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      ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ Review: Faith as Flight Insurance

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      A family receives impromptu flight lessons when their pilot dies in the middle of a chartered flight in this spiritually insincere action film.Doug White (Dennis Quaid) is a person whose happiness has grown from deep roots. He possesses a steady Christian faith. He has a warm and loving partnership with his wife, Terri (Heather Graham), and together, they are the proud parents of two teenage daughters. But when Doug’s beloved brother suddenly dies, Doug’s faith in a higher power is shaken. And his spiritual crisis is amplified when Doug charters a small plane to return from his brother’s funeral.The action-driven drama “On a Wing and a Prayer” is based on a true story of the ordeal that the White family faced when they entered the air in 2009. Their pilot suddenly died of a heart attack in the cockpit, leaving the severely inexperienced Doug to guide the plane to a safe landing. The movie follows Doug and his family as they work and pray to defy the odds stacked against their survival, with remote assistance from air traffic controller‌s and flight instructors.The director Sean McNamara includes plenty of computer-generated action, with the plane darting through storm clouds, and narrowly swerving away from the ground. The images portray a weightless crisis, and the film’s emotional narrative feels similarly insincere, with the balance of fate seeming to sway on the placement of a well-timed prayer. Doug and his family call upon their faith as a kind of invisible parachute, a deus ex machina that can always save them from harm. It’s a cynical view of faith, one which removes the mystery and terror from life’s unforeseen calamities, and instead frames survival as a matter of calling into the correct belief system.On a Wing and a PrayerRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime Video. More

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      Jeremy Renner Recounts Difficult Recovery After Snow Plow Accident

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      The actor told ABC News that he almost died after a 14,000-pound plow ran him over in January.The actor Jeremy Renner, who was severely injured on Jan. 1 when a heavy snow plow ran over him, said in a TV interview set to be broadcast on Thursday night that he had been trying to save his nephew when the truck hit him, breaking more than 30 bones.Mr. Renner, an Oscar-nominated actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Hawkeye in the Marvel Avengers movie and TV franchise, spoke publicly at length about his frightening experience and arduous recovery for the first time in an interview with ABC News, which will air at 10 p.m. Eastern time.“I’ve lost a lot of flesh and bone in this experience,” Mr. Renner told the journalist Diane Sawyer. “But I’ve been refueled and refilled with love and titanium.”In interview clips that were released in advance, Mr. Renner appeared to still be in shock over what had occurred to him and struggled to hold back tears at times as he recalled details after the accident, like the moment he told his family from the hospital in sign language, “I’m sorry.”As he lay in the hospital, Mr. Renner, who has since been released, said he would wonder: “What’s my body look like? Am I just going to be like a spine and a brain like a science experiment?” While in critical condition, Mr. Renner said, he wrote a goodbye note to his family on his phone.The network also posted clips before the broadcast that showed different phases of his recovery, including Mr. Renner in a wheelchair doing leg exercises. A video posted on Twitter shows him in recovery doing an exercise that helps him regain the strength to walk. Another video from Jan. 5 shows Mr. Renner in the hospital, his face swollen and bruised.On Jan. 1, Mr. Renner, 52, was using his snow plow, which weighs more than 14,000 pounds, to tow his car on a snowed-in private road near his home in Reno, Nev., the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said in a news conference. A family member had been driving the car and had gotten stuck.After they successfully towed the car, Mr. Renner got off the plow, which then began to roll, the sheriff’s office said. Mr. Renner had tried to get back into the plow’s driver’s seat to stop the rolling vehicle, but he was run over, the sheriff’s office said.In a brief clip of the ABC News interview, Mr. Renner said he would put himself through the experience again because the plow had been “going right at my nephew,” whose age he did not share.In a recording of the 911 call made that day, a man can be heard saying of Mr. Renner, “He’s been crushed.”In the background of that call, Mr. Renner can be heard moaning as the man who contacted 911 says, “There’s a lot of blood over here,” and tells Mr. Renner: “Keep breathing man, keep fighting. Hang in there, brother.”Mr. Renner revealed the extent of his injuries in the interview: dozens of broken bones, including eight ribs, his right knee and ankle and right shoulder; a collapsed lung; and a liver pierced by a rib bone.When asked in the interview if he sees the same face when looking in the mirror, Mr. Renner replied, “I see a lucky man.” More

