MacGyver was a TV series about a character who was famous for using his scientific knowledge to use everyday household items in order to survive in a variety of life-and-death situations. The Martian is an outer space adventure in which a stranded astronaut, with an uncanny knack for improvisation, uses a similar approach to survive on Mars.

The picture stars Matt Damon as Mark Watney, a wounded botanist who was mistakenly presumed dead and left behind by his fellow crew members in the wake of a dangerous dust storm on Mars. However, he is actually very much alive, but doesn’t have enough oxygen, water, food, equipment, and other resources necessary to last the four years it will take for NASA to rescue him.

Undaunted, resourceful Mark proceeds, among many other things, to perform surgery on himself and grow potatoes in a makeshift garden that is fertilized using his own waste products. And, like an intergalactic variation on Tom Hanks’s role in Cast Away, Matt Damon appears alone on the screen for most of the movie.

The great news is that Damon is captivating, and the 141 minutes running time flies by in a flash. Besides captivating us with his ingenious inventions, Matt repeatedly makes us laugh with his many humorous asides.

Directed by three-time Oscar-nominee Ridley Scott (Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down), The Martian has all the tension of the movie Gravity. In addition, its visual effects are the equal of Interstellar.

Excellent (****). Rated  PG-13 for profanity, injury images, and brief profanity. Running time: 141 minutes. Distributor: 20th Century Fox.

Malala Yousafzai was named after a girl who spoke out and was killed for doing it. The folk hero was a teenager who perished in 1880 while rallying fellow Pashtun resistance fighters to a victory over British invaders in a pivotal battle of the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

After choosing this significant name for his daughter, Malala’s father inscribed it into his family tree which was unusual because, until then,  no females had been mentioned in his genealogy that stretches back several centuries. Furthermore, her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, resolved to raise his daughter in such a way that she would see herself as the equal of any boy.

While such an approach might be unremarkable in the West, it was heretical in the Swat District of Pakistan, which was a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism in the late 20th century. During Malala’s formative years much of the country was terrorized by the Taliban, which was blowing up any schools that admitted girls.

In defiance of their mullah’s absolute mandate against education for females, Mr. Yousafzai not only allowed his daughter to matriculate, but also spurred her to speak out online as an equal rights advocate blogger. This only infuriated Mullah Fazlullah who issued a fatwa (religious decree) against her over the radio. This led to an assassination attempt on her by one of the mullah’s followers as she was riding on a school bus.

Fortunately, Malala, who was just 15 at the time, managed to survive the bullet wound to her brain. As she lay in the hospital, her parents had no idea whether their daughter would ever even be able to walk or talk again.

She did eventually emerge from the coma, although she was deaf in one ear and needed months and months of rehabilitation. Initially, she blamed her father for her plight, since he was the one who had encouraged her activist streak. “I am a child,” she said, “You are my father. You should have stopped me. What happened to me is because of you.”

Eventually her health was substantially restored, and she became a stoic and serene symbol of resistance to radical Islam. With continued death threats hanging over their heads, the Yousafzai family (including Malalal’s mother and two younger brothers) resettled in England where she would become a champion of oppressed females everywhere.

Directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim.(An Inconvenient Truth), He Named Me Malala is an engaging biopic that describes the close father-daughter relationship which enabled Malala to flourish in the midst of intolerance. Their tender interplay is enhanced by animated interludes which further intensify the sincere sentiments that are displayed on screen.

The picture shows Malala’s emergence as an international icon, that culminates with her becoming the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The movie is a powerful portrait that illustrates the indomitability of the human spirit and is easily the best film of 2015 thus far!

Excellent (****). Rated  PG-13 for death threats, mature themes, and disturbing images. Running time: 87 minutes. Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures. He Named Me Malala opened in select theaters on October 2nd and will be shown in over 2,000 theaters starting October 9th.

On March 11, 2005, Brian Nichols (David Oyelowo) was being escorted from jail to the Fulton county courthouse where he was scheduled to go on trial for assault, kidnapping, and rape. At the courthouse, however, he overpowered a sheriff’s deputy (Diva Tyler), took her gun, and embarked on a bloody killing spree in which he killed the judge, a court reporter, a police sergeant, and a federal agent.

