“Belfast” (Biography/Drama: 1 hour, 38 minutes)

Starring: Jamie Dornan, Caitriona Balfe, Jude Hill, Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Rated: PG-13 (Violence and strong language)

Movie Review: Kenneth Branagh’s life as a child serves as a semi-autobiographical basis for this screenplay. It takes place in August of 1969 during the warring days of Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. Branagh creates a pivotal narrative of a boy’s life. Additionally, the mostly black and white cinematography with some splashes of color offers an invitation to visit this period Belfast.

The Troubles is a violent period in Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital. Protestants and Catholics clash in the streets. On one of those streets lives 9-year-old Buddy, played captivatingly by Jude Hill. He and his family strive to survive in a violent period.

“Belfast” feels like a movie of yesteryear. It uses not only scenes — clothes, furniture and other set design elements — reminiscent of its time. This screenplay also uses multimedia: movies, music by artists such as Van Morrison, stage plays and television indicative of the later 1960s.

For example, when characters are sitting in their living room, one sees and hears an episode of “Star Trek: The Original Series” playing on the television. Characters are observable, watching a western with John Wayne. In another scene, Buddy, his parents and his older brother also watch the 1966 movie “One Million Years B.C.” Buddy’s mother comments on the decency of letting their boys watch bikini-clad women like Raquel Welch on screen.

The characters interact with their environment. Everything on set, the mise en scène, becomes important as each aspect displayed becomes an insight into Buddy. Even more, most of the photography is shot deliberately in black and white, but some parts of the movie are in vivid color. The stage production of “A Christmas Carol,” television and movies shown have a purpose and reason that Branagh wants to exploit. This is a brilliant nod to show the energetic imagination of the moments through the eyes of Buddy.

Cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos, who has shot several of Branagh’s films that include “Cinderella” and “Murder on the Orient Express,” is masterful. His camera angles engage the viewer by shooting through objects and using objects nearby to create distance as if one is standing by those objects. This gives audiences a view similar to that of the characters often, giving the sense they are in the movie.

Nominated for several awards from various moviedom groups, including seven Academy Awards, “Belfast” is good acting, music and good directing and storytelling by writer Branagh.

The cast led by young and talented Hill, includes Jamie Dornan, Caitriona Balfe, Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench. Dornan is charismatic. He charms as Buddy’s father. Balfe is good as the protective mother, often shielding her kids from the dangerous streets of the family’s violent Belfast neighborhood. Hinds and Dench play Buddy’s doting grandparents, offering wisdom about life in their country during a violent time. Despite what happens around them, the family stays together, strong and content. 

Just before closing credits, the following words adorn the screen: “For the ones who stayed. For the ones who left. And for all the ones who were lost.”

This is a touching tribute by Branagh. Even before these words are shown, one already has an immense understanding of Branagh‘s passion for Belfast. Very much like Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” (2018) about Mexico City in the 1970s, “Belfast” is Branagh’s tribute to the place from which he came.

Grade: A (An intriguing, visual place during an interesting time.)

Showing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Moonfall” (Science Fiction/Adventure: 2 hours, 10 minutes)

Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Charlie Plummer and John Bradley

Director: Roland Emmerich

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, disaster action, profanity and some drug use)

Movie Review: “Moonfall” is a comical science-fiction feature. It is not humorous by design but becomes such because of the nature of characters and their response to Earth’s pending demise. It entertains as a pure popcorn thriller that seems like a summer blockbuster. However, its winter debut is fitting because it is cold moviemaking.

A mysterious force moves the moon out of orbit and on a collision course with Earth. The collision would be catastrophic for life on Earth. With extra knowledge about the moon, Jocinda “Jo” Fowler (Berry) and Brian Harper (Wilson), both former astronauts, and K.C. Houseman (Bradley), the intelligent geek who figured it out before everyone else, rocket into space to stop the lunar descent.

Roland Emmerich knows blockbuster movies like “Independence Day” (1996) and “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004) and “2012” (2009). His movies are very entertaining as they are comical because the narratives are over the top, often appearing with comical average performances. Earth is on the verge of annihilation in many of his past movies.

Earth is in another perilous situation in “Moonfall,” a movie that is not convincing. It entertains with energetic moments, but those scenes contain unmoving acting, unbelievable stunts, an overload of special effects and dubious science.

The worst part of Emmerich’s screenplay is its plethora of inconsistencies that do not add up to be a blockbuster. Such uneven storytelling by Emmerich and his cowriters does not create an Earth worth destroying or saving.

Grade: C (It falls short of an elliptical orbit.)

Showing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Jackass Forever” (Action/Comedy: 1 hour, 36 minutes)

Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O,and Chris Pontius

Director: Jeff Tremaine

Rated: R (Strong crude material and dangerous stunts, graphic nudity, and profanity)

Movie Review: After an 11-year hiatus, these now mostly middle-aged men return for one more crusade to entertain. They have grown older but they have not grown up. Their comedy now includes more adolescent gross moments that inspire as many gasps as laughter.

“Jackass” started as a reality comedy series for three seasons on MTV from 2000-02. Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze and Johnny Knoxville created it. They are still involved more than 20 years later.

Laughs are present in this comedy, although their previous movies were better comedies. This latest movie contains daredevil stunts and pranks. Some are funny and some are juvenile behavior run amok. 

The original cast always engaged in childish antics. Some of which were crude while still maintaining some element of good — or at least interesting — comedy. This outing has them injecting more of the vulgar bits to point that “Jackass Forever” moves from being a comedy to just plain shock material.

Grade: C (The title fits.)

