A decade and a half after its popular animated namesake was released comes the live-action remake "How to Train Your Dragon" (Universal). While the basic story and some of the personnel remain the same, the new arrival, although appropriate for a wide audience, falls short of the heights to which its predecessor soared.
The Grim Reaper will have his revenge on those who try to cheat him of his haul. Such is the dubious message of the franchise whose sixth installment, "Final Destination Bloodlines" (Warner Bros.), maintains the series' high splatter factor while throwing in some "moral" posturing that only makes the film more repellant.
One thing seems certain about the exorcism-themed movie "The Ritual" (XYZ); it is not intended as the first installment in a franchise. "It really was a one-off," director David Midell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Enrico Natale, tells OSV News.
Tom Cruise takes his eighth turn as infinitely resourceful spy Ethan Hunt in the grand-scale adventure "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" (Paramount). The stakes for which Ethan is playing this time are nothing short of global and the odds against him... well, seemingly impossible. Sound familiar?
"Lilo & Stitch" (Disney) is the latest yield of a long-term project on the part of the Mouse House to remake some of their more popular animated features of the past into live-action films. The result in this instance is a morally sound but shrill updating of a well-received -- and, in some quarters, cherished -- 2002 release.
From the moment of his election in early 2013, Pope Francis naturally became one of the world's most newsworthy individuals. But it was especially in the latter half of his pontificate that he proved an intriguing figure for moviemakers. Both documentarians and the creators of feature films were drawn to him over that time.
Over the course of several years in the 1840s, Charles Dickens, already renowned for his novels, penned a different kind of text. Entitled "The Life of Our Lord," his version of the Gospel story was intended for a small and exclusive audience: the nine of his 10 children who survived infancy.
It usually takes up to a month, weather permitting, for travelers to hike at least a section of El Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James. This famous and historic pilgrimage path has for its goal, of course, the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain's region of Galicia.
From the silent era through the mid-1960s, Bible-based films constituted a reliable staple of Hollywood's output. Directors both famous and obscure mined the Scriptures for stories they could bring to the big screen, with results that ranged from the reverential to the exploitative.
Moviegoers may want to take a break from their cellphones after seeing the intriguing thriller "Drop" (Universal). That's because the technology involved in sending the titular type of message -- as well as the ubiquity of the devices themselves -- has the film's protagonist in a quandary.
Despite the considerable amount of controversy that surrounded it, including allegations of anti-Semitism, Mel Gibson's 2004 biblical drama "The Passion of the Christ" was sufficiently popular that it took in more than $612 million at the box office. In fact, it remained the highest grossing R-rated film domestically for over 20 years.
