I’m not sure who the intended audience is for this new live-action version of the popular 1980s cartoon series based on, or, more accurately, intended to sell a group of Mattel action figures. I don’t think the filmmakers were sure who it was intended for, either. That is both the strength and the weakness of this big-budget adaptation from director Travis Knight, founder of LAIKA’s stop-motion animation studio and director of another toy-based live-action movie, 2018’s “Bumblebee,” about the most endearing of the Transformer, cars-into-robots characters.

The cartoon series was for children. This “Masters of the Universe” is rated PG-13 for action, peril, and violence, has a lot of air quotes and callbacks for the fans, and a surprising number of lightweight but unmistakable suggestive references. This indicates that the intended audience is the people who were children in the 80’s, like the woman in my row who brought her He-Man action figures to the theater and set them up on the balcony railing so they could watch the film. This is the group that yelped with pleasure when Dolph Lundgren, who played He-Man in a 1987, shows up to give the He-Man of this movie some advice, and applauded when Orko shows up at the end to explain what we learned from the story. It is also well over two hours, another reason this is less likely to appeal to children.

This is a story about a super-strong guy with huge, oiled muscles named He-Man and there’s a lot of “be a man” talk, meaning be tough, aggressive, fearless, and impervious to pain. But it also tries to deliver a message that it is fine to be sensitive, maybe as long as you have big muscles and skill with a sword.

But there are also elements of the story that are intended to bring in a new generation of young fans. When it starts to get too intense or scary, there is often a joke, sometimes a very silly one, sometimes more ironic, to break the tension. And after all, the story a very basic fairy tale (drawn from a hodge-podge of myths, legends, and fairy tales), with elements that have appealed to children for as long as there have been stories.

Those elements include the small child who fears he will not live up to the expectations of his father and community who is nevertheless the “chosen” one, signified by his being given the magical sword, physical transformation into an exaggerated, gendered, version of the character, and confrontation with a seemingly all-powerful antagonist.

We hear the story of Adam (played as a 10-year-old by Artie Wilkinson-Hunt), a prince of an idyllic planet called Eternia, known as “the heart of the universe.” His parents are King Randor (a regal James Purefoy) and Queen Marlena (Charlotte Riley). We see him being trained by super-soldier Duncan (Idris Elba). Well, Duncan is trying to train him. Adam is smaller, weaker, and less coordinated than the other young students, including Duncan’s daughter, Teela (Eire Farrell), who is a foot taller than he is, very good at fighting, and his closest friend. The King challenges Adam to a sword fight, and when Adam fails, the King does not hide his disappointment. (It turns out that the long voice-over is Adam telling a date his life story, which prompts her to walk out of the restaurant. This is just one example of trying to have it both ways, putting air quotes about the IP.)

Adam is still 10 years olf when the evil, skull-headed Skeletor (Jared Leto) arrives with his army of attackers and they take over Eternia, apparently killing Duncan and the king and queen. Adam escapes with the magical sword and we then see him ten years later, living in Oklahoma with a slacker roommate who does nothing but watch “The Notebook.” Adam (a buffed-up Nicholas Galitzine) is a middle manager working in human resources, drawing pictures of the characters he remembers, sometimes imperfectly, from Eternia, and obsessively doing internet searches for the sword.

One of those searches is successful, and he retrieves the sword just as Skeltor’s minions arrive to grab it, followed by now grown-up Teela, who gets Adam and the sword and “folds space” to get back to Eternia in just a few minutes. As the ensuing adventures and battles and discoveries and imprisonments and discoveries that characters thought to have been killed are still alive go on, Adam figures out the secret of he sword (you have to say, “By the power of Greyskull! I have the power!”) and becomes the Herculean body, loincloth-wearing, super-strong hero he thought he could never be.

As noted, the unevenness of the film’s tone is a strength in that it keeps things pleasantly surprising, but it is also a weakness because it keeps things confusing. It’s about half an hour too long, with some distracting choices, like an extended sequence with fantasy flashbacks combining Adam’s life in Oklahoma with characters from Eternia.

What does work well in the movie are the performances. Galitzine an exceptionally versitile up-and-coming actor (“Bottoms,” “The Sheep Detectives,” and “Red, White, and Royal Blue”) and here he is game and appealing. The stand-outs, perhaps because of the muddled messages about masculinity, are the women: Mendes as Teela, Sasheer Zamata as Adam’s jargon-loving, confrontation-hating Oklahoma boss in HR, Kristin Wiig as a robot, and Alison Brie having a blast as Skeletor’s enchantress sidekick, Evil-Lynn (names are not very creative in this universe). The production design is also very good, with some exceptionally imaginative details and flourishes in the characters and settings. As one might expect, the fight scenes are dynamic and exciting. It’s more likely to please the former 8 years olds who still have their action figures than newcomers of any age.

