His & Hers (2026) * *

 

Starring:  Jon Bernthal, Tessa Thompson, Sunita Mani, Chris Bauer, Marin Ireland, Pablo Schreiber, Poppy Liu, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Crystal R. Fox

His & Hers meanders its way through its whodunit plot with sidebars on less interesting topics, such as the relationship between estranged spouses Detective Jack Harper (Bernthal) and Anna (Thompson), a TV news reporter covering a small-town murder of a woman both knew very well.  Jack was having sex with her on the night she was murdered, and Anna knew her from their private school days, although not in the biblical sense.  Jack, of course, would become a prime suspect if it were discovered that he knew the victim intimately.  Anna has demons of her own to deal with, including the death of hers and Jack's infant daughter which causes Anna to disappear from her husband's life for a year.  

There isn't much chemistry between Anna and Jack.  Anna's rival is Lexy (Rittenhouse), the young blonde who is a fast-rising star at Anna's Atlanta news program.  Anna is also sleeping with Lexy's cameraman husband Richard (Schreiber).  Anna also deals with her ailing mother who appears to be in the early stages of dementia, while Jack lives with his alcoholic sister and his niece.  The sister also has school ties to the victim, who of course wasn't an angel.  There is a plethora of characters and subplots which overstuffs the basic murder plot premise. 

Bernthal is normally among the most magnetic of actors, and here he tries a bit too hard to give us down-home folksiness and tends to end his sentences with "yeah?" often enough for it to be noticeable.  Tessa Thompson was never an actress who did it for me.  There is something bland about her which doesn't allow us inside.  I would say maybe it's just this character, but I've noticed that about many of her performances.  

The whodunit itself contains a twist I saw coming and another I didn't.  I suppose I cared just enough to watch for the outcome, but even with six episodes, it takes a long time to get to there.  Or it just feels that way. 

EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Baz Luhrmann

No, EPIC isn't a sequel to Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022), but instead of mixture of archive documentary and concert footage Luhrmann discovered during his research of Elvis.  The result reveals Elvis' love of performing and his approachability despite being the biggest musical star of his time (along with The Beatles).  Elvis wouldn't be one of those performers whose show starts at 8pm and he decides to wait until 11pm to stroll on stage.  He took performing seriously, and it showed with the energy he expended.  He wanted to show the audience something new every time.

EPIC's concert footage relies heavily on the Las Vegas shows that were the subject of the 1970 documentary: Elvis: That's the Way It Is.   We also see Elvis rehearsing the songs, giving us an intimate view of his performances.  He, his band, and backing vocalists have undeniable chemistry and they play off each other.  The epilogue tells us that Elvis performed 1,100 shows between 1969 and 1977, sometimes at three shows per day.  He missed live performances which he resumed soon after he was finished with his movie contract.  He didn't much like making movies, as we hear in archive voice footage.  They weren't the best use of his talent.  

EPIC works in the same fashion That's the Way It Is did.  It shows Elvis has an approachable, humble performer.  Did he have his moments where he was a prick?  I'm sure.  Who doesn't?  The drug abuse later took over and caused his untimely 1977 death at age 42, leaving behind a legacy that stands today as a performer who is inimitable, even though of course he has thousands of impersonators.  But there is only one true Elvis Presley.  EPIC gives us one more reason why this is correct and seeing him never gets old.  

Extract (2009) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Mike Judge

Starring:  Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Kristen Wiig, Clifton Collins, Jr. Mila Kunis, Dustin Milligan, David Koechner, Gene Simmons

Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead and terrific movie satires like Office Space, gives us an uneven and sometimes funny comedy about people who go out of their way to make things hard on themselves.  Our protagonist is the sexually frustrated owner of a bottling plant who finds himself in lust with new employee Cindy(Kunis) who is secretly involved with one of Joel's employees who was involved in a most-gruesome work-related injury.  Joel is married to Suzie (Wiig), and their marriage has devolved into routine dullness and not much sex.  