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      ‘What If? Ehud Barak on War and Peace’ Review: An Israeli Leader’s History

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      Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak discusses his career in power in this lifeless, often confusing documentary.In “What If? Ehud Barak on War and Peace,” the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak comments on the key military and diplomatic events that took place from his early years as an army commander through his tenure as head of state, from 1999 to 2001. Directed by Ran Tal, this lifeless documentary plays like a cable-TV special slapped together from one long interview with Barak, then fattened up with archival footage and bottom-shelf explanatory graphics.Those unfamiliar with the general beats of the Israel-Palestine conflict beware: This doc assumes you are, and it skips back and forth in time with little explanation. Barak is the film’s only talking head, so his insights into specific events, often presented with minimal context, are the movie’s primary focus. For instance, the war that broke out around Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 is explained in terms of military strategy, with Barak recollecting conversations he had with leaders at the front lines during that time.Early on, Barak discusses his childhood years living in a kibbutz; his Zionist upbringing; and, toward the end, the 2000 Camp David Summit, where he tried and failed to negotiate a peace plan with Palestine.Barak is a divisive figure, tough on matters of national security and ultimately forced to resign from office after the Camp David talks led to the breakdown of his government. (Since then, Barak has held multiple government positions and has challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he has long criticized.)The latter part of the movie’s title is a reference to Tolstoy, who rejected the idea that exceptional individuals determine the outcomes of history and empathized with leaders who took action when confronted with impossible decisions. Sure. Though even if Barak’s scattered play-by-play reminds us of this truism, it fails to demystify the man and his legacy.What If? Ehud Barak on War and PeaceNot rated. In Hebrew, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. Rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      ‘Alan Pakula: Going for Truth’ Review: A Hollywood Memorial for a Friend

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      A heartfelt documentary about the director of such celebrated films as “All the President’s Men” has the feel of an A-list memorial service.“Alan Pakula: Going for Truth,” by the director Matthew Miele, is suffused with mourning. The documentary about the titular filmmaker opens with actors — Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Kline among them — recalling how news of his death affected them. In November 1998, Alan Pakula was driving on the Long Island Expressway when a metal pole crashed through his windshield. Piano notes sound beneath Harrison Ford’s especially affecting speechlessness.Even so, what comes as a surprise is how much this documentary honoring Pakula, the director of that dark triumvirate of 1970s films — “Klute,” “The Parallax View” and “All the President’s Men” — has the feel of a memorial service. A lovely one, a deserved one, but more a collection of beloveds gathered to share in who was lost than a rigorous reckoning with a filmmaker who had a sense of what bedeviled this country when he produced “To Kill a Mockingbird,” released in 1962, and whose insights had become even keener by the time he directed his “paranoia trilogy.”There are hints of depth. Robert Redford cites their shared sense of political paranoia. Jane Fonda (“Klute”) says that “he had an affinity for women.” Recollections from Streep (“Sophie’s Choice”), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Bonnie Bedelia echo that sense of Pakula’s empathy. (Clips from Liza Minnelli’s performance in “The Sterile Cuckoo” offer further support.)Pakula’s work with actors or the resurgent meaning of his trilogy could have been documentaries unto themselves. But the viewer might not have gotten an adjacent set of insights from his family, particularly Hannah Pakula, his second wife. Her tender, incisive regard creates an ache even as it offers solace.Alan Pakula: Going for TruthNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. Rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      ‘Ride On’ Review: Jackie Chan, Back on the Horse