Nichols then hijacked several vehicles and went from Atlanta, Georgia to its suburb Duluth. There, he accosted Ashley Smith (Kate Mara) on the street and, at gunpoint, forced her to take him home with her.

Once in the apartment, Ashley smashed her head against the wall in frustration even though she was doing her best to comply with Brian’s demands. She was well aware that he was armed, extremely dangerous, and was the subject of the biggest manhunt in Georgia history. Ashley, who was a single mother, didn’t want to do anything stupid that might jeopardize her chances of ever seeing her daughter Paige (Elle Graham) again, especially since, as a recovering meth addict, she had already been forced to surrender custody of her daughter to an Aunt (Mimi Rogers).

Meanwhile, the police were closing in. Since Brian had left his cell phone on, they were able to narrow his location to within a three-mile radius of the cell tower that was sending out his signal. They even spoke to him and suggested that he give himself up, which he refused to do.

A seven hour ordeal ensued during which Ashley and Brian not only bonded, but also experienced a life transforming catharsis. Thanks to Ashley’s Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, she had a copy at home of The Purpose-Driven Life, the inspirational bestseller by Pastor Rick Warren.

In response to Brian’s admission that “I’ve got a demon in me,” Ashley asked him if she could share some of the insights that were in the popular self-help guide such as: “The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose,” and, “When life has meaning, you can bear almost anything.”

Warren’s inspirational messages resonated with Brian and he surrendered soon afterwards. Thus unfolds Captive, a tale of redemption directed by Jerry Jameson.

The movie is a riveting psychological thriller about a nationally publicized standoff that is told from the perspective of two troubled souls who were barricaded in a home surrounded by a SWAT team.

Very Good (***). Rated PG-13 for mature themes involving violence and substance abuse. Running time: 97 minutes. Distributor: Paramount Pictures.

IT’S A MIRACLE — HE’S STILL ALIVE: After the first responders could not find a pulse, they declared Pastor Piper (Hayden Christensen) as dead and left the scene after calling for a crew to deal with the disposal of the body and the wreckage. An hour or so later, a passing minister stopped to pray for the dead occupant, and to his surprise found that the Pastor was alive. Firemen were immediately summoned and, using the jaws of life, he was extracted from the wreckage and rushed to a hospital where he subsequently recovered.

Traveling Pastor Don Piper was thinking about having his own congregation on his way home from a Christian convention when fate intervened. His car was crushed so badly by a tractor trailer that he was declared dead on the spot by first responders who couldn’t find a pulse.

Since there was no hurry to extract him from the twisted wreckage, he was still lying there over an hour later when a minister (Michael Harding), who was passing by the accident scene, decided to stop and pray for the repose of his soul. But upon approaching the auto, instead of a corpse, he found the supposedly deceased pastor to be very much alive.

In fact, despite his considerable loss of blood, Pastor Piper was faintly singing a Gospel spiritual. A rescue team with the jaws of life was immediately summoned and he was soon extracted and rushed to the hospital.

Although he fought to survive for the sake of his wife (Kate Bosworth) and their three children (Hudson Meek, Bobby Batson, and  Elizabeth Hunter), Don was actually undecided about whether he wanted to live or die. It seems that during his near-death experience on the side of the road, he’d briefly entered heaven.

There, he not only experienced an unparalleled feeling of unending bliss, but also had reunions with a number of dead loved ones, including his great-grandmother (Sallye McDougald Hooks) and two childhood friends (Matthew Bauman and Trevor Allen Martin). By comparison, being back on Earth was relatively painful, given the 34 operations he needed to undergo over the next several months to fix torn muscles, disfigurement, broken bones, and shattered disks.

Thanks to the power of prayer, Pastor Piper ultimately recovered. But rather than open his own church, he wrote a memoir that became a bestseller that describes his entrance into Heaven as well as his subsequent resurrection. Directed by Michael Polish (The Astronaut Farmer) 90 Minutes in Heaven is a modern parable even though the title gives away the ending.