Joel's bartender friend Dean (Affleck) poses a solution to Joel's moral dilemma:  Joel doesn't want to outright cheat on Suzie, but if Suzie is seduced by a "gigolo" hired by Joel, then Joel will be free to pursue Cindy because Suzie already cheated.  It's Mike Judge-universe morality and logic writ large, with erratic results.  Joel is being wooed to sell his company, but the workers comp case may hinder that, especially with the employee's ambulance chaser attorney (Simmons) who suggests a bizarre way to have the case dropped.  It involves a door and Joel's testicles.  

Meanwhile, the gigolo posing as a pool boy indeed succeeds in seducing Suzie.  It would've been funnier if the gigolo only thinks he seduced Suzie but maybe seduced the neighbor.  Joel tries to call off the gigolo, who thinks he and Suzie are falling in love.  There are many moving parts in Extract, and the actors are up to the challenge, but the fault lies at the plot or screenplay level.  It's not as funny or stinging as it needs to be, but hey it's better than the overrated Idiocracy.  

The Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026) *

 

Directed by:  Renny Harlin

Starring:  Madelaine Petsch, Richard Brake, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath

The Strangers saga comes to a merciful end (hopefully) with Chapter 3.  The opening scenes provided a challenge for me in that I tried in vain to recall anything about Chapter 2.  Chapter 1 wasn't any great shakes, but I do recall it had at least a little suspense to it.  I gave it two stars.  The ensuing sequels don't provide much in the way of suspense.  There are a lot of killings and an attempt to display that our protagonist (Petsch) is somehow transformed into a killer herself thanks to the violence she's endured. We've seen that before too, and it isn't exactly revelatory.

Renny Harlin is a skilled director who is better than this material.  I know, I've seen examples of this.  The movie isn't shoddily made, just pointless and disengaging.  There are ample jump scares for those who go to horror movies to experience those and a lot of blood for those who to go watch that.  Those audience members will get what they came for.  

As for the rest of us, The Strangers, Chapter 3 runs only about ninety minutes and still feels like a slog.  I did admire, for what it's worth, some of creepy performances and I wished they were in the service of a better movie and series.  

Crime 101 (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Bart Layton

Starring:  Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Monica Barbaro, Tate Donovan, Barry Keoghan, Nick Nolte

Crime 101 lends itself to comparisons to Heat and it wouldn't have it any other way.  We have a thief named Mike (Hemsworth) who does jobs with efficiency and without hurting anyone.  He is in command, knows how to perform the heist with maximum speed and effectiveness, and then disappears onto the 101 freeway.  Grizzled detective Lou Lubesnick (Ruffalo) detects a pattern and tries to convince his bosses that this thief only strikes near the 101 because of its easy access to and from the crime scenes.  

Mike works alone, except for when he retrieves his latest assignments by underworld boss Money (Nolte), and he also lives alone and we sense his need to connect to someone.  After his last attempted jewel heist goes awry, Mike wants out, and a young woman named Maya who meets Mike after rear-ending him in a traffic accident provides the catalyst to come out of his shell.  However, explaining what he does for a living is understandably not part of this change.  His apartment is sleek and stylish, but doesn't feel lived in.  There are no photos of his family.  Maybe he doesn't have one.

Lubesnick is the opposite of Mike.  He smokes, drives an old car, looks like he slept in his clothes, doesn't shave, and his wife is leaving him.  But he's smart and determined.  His superiors just want him to close cases and show little interest in his theory on the "101 robber".  They just want the cases solved.  Even the LAPD has metrics it needs to hit.   However, Mike knows he needs one more big score to retire forever, maybe even with Maya. 

I won't give away further details, but Crime 101 is Heat with a happier ending for its characters.  There is a psychotic criminal (Keoghan) who wants to take over Mike's territory because Money thinks Mike is losing his nerve, but Keoghan's character is unstable in more ways than one.  Crime 101 doesn't strike as deep a nerve as Heat, in which its characters realize they need each other in complex ways.  There were no easy payoffs and most of the people were killed or left behind.  Crime 101 does run a tad too long at 140 minutes, but we wind up caring and that's more than half the battle.  

