Now this is the psychological thriller that I am talking about. “Greta” is a film that is not only disturbing by its subject matter, but because the trailer misleads its viewers to the type of evil psychopath that Isabelle Huppert is. Chloe Grace Moretz is the innocent, young friend that is just concerned about her safety, but that does not matter to Huppert. The director, Neil Jordan (who is a decent director) has the setting to be mellow, but slowly increase with tension, psychological fears, and an increasing amount of unanswered disturbing questions that Moretz does not know the answer to. In Huppert’s recent film “Elle” (2016), she plays someone that got assaulted but is fearless to find the answer. In “Greta” Huppert does the assaulting, but Moretz is nowhere near fearless.

The film starts with Frances McCullen (Moretz), a student working as a waitress in New York with a hard past. She takes the subways consistently in the cities of New York and comes across a purse assuming that is missing. She looks through the purse and finds an ID saying Greta Hideg (Huppert). Frances returns the purse to Greta and they start to hang out occasionally. For Frances she feels she has found a positive role model in her life. That is until one day she comes across a cabinet full of multiple purses that are the same that she found on the train. This causes Frances to want to cut all communications with Greta and not be associated with her. That incident is just a nightmare beginning for Frances. Greta begins to send her multiple emails, phone calls, and consistently stalks her at any place she knows she is associated with. Frances hopes that this will blow over, but it continues to worsen day by day. This leads Frances to have to put matters into her own hands and consider fighting back if she must.

There is a moment in “Greta” where Frances assumes that Greta is not as dangerous. She is dangerous. Frances’s roommate and best friend Erica Penn (played by Maika Monroe) is at a club and Greta sends Frances pictures of Erica saying she is following her. In this thriller, Greta involves what is important to Frances to try and play mind games to get her to be friends with her. With that, the film is not that predictable. That makes the film better than some viewers may think. Many thrillers have a predictable setup where they have the main character be the only focus for the antagonist. In “Greta” the antagonist’s focus is Frances and the people that are important in her life. That will leave viewers to be curious whose life is going to be more on the line.

As I watched this movie, my mind felt haunted, but I could not look away. Huppert’s evil persona had my full attention. She has scary dialogue, facial expressions, and an attitude that Moretz feels she cannot overcome. The film is a cat and mouse game between a middle-aged woman and a young girl in her early college days. I was wondering throughout the movie if Moretz is going to escape or not. If that is an answer one wants to find out, that is an answer to wait until the movie is seen. I will say though, this is a big screen experience for a movie. Most psychological thrillers are not that good these days, but “Greta” I felt was excellent work. I will say three solid stars.

When I first saw the trailer for “Fighting with my Family” I thought Dwayne Johnson (who a majority of us know as “the Rock”) was going to play a big role in this movie. However, he is only in the film for like two scenes, and both of those scenes are about five minutes or so. A bit of false advertisement in the trailer, but the film is still fairly enticing given it is a true story. Director Stephen Merchant directs this comical, yet charming story of one girl who wants to follow her dreams to become a pro wrestler. However, I feel he finally incorporates some serious elements to this film. That is because he generally writes comically because he did the directing for the British version of “The Office” and other comedies. I feel that “Fighting with my Family” is Merchant’s step higher to making even better movies in his career.

The film is about Saraya Knight (played by Florence Pugh) who is the father of a former wrestler named Ricky Knight (played by Nick Frost). Her dream is to join the World of Wrestling Entertainment. Therefore, Saraya and her brother Zak (played by Jack Lowden) go an audition for the wrestling competitions. Saraya makes it but, and Zak does not. The coach is Hutch (played by Vince Vaughn) and he is serious, opinionated, and all about business. Saraya is following her dreams of what she wants to do for most of her life but comes to realize that being a pro wrestler is not totally as easy as it seems. She looks up Dwayne Johnson and other wrestlers, but their encouragement is not very helpful. This will be a long road for Saraya, and she must overcome many obstacles for her dream to come true to step into the ring in front of thousands of people around her and watching from around the world on television.

“Fighting with My Family” is decent with its background and actual real-life stories to the pro wrestlers that were wrestling back in the day. The film has moments where it compiles clips of Dwayne Johnson, Triple H, and other wrestlers from the early 2000s. Also, the film does take place in the early 2000s. Right before smart phones, streaming, and all other kinds of technologies were not advanced yet. I find that “Fighting with My Family” shows how our limits with technologies, made events on pay-per-view (like wrestling) were very popular. That is because those events would take place only once.

I feel that “Fighting with My Family” is one that is worthy of a viewing. Maybe forgettable at moments, and somewhat written averagely. I feel that there were elements where the film was not as focused, and primarily cared on Saraya a lot. That is not a bad thing, just the trailer made it sound like other names would play a big role in the movie also. However, it is a fun watch for the family and all. Especially for those who like wrestling.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by James Cameron, “Alita: Battle Angel” is decent. It is a two-hour movie with tons of breathtaking CG animation, and the 3-D component is one that Cameron developed as a stereo imaging system which he used in his documentary films. I found “Alita: Battle Angel” to be a movie that tells its story through the eyes of a robot that had a past life. I went in with low expectations, but I was impressed to an extent. I was able to tell that Cameron had to do with the technical and visual elements, because the graphics and special effects are faded as they were in “Ghosts of the Abyss” (2003) and “Aliens of the Deep” (2005). I saw both of those movies in IMAX way back in the day. I remember that 3-D was not a huge ordeal yet in multiplex cinemas. For me, watching those two movies in IMAX felt like I was in movie heaven back in the day. However, this film is not fully in Cameron’s hands, it is in the hands of Rodriguez.

The film’s main character is Alita (played by Rossa Salazar), she is a deactivated cyborg that is brought back to life, however she does not recall any elements of her past life. This leads her to go on a journey to come to terms with who she really is. The man who revives her is Dr Dyson Ido (played by Christoph Waltz). He tries to help Alita understand what the world is made of, but she is so set on figuring out where she came from and what it is like to be a human. She has one element that is extraordinary to Ido and the people around her. She is dangerous and destructive. She wants to find answers to the truth of where she came from, but she will have to go through many obstacles to get to that route in her life.

The futuristic setting is enthralling in this movie. There is a crazy sport with multiple people and one ball that requires going around in multiple circles. I like how the film has a creative side to it. I mean given this is directed by Rodriguez, it compared to the terrible “Spy Kids: Game Over” but much better than that. That is because this movie was not cheesy, it cared about its story and its graphics and not much on getting audience responses based on 3-D effects.

Waltz is a brilliant actor. Regardless of what movie he is, he always plays the role that fits him. In most of his films, viewers are generally use to him play the charming, yet evil antagonist with a very laid-back sense of humor. In this movie, he has the laid-back humor, but is not the bad guy, he is the good guy who is protective. I also thought that he fit the role of play a doc. He has the intelligence, the acting style, and the professionalism deep down inside him to play someone that is intelligent.

Overall, “Alita: Battle Angel” was pretty good. I had a fun time with this movie. I will probably watch it again in another premium format depending. I will say three stars. This film does make me hope for the day to come soon for the next “Avatar” film. That is because it was Cameron’s technology, but not his directing. If he directed this movie, I am sure it would have been much more brilliant.