The funny, pill-shaped, nonsense-jabbering characters from the Despicable Me movies get their own screen time in Minions. Their purpose: to serve the most despicable master they can find. But it seems like they inadvertently keep causing the demise of those very masters with their hilarious ineptitude. From a T-Rex to Dracula to Napoleon, the well-meaning Minions just can't seem to keep “the boss” around for very long.

I’m already a fan of Pixar Animation Studios (I used their films as the basis for my Master’s thesis) so I didn’t need any pushing to go see Inside Out, the latest offering from the imaginations responsible for Up and Monster’s Inc. A long-time proponent that Toy Story (1995) is Pixar’s best film, I might have to re-look at that conviction in light of the absolute delight that is Inside Out.

I first saw the 1993 Jurassic Park movie on a really small TV screen, probably about 15 inches. There were five Sisters, including myself, crowded around this little TV. The picture was pretty bad according to today’s standards and the sound was in and out. Despite not having the big screen experience, I was scared out of my wits and jumped off my seat screaming at all the appropriate times but especially when the little girl found Samuel L. Jackson. I loved it.Fast forward 22 years to Jurassic...

A Gem for Family Movie Night

The fairy tale of Cinderella has been told many times on film, the most famous being Disney’s 1950 animated classic. The new Cinderella, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Lily James and Cate Blanchet is a stunning tribute to the classic. Everybody knows the story and Branagh sticks closely to the traditional telling of the tale, mice as horses and pumpkins as carriages and all. What is truly delightful about this telling is that it feels like a morality play without the preachy part.

As I watched the story of Louis “Louie” Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) unfold on the screen in front of me during "Unbroken," all I could think of was that Louie was sharing in the passion of Jesus in a very real way.

Rosewater is based on the true story of Maziar Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal), an Iranian-born Canadian journalist. In 2009, he traveled to his native Iran to cover the presidential election for Newsweek magazine. While there, he appeared on a segment of The Daily Show interviewed by Jason Jones. That appearance was partially responsible for his arrest and imprisonment for 118 days in Evin prison.