Solo Mio (2026) * *

 

Directed by:  Charles & Daniel Kinnane    

Starring:  Kevin James, Kim Coates, Jonathan Roumie, Nicole Grimaudo, Alyson Hannigan, Julee Cerda, Andrea Bocelli, Julie Ann Emery

Solo Mio is a lackluster romantic comedy in which there is no new ground covered, which isn't always a bad thing, because romantic comedies tend to follow certain ground rules and rarely deviate from them.  We're on familiar terrain in Solo Mio, in which the likable but introverted Matt (James) is left at the altar by his fiancee Heather (Emery) during their wedding in Italy.  The humiliated Matt decides to take his honeymoon trip alone, since it's already paid for and he can't receive a refund, and naturally he falls in love with a local barista who helps him to come out of his shell.  Will the fiancee return at some point to try and reconnect?  Does a bear do his business in the woods?

Since Solo Mio isn't going to win any points for originality, we have to review how it's made and the energy it brings.  Solo Mio, even with the cast trying its hardest, is flat and limp.  James is as dependable a comic actor as there is, but even he seems weighed down by the material.  There isn't a lot of chemistry between he and the kind Gia (Grimaudo, who could be Catherine Keener's twin).  They're both very nice people indeed, but they just don't click.  The other couples who are part of the honeymoon tours Matt and Heather were supposed to attend as a married couple also intervene in Matt's love life, with their entire existence centered around prodding Matt and Gia toward eternal coupledom.  

Solo Mio (which means mine alone as Gia points out) is not hefty and isn't meant to be.  But it should be more amusing and delightful than it is.  We aren't stirred by the belief that Matt and Gia belong together.  The scenery of Rome and the Tuscan countryside is gorgeous and Andrea Bocelli (who is related to Gia) drops in to play and belt out some songs (and riding a horse). It's a shame these aren't in service of a better movie.  

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 (2026) * * 1/2

 

Starring:  Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Neve Campbell, Becky Newton, Angus Sampson, Jazz Raycole, Cobie Smulders, Elliott Gould

The Lincoln Lawyer is still a serviceable courtroom drama series, but it won't elevate into anything greater.  That's fine.  It doesn't need to.  However, this season's case involves Michael Haller (Garcia-Rulfo) on trial for murdering a former client who was found in the back seat of his convertible at the end of last season.  Fast forward to this season, and Haller is in county jail awaiting arraignment while serving as a pro bono attorney for other prisoners.  It's a good way to keep others from messing with you. 

Meanwhile, Haller's pending trial is causing his clients to drop him and his associate/ex-wife Lorna Crane (Newton) to try and scrape for clients just to keep the practice going.  Haller is still equipped with his loyal staff which includes Lorna, investigator Cisco (Sampson), paralegal and part-time driver Izzy (Raycole), and Haller's other ex-wife Maggie (Campbell), who joins the team to defend him in court.  The quasi-family vibe here works well, and the best scenes are the courtroom ones because of the inherent drama involved as Haller tries to defend himself while also figuring out who set him up and why.

Of course, Haller gets away with legal maneuvering that doesn't seem plausible nor would a judge continue to allow it.  Garcia-Rulfo remains a solid lead, but he's not the Michael Haller from the 2011 movie.  That is Matthew McConaughey and McConaughey will continue to be the actor people think of first when The Lincoln Lawyer is mentioned, but Garcia-Rulfo is smart and slick.  Newton is also a standout as the tireless, loyal Lorna, who is married to Cisco and we scratch our heads as to why a spark plug like Lorna would be married to the monosyllabic Cisco whose hygiene is suspect, although he is quite a good investigator.

The case itself doesn't wrap up satisfactorily.  It is anti-climactic with no true stunning developments or a suspect out of left field we didn't anticipate.  Instead, the final moments hint at a crossover with Bosch, which I never saw but I heard was entertaining.  I hope I don't have to catch up on multiple Bosch seasons in order to enjoy next season's Lincoln Lawyer.  Don't make me work so hard.