute movie that a Quentin Tarantino film, and a lot more ghastly.

We hear about volcanoes all the time. This is the first time I have seen one blow. I now have respect for any pimple on the landscape. Yes, I said pimple. One of these pimples makes a pimple on your face seem innocent. Now just imagine that little pimple the size of a mountain.

I rate this 5 stars out of 5 and hope you enjoy the death and devastation as much as I did. This should be a realistic movie for Halloween, for those of you that want a horror movie that makes sense.

The Mummy Returns, 4 May 2001, rated PG-13. The original The Mummy! was written by a Science fiction writer (at the time there was no such word as science fiction 1827). Imagine a modern horror classic written in 1827. The writer was a woman by the name of Jane C. Loudon, 1807-1858.

To me, Freddie Boath (Alex) is the star of this film. Like so many children who make movies, over the top Freddie makes The Mummy Returns light, realistic, funny, serious as a cucumber and fun. Not before or since has the franchise done so well. Oddly Hollywood forgets these kids way too soon. A forerunner to Ty Simkins in Jurassic World, who did the same thing in that movie.

Since I did not live in that age of Pharaohs, I have to assume this was well thought out, and it seems very realistic from what *I* know, which isn’t a lot. I do have my doubts about the princess and the Pharoah’s wife being guards in a tomb for twelve hours a day… nope not happening.

Other than that I found no problems with the film and I enjoyed it. 5 out of 5 stars from me.

Avatar, 18 December 2009, rated PG-13. When I first saw the 2 hours and 42-minute playtime of the movie, I thought for sure that Kevin Coster was in it. It was very long for any movie. I have heard several opinions of this movie, some saying it was a Custers Last Stand remake and other such nonsense.

It was not. I suppose if you take the movie out of context you can come up with different things, like the United States attacking Japan in World War Two, or the Romans descending on Gaul (we call it France now.) Those heathens right? Nope. Although the Gaul did attack many Roman villages until the Romans got fed up with the murder and theft.

No, this movie stands on its own. Beautiful colors, beautiful sets, great artwork, directing, For a list of most of its awards follow this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accolades_received_by_Avatar

This is an original film, nothing compares to it. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

There be Dragons, March 25th, 2011, PG-13 Let me start off first with, THERE ARE NO DRAGONS. The title refers to the hate and innocence in each of us. This movie has two themes, one of those is the Spanish Civil War and the other is the ‘sainthood’ of a Catholic Priest. Actually the movie didn’t cover most of the sainthood part, it was a secondary theme that I am sure Catholics will want to watch.

The war, not bloody although thousands died, just not very realistically. I point out here that this is a Spanish film, but dubbed every well in English. It is also available in Spanish. A journalist is picked to cover the Canonization ‘sainthood’ of a boy his father grew up with. The war was prior to the sainthood part.

What the boy doesn’t realize is that his own father and this soon to be saint are intertwined. I rate the movie 4 out of 5 stars. I prefer realistic war, so people know how horrible war really is, this film let me down on that. I am sure most will really get into it, and you will see some Spanish war wagons and planes from the time period in the movie. Every enlightening!

I have the usual trailer here, but also a link so you can watch the movie free, at least in the United States. That link may stop working at any time, so I suggest you watch it now.

Arsenal aka Southern Fury, January 6, 2017, starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusak and others. This is a Steven Miller movie. From the beginning, I thought this was a well-acted, well-directed movie. It went that way all the way until the end. This is one of those movies that was underrated.

I did think the makeup on Cage was, well, horrible, but other than that I really enjoyed the movie and all the actors and actresses. A good job from the casting director. However I am getting tired of most the actors having beards, this movie wasn’t so bad, but we have watched others recently where we couldn’t tell one person from another because of ugly beards.

Brightburn, 24 May 2019, rated R for blood and guts. What is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, stronger than a 747 in flight (well even a bird can bring one of those down), Impervious to anything trying to shoot it. Of course, it is superman… NOT. There is a new super guy on the block. It is a twelve-year-old that arrives on earth just like superman, as a baby. Like Superman, he does have one weakness. He is raised in a loving family, but outside influences change him.

What caught my attention most was the idea that the boy had to learn his powers the hard way, it was very detailed in that respect and deadly. A baby lands in a small farming community of Brightburn, in the midwest USA. Sound familiar? A nice quiet town where the only killers have guns, well, hunters and the like. If you aren’t one of them, then you are an outsider. Seems there are plenty of murderers. So what is this little boy supposed to do in lieu of all these bad people? I can hardly wait until he is president!

You will have to guess, but it isn’t pretty. Superman he is not, you cross this boy, you won’t like what happens. Blood, guts, and suspense. Good acting, good directing, good photography and good editing, enjoy. I give this 5 out of 5 stars, not only is it good it is different, although I thought I was watching a superman film for a while.