“Gunslinger.”

From The Dark Tower.

Jake (Tom Taylor) is having nightmares.  Not your normal shouldn’t-have-watched-that-horror-movie-last-night nightmares, but more of the terrifying visions of what’s coming to destroy the world brand of nightmares.  The nightmares often feature new horrors, but the constants in Jake’s dreams are the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), a sharpshooting Gunslinger (Idris Elba), and a Dark Tower that is the connector for everything and everyone.  Jake’s mom only wants to help her son, but when she unknowingly introduces him to the Man in Black’s minions, Jake takes off across New York City in search of real-world clues to prove that his visions are real.  After stumbling upon a portal to another world, Jake finds the Gunslinger and must then try to convince him to move past his loss and take on the Man in Black before earth is destroyed.  The Man in Black hears of Jake’s visions and realizes that he might have the magical abilities needed to finally conquer the worlds. If Jake can succeed in staying away from the M.I.B. and reminding the Gunslinger who he is, he will have to prepare himself for the fight that, if lost, will plunge our world and all other worlds, into complete darkness and evil.

This movie adaptation of Stephen King’s fantasy series, is not an exceptional movie experience, but it is very entertaining.  The characters are well cast; McConaughey plays a sophisticated bad guy that is easy to hate, while Elba plays a hero seeking redemption in a way that will the audience doesn’t mind giving him time to find his way, and Taylor does a solid job of portraying a will to fight the darkness that he never previously knew about.  The special effects are rich (and dark) which helps to easily carry the movie, when the character or place names might confuse viewers that have no experience with the books.  The movie has a foot in the fantasy world, but the other foot is firmly planted in the realistic world; while there may be a good outcome, it will not come with a “happy ending” for every character.  It is a story that would definitely be enjoyable to watch continued through sequels, but it also works well as a stand-alone movie.

| Rated: PG-13 | Running Time: 95 minutes |Genre: fantasy/action |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 3 of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 4 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|