Rating system: (4=Don't miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)

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Eat Pray Love (PG-13) (3) [Appeal for brief strong language, some sexual references, and male rear nudity.] [DVD and VOD only] After divorcing her husband (Billy Crudup) and breaking up with her actor boyfriend (James Franco) to the concern of her agent (Viola Davis) and best friend in this engaging, factually inspired, romantic chick flick, which is based on Liz Gilberts bestselling memoir and filled with gorgeous scenery, a discontented and unhappy New York City travel writer (Julia Roberts) seeks balance and a new zest for life by indulging in fabulous food and making new friends (Welker White, Silvano Rossi, Giuseppe Gandini, et al.) in Italy, by seeking spiritual enlightenment and inner peace at an ashram in India with the help of a guilt-ridden divorced man (Richard Jenkins), and by opening herself up to love in Bali when she meets a sensitive, caring Brazilian import/export businessman (Javier Bardem).

The Expendables (R) (2.5) [Strong action and bloody violence throughout, and some language.] [DVD and VOD only] Nonstop action and explosions dominate this fast-paced, bullet-riddled, violent, star-dotted (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, and Dolph Lundgren) film in which a motley group of hired mercenaries (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, and Terry Crews) head to a South American island to assassinate a greedy rogue CIA agent (Eric Roberts), his right-hand man (Steve Austin), and a puppet leader (David Zayas) whose artistic daughter (Giselle Iti) has risked her life to help the Americans and her country.

The Girl in the Caf (NR) (3.5) [DVD and VOD only] A delightful charming, captivating, and touching 2005 film in which a reserved, regimented, lonely, workaholic British civil servant (Bill Nighy) finds his personal and professional life turned upside down when he meets a mysterious, shy woman (Kelly Macdonald) at a caf and then invites her to join him in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he is attending the annual G8 summit with his boss (Ken Stott) and coworkers.

Grinder (NR) (1.5) [Available on various VOD platforms.] While a gay, nave, 16-year-old model (Tyler Austin) escapes his abusive, drunk, unemployed father after he smears lipstick all over his face and ends up in the apartment of an abusive, manipulative, pedophile modeling agency owner (Jon Fleming) who also produces a porn magazine in New York City in Brandon Ruckdashels dark, gritty, clich, poorly-acted, predictable, 82-minute, 2016 film, a jogging-loving photographer (Brandon Rucksdashel) living on the down low neglects his unsuspecting fiance (Sarah Lazar) and hooks with random men (Joshua Dye, et al) even as he tries to convince himself that he is straight.

The Ice Road (PG-13) (2) [Strong language and sequences of action and violence.] [Netflix Only] After 26 Canadian miners (Holt McCallany, Martin Sensmeier, Ray McKinnon, et al.) become trapped in a diamond mine in northern Manitoba due to a methane explosion and their available air supply is rapidly depleting in Jonathan Hensleighs disappointing, lackluster, violent, predictable, star-studded (Matt Salinger, Matt McCoy, and Benjamin Walker), 108-minute thriller loosely inspired by the long-running, factually based television series Ice Road Truckers, four brave truckers (Liam Neeson, Laurence Fishburne, Marcus Thomas, and Amber Midthunder) encounter unscrupulous, money-hungry people when they take on an extremely dangerous, time-sensitive rescue mission by driving over melting ice roads in an attempt to deliver life-saving, 25-ton wellshead equipment to the mine.

Osso Bucco (NR) (2) [DVD only] A wacky, silly 2008 comedy about two feuding Chicago detectives (Aaron Roman Weiner and Antoine McKay) who are trapped in an Italian restaurant during a blinding snow storm with two Mafia gangsters (Mike Starr and Christian Stolte), a fesity waitress (Illeana Douglas), a passionate Italian chef (Perry Anzilotti), a Mexican waiter (Eddie Martinez), and a cheating host (Michael Gilio).

Racially Charged: Americas Misdemeanor Problem (NR) (4) [Available on Vimeo and YouTube.] Mahershala Ali narrates Robert Greenwalds powerful, educational, eye-opening, poignant, ire-inducing, 35-minute, 2020 documentary, which was inspired by Harvard law professor Alexandra Natapoffs Punishment without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal book, that examines the unfair, disturbing, racist judicial system in which more than 13 million Blacks and Hispanics are charged annually with misdemeanors such as jaywalking, broken car taillight, and driving with a suspended license that negatively impact many areas, including employment and housing, and consists of archival photographs, historical film clips, and insightful commentary by people (such as Michael Brown, Eddie Gray, Faylita Hicks, Chris Lollie, Fernando Martinez, Demario Davis, Michael Robinson, and Bradley Haggard) who were unjustly arrested for a misdemeanor and professors Alexandra Natapoff, Paul Delano Butler, Irene Oritseweyinmi Joe, Douglas A. Blackmon, Gaye Theresa Johnson, andKhalil Gibran Muhammad.

Silat Warriors: Deed of Death (NR) (2.5) [Subtitled] [Available July 6 on Blu-ray and DVD and June 4 on Hi-YAH! on http://www.hiyatv.com.] After an immature, thoughtless, and reckless gambling addict (Fad Anuar) loses the deed to his familys home during illegal fights and drag racing in Areel Abu Bakars award-winning, action-packed, violent, well-choreographed, evenly-paced, low-budget,102-minute, 2019 film, his martial-arts teacher father (Namron), sister (Feiyna Tajudin), and brother (Khoharullah Majid) join forces as a spiritual, close-knit, silat-skilled family to fight to save their Malaysian property when a ruthless loan shark (Faizal Hussein) and his gang members give them one week to pay off the debt.

The Tomorrow War (PG-13) (3) [Intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, language, and some suggestive references.] [Available July 2 on Amazon Prime Video.] When time travelers (Jasmine Mathews, et al.) from 2051 show up in 2022 to get help to defeat menacing, hungry aliens that threaten mankind in Chris McKays convoluted, action-packed, fast-paced, bullet-riddled, violent, star-dotted (J. K. Simmons, Gary Weeks, Felisha Terrell, Seychelle Gabriel, and Kiley Casciano), 140-minute sci-fi thriller, a Florida science high school teacher (Chris Pratt), who has a wife (Betty Gilpin) and young daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), along with other civilians (Sam Richardson, Edwin Hodge, Keith Powers, Theo Von, Mike Mitchell, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Chibuikem Uche, et al.) are drafted and transported into the future in a last-ditch effort to defeat the aliens while a dedicated, tenacious scientist (Yvonne Strahovski) desperately tries to determine a way to kill the aliens through a biological serum.

Wendy Schadewald is a Burnsville resident.

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Short Redhead Reel Reviews for the week of July 9 - ECM Publishers