The story behind the newest edition of this series, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is relatively simple. A virus which threatens all humankind is up for grabs. Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) team-up to keep the virus out of the hands of mechanical man, Brixton (Idris Elba). Brixton represents a group that wants to use the deadly serum to weed out those they believe to be inferior. The situation is complicated by the fact that the virus is housed in a capsule implanted in the arm of a British agent, named Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), who also happens to be Shaw’s sister.

Fast & Furious is fabulous. There’s frankly not much new about the storyline. Hobbs and Shaw don’t like each other. It’s not that unusual to have a conflict between guys on the same side. Of course, there has to be eye candy which Vanessa Kirby provides. Like all films of this genre, there’s punching and kicking that would break faces, arms, and legs in real life but of course, in the movies, characters walk away from these battles unscathed. Finally, there are the must-have daredevil car and trucks feats.

The director, David Leitch takes all of this we have seen before and makes it seem new.

There’s a lot of verbiage in this film. Much of it is tied to the bickering between Hobbs and Shaw. There are also lines that are difficult to disgust. When confronted with an unexpected situation, Hobbs says, “What the fresh turkey hell!” If I were Johnson, I would have used my prerogative as a star to rephrase or skip that line all together!

The action is indescribable and is simply a feast for the eyes.

The cast is exceptional. Johnson, Statham, and Elba meld together in a way that leads to the excellent execution of this script. However, Hollywood has been criticized for sexism and ageism especially pertaining to women. Deckard and Hattie are siblings. Childhood photos show that he’s five to six years older than her. However, Statham is actually 21 years older than, Kirby, his onscreen little sister.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw gets an A- for cast diversity. It is strongly diverse except for the absence of prominent appearances by Hispanics.

The film is estimated to have cost a whopping $200 million to produce. It should make that back and more! It’s rated PG-13 and is a lengthy two hours and 18 minutes. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw gets a See It rating!

Stu (Kumail Nanjiani), a mild-mannered sporting goods clerk, moonlights as an Uber driver. When a hardened, veteran detective, (Dave Bautista) crashes his car in hot pursuit of a sadistic, bloodthirsty terrorist, he calls Stu to pick him up to continue the chase. At the same time, Sara (Karen Gillan) the woman of Stu’s dreams, texts him to come over and spend the night with her. For the rest of the evening, Stu is torn between aiding the detective and responding to Sara’s pining for him.

Stuber is a collection of funny scenes which never truly come together as a successful comedy. And it gets a “Rent It” rating. Patterned after highly successful films, such as The Hangover, where individuals endure an unbelievable series of events in one night, Stuber takes viewers through sometimes humorous and almost always implausible incidents. (Like a cop calling Uber to chase criminals.)

Dave Bautista (left) as the veteran cop and Kumail Nanjiani, as the Uber driver in the movie, Stuber. Photo courtesy of Walt Disney.

The film includes the standard dubious storytelling devices, like ruthless criminals who kill others without hesitation, but when they get the chance to blow the heroes away, they engage in lengthy dialogue, giving the good guys time to figure out an escape or an opportunity for rescuers to arrive.

Kumail Nanjiani is superb in the lead role. He’s so credible as the super nice, very principled guy being held “hostage” to this situation. Kudos to Dave Bautista as well, playing the type of cop that isn’t much different than the bad guys he pursues!

Stuber also gets an “A” for cast diversity. People of every race play lead and supporting roles.

Stuber is rated R for violence and language, some sexual references and brief graphic nudity. It’s 93 minutes in length. No need to see it right now. Wait and “Rent It”.

X-Men, the mutant subspecies of humans born with superhuman abilities returns to the big screen.

In Dark Phoenix, the mutants do battle with one of their own, Jean Grey who possesses telepathic and telekinetic skills. While on a space rescue mission, Jean barely escapes death after being hit by a mysterious cosmic force. When she returns home, a routine exam shows that this force gave her power beyond what any gage could measure. But this force leads her to react in ways she neither understands nor can control. Not only are her loved ones at risk, but she disrupts a fragile peace with both the humans and other X-Men communities.

There have been 11 X-Men films which in total produced almost $6 billion in revenues. The studios and writers strain to come up with new and interesting stories from the Marvel comics concept. This story of the powerful and out of control Jean Grey works and Dark Phoenix gets a See It! rating.

I really liked the plotline of a woman being the kick-ass, strongest character in the heavily male-dominated X-Men series!

Fundamental to the X-Men story is the battle with humans. And then there’s the intragroup debate with some mutants supporting a peaceful coexistence with humans, while others see fighting it out as the answer. It has been written that this debate was patterned after Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of nonviolence in dealing with American racism versus Malcolm X’s more aggressive and confrontation approach. These recurring conflicts have served this series well. And there are elements of these controversies in Dark Phoenix.

Much the appeal of the sci-fi genre is the mind-blowing special effects and this film like most of the big-budget productions doesn’t disappoint.

Diversity, or the lack thereof, has always been an issue with the X-Men series, which is not surprising considering the characters were created over 50 years ago. Men of color are especially lacking in the series. There is the introduction of a black character, Jones, played by Ato Essandoh, who is an X-Men adversary. Dark Phoenix earns a “C” for diversity.

It’s rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action including some gunplay, disturbing images) and brief strong language and is 113 minutes in length. It gets a See It! rating.

Once again Max (a Jack Russell Terrier), and his sidekick, Duke (Newfoundland mix), take viewers on a journey into secret pet world. In this film, Max faces a potentially radical life change: his owner Katie gets married and has a child, Liam. Originally unsure about how Liam’s coming on the scene will affect him, Max prepares for the worst. Only to have Liam love him as much as Katie does.

On a family trip to his grandparents’ farm, Max meets Rooster, a Welsh Sheepdog, who teaches Max lessons that will help in the countryside and beyond.

Before leaving, Max leaves his favorite toy with his pal, Gidget (a Pomeranian) for safekeeping. But the toy bounces out the window into a cat-packed apartment. She has to figure out how to get it back. Snowball (a rabbit) visits a circus and decides to free an unfairly treated white tiger named Hu.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 has the same characters featured in the start-of-the-art 3D animation which made the original film a success. But it has more plots than you’d see in a two-hour drama. The market for this film is children; however, I have to wonder if they want to see all of this on-screen busyness.

There’s a star-studded cast providing the voices: Patton Oswalt, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Dana Carvey, Bobby Moynihan, and Harrison Ford. Kevin Hart’s voice just doesn’t fit the little white rabbit named Snowball.  Maybe a Pitbull. But not a small bunny.

As I have said before I don’t understand why studios spend bundles hiring big name stars to do the voices. Kids don’t care. The characters’ voice can be from unknown performers.

Ultimately, The Secret Life of Pets 2 provides the visual stimulation and characters that viewers would like to see, and it musters a See It! rating.

It’s rated PG and is 86 minutes in length.