In Theaters: ****The Magic Faraway Tree (2026)

 This is a fun movie.  Tim and Polly Thompson (Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy) move to the country with their three children Joe, Fran and Beth (Phoenix Laroche, Billie Gadsdon and Delilah Bennet-Cardy) for economic reasons and also to bring their family back together.  The kids are always on devices.  They hope to raise tomatoes and make spaghetti sauce.

The forest is inhabited by faeries, and Fran discovers them.  They aren't all small but adult size faeries.  Silky, Saucepan Man, Mr. Whatzisname and Moon Face (Nicola Coughlin, Dustin Demri-Burns, Oliver Chris and Nonso Anozie) who adventure with the kids to different worlds.  Beth wants to go home and writes to her grandmother (Jennifer Saunders) who is down on her daughter and the chances of her succeeding.  Beth also makes a wish the tomatoes will die.  Her wish is granted but she realizes that is not what she wants.  She and her siblings are off to find a world where they can fix the problem.  The get a spell that will fix it, but Dame Snap (Rebecca Ferguson) captures them and does not intend to ever let them go.

This movie is delightful in their fantasy and the world is magical.  The characters are interesting.  Andrew Garfield does a great job as the father who will do anything to save his family.  

Movie Review: ****Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

This is another Tom Clancy (obvious from the name) but it has Jack Ryan in the post 911 era.  Sheri says that Clancy wrote about Jack Ryan's son, and perhaps that is where this material comes from.  Jack (Chris Pine) is recruited as an analyst for the CIA by Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner).  At the same time he has fallen in love with Dr. Muller (Keira Knightly).  Then we fast forward three years.  Jack thinks he will just be an employee on Wall Street, while actually working for the CIA.  He notices files hid from them by a Russian firm, and feels he is onto a plot.  He is asked to go to Russia by the CIA to meet with the president of the Russian Company with which they are doing business.  His journey to Russia gets off to a bad start.  His bodyguard (Nonso Anozie) tries to kill him, and Ryan has to kill him instead.  He has now gone active.  They have to get into the Russian director's computer.  He is planning a plot for a terrorist attack against the U.S. as well as a dollar dump, which likely will bring on a depression.  The Russians are mad at the U.S. over lack of support at the U.N.
This show has tension on two levels.  Can Jack, and his fiance who follows him to Moscow, survive, and can the CIA stop the Russian terrorist.  This movie keeps you tense in your seat.  I thought the theater was cold, but it was just my body reaction to the tension which lasts through most of the second half of the movie.
This is good Tom Clancy fun.