James McAvoy

[7] Thirteen-year-old aspiring writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he didn’t commit, effectively condemning him to years of prison and compulsory military service. The lovers (Keira Knightley and James McAvoy) stay connected through letter-writing, but the unfolding tragedies of World War II keep them ever apart. Years later, Briony wants to atone for the sin that tore her …

[6] The children from It: Chapter One are all grown up when Chapter Two begins with an eye-witness sighting of Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) finishing off the victim of a hate crime. Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) summons the group back to Derry, Maine, twenty-seven years after they first vanquished the evil clown creature in the caverns beneath the Derry Lake. But fear gets the better of one …

[5] I would call myself a pretty big fan of the X-Men movie franchise. I’ve enjoyed all but a few of them, and regard X2: X-Men United, Days of Future Past, and Logan as exceptional entries. I even enjoyed the more maligned The Last Stand and Apocalypse. But the latest installment in the series, and reportedly the last, is the most disappointing chapter since X-Men …

[7] Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) presents a high-concept, low-budget horror-thriller that delivers the goods. James McAvoy stars as a man suffering from multiple personality disorder who kidnaps three young women and holds them hostage. The women, led by Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), try to make a desperate escape before a terrifying new personality emerges. In the meantime, McAvoy’s shrink (Carrie‘s Betty Buckley) catches …

[8] Bryan Singer returns to helm his fourth film in the X-Men series, and he hits another home run. This one picks up some number of years after the events of Days of Future Past, as an ancient all-powerful baddie named Apocalypse (played by Oscar Isaac, Poe from Star Wars: The Force Awakens) is accidentally resurrected in Egypt. To be honest, I don’t care for …

[8] X-Men: Days of Future Past brings back most of the cast from the Bryan Singer films (X-Men and X2) and merges them with the cast of Matthew Vaughn’s First Class for a storyline involving time-travel and the mutants’ desperate attempt to correct an error in 1973 that would, fifty years later, lead to annihilation for both mutants and humans alike. Simon Kinberg’s screenplay puts …

[8] I’m honestly pretty sick of superhero movies, but I still have a soft spot for the X-Men. Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Layer Cake) reinvigorates things with First Class after a couple of less-than-stellar entries in franchise. The plot moves at a ridiculous pace and the connections between points A, B, and C can be a little convenient, but Vaughn succeeds in giving the movie …

[5] If you love the Muppets, this eighth Muppet movie won’t disappoint you too badly, though it’s far from their best effort. Director James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords) and writer Nicholas Stoller return for their second entry in the franchise, after the great success of 2011’s The Muppets. This time, Kermet is replaced with the world’s most dangerous frog, a Russian gulag escapee named …