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Telling the story of Harriet Tubman (Cynthia Erivo), her escape from slavery to her transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes, a leader along the underground railroad that saved and freed the lives of hundreds of slaves, changing the course of history. Directed by Kasi Lemmons and Written by Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons this recounting of History adds interesting detail and context to Tuban’s life, material often overlooked in basic history books, fleshing out her incredible path and how she accomplished much of her amazing work, often guided by god/voices. But, with an almost Walken-esque Dead Zone ability to see the future, the blur between supernatural and natural becomes a bit trying, sort of a one trick pony. And, despite the cast’s strong list of assets, thinking powerhouses Erivo, Janelle Monáe, and Leslie Odom Jr. on vocals, it’s only Erivo who gets the nod to sing throughout the film, a seemingly un-capitalized potential rings throughout. Furthermore, the film’s score also manages to run flat by the end of this two hour and five minute tour, bummer. Perhaps worthy of a watch at home, and could have made an interesting mini series, this story and production still needs a bit of re-working overall. Harriet is rated PG-13.

It’s been over thirty years since Sarah Conor (Linda Hamilton) originally disrupted Skynet, a computer system destined to destroy life on earth. Now, driven by the loss of her son, destroying every terminator threat on earth is her mission. So, when a new breed of future cyborg soldier (Mackenzie Davis) appears to protect a human (Natalia Reyes), Sarah’s radar is on high alert, but who is the new liquid robotic threat (Gabriel Luna)? Directed by Tim Miller and Written by James Cameron assisted by a team of writers, this resetting of the Terminator franchise sits closely to the first two Terminator installations, i.e. before things went too far off the rails. To that end, it’s hard to fault the film for delivering the goods exactly as expected in action and character development, no surprises there. But, what is apparent and unusual from the get go is the director’s clear choice to shoot the film at a higher frame rate than what audiences may be accustomed to, ultimately creating the “soap opera effect,” think The Hobbit, or Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk– a chancy move to say the least; although, two minutes in and that distraction is replaced by a few questionable CGI renderings of robots. But, past some of the initial visual nuttiness, fans of the franchise and James Cameron’s original vision will definitely find enough to feast on this go round. Solid action, a splash of humor, putting the women up front strong while letting Arnold Schwarzenegger do his thing, the boxes are checked. Terminator: Dark Fate is rated R.