Very Good (***). Rated PG-13 for an intense car accident and graphic images. Running time: 121 minutes. Studio: Giving Films. Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films.

LET’S GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE WE GET KILLED: The Dwyer family led by Jack (Owen Wilson, left) who is holding his daughter Lucy (Sterling Jerins) and his wife Annie (Lake Bell), who is carrying Beeze (Claire Geare) flee to the roof of their hotel as the beginning of their perilous flight to a safe sanctuary at the American embassy. (Photo by Roland Neveu- © 2015 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved)

After the company he works for files for bankruptcy, Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) accepts a position overseas with Cardiff, a transnational water bottling corporation. Dwyer regrets that his new job will uproot his wife, Annie (Lake Bell), and their young daughters, Beeze (Claire Geare) and Lucy (Sterling Jerins). During the long flight to Southeast Asia, we find the girls fretting about whether they’ll like their new home and if their dad’s new company will go bankrupt.

Luckily, Beeze strikes up a conversation with a fellow passenger (Pierce Brosnan) about his assortment of curious face and body scars. Fortunately for them, the mysterious stranger, Mr. Hammond, happens to be quite familiar with the family’s destination point.

Upon landing at the airport, he helps them avoid the shady street hustlers lurking around the terminal. Instead, he directs them to an honest cabbie (Sahajak Boonthanakit) who takes them to what they expect to be comfortable accommodations.

However, shock sets in when the Dwyers’ check into the Imperial Lotus hotel where nothing in their suite seems to work: their cell phones, the land line, the TV, not even the lights. Still, those inconveniences pale in comparison to the threat to their very existence as a result of the coup d’etat in which the country’s prime minister (Vuthichard Photphurin) is assassinated.

In the wake of the murder, gangs of rebels start roaming around the country looking for Westerners whom they lynch on the spot. To the Dwyer family’s horror, the marauders are going door-to-door right inside their hotel.

As a stranger in a strange land with no links to the outside world, Jack realizes that he has to rely on his wits to save his family.

He decides to seek sanctuary at the American embassy, which is easier said than done because the streets are crawling with Yankee-hating insurgents. Nonetheless, with the gangs closing in, he leads Annie and the girls to the roof of their building to begin their perilous journey to the embassy.

Directed by John Erik Dowdle (As Above, So Below), No Escape is a high-octane action thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat because of the Dwyers’ close brushes with death at every turn. There are convincing performances from Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, Claire Geare, and Sterling Jerins as the terrified family, along with Pierce Brosnan.

Excellent (****). Rated R for profanity, graphic violence, and rape. Running time: 101 minutes. Distributor: The Weinstein Company.

IT DOESN’T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS: As they stretch out on the hood of their car, Mike (Jesse Eisenberg, left) and his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart) enjoy an evening under the stars. The pair are content to get together and get high after work each day. However, their easy-going life is about to be turned upside down when assassins try to kill Mike. (Photo © 2015 – Lionsgate)

When you meet him, Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) appears to be a prototypical slacker with not much of a future. The small town stoner is content to fritter away his life behind the counter of the local convenience store as long as he can go home every day and get high with his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart).

It’s hard to figure out why she puts up with this loser who has no ambition and has a crippling fear of flying that prevents him from travelling very far from Lymon, West Virginia. After all, Phoebe is attractive and has a decent career as a bail bondsman. Nevertheless, she sticks with him, even after he has a panic attack in the airport and aborts their plans for a perfect Hawaiian getaway. Mike was as upset as Phoebe when he failed to board the plane, because he had purchased a diamond ring and was going to pop the question during their vacation.

Phoebe has no idea that her beau is a sleeper agent who has been trained to be a deadly assassin by a U.S. government spy agency. Mike is also unaware of it too, since a part of his brain was turned off when the program was put in mothballs.

However, the couple is in for the shock of their lives soon after Adrian Yates (Topher Grace) decides to have Mike put to death. The callous bureaucrat dispatches killers to Lymon to prevent the remote chance that the dormant asset might somehow be activated and go rogue.

