Karla Dyson (Halle Berry) tries to make the best of a difficult day. She’s working as a waitress in a coffee shop dealing with rude and other times, confused customers, while her son, Frankie (Sage Correa) waits for her to take him to a carnival. On the ride over, she talks to Frankie about his father, who is her estranged husband, and his new girlfriend. They arrive at their destination and while watching some of the activities, Karla gets a call from her lawyer and learns that her husband seeks full custody of Frankie. So she can talk more freely, Karla moves to a quieter location leaving Frankie alone to continue viewing the performances. When Karla comes back, her son is missing. As she looks for son, she sees a woman dragging him into a Ford Mustang. The car drives away. Karla gets into her van and takes off in hot pursuit and her valiant efforts to save her son begins.

Kidnap is a thrilling, nerve wrecking, and cinematic adventure. It is unpredictable while also being highly implausible with a TV drama feel about it. Nevertheless, Halle Berry is amazing. She’s strong, but not in an inauthentic way that Hollywood often portrays its heroes. Although Berry’s character, Karla has a lot of self-doubt, she remains laser-focused on getting her son back.

Kidnap’s casting is excellent. Chris McGinn and Lew Temple, who play the husband and wife backwoods kidnappers, are beyond despicable. I have always said you cannot have a truly great hero, without a truly evil villain, and they are evil.

However, much of the film stretches credibility. For example, when Karla goes to speak to her lawyer and leaves Frankie seated watching the show. Frankie’s surrounded by people but amazingly no one sees where he went. And, the scene where Karla wrestles with the kidnappers in the carnival parking lot full of cars, but there are no people or no law enforcement around.

Without giving away too much of the story, there are just too many events in Kidnap that seem highly unlikely.

Set in Louisiana, the cast of Kidnap reflects the makeup of that state which is primarily black and white, but with a growing Hispanic population. So, Kidnap gets an “A” for cast diversity.

Kidnap is 90 minutes and rated R, for violence and peril. You won’t be bored with the story but there’s no compelling reason to see it during its opening weekend. Kidnap gets a Rent It rating.

A British undercover agent is murdered in East Berlin. But to Western governments, it’s not the spy’s life that matters but instead the secret files embedded in his watch, recovered by his killer, which puts their nations at risk. M16 (British Intelligence) sends in Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) to recover the lost timepiece.

If Atomic Blonde’s entertainment value was placed on one scale and its filmmaking flaws placed on a counter balancing scale, they would be equal to each other.

On one hand, Broughton’s goals are clear: find the watch and also locate a traitor among the spy network she encounters in Germany. There’s violence in epic proportions and the movie advances the notice that women can play the lead in an action film.

But on the other hand, the title of the film, Atomic Blonde, sounds like the name of a cartoon character. And this movie is so formulaic: one spy investigating the death of another and locating lost and invaluable secret files. Then there’s the constant guessing game of who can she trust among the various contacts and intermediaries involved. However, I give a nod to the screenwriters; while spies in passionate love making screens are run of the mill, Atomic Blonde gives that practice a new twist with the two participants being women.

There’s Hollywood’s usual stretches of credibility. Like a female undercover agent who is already 6 foot tall but then decides the best way to blend in and be non-conspicuous is be a platinum blond. And if these characters really received this many crushing blows to the head from their numerous fist fights, they’d be nuttier than a veteran NFL running back.

And for the first time ever, I am giving a film an “F” for cast diversity. Set in Eastern Berlin in the late 80s, as in any large European city at that time, even under communist rule, there would have been people of color, likely African and Asian. There is not a person of color to be found in this film, none of the stars and not one individual in background scenes.

The verdict for Atomic Blonde is, do not rush to see it. Enjoy your summer activities instead. And if you get a chance, Rent It, sometime in the future.

Atomic Blonde is rated R for sequences of strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity. It is 115 minutes which could have been edited down to 100 minutes.

