In 1987 screenwriter Shane Black came out of nowhere and created a 4 movie franchise when at only age 22 he wrote and then sold a groundbreaking screenplay called “Lethal Weapon”. This is the dream of all aspiring screenwriters, to sell that one different movie idea that becomes a huge hit.

For some reason Shane Black is now involved in the Predator franchise with the new movie “The Predator” that he both co-wrote and directed. Unfortunately, he just may have ended this franchise, because this movie is so bad. The screenplay is both fragmented and boring with a group of known actors in an attempt to use their name recognition to save a bad script. This never works in my experience as a movie-goer.

As far as the actors in this movie I was most surprised to see the great actor Sterling K. Brown in his second movie since he has become famous on the great TV show “This is Us”. His first movie “Hotel Artemis” was also a very bad movie and now with The Predator it is now clear that Brown is going for the big money rather than waiting for quality productions. While you cant blame Brown for wanting to cash in on his new fame after the huge dues he has paid as an actor, the problem is that if he keeps making bad movies like this one, he may never get the movie role that shows what a great actor he is. I was also surprised to see the actor Thomas Jane in this mess, who seems to have had a downhill ride in the movie business since he made the very good movie “The Punisher” in 2004. Jane plays an soldier who has of all things Tourette’s – in an obvious attempt by Shane Black to puff up a bad screenplay with some verbal outbursts created to surprise the audience before they doze off; and I did myself, twice. Olivia Munn also appears in this movie as a Biologist who also seems to be well trained with high level military firearms – how stupid is this? The Rotten Tomatoes for this film are a very low 34% and my rating is only about 10%.

There was a hint at the end of this bad movie about a new Predator creature and a possible sequel. If that happens, hopefully there will be a much better script next time. The Predator should be skipped and represents another great opportunity lost to create something new within the now 31 year old Predator film franchise.

The movie “The Bookshop” is the very definition of a low budget art movie. Its about a woman named Florence Green in a small town somewhere in the hills of England, where it is always dark and cloudy. This woman wants to open up a bookstore where there has never been a bookstore, and most of the population does not even read. There are numerous messages here, but the most important one I gleaned from this film is that no matter where you are in the world there are evil people who derive pleasure from hurting someone else or trying to destroy their dreams. This is more difficult to watch in the case of this story about an extremely likable main character played by Emily Mortimer, who just wants to sell books and be happy. She befriends an older wealthy man in the town who loves to read played by Bill Nighy who tries to help her when her business runs into problems because of the people trying to ruin her book shop.

The issue I had with this movie was that it was too slow and boring in too many places. I found the external shots of the outdoor scenes rather depressing because it always seemed like it was dark and about to rain. I did not really understand the point of the ending and in the end, this movie was perhaps trying to be too artsy for me to recommend. This might be a movie for some people, especially those who love books, but not for me.

For those of us who have the impossible ambition of breaking into the business of screenwriting, movies as bad as “The Nun” are especially infuriating. This could be the first bad horror movie that I have ever seen, where even the moments of horror are boring. The movie is about an evil Nun who inhabits a giant old convent and the haunts the minds of many other unfortunate characters in this very bad story. Who cares? We have seen this before. Just because a story involves exorcism and a religious theme does not mean its going to work as a horror movie.

One can only guess the number of religious and exorcism movies that have been released since “The Exorcist”, easily the most terrifying movie ever made – released in 1973. The number of movies that have tried to capitalize on The Exorcist is too high, but for me the best of these is “The Omen”, that was released in 1976 starring Gregory Peck. An honorable mention is the 2009 movie “Drag me to Hell” which is a very well done horror movie and about as good as The Omen.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this mess is a very low 31% – I would have given this film a 5% rating. Very simply, this movie sucks and should have gone directly to DVD. Do yourself a huge favor and miss this mess.