It's been 30 years and the Ghostbusters are back! According to press reports, the idea of a new version was bandied about for years. The issue was: what would the story be about? Two possible storylines included Bill Murray having a lead role as a ghost and another with the Ghostbusters going to hell. It was finally decided to move forward with a script centering on a female cast reestablishing the paranormal investigative agency. Kristen Wiig plays Erin Gilbert, a University professor, who's under consideration for a tenured position until her ghost hunting past not only keeps her from tenure but leads her to being shown the door. She reunites with former partner Abbey Yates (Melissa McCarthy) who never gave up her sleuthing of the supernatural. Kate McKinnon is Jillian Holtzmann, who Yates brought on board after Gilbert's departure. The three scientists investigate some ghoulish activities at a historical location in New York City. About the same time, a subway clerk (Leslie Jones) has an encounter at the station with a phantom. She invites the three investigators to see for themselves. Her fascination with the occurrence leads her to join the Ghostbuster's team.

Ghostbusters is a mere shadow of the original productions and gets a Rent It rating. The characters and storyline are weak and inadequate. The three scientist overlap in personality traits and lack clarity as to who they really are and what really motivates them. Wiig's Erin Gilbert speaks of an early experience with a ghost which spiked her interest. But overall, the four leads, The Ghostbusters, are poorly developed and not at all interesting. Also in a twist of an old plotline, the group hires an attractive, dumb blonde as a receptionist, but in this case, it's a man (Chris Hemsworth) working for women.

Wiig, McCarthy, McKinnon and Jones give it their best shots but they don't have a ghost of a chance with this substandard script. A note to the ubiquitous Melissa McCarthy, will you take a break and give some other actresses a chance to work!

And the plot is a scrambled mess about a misfit, Rowan, (Neil Casey) who uses his supernatural powers to get back at the world.

Ghostbusters doesn't disappoint when it comes to visuals. The imagery fascinates and dominates but is not enough to resuscitate this otherwise failing project.

There are cameo appearances from the earlier 'buster moves: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Ozzy Osbourne.

As to its cast diversity rating, Ghostbusters get a "B". Leslie Jones has a major role. Andy Garcia stars as the mayor of New York City. But overall there is a lack of Hispanics and Asians for a story set in highly diverse New York City.

Ghostbusters is rated PG-13 for supernatural action and some crude humor. It's 116 minutes in length. Save yourself a trip to the theater. Wait and Rent this film. The special effects will be worth it.

We all need some downtime and in The Shallows medical student, Nancy Adams (Blake Lively) decides to get away from it all and ride the waves at a secluded beach in Mexico. Once in the water she guides her surfboard out to a very dead and very bloody whale, only to discover the killer, a large vicious shark, lurks nearby. The seafaring killer apparently thinks that Nancy's fate should be the same as the whale's. And her "downtime" should be permanent.

The Shallows is an intense battle between human and beast. However, this is a story that we have seen over and over. In Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 thriller, The Birds, actress Tippi Hedren comes under attack by a flock of birds gone mad. We saw it in Stephen King's Cujo, where lead character Donna Trenton does battle with a rabid St. Bernard.

Also, as is often the case in horror films or these types of dramas, characters find themselves in these nightmarish situations due to a series of bad decisions. Like here a young woman goes to an isolated beach, in a foreign country, all by herself.

Another problem with The Shallows is the writers try too hard to make Nancy a sympathetic character. She's a medical student which implies she's both smart and caring. She calls to check in on her little sister from the beach. And there is also a subtext that her mother is dead and might have been killed at that very same location!

While Blake Lively serves the purpose of the beautiful young heroine who is fit and athletic, her character is supposed to be from Galveston, Texas, which is in the southern part of that southern state, yet Lively who grew up in California doesn't have the slightest regional accent.

The positives are The Shallows dramatic and intense scenes. There are some edge-of-your- seat clashes between Nancy and the shark. We are accustomed to superhuman male protagonists, so it's good to see female leads showing that same type of credibility-stretching strength and vitality.

Shot in Australia, there's beautiful scenery – but frankly not any better than you'll see on HDTV. That's the problem; with so much entertainment available on big screen TVs, at our fingertips on our laptops and phones, movies have to offer us something exceptional. And The Shallows simply doesn't. And it's a Rent It – engaging but not worth the trip to a theater.

The Shallows is rated PG - 13 for bloody images, intense sequences of peril, and brief strong language and appropriately timed at 87 minutes.

Warcraft the movie is based on the video game series and novels set in the world of Azeroth. The film portrays the initial encounters between the humans and the orcs (talking monsters) and takes place in a variety of locations established in the video games.

Warcraft is a rambling, incoherent mess. First, you have to know this story. There is very little effort to introduce the concept and characters to those unfamiliar with this video based plot. In October of last year, Warcraft had 5.5 million subscribers, which is obviously the target market. The film's director Duncan Jones, who is also a co-writer of this script along with Charles Leavitt and Chris Metzen, seems to believe talking monsters battling humans and other talking monsters is enough to entertain viewers. And that might be enough for fans but for those unfamiliar with Warcraft, there is nothing in this movie which will make them want to learn more.

Some aspects of the movie seem to "borrow" from the megahit Avatar. In Warcraft, Paula Patton's, Garona seems very similar to Zoe Saldana's, Neytiri in Avatar.

As to the cast diversity rating, Warcraft is difficult to rates since so many of the characters are monsters. But it'll get a "C" since the press kit shows that of the 35 main performers, only four are people of color. However, Paula Patton and Ruth Negga (Lady Taria) have major roles.

Warcraft is rated PG-13 and is 123 minutes in length; it gets our lowest rating: Dead on Arrival.

They're back! Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as paranormal investigators, Lorraine, and Ed Warren. The pair previously probed the Amityville horrors. In The Conjuring 2, they learn of a single mother of four in a working class London neighborhood whose house is haunted by evils spirits. One child, in particular, is targeted. Lorraine has grown weary of the emotional and physical strain of their investigations. But hubby Ed convinces her to join him in taking on the London challenge.

The Conjuring 2 is too good to miss and gets a See It! rating. It grabs viewers right away with a fascinating and frightening revisit to the Amityville case. This effectively introduces or reintroduces the story and two main characters of the Conjuring film franchise.

However, after a fast start, this movie drags a little bit which could have been avoided by more effective editing. Much of the success of the story rests with Farmiga and Wilson as the Warrens. They are a likable pair, but maybe a little too syrupy and too perfect. They are an attractive couple, obviously very much in love, and very respectful of each other's opinion. Ed is never wrong, can sing like Elvis, can fix anything and is afraid of nothing.

The Conjuring 2 is also successful due to the outstanding performance of Madison Wolfe who plays Janet Hodgson, the child in London that the malevolent forces embody.

Without giving away too much of the story, I like the fact that unlike other horror films where the wicked spirits show themselves only to a few characters, thus creating a much larger group of disbelievers, here these evil souls show out for anyone coming to the house.

And a basic requirement of a horror film is to be scary. The Conjuring 2 will make you jump more than Kris Kross.

It's difficult to give this film a diversity rating since it's based on a true story and the characters are probably represented racially as they were in real life. There are not a lot of people of color in this movie other than in background scenes.

The Conjuring 2 is over two hours long which is too much of good thing. But it's a solid and entertaining horror flick and it's enhanced by the fact that it is based on a true story.

The Conjuring 2 is rated R and it's a See It!