Taking place after the events of the 1971 Willard film starring Bruce Davison Ben is the rat who lead the army of mammals to kill all of Willard's enemies Here we follow a lonely boy named Danny Garrison who befriends Willard's former pet Ben becomes the boy's best friend, protecting him from bullying and keeping his spirits up in the face of a heart condition However, Ben forms an army of deadly rodents while the police attempt to control it This rat scare has the whole town on edge as these critters make their way from place to place Danny only has his mother and sister but Ben might be the solution to cure his loneliness It's a challenge though as the authorities want Danny to cooperate in exterminating them but this little boy doesn't want to sell them out The film is less of a horror movie and more of a buddy-animal flick Not so much terror-fueled but watching this kid make his way in a world he might not have much time in The beginning is very slow yet the film for its brief running time shows a more innocent side than its predecessor The ending is where things start to become more dyer This one sticks more to a Them-style monster narrative but having a small child befriend the so-called monster Not supreme horror but a worthy follow-up to a superior film and fares better than the 2003 remake

Steven Speilberg, Tom Cruise, Neal McDonahugh, Max von Sydow, and Collin Farrell adapt Philip K Dick's prescient short story In the distant future of 2054 we have the ability to detect any crime before it's ever committed called PreCrime It's a perfect system and the calculations are so precise it's never wrong Arrests are revolutionized by the ‘halo' device, placed around a pre-criminal's head to subdue them and eventually become part of their cell But criminals are not placed in the prisons we might expect They are put into what looks like a chemically induced coma and left in pods stored in the ground, akin to coffins Their face is obstructed by their halo, replacing their identity and humanity with a looped vision of their crime Virtually murder is erased from society Until Cruise's Jon Anderton is accused of a crime he didn't actually commit with a man he's never met He's officially on the run until he can prove he innocence Did he really do it or is the system rigged? The title of the film actually refers to the sliver of of doubt in a supposed system that's meant to be reliable Doubts are unacceptable within such clinical perfection, and a minority report will be destroyed to remove evidence of fallibility If the nation knew, the whole system would collapse Yet it's a system built on lies "The nation," aptly described at one point as the "land of the blind," is viewed as a homogenous mass of unsuspecting victims who must be protected from themselves with authoritarianism, no matter their own humanity Lives then become numbers, and zero murder is treated as an absolute good without consideration of the means to reach that end Even Speilberg says the best science fiction stories have the most dire warnings about civilization and the future It's true the internet is watching us now If they want to, they can see what sites you visit…The scary thing is, we'll lose our right to privacy An ad will appear in the air around us, talking directly to us hence sponsors and advertising for VPN to avoid phishing etc. Data collection is an open secret, denied emphatically by the NSA for years leading up to the Snowden revelations, and even since In terms of predicting authoritarian tech the moviemakers nail some things down pretty well such as our touchscreen tech like motion capture and virtual reality, facial recognition, drones, and our system of incarceration For example manipulation of augmented reality environments is becoming more common, as Guangzhou City has used something called a ‘Digital Twin,' which operates as an exact virtual copy of the city Many police departments in the US also use VR for training purposes, creating and exploring various hypothetical scenarios for their officers Being held prisoner without due process in a machine that disregards human rights like this accurately predicted the horrors of Guantanamo Bay; it was notorious for its unrestrained torture and unchecked detention of innocent prisoners US President Barack Obama pledged to close the camp once he entered office, yet failed to do so Trump signed an executive order to keep it open indefinitely, and current President Joe Biden's review only brought the number of detainees down to 38 While there is still official intent to shut Guantanamo down, its persistence over two decades marks it as a symbol of institutionalised pre-determinism of guilt resembling the film here Also scans are not only used for criminal investigation, as retinal identification allows for transport payment and micro-tailored marketing The filmmakers make this future look lighter and softer despite the harsh job PreCrime still has to engage in, the score by John Williams is intense if at times odd, Cruise works brilliantly as per usual, the future tech is really inventive, and many of our predictions living in the future are spot-on Sure this didn't need to be 2 and a half hours but it is slick looking, very dystopian, and quite accurate of our real world in terms of crime, technology, and the pros and cons of enacting Justice It's true every living creature has one thing in common; its own survival especially when it comes to having genes predetermining future actions that'll make them good or bad Guilt is now frequently pre-determined based on individual profiles, unfettered access to our lives is facilitated by enhanced surveillance, and punishment is enacted without hesitation It's true our technological form of justice has met and even surpassed the authoritarian surveillance of its dystopia Sci-fi is an apt mode to explore the future, but the future is coming perpetually quicker It's already gone by the time our predictions can be expressed 'Minority Report' is a bold ambitious entry by this talented director and Cruise as a man doubting a reliable system he once believed in isn't so pristine or top of the line Big themes matched solely by its endless influence on both film and real-world technology

There's a necktie killer on the loose in the city of London but who could it be? Everyone's in a frenzy thanks to the master of suspense himself, the late Alfred Hitchcock The body of a woman is found in the Thames river The short-tempered ex-Royal Air Force officer Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) discovers his ex-wife (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) murdered, Blaney becomes a suspect Forced to go on the run, Blaney attempts to take refuge with his best friend, fruit merchant Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), however Rusk may, in fact, be the necktie murderer himself Who knows for sure... A love letter to Hitchcock's home for sure--it's riddled with violent sexual fantasies, misogyny and grotesque greed It arguably gives a more tangible insight into the thoughts and desires of one of the most lauded directors of all time Certainly uncomfortable and has 'odd peculiarities' Yeah this didn't need to be 2 hours and could've used more solid thrills I think it was a mistake to show the killer way too early The suspense is still working though and that ending leaves quite the punch Very unsettling in this filmmaker's collection but has typical grim comedy and insight into a psychopathic killer's mind Maybe it could've moved more swiftly but Hitchcock coming home serves him well

Benji is back for his second big screen adventure Here he's traveling with his new adoptive family in Athens, Greece Along the way he runs into con men and a secret agent plants something on him they want Benji then gets lost in this foreign land and must evade the bad guys while doing so The little canine just wants to be back with the housekeeper and the little kids that love him There's definitely some twists to be had in this one Even Benji couldn't have guessed how far this conspiracy goes The final act is one giant chase scene which has enough suspense to keep viewers engaged The kids sadly have little screen presence this time around and Greece is kinda portrayed as inconsiderate with its locals not being welcoming to Benji But the dog still endears the fans and viewers with his quick wit and inability to give up The weakest in the series in my opinion but still watchable

It's Benji the dog's first feature film! I just discovered this famous canine and he has a few films under his name it turns out This one debuted back in 1974 and made over $45 million directed by Joe Camp who would also go on to do 'For the Love of Benji, and 'Benji the Hunted' Even the theme song was nominated for an Oscar For this little dogs first outing he's a loner with no master He prefers to go around a Texas town making friends with the local townsfolk Things change when he witnesses two children he befriends being kidnapped for ransom while in the meantime he falls in love with a Maltese named Tiffany It's up to Benji to foil the bad guys' scheme and save the day The filmmakers succeed here with filming from the ground up capturing the dog's point of view and the low angles It was actually shot four to 18 inches above the ground, and the filmmakers had to create custom tripods and dollies to capture that perspective A film that's short, easy to follow, and kids will adore every second of this lovable little pooch After all he has several sequels and a reboot that followed