The new movie “Breakthrough” is one of those films that would never have a chance to be a good idea for a movie, unless it really happened. The story of a young 14 year old boy who fell through the ice near St. Louis Missouri in 2015 with his 2 friends and then survived after being dead for 45 minutes is nothing short of a miracle. This miracle is the reason this movie was made, with very religious undertones that in recent years appear in about 2 movies; all released around this time of year. As this type of religious movie goes, this was was one of the better I have seen since this new trend has started.

Breakthrough stars Chrissy Metz as Joyce Smith, the adopted mother of the boy who almost died. Metz has had a remarkable career resurgence in the last few years when she was hired for one of the starring roles in “This is Us”, arguably the best drama on television. Josh Lucas stars as the boy’s father and given Metz very obese status, the casting of Lucas did not seem to make much sense. Topher Grace plays the pastor of the local church and the conflicts between him and Joyce Smith were very well acted.

Most surprising was the fact that basketball player, Stephen Curry produced this movie, following Lebron James into movies and television production. I give a solid recommendation to Breakthrough for its acting and positive message.

The new movie “Pet Sematary” is a remake of the 1989 version and once again one of those “why was this average movie remade” mysteries? I thought this new version was very predictably disturbing and what I found annoying is, there were too many scenes where the characters would never do what they do in the story. This is about a family, where the father is a doctor and the family moves into a rundown barn-like house. Why would any doctor move into a dump like the one in this movie? In the road outside the house, there are huge tractor trailers that speed by. Any normal parents would never buy that house or at the very least, surround the house with a huge fence to protect their two children and pets. Once again, screenwriting is such a difficult art form because not only does the story have to be good, but it also has to make sense and people have to act logically or at least have half a brain.

The book “Pet Sematary” was written by the prolific author Steven King, and he wrote this book many years ago to be a scary story about the un-dead, but unfortunately this movie is much more disgusting and disturbing than scary and for that reason, I cannot recommend it.

This film stars Jason Clarke as the father, and John Lithgow as the neighbor and I was surprised to see Lithgow in this below average horror movie. Pet Sematary should be skipped by all in favor of seeing any other horror movie.

The Rotten Tomatoes review of the new movie “After” is only 13%. The critics are 100% dead wrong, completely missing the point of this film.

This story of After is about young love found in college and the screenwriter did an outstanding job of showing both the ecstasy and unbearable pain that can happen when you find love. The main character in this movie Tessa Young, played by Josephine Langford, who has a face so extraordinarily beautiful it would be tragic for her to do anything except for appearing in movies. Her presence in this film makes the pain during the emotional roller coaster of this story even more difficult to experience than it would be with any other young actress. The roller coaster includes the full gamut of emotions of jealousy, anger, avoidance, fear, love, hate and even friends who try and sabotage the relationship. Much of this was very difficult to watch.

The young man in this story Hardin Scott, is played very well by newcomer Hero Fiennes Tiffin. Actress Selma Blair plays Tessa’s mother and it was impressive to see her in a movie despite her recent MS diagnosis. Jennifer Beals also has a small part in this movie as Hardin’s mother along with actor Peter Gallagher as his father.

It has been rare when I have seen movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes that are this far off, but critics will be critics and they are very often, very wrong. I give a strong recommendation to After and I believe this will be the break through role for Josephine Langford, who should definitely have a very long career as a movie actress.