Mike surprises himself when the hit men arrive to kill him. He unexpectedly displays an array of prodigious fighting and survival skills that have been implanted deep in his subconscious and almost effortlessly slays his attackers. Yates nevertheless remains determined to complete the mission, gradually upping the ante as Mike manages to vanquish each escalating wave of adversaries.

Thus unfolds American Ultra, an entertaining action comedy directed by Nima Nourizadeh (Project X). This novel adventure alternates effortlessly between lighthearted and graphic scenes.

The movie also generates a palpable chemistry between Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, which ensures that we care about their fate when the plot thickens. Alternately sophisticated and silly, but ever unpredictable thanks to a few cleverly concealed twists, American Ultra is a delightful summer sleeper that is not to be missed.

Excellent (****). Rated R for graphic violence, pervasive profanity, ethnic slurs, drug use, and some sexuality. Running time: 96 minutes. Distributor: Lionsgate Films.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a popular television series which enjoyed a four-year run on NBC from 1964 to 1968. Trading on the success of the James Bond film franchise, the show featured another dashing character created by Ian Fleming, author of the 007 novels.

This movie adaptation stars Henry Cavill in the title role as Napoleon Solo, a suave sophisticated spy employed by U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement), a top secret, international espionage agency. While the TV Solo was a college graduate and honorably-discharged Korean War veteran, the movie’s Napoleon Solo is a convicted art thief who reluctantly agrees to work for the CIA in return for a reduced prison sentence.

The picture is directed by Guy Ritchie who is known for action adventures like Snatch (2000) and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). The movie co-stars Armie Hammer as Solo’s partner, KGB agent Ilya Kuryakin. However, where the original Ilya was a mild-mannered sleuth, in  the film he’s a hot head who loses his temper at the drop of a hat.

The movie unfolds in East Berlin in 1963, where we find Solo and Kuryakin initially squaring off as adversaries. The former has been dispatched behind the Iron Curtain to recruit Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander), the daughter of a missing nuclear scientist who may have fallen into the clutches of a crime syndicate seeking to acquire the bomb. After Ilya, supposedly a KGB agent, helps Solo in the recruitment of Gaby, he is introduced to Napoleon as his new partner.

Soon, together with Gaby, they’re embroiled in a race against time to foil a plot hatched by Victoria Vinciguerra (Elizabeth Debicki), the brains behind an Italian terrorist organization that was suspected of kidnapping Gaby’s father. Unfortunately, the deliberately paced cat-and-mouse caper which ensues is too low-key to generate much edge-of-the-seat tension.

Good (**). Rated PG-13 for violence, suggestive material, and partial nudity. In English, German, Russian, and Italian with subtitles. Running time: 116 minutes. Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures.

Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. were among the most brilliant and articulate minds in America of their generation. The pair were also political polar opposites which made the idea of hiring them to appear in a series of televised debates a stroke of genius.

This was ABC-TV’s idea in 1968, at a time when the network’s news department shows lagged far behind CBS and NBC in the ratings. They planned to have the liberal Vidal and conservative Buckley square-off during ABC’s coverage of the Democratic and Republican national conventions that were taking place that summer in Chicago and Miami Beach, respectively.

Arranging the showdown proved to be easier said than done, since the men not only hated each other politically, but personally as well. Buckley saw himself as the defender of the status quo in the face of the 60s counter-cultural revolution that was demanding equal rights for blacks, gays, women, and other oppressed groups.

As expected, sparks flew during the spirited exchanges marked as much by Buckley’s arcane syntax as by firebrand Vidal’s iconoclastic comments. However, because neither participant wanted to lose, what began as sophisticated intellectual analysis degenerated into an exchange of insults.

When Vidal referred to Buckley as a “crypto-Nazi,” he lost his composure and called Vidal a “queer.” A defamation lawsuit and counter-suit ensued, and the litigation dragged on for years.

Co-directed by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville, Best of Enemies is a fascinating documentary which revisits a seminal moment in the history of television. The Vidal-Buckley arguments over topics that ranged from religion to sexuality served to usher in a new era of discourse in the public media.

Besides archival footage of the debates, the conventions, and the anti-war demonstrations that were raging outside the conventions, the film features commentary by luminaries Frank Rich, John McWhorter, and the late Christopher Hitchens.