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      Chan, playing a former stuntman, has a few good trademark fight scenes, but the film is too busy stuffing sentimental elements into its lowbrow comedy premise.One doesn’t necessarily expect much going into a slapstick stunt animal comedy, and yet even by these softened standards, the director Larry Yang’s “Ride On” cooks up an egregiously, almost comically bad movie. Starring Jackie Chan as Luo, a washed-up former stuntman who trains his horse, Red Hare, to become his partner, this film from China is a consistently awkward, over-the-top mess, attempting to infuse a cheaply written, sentimental father-daughter (and father-horse) story into its lowbrow laughs.After being out of work for years, Luo catches a lucky break that leads him back into the movie business, with Red Hare by his side. Yet, amid his newfound success, Luo finds himself in a legal battle over ownership of Red Hare, forcing him to go to his estranged daughter for help.As the two slowly reconcile their strained relationship, seemingly every other scene is populated by a new tear-jerker back story or moment of triumph, signaled by a maudlin score that relentlessly hammers away at the viewer. The film is so graceless and bizarre in its attempts at tugging at the viewer’s emotions that it often feels like a work of parody.Chan has a few trademark fight scenes, as a gang keeps chasing him down for money owed, though it’s clear that the 68-year-old actor naturally doesn’t bear the same kind of comic physicality he once did. In a way, one could see the film as both a potential tribute to his remarkable and decades-long career doing real, often dangerous stunt work and a consideration of his sunset years as a performer. But that hope is quickly buried underneath a cynical film that has nothing to offer by way of charisma, comedy or the like, outside of Chan’s name itself.Ride OnNot rated. In Chinese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Paint’ Review: Watch It Dry

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      Owen Wilson plays a Bob Ross-inspired painter in this dated, mildly amusing parody of male privilege.In “Paint,” an aging TV star with punchline hair and a storied libido lords it over his superfans, so wrapped in the cocoon of celebrity that he fails to recognize his rapidly waning significance.If that outline sounds uncomfortably familiar, then rest easy: “Paint” is not a political satire. What it is, exactly, is more difficult to pin down: A bland romantic comedy that feels strangely contemptuous of female desire; a portrait of a landscape artist that infrequently ventures outdoors; a dispiriting merger of small-town mind-set and giant-sized delusion.“They all fall for Carl,” one woman marvels, though why they do is one of this movie’s enduring mysteries. She’s referring to Carl Nargle (a perpetually mellow Owen Wilson), Vermont’s premier public-television painter. Even leaving aside his embroidered-denim outfits and a ’do that looks like an explosion in a couch-stuffing factory, Carl is no prize. His personality has all the depth of a blank canvas, his voice is an A.S.M.R. purr and his paintings — endless variations on a local peak and its environs — garage-sale relics.Yet Carl, from flooffy head to bell-bottom hems, is the epitome of soft power and hardened ego. When his show is on the air, his audience — revealed in a repeated sequence of lazily uninspired shots — is invariably agog. A roomful of rapt retirees; two mesmerized men at a bar; a line of breathless female colleagues in cottage-core knitwear. So sexually starved are these women that they will do almost anything for a bounce on the sofa bed in the back of Carl’s customized van. One, a professed vegan, even allows Carl to feed her lamb larded in cheese fondue, with predictably unpalatable results.Written and directed by Brit McAdams, “Paint” is a comedically inert parody of male privilege that’s all sight gags and very little substance. Wrapped in a fuzzy blanket of easy-listening oldies — John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Gordon Lightfoot — the screenplay asks us to believe that Carl is so out of touch he has no idea what an Uber is or how to use his cellphone. And that the warm, talented woman he loved and left (Michaela Watkins) has hung around for two decades hoping for a second chance to rinse his brushes.As a result, “Paint” feels not just dated, but oddly sad. Inspired by the popular public-television host Bob Ross (who died in 1995), the movie seems caught in a time warp, its attitudes as antiquated as Carl’s wardrobe. Only the estimable Stephen Root, playing Carl’s station chief, and the vivacious Broadway performer Ciara Renée as Ambrosia, Carl’s younger, more talented rival, manage to nudge scenes from a saunter to a brisk walk. When Ambrosia, with her cheeky paintings of hovering spaceships and bleeding rocks, makes moves on Carl’s time slot and even his true love, I lamented his — and the movie’s — lack of a sharper edge and more lacerating tongue. He should have been furious; yet, like the film’s unconvincing flashbacks to his much younger self, he looks essentially unchanged.PaintRated PG-13 for a bit of toking and dirty joking. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Praise This’ Review: An Unlikely Savior