In Girls Trip, the decades have passed and four college friends Ryan (Regina Hall), Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith), Dina (Tiffany Haddish), and Sasha (Queen Latifah) travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival. They are determined to have a GOOOD time and unleash all inhibitions.

Girls Trip is a Trip. It’s vulgar, crass and disappointing. This barrage of crudeness is ultimately the film’s undoing. There is a constant referencing to women as the “B word”. And, the “N word” and MFs are flying everywhere. There’s nothing funny about someone suspended in air urinating on the people below. This happened twice! Dina is sexually tempted by a filthy, old, homeless man who exposes himself to the group.

The characters are stereotypes fitting comfortably into pigeon holes. Tiffany Haddish, who I have to admit I had never heard of before, as Dina, is loud, crude, damn near a nympho. On the other hand, Lisa is matronly, prim and proper, and blindly devoted to motherhood. Sasha is the struggling one who’s trying to keep up a façade of financial and career success while things are crumbling. And then there’s the highly successful Ryan whose fairy tale marriage to former football star, Stewart (Mike Colter), is marketed as an example a woman who’s having it all.

The storyline involving Ryan and her husband is substantive and interesting. His ability to smoothly rationalize his misgivings is nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, his talent and the film’s attention to worthy scenes are lost in a bombardment of B.S.

I am embarrassed for Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, and Jada Pinkett Smith because they are all talented actresses. And I understand that there’s a paucity of quality roles for black women in Hollywood. But, Girls Trip?

Further, I don’t know where they got the “guy” who’s hairless, lotioned, lady legs are featured in the film’s poster. Real men don’t shave their legs – unless they’re swimmers.

Girls Trip is written by Kenya Barris who penned Barbershop: The Next Cut. That film featured black men of dignity and character. I wonder why he chose to write such trash for women.

Girls Trip also trips up when it comes to casting diversity, earning a C-. We have to be fair in discussing diversity. Other than Kate Walsh who plays Ryan’s agent, Lara Grice, a TV exec, and a few minor roles, this cast is all black including individuals in the background.

Directed by Malcolm Lee and produced by Will Packer, Girls Trip has a modest budget for films today, $28 million. It’s rated R for crude (you can say that again), sexual content throughout, pervasive language, brief graphic nudity, and drug material. Girls Trip is 122 minutes too long.

Sorry girls but your trip is Dead on Arrival!

Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his fellow primate followers are pushed to the point of conflict after suffering unimaginable losses - including Caesar’s wife and son – at the hands of humans. Caesar and his forces leave their camp to confront their attackers, eventually finding the humans at their military post. They also find apes enslaved there. A ruthless Colonel (Woody Harrelson) is in charge. The past atrocities combined with the sight of his species being so badly mistreated leads Caesar to realize that a peaceful resolution of the human-ape conflict is no longer possible.

War for the Planet of the Apes is a dreary, violent movie, and totally lacking in entertainment value. With Caesar being one of the few talking simians, there are a lot of subtitles. And the exchanges between the animals is symbolically bland and representative of the tone of this entire film. This film might have worked if it was based on a true story or some great classical of work whose depressiveness was necessary to tell the tale. But sadly this story is just someone’s idea of entertainment.

During their travels, the Apes adopt a little blond girl that is orphaned when Caesar kills her father in a gun battle. This is an absurd development in the film and apparently was intended to soften viewers’ attitude towards the Apes.

Woody Harrelson is effective as the Nazi-type leader of the human military group. Andy Serkis as Caesar embodies a dignity and even charm despite being dressed in a monkey costume. Their efforts do little to improve this mess.

The suffering viewers endure is intensified by the fact the film is over two hours and 20 minutes long.

The 1970’s classic hit song, War, asks and answers the question: War, what is good for? Absolutely Nothing! That also describes the movie: War for the Planet of the Apes. It’s worth absolutely nothing! It’s rated PG-13 and it is dead, dead, on arrival!!