NOTE: Stay through the credits for extra scenes.

Parents should know that this film has extended and sometimes graphic violence, with swords, magic, explosives, crotch hit, and gun-like machines. Many characters are injured and killed, including a sad death of a parent. Characters use some strong language and there are several suggestive remarks and double entendres.

Family discussion: What do you think of Adam’s attempt to use his HR skills in Eternia? How are different ideas about what it means to be a man shown in this story?

If you like this, try: the animated series

The big summer movies are coming! We’ve got big new movies from some of the most creative directors in Hollywood. Christopher Nolan takes one one of the oldest epics in the Western canon, The Odyssey. And Steven Spielberg brings us back to the world of extra-terrestrials (possibly not as friendly as the ones in”E.T.” or “Close Encounters of the Third Kind“) in “Disclosure Day.” New stories about old friends are on the way, too. Woody and Buzz are back in “Toy Story 5.” Spider-Man is back in “Brand New Day.” The Minions are back in “Minions and Monsters.” And there’s a new “Scary Movie,” the sixth in the silly parody series.

History comes to the screen in “Pressure,” with Brendan Fraser as then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who has to know which of two conflicting weather reports to rely on in planning the battle that will be the turning point of WWII, and a fact-based story of a WWII rescue, “Lucky Strike,” directed by Rod Lurie (“The Outpost“), who co-wrote, and starring Scott Eastwood, Colin Hanks, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. “The Brink of War” tells the story of the delicate negotiations between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that ended the Cold War — and the Soviet Union.

There’s romance in “One Night Only” and comedy in Nate Bargatze’s “The Breadwinner.” And there’s a wild action comedy from RuPaul, who plays the President of the United States in a movie with a title that tells you everything you need to know, the three-exclamation point, cameo-filled “Stop! That! Train!” And every year (usually in August) there is some low-budget film that seems to come out of nowhere that introduces us to a major new talent. That’s what I look forward to the most.

MAY

“Pressure” In this gripping WWII drama, Brendan Fraser plays Eisenhower and Damian Lewis plays Montgomery in this tense drama about the lead-up to D-Day, when every detail matters and none more than the ability to predict the weather. Andrew Scott plays Dr. James Stagg, the real-life meteorologist who provided crucial information to make the Allied invasion successful.

“The Breadwinner” It feels like a remake of Michael Keaton’s “Mr. Mom,” with top stand-up comic Nate Bargatze as a stay-at-home dad trying to cope with domestic responsibilities.

“Tuner” In this tense, well-acted thriller, up-and-coming star Leo Woodall plays a one-time piano prodigy with perfect pitch who now has an ear condition that makes any sound excruciatingly painful. He works as a piano tuner with a mentor played by Dustin Hoffman and he is attracted to a beautiful young pianist (Havana Rose Liu). But when his exceptional hearing comes to the attention of some gangsters who want him to use his ears to crack safes, things get very complicated.

JUNE

June 5

“Masters of the Universe” (June 5) Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) is the good guy who is also known as He-Man and Skeletor (Jared Leto) is the bad guy in a story that brings the beloved 1980s cartoon series to a live action big screen, big budget film.

“Scary Movie 6” 26 years after the last one, the series that makes fun of pretty much everything that is popular returns with the original stars: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Marlon Wayans, and Shawn Wayans.

“Power Ballad” Rick (Paul Rudd) is a musician who was once almost close to fame but is now a singer in a wedding band, doing covers. Danny (Nick Jonas) is a once-successul former boy band performer who has not broken through as a solo artist. They happen to meet and spend a boozy night jamming together. Danny takes credit for Rick’s song, which becomes a huge hit.

“Office Romance” Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso,” “Shrinking”) have to keep their romance secret because they work together and she’s the boss.

“The Birthday Party” Willem Dafoe plays a very wealth man who is giving an extravagent birthday party for his young adult daughter on his private Mediterranean island in the 1970s. Many guest from different parts of his life want to ask him for help or favors. And his daughter has her own secrets.

June 12

“Disclosure Day” Emily Blunt, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, and Josh O’Connor star in a Steven Spielberg film about aliens, but also about trust in our institutions and whether they deserve it.

“Stop! That! Train!”

The name of the runaway train is the Glamazonian Express. RuPaul plays the US President. The packed cast includes Sarah Michelle Geller as “Famous Actress,” Joel McHale as “Male Passenger 2,” Nicole Richie as “Workaholic,” superstars from RuPaul’s Drag Race….and Charo!

June 19

“Toy Story 5” In another love letter to imagination, childhood, and friends, Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and the gang are back and facing a new threat — the Lily Pad, an AI device voiced by Greta Lee.

“The Death of Robin Hood” Hugh Jackman plays the legendary hero who is seeking redemption, with Jodie Comer as a mysterious woman, Bill Skarsgård as Little John, along with Murray Bartlett, and Noah Jupe, directed by “A Quiet Place: Day One’s” Michael Sarnoski.