Showing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Blacklight” (Action/Crime: 1 hour, 48 minutes)

Starring: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn and Taylor John Smith

Director: Mark Williams

Rated: PG-13 (Strong violence, action and profanity)

Movie Review: Blacklight in scientific terminology is ultraviolet or infrared radiation invisible to the eye. It nicely describes how the United States government operates in this fictional, cliched action movie.

“Blacklight” takes an uninspiring plot and turns it into a thankless action movie, when it has potential to be a good drama/mystery movie.

Travis Block (Neeson) is a fixer for the FBI, reporting directly to the agency’s director, Gabriel Robinson (Quinn). After the death of a young agent, Block grows suspicious of his boss. Soon, Block learns the United States government is assassinating and killing American citizens under the guise of protecting democracy.

These types of movies feed into the unhealthy obsession of citizens’ distrust in their government. These movies overplay conspiracy theories, making them too grand in scope.

Mark Williams last directed Neeson in an “Honest Thief, which the director also wrote. Both that movie and “Blacklight” feature corrupt FBI agents Both have similarities, including shabby conclusions. Creativity is not working for Williams and Neeson.

Grade: C- (Goes black, even in light of day.)

Showing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Death on the Nile” (Mystery: 2 hours, 7 minutes)

Starring: Kenneth Branagh, , Gal Gadot, Tom Bateman and Arnie Hammer

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, gore and sensuality)

Movie Review: Quick scenes and staged visual effects of Egypt are inviting but also a distraction at first. Once murder happens, a large cast of appealing characters creates an engrossing movie. Like old-fashioned movies of this genre, “Death on the Nile” remains true to form, even when too routine.

Detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) vacations in Egypt. There, he accompanies the wedding party and subsequent festivities as an invited guest. Beautiful young heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Gadot) is now married to the dashing Simon Doyle (Hammer). While cruising on a large sailing vessel, a murder happens.

Serendipitously, Michael Green’s screenplay based on the novel by Agatha Christie manages to entertain despite multiple detractions. This movie marks Branagh’s second time playing the affable but arrogant detective. Branagh first portrayed the detective in “Murder on the Orient Express” (2017).

Besides the currently playing “Belfast,” Branagh is known for his Shakespearean screenplays, but he has an eclectic mix of movies from “Thor” to “Cinderella” (2015). Apparently, he has an affinity for the works of Agatha Christie, too.

Branagh and his production team film gorgeous shots of Egypt. The visuals are inside studio creations because events prevented the production team from filming on location. The visuals are nice, although the movie spends so much time on the visuals for the first 30 minutes that the cast becomes secondary.

After the sightseeing tour finishes, audiences get a traditional mystery genre movie. The movie holds one’s attention because well-known actors play their parts agreeably.

Grade: B- (A mystery needs solving if the river views do not distract.)

Showing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Marry Me” (Romance/Music: 1 hour, 52 minutes)

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson and Maluma

Director: Kat Coiro

Rated: PG-13 (Language and suggests material)

Movie Review: Modern romances take interesting stories and drown such inspiration with mundane, formulaic plots. Avoid the pending divorce; skip the marriage.

Kat Valdez (Lopez) and Bastian (Maluma) are a music powerhouse. Their duet “Marry Me” is a major hit. This is more engaging considering the couple is to wed on stage in front of millions. But on the day of the wedding before an audience of their fans, Kat discovers via online video that Bastian is having an affair with Kat’s personal assistant. 

Kat calls off the wedding. Devastated, she looks into the audience and sees a divorced father and high school math teacher Charlie Gilbert (Wilson), who is holding a sign that reads “Marry me.” Kat pulls Charlie on stage. They get married. Thinking of the marriage as just a publicity stunt, the celebrity and teacher soon develop romantic feelings.

Mainly a teleplay director, Kat Coiro (“A Case for You,” 2013) directs this by-the-numbers movie. First, an unlikely couple meets with no attention to become more as a couple. Next, those two people become a romantic duo with deep feelings of respect for each other. They fall in love to realize they are not meant for each other. Finally, they realize they are made for each other, so get back together at some major event to profess their intentions of love.

This formula is too old. Trapped in this hackneyed plot, Lopez and Wilson are likable. However, their story feels forced and unconvincing. As a romance, it is likable as it is moderate.

Grade: C+ (Sign the prenuptial first and then enjoy marriage.)

Showing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“The Wolf and the Lion” (Family: 1 hour, 40 minutes)

Starring: Molly Kunz, Graham Greene and Charlie Carrick

Director: Gilles de Maistre

Rated: PG (Thematic elements, strong language and moments of peril)

Movie Review: Think of this as a light “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey” (1993), except it has a massage about the treatment of animals. 

Director-writer and animal rights activist Gilles de Maistre and Prune de Maistre write another screenplay about the animals in the wild. His idea for this movie is good to the point that people think it is based on a true story. This is a created story. It works as an easy to sit through and easy to forget family drama.

A wolf pup and a lost lion cub become the pets of Alma (Kunz). Together, the three live deep in the Canadian wilderness. Their friendship grows and they live in peace. Several entities threaten that peace, and Alma does her best with help of a few others to keep her family together.

Gilles de Maistre and his team craft a story that feels like a real-life situation made into a movie. Animal handlers train the wolf and the lion, raising them together during the shooting of this movie. That magic works to create a nice relationship between the animals and their human companion, Molly Kunz.

The movie is inspiring, although the overall feel of certain aspects is not. It is a neat family story that entertains, even when light. The audience will eat this up like a lion dining on its prey. Others will see the wolf masquerading in sheep’s clothing.

Grade: C+ (The animals are more adorable than their human counterparts.)

Showing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

Adann-Kennn Alexxandar has reviewed movie for more than 20 years for The Valdosta Daily Times.