THE REVIEW CORNER

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker Directed by: Denis Villeneuve Written by: Eric Heisserer      Twelve ships have landed all across the world.  These odd shaped ships are anyone's guess.  Where did they come from?  What do the beings on these ships want?  You know, the usual first contact stuff we've seen before.  But Arrival takes on a slightly different tone than what we're used to seeing.      With the arrival of these ships, a team of highly skilled and qualified personnel travel to one site to investigate.  This team, led by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker), needs someone to decipher the alien language in order to make official contact.  That person is Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguistics professor at an unnamed university.  With the world on edge, and potentially on the verge of global war, it's up to Louise to find out the answers to everyone's questions.       There are a great many so called "first contact" films

Starring: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, and Armie Hammer Directed by: Tom Ford Screenplay by: Tom Ford Based on the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright     If you like stories within stories, this is a film for you!     Susan (Amy Adams) is an art gallery owner.  One day she receives a manuscript of a novel written by her ex husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), a man she left nearly 20 years before.  The novel is about a man who is on vacation with his family when things turn for the worst.  The story quickly becomes violent and horrifying in some parts, turning the main character's life in a whole new direction very quickly.  As Susan reads this story, she is reminded of her life with her first husband, and is forced to confront a dark and unpleasant past.     The story is told in two parts, both intercutting each other throughout the film.  Hence, the both of these stories progress almost simultaneously, with themes run

Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Haley Bennett, and Peter Sarsgaard Directed by: Antoine Fuqua Written by: Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto      Remakes are funny things.  They can go either way.  On one hand, they can be like last year's Mad Max: Fury Road, a film that critics and audiences adore; a film that will live on as a cinematic masterpiece.  Remakes can also go in the direction of this year's rendition of Ben-Hur , one that critics and audiences will likely forget.       The Magnificent Seven some might say is an unnecessary remake.  It's a remake of an original that's based on another film, Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic,  Seven Samurai, in which seven samurai soldiers are hired by a town to keep them safe from raiding bandits.  This time, there are no raiding bandits, and there are not seven sword-wielding soldiers.  This time, it's a western