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Reflecting on Hollywood’s silent film era an aspiring actress, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), crosses paths with an aspiring Production Assistant, Manny Torres (Diego Calva), setting the scene for an unlikely friendship at a time when the business and the bustle could eat a person alive. And, as luck would have it, both manage to find their own success; meanwhile, cinematic heartthrob and leading man, Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), finds himself caught up in the flurry just the same. Scraping the seedy underbelly of the beast the trio will have to make amends with their own demons if they’re to survive and stay relevant in the industry, or, is their fate already set and sealed? Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle (La La Land), this love letter to early cinema is sure to pique the interest of Hollywood and destined to garner some awards interest in a nepotistic way. In actuality, audiences are destined for three hours and eight minutes of superfluous story telling, it’s as though Chazelle was just too in love with his story to make any sacrificial cuts for the sake of time and the audience’s patience. At the same time, acting from the ensemble, cameos and all, comes across strong with healthy efforts in the artistic direction department and period appropriate scoring from the music department there are a lot of parts to the film that are executed in prime form, it’s unfortunate the sum of their parts is a tangled and overstuffed monster. Babylon, overstimulating and all is rated R.

Returning to the distant planet of Pandora and a home to the Navi people/creatures, former Avatar, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is troubled when he sees the return of the Sky people (humans from Earth). Before long Jake and his whole family are on the run, taking up refuge amongst the Navi who live by the ocean. But, it’s only a matter of time before Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and his team track the family. It’s up to Jake and his family to save each other and save the planet, again, but at what cost? Directed By James Cameron and Written by Cameron, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver, this most anticipated sequel of 2022 that nobody asked for hits theatres this weekend with a bombastic crash poised to make a massive dent at the box office. Impressive with its shock and awe visuals, Cameron has once again set the bar high for digital effects and motion capture creating an immersive environment best viewed in 3D, never has underwater CGI looked so accurate. To that end, Cameron gets high marks as he did with Avatar (2009); but, again, beyond the beauty, thin plot, weak character development, and lack of succinctness brings this three hour and twelve minute lug to a sluggish finish, only to realize there are three more films on deck to continue the story, woof, that’s a lot of CGI, that’s a lot of blue people, that may be too much. Time will tell. Let’s just hope the writing gets better from here on out? Avatar: The Way of Water is rated PG-13.

It’s Christmas eve and the world is aglow, yet, it would appear Santa (David Harbour) has lost his Christmas spirit, embittered by a world of greed and spoiled children. But, whilst stopping at the Lightstone family compound Santa finds himself in the middle of an elaborate estate robbery by a fellow who calls himself Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo). Now, tethered to the property Santa makes it his goal to protect young Trudy (Leah Brady), as it turns out, Father Christmas previous to his career as the Jolly Saint Nick was something akin to a Northman and he’s here for blood. Christmas Eve is set to be one Violent Night. Written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller and Directed by Tommy Wirkola this romp down a bloody candy cane lane leaves no mystery in its intentions. It’s comic book justice and pulp on a thinly veiled story about family and finding the true meaning of Christmas turbo injected with testosterone and extra sledge hammer. Is this high cinema, no, not a chance, but that isn’t what it promises to be either. Harbour, aptly cast as the middle aged brawler effectively chews the scenery and delivers the knockout blows one swing at a time in an oddly endearing Santa magic kind of way. The overall take, the film delivers exactly as advertised, fun, blood, guts, and good cheer. If that’s your thing, this film is your thing. Ho ho ho. Violent night is a swift hour and fifty two minutes long and rated R.