The Assignment      
The Case for Christ       Lee Strobel (Mike Vogel) works as an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune, and lives with his wife, Leslie (Erika Christensen) and young daughter, Alison (Haley Rosenwasser). When a nurse, Alfie (L. Scott Caldwell), saves Alison from choking at a restaurant, Leslie agrees to join Alfie's church and becomes a believer in Christianity while Lee remains an atheist. Hoping to save his unstable marriage, he uses his investigative reporting skills to try to prove that the resurrection of Jesus Christ did not actually occur. Meanwhile, he reports on the case involving a police informer, James Dixon (Renell Gibbs), accused of shooting a cop.       Based on the book by Lee Strobel, the screenplay by Brian Bird avoids schmaltz, excessive preachiness, and heavy-handedness to instead focus on how Lee turned from an atheist to a Christian. That journey feels believable because it's grounded in humanism every step of the way. You even get a glimpse of Lee's relationship with his estranged father, Walter (Robert Forester). Lee's conversations with his wife are poignant and thought-provoking , and it's interesting to observe how their complex relationship evolves as Lee changes innately while asks tough questions to variety of scholars about the resurrection of Christ. One of those scholars who helps him to see the light, so to speak, is psychologist Dr. Roberta Waters (Faye Dunaway).       Thanks to the warm, wise and sensitive screenplay as well as Mike Vogel's solid acting skills, the audience can easily find a window into the mind and soul of Lee which makes him all the more relatable. You'll feel happy when he's happy, sad when he's sad and enlightened when he's englightened. In other words, Mike Vogel finds the emotional truth of his role. He gives the best performance of his career. At a running time of 1 hour and 52 minutes, The Case for Christ manages to be a captivating, tender, and heartfelt journey well worth taking.
Colossal      
Extraordinary Mission       Lin Kai (Huang Xuan), a police officer, goes undercover to infiltrate Twin Eagles, a drug cartel. He befriends the cartel's head honcho, Eagle (Duan Yihong), and becomes addicted to heroin while trying to take down the cartel. Eagle might be the notorious drug lord whom Lin Kai's handler, Li Jianguo (Zu Feng), had tried, but failed to capture ten years earlier.      
Extraordinary Mission feels suspenseful and thrilling with a plot that becomes increasingly complex while remaining easy to follow. Director Alan Mak, who also directed the classic Infernal Affairs, and co-director Anthony Pun waste no time by hooking the audience from the very beginning with an intense sequence. The tension escalates even further once Lin Kai infiltrates the cartel as the audience wonders whether or not Eagle will discover his true identity. The filmmakers maintain a fast pace an wisely avoid relying on gore as a means of entertaining the audience. Yes, there are plenty of action scenes, but there's nothing gratuitous in terms of blood and guts.       What makes Extraordinary Mission truly extraordinary, (pun-intended) is that it offers not only spectacle but also some truth because its villain actually has a backstory that makes him seem all the more human even if he's not particularly likable. He's not cartoonish or one-note like the villain in most blockbusters. The very well-cast Huang Xuan makes for a charismatic lead who's well worth rooting for and caring about. At running time of just under 2 hours, Extraordinary Mission is a riveting, exhilarating, white-knuckle crime thriller.
Mine      
Speech & Debate      
Their Finest      
The Transfiguration      
Truman      
The Void      
Your Name.      
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