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      The R&B singer-songwriter Chloe Bailey stars in this musical comedy about an aspiring pop singer who lands in a scrappy competitive gospel group.For an aspiring pop star from L.A., heading to the South to sing about Jesus might feel like a detour. But that’s where Sam, played by the R&B singer Chloe Bailey, finds herself to at the start of the musical comedy “Praise This.” After the death of her mother and a struggle to set herself straight, Sam is sent to Atlanta to stay with her aunt, her uncle and her peppy, God-loving cousin, Jess (Anjelika Washington).Jess introduces Sam to her praise team, a scrappy competitive gospel group run out of a local, ramshackle church. When Sam and Jess are caught at a party, Sam is forced to join the group, a punishment that, no great surprise, allows her to open herself up to a new life, and to God’s grace. As Sam reluctantly leads her team through a national gospel singing competition, the film, directed by Tina Gordon, takes the “Pitch Perfect” template — an underdog singing group beating the odds — and gives it a modern Black gospel twist.Some of this can be lightly charming and funny — particularly the chemistry Bailey has with Washington, the funniest and most charismatic star of this show. But things get cringe-worthy as the movie leans on the narrative gimmick that Sam has a God-given ability to turn any trap banger into a gospel tune, eventually leading her to the recording booth of Ty (Quavo), a famous rapper she partners with.From this point on, the film reads like a faux-hip youth pastor in movie form, only instead of an acoustic guitar, it’s an 808 drum machine luring the kids toward God.Praise ThisNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. Watch on Peacock. More

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      ‘Chupa’ Review: A Terrifying Myth Made Cuddly

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      On a trip to his grandfather’s ranch in Mexico, a boy makes an astonishing discovery that turns into a family adventure.Alex is an outcast at his school in Kansas City — for the picadillo he brings for lunch (“It’s just hamburger meat,” he tells one bully), for the video games he plays, and for apparently being the only Mexican kid in the lunchroom.At home, Alex (Evan Whitten) reacts by rejecting Mexican cuisine and refusing to learn Spanish. When his mother reminds him that he is heading to Mexico to visit his grandfather over spring break, he groans. But the trip surprises him, in no small part because of the adorable mythical creature, a baby chupacabra, he encounters in his grandfather’s barn.Inspired by the Latin American legend of the bloodsucking creature, “Chupa,” directed by Jonás Cuarón, makes a family adventure out of a traditionally horrifying subject. Set in the late 1990s, the film follows Alex, his grandfather Chava (Demián Bichir), a former lucha libre champion, and his cousins Memo (Nickolas Verdugo) and Luna (Ashley Ciarra) as they try to protect Chupa from capture by an American scientist, Richard Quinn (Christian Slater). All the while, Alex learns to accept and embrace his roots.Though the characters are charming and well-defined, it’s hard to become invested in their story lines because their relationships are not given enough time to develop. The stakes do not feel high enough, with Quinn seeming more like a cartoon villain than a true menace (it’s not clear what exactly he plans to do with Chupa). And though the concept is promising, and some moments are tender, one wishes the film had delved deeper into the chupacabra myth and the characters’ stories to make for a more satisfying watch.ChupaRated PG. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More