Excellent (****). Rated  R for sexuality, nudity, and profanity. Running time: 88 minutes. Distributor: Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing.

Marvel Comics first brought the Fantastic Four to the big screen a decade ago and followed it up with a sequel a few years later. Since neither generated much in the way of audience enthusiasm, 20th Century Fox has decided to relaunch the series instead of releasing a third installment.

The movie was directed by Josh Trank, who was chosen on the strength of his impressive debut with the science fiction thriller Chronicle. The movie stars Michael B. Jordan and Kate Mara as the siblings Johnny and Sue Storm, and Jamie Bell and Miles Teller as their childhood friends Ben Grimm and Reed Richards.

Fantastic Four opens by developing a humanizing back story about each member of the title quartet and describing the freak accident that gave them their superpowers. The movie then begins its march to the exciting finale that features a spectacular special effects battle. The point of departure is Oyster Bay, New York in 2007, which is where we find Reed informing his skeptical 5th grade teacher of his plans to teleport himself some day.

By the time he’s a senior in high school, Reed has built a prototype with the help of Ben. And even though his Cymatic Matter Shuttle is disqualified from the science fair, the gifted youth is recruited by Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey), who is the director of the Baxter Foundation, a research institute for science and technology prodigies.

There, he’s befriended by Johnny and Sue. Along with Ben, the foursome eventually attempt an unsanctioned trip to another dimension through the Quantum Gate that was discovered by Dr. Storm’s protege, Victor (Toby Kebbell). However, something goes horribly wrong, and they inadvertently rip a hole in the time/space continuum.

The calamity enables Reed (aka Mr. Fantastic) to stretch and contort his body, Johnny to fly and shoot fireballs, Sue to be invisible and create force fields, and badly disfigured Ben (aka The Thing) to exhibit invincibility and extraordinary strength. However, Victor has developed telekinetic abilities and morphed into the diabolical Dr. Doom, a villain more powerful than any one of the Fantastic Four individually, but not the four of them collectively.

That leaves them little choice but to join forces in defense of the planet. The showdown that takes forever to arrive is riveting, although it’s almost an afterthought, since it serves as a setup for the obligatory sequel.

Very Good (**½). Rated PG-13 for action, violence, and profanity.

In English and Spanish with subtitles. Running time: 106 minutes. Distributor: 20th Century Fox.

Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) surmounted incredible odds on his way to becoming the World Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion. Since he’d been abandoned by his mother at birth, he’d had to overcome many obstacles on his way to success.

However, he was fortunate enough to meet Maureen (Rachel McAdams) in the orphanage in which they were growing up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. The two fell madly in love and she would serve as the rock who kept him out of trouble, especially after he’s had a couple of brief stints behind bars.

As Billy worked his way up through the boxing ranks, the childhood sweethearts married and had a daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence). Maureen repeatedly inspired her husband to climb into the ring to channel his aggression positively, rather than entertain any ideas of blowing off steam in a self-destructive fashion.

By the time his record reached 43-0, Billy and his family were living beyond their means in a gaudy house where they conspicuously displayed the trappings of their new found wealth: flashy cars, gaudy jewelry, champagne, and so forth. However, with his parasitic entourage and a shady money manager, Jordan Mains (50 Cent), it was clear that he’d have to keep on winning in order to maintain his extravagant lifestyle.

Sure enough, after a terrible personal tragedy, Billy lost the title belt and found himself broke and back on the streets he’d worked so hard to escape. Abandoned by his hangers-on and by his manager, he ends up at a gym in Harlem run by an irascible trainer Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker). The salty veteran, who is on the verge of retirement, reluctantly agrees to take on Billy on the condition that he would be willing to make some changes to his boxing skills.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film features another excellent performance by Jake Gyllenhaal who deserved Academy Award nominations for Nightcrawler (2014) and Prisoners (2013). In this movie he is nothing short of mesmerizing in his role as a desperate, disgraced champion on a mission to reclaim his title and his fortune.

Excellent (****) Rated R for violence and profanity. Running time: 123 minutes. Distributor: The Weinstein Company.