“Finnegan’s Foursome” After the death of their father, four siblings sort through their feelings through continuing his tradition of the family participating in an Irish golf tournament.

June 26

“Supergirl” At the end of the most recent “Superman” movie, we saw Supergirl (Milly Alcock), who is, especially compared to her “trusting is punk rock” cousin. Now she gets her own origin story. Instead of being adopted by a loving farm couple, Supergirl’s flee from the exploding Krypton landed her in an orphanage. Her only friend is Krypto, the dog. When he is poisoned, she has to fight to save him. I’m especially intrigued because of the director, Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Lars and the Real Girl”) and co-star Matthias Schoenaerts

“Lucky Strike” Rod Lurie co-wrote and directed this fact-based WWII story about a soldier (Scott Eastwood) trapped behind enemy lines during the last major German offensive, The Battle of the Bulge. He has to use the brand-new radio transmission technology to contact his division and his wits to stay hidden.

JULY

July 1

“Minions and Monsters” The little yellow guys are back! And they’re seeking monsters for a movie. What could go wrong? Voices include: Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan, Phil LaMarr, and Trey Parker.

July 3

“Young Washington” In honor of the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution, Angel Studios has produced this origin story of our first great general and our first President. The cast includes Sir Ben Kingsley, Kelsey Grammer, Andy Serkis, and Mary-Louise Parker.

July 10

“Moana” Dwayne Johnson repeats his role as the demi-god Maui in this live action remake of the beloved Disney film about the Polynesian daughter of a chief who wants to know more about the world beyond her island.

July 17

“The Odyssey” Matt Damon plays Ulysses in in Homer’s classic story of a soldier’s adventures on the way home. Lupita Nyong’o plays Helen, whose beauty inspired the Trojan War, Tom Holland is Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, and Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, his patient wife. Zendaya is the godess Athena, and Charlize Theron is the nymph Calypso.

July 24

“The Dink” In these divided times, one of the bitterest controversies many communities face is….pickleball. Jake Johnson plays a former tennis player turned country club coach. His father (Ed Harris), runs the club and hates pickleball. Johnson takes up pickleball with a partner played by Mary Steenburgen and finds he likes it. Real-life tennis star Andy Roddick plays a version of himself as Johnson’s nemesis, and the cast includes comedy greats Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, and Chris Parnell.

July 31

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Tom Holland returns as Spider-Man, who in the last film had to erase everyone’s memory of his identity, including Mary Jane (Zendaya). Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) joins the story.

AUGUST

August 7

“One Night Only” One reason we don’t get many good rom-coms these days is that many of the obstacles that provided the com for the roms in the past have been circumvented by changes in social norms (different views today about sex before marriage) or technology (no races to the airport when people can be reached by cell phone). So, how about inventing a world in which unmarried people are only allowed to have sex one night a year? That is the premise of this film, starring Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro (“A Complete Unknown”).

“Cookie Queens” If you have ever bought or sold Girl Scout cookies, this documentary will surprise and delight you.

August 14

“The End of Oak Street” Anne Hathaway in one of the FIVE very different movies she has in theaters this year, plays a suburban women whose entire street gets somehow transported to a mysterious other world. It’s the third feature film from David Robert Mitchell, director of “It Follows,” and produced by J.J. Abrams.

“PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie” How can you make the PAW Patrol more exciting? Add some dinosaurs!

August 21

“The Magic Faraway Tree” The beloved children’s book by Enid Blyton is about children who move to the country and discover that their new home is next to the Enchanted Wood. Inside is the title tree, a portal to magical lands full of elves, pixies, talking creatures and adventures. The children’s parents are played by Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield.

August 28

“Coyote vs. Acme” In 1990 Ian Frazier published a funny short story in The New Yorker about Looney Tunes’ Wile E. Coyote suing the company that supplies all of the gadgets and other products that have failed to help him catch the Roadrunner for almost 80 years. The movie inspired by that story was made in 2022, combining animation and live action “Roger Rabbit”-style. Will Forte plays the lawyer who agrees to represent Wile E., and John Cena as his opposing counsel. Warner CEO decided to junk the movie to get tax benefits, breaking the hearts of the filmmakers and the many people who were looking forward to it. Ketchup Entertainment came to the rescue. I had the great pleasure of seeing many of the filmmakers and some clips at San Diego Comic-Con last year and expect this to be a great favorite for many people.

Memorial Day is more than the beginning of summer; it is a day to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. I hope you can take some time to think of those we have lost. Turner Classic Movies has an excellent line-up of classic films. Some more movies to pay your respects:

The Outpost was on my top ten list for 2020, a movie that was sadly overlooked because it came out in the early weeks of the pandemic shutdown. It is based on the book by Jake Tapper. There are war stories that are about strategy and courage and triumph over evil that let us