Over the last 10 years there have been many movies released that have the same formula as “The Intruder”. Normally this formula involves a single black woman or a black couple who are stalked or attacked by a white woman or a white man. What happens is a big payoff at the end where the a person or persons have to fight off the stalker or this case an intruder. Clearly, this formula stalker movie makes money at the box office, otherwise so many stories with this exact same idea would not have been made. The problem is, what is the point of making what amounts to the same film, this many times? There has to be a new wrinkle or new idea somewhere within this genre.

This film stars Dennis Quaid as the intruder, a huge departure from most of his recent movies that have been family oriented and involve dogs. The couple in this story who buy a house in Napa Valley, and are stalked by the former owner are played by Meagan Good and Michael Ealy. Unfortunately there is nothing new here and this explains the low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes of only 28% and 5.3 on IMDB and I agree with these numbers and also agree that this movie is not worth seeing. Many will object to the ending, that has the same idea that was shown in the movie Breakdown with Kurt Russel, released in 1997. The ending was probably an attempt to generate more box office for a movie that is just not that good.

The new documentary “Ask Dr. Ruth” reminds anyone who has seen Dr. Ruth on over 500 talk show appearances since 1984 or heard her on her own radio show that started in 1981, that she is one of the most likable celebrities of all time. At age 90, she is constantly busy and walks as fast as anyone and is at all times showing her happy smile that along with her laugh is her most likable attributes.

Ruth Westheimer’s life and success as a famous sex therapist has been a miracle, starting with how she became famous when she was called by a radio station to answer some general questions about sex therapy. Even more of a miracle is how this amazing woman ever lived past the age of 10, when her parents were taken away by the Nazi’s and she was miraculously sent to an orphanage in Switzerland, barely missing being sent to a concentration camp herself.

Westheimer even became a soldier for a time in the Israeli Army and almost lost both of her legs when she was wounded. She was married 3 times, the last time lasted almost 40 years. She had had two children, now has several grandchildren and still at age 90, seems to have the energy she displayed on so many talk shows for the last 35 years. All of Dr. Ruth’s appearances on talk shows like Johnny Carson and David Letterman were always very funny because of her extremely blunt sex talk and the reactions of the embarrassed host.

Ask Dr. Ruth is one of the best biography documentaries I have seen in many years and this film receives my highest recommendation.

Along with Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan has been famous for making a large number of movies that over the years, have been very bad. In 2015, Rogan’s acting performance as Steve Wozniak in the movie “Steve Jobs” was outstanding proving that with the right part, Rogan can be involved in a high quality movie.

The issue with Rogan’s career, has been forgoing quality for raunchy films he has produced only because raunchy sells. The new movie “Long Shot” starring Charlize Theron also has some raunchy moments but this film has a high quality screenplay, written by Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah that makes the unlikely connection between the Secretary of State, played by Theron and an unemployed radical writer Fred Flarsky, played by Rogan, very believable. There are some formulaic plot points in this story that we have all seen before and a predictable ending, but overall I give a strong recommendation to Long Shot and agree with the 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.