This is a well-meaning movie with good heart, but it was better when it was called The Iron Giant.

J.A. Bayona’s film of the Patrick Ness book tells the tale of Conor (Lewis MacDougall), a young boy whose mother (Felicity Jones) is dying. Conor is, understandably, having issues, not just with the impending loss of his mother, but bullies at school and a domineering grandma (Sigourney Weaver) he doesn’t quite understand. When things come to a boil, a tree monster (voice of Liam Neeson) shows up to offer guidance and tough love.

MacDougall gives a respectable performance, as do Jones and Weaver, but the film never really works as a whole. The relationship between the boy and the imaginative monster never makes much sense, so the human interactions wind up being far more interesting.

Problem is, this movie is called A Monster Calls, and much of the film leans on the effectiveness of the monster scenes. There are moments where everything jells, but just moments. For the most part, the movie feels disjointed, uneven, and too similar to films that have come before it. And it doesn’t earn the tears it wants you to shed at the end.

It’s just kind of manipulative and weird.

Two of Hollywood’s biggest, most lovable stars labor away in the pretty but kind of dumb Passengers, a movie that doesn’t have the guts to be as ugly as it should be.

Chris Pratt plays Jim Preston, a mechanic dedicated to starting a life on a distant planet. He and 5,000 other passengers are in suspended animation aboard a ship taking a 125-year journey. That ship has an unfortunate encounter with a meteor shower, and Jim’s sleeping pod awakens him—with 90 years to go on the trip. What to do, what to do, what to do? Jim gets it into his mind to do a very bad thing, and that’s where Jennifer Lawrence’s character comes into play.

The movie is good-looking for sure, and I really liked the design of the ship. That’s essentially what’s keeping Passengers from getting my lowest rating. That, and the fact that Jennifer Lawrence really can act, even when she’s in a junk-food movie. She can salvage the most mundane of dialogue and almost make it sound good. Almost.

Passengers won’t frustrate you so much for what it is, as for what it could have been. Imagine if somebody like Stanley Kubrick got ahold of this premise. Oh man, that would’ve been a movie to be reckoned with. This could’ve been one of the sickest science fiction epics since Alien. Instead, it’s Cast Away meets Sleepless in Seattle in space. Instead, we get a pretty space opera with a happy ending.

Your weekly look at Casa Video's current most popular rentals.

Magnificent Seven

Paul Verhoeven, who never really recovered from the delicious calamity that was Showgirls (although Starship Troopers was pretty good), tries his hand again at a female empowerment movie (Yes, Showgirls was supposed to be a female empowerment movie) and he fails miserably.

Isabelle Huppert labors away as Michele, owner of a company that makes terrible videogames. As the film begins, we see her victimized in a graphic assault scene that Verhoeven revisits again and again throughout the film. Michele takes an unconventional approach to the event and, as the mystery of who the assailant is plays out, the movie goes off the rails with weirdness.

I guess Verhoeven is shooting for satire here, but what he winds up with is a ragged, less glossy rehash of eighties flicks like Jagged Edge.

It’s a bad mystery movie that’s trying to be shocking and even funny, but it all feels desperate and trashy. Huppert is a great actress, and she does all she can with what she’s given. Verhoeven, on the other hand, has basically lost it. Actually, he lost it a long time ago. Maybe another director could’ve made the strange elements balance out, rather than having all feel exploitive and wasteful. I hate movies that revel in their cleverness when they are totally not clever. I also hate that the movie tries to explain Michele’s behavior towards her assailant as a product of her violent past. Also, you’ll guess the killer long before the movie is half over. This is garbage.

I noticed it just won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, so I guess I’m just a big, grouchy baby going against the grain on this one. Then again, it’s the Golden Globes.

Denzel Washington directs and stars as Troy Maxson, an ex baseball player in the 1950s. It’s a role originated on Broadway in a 1987 Tony winning performance by James Earl Jones. Washington starred in the 2010 Broadway revival (for which he also won a Tony), and now takes another shot at this great character penned by August Wilson. Viola Davis, who co-starred with Washington on Broadway (yep, another Tony), plays Rose, Troy’s long-suffering wife.

The two try to raise a son of their own (Jovan Adepo) while contending with Troy’s children from past relationships and present affairs. Some of 2016’s finest performances are contained in the movie, including Washington and, most notably, Davis, who should find herself in contention for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

The movie suffers from that feeling that it is a filmed play. The staging is lackluster and drab, and some of the writing feels a tad melodramatic, far more suitable for a live performance than a motion picture. The whole thing would play much better as a TV movie rather than something for the big screen.

Still, you can’t take away from Washington and Davis performances, and Washington definitely has a knack from getting great work from his cast.

There was a quick little moment in the very first Star Wars (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) where a character mentions rebels possibly obtaining vulnerability secrets regarding the Death Star. That group of people actually gets their own movie in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a Star Wars spinoff that is technically another prequel.

It, in fact, tells a story that leads right up to where A New Hope begins. It’s a strong, rousing action adventure movie that should please Star Wars geeks along with newcomers to the franchise. It’s also a little different from your typical Star Wars movie in that it doesn’t mainly deal with the Skywalker saga (although a couple of them make notable appearances) and doesn’t prominently feature the John Williams score (although that makes some appearances, as well).

Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) goes for something a little different here, a tonal shift that reminds of the big change The Empire Strikes Back brought to the saga. The result is a different kind of Star Wars film that is immensely entertaining and fun. Felicity Jones is terrific as Jyn, a woman who finds herself with strange ties to the Death Star, and becomes part of the effort to destroy it.

Star Wars fans will delight in all of the tie-ins and cameos, while newcomers will simply have a blast with an action movie that delivers on many fronts.

A young Indian boy gets lost on a train station and loses his mother in this uplifting film based on a true story from director Garth Davis.

After a long odyssey through orphanages and abuse, Saroo winds up in Australia, adopted by new parents (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham). After 25 years, Saroo (played as an adult by Dev Patel) decides it’s time to find his real mother.

How does he do it in the modern world? Google Earth (the film is a nice commercial for that little platform).

Patel is outstanding as Saroo, especially when his personal conflict about heritage comes to the forefront. Rooney Mara is also good as his supportive girlfriend, one of the more down to earth characters she’s played in recent years. The one most people will talk about in this film, however, is Kidman, who puts together one of the best, most powerful performances of her career.

The story seems farfetched, but it’s the real deal, as evidenced by real footage of Saroo and his moms at film’s end. Coming out of a year that had a lot of great movies that delved into darkness, it’s nice to have this one. It makes you feel good.

Dealing primarily with the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, director Pablo Larrain addresses those terrible times through the eyes of Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman), First Lady and closest witness to the gory death of her husband.

The film addresses notions never really discussed about the assassination in film before, such as Jackie’s decision to march in the open air at her husband’s funeral. Portman, after a little career lull, comes roaring back with an amazingly accurate portrayal (She nails that beautifully strange accent). Peter Sarsgaard is excellent as a justifiably angry Bobby Kennedy, as is Billy Crudup as a journalist doing an exclusive interview with Jackie soon after the shooting.

The film accurately captures the look of the early sixties, right down to Jackie’s pillbox hat. Of all the films made about the assassination of JFK, this one is the most personal, and it does an admirable job of showing what an influence Jackie was, and examining her icon status.

Portman will most certainly get an Oscar nomination for this one, and it will be deserved.

Over here at Weekly World Central, we're stressin' to get next week's paper to the printer a little early so we can take a little time off for movie marathons and pizza at home. That's what December days off are for, right?

Here's your weekly look at Casa Video's 10 most popular rentals right now:

Jason Bourne

Suicide Squad

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 

The Secret Life Of Pets

War Dogs

Don't Breathe 

Kubo and the Two Strings

Hell or High Water

Game of Thrones Season Six

Ben-Hur

This is an all new, original musical from director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) that is surprisingly low on melodrama while full of vibrancy, beautiful tunes, outstanding set pieces and a stunning sense of realism for a movie where the characters bust out singing. It’s the best “original” movie musical ever made.

The story follows wannabe actress Mia (Emma Stone) and jazz composer Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) as they try to make it in crazy Los Angeles. They meet, they don’t like each other much at first, but then they fall in love, which provides Chazelle and his performers ample opportunities for musical numbers that surprise at every turn. In what will go down as one of the year’s greatest scenes, the film opens on an L.A. traffic jam that evolves into a full blown dance number featuring many extras and top notch editing and camera work that make the whole thing look like one shot.

In a year when a lot of big blockbusters swung and missed, this relatively low budget venture delivers some of 2016’s best money shots. This solidifies Ryan Gosling as one of the best actors of his generation. He can wow you with insightful indies (Blue Valentine, Drive) and carry big budget blockbusters (the upcoming Blade Runner sequel … let’s hope it’s good). Now, with La La Land, he takes his game to a new level. He proves he can pretty much do anything when it comes to movie characters. He can sing with the best of them, he’s definitely no slouch when it comes to dancing and, by God, he sure can play the piano after a few months of intensive training for the movie (Those aren’t stunt hands playing the keys … those are Gosling’s).

Just like that, Gosling is a full bodied star of the musical genre. Emma Stone is a mind-blowing revelation. Stone doesn’t just make her mark with a beautiful voice and expert footwork; she embodies the character with the honest and almost tragic drive to “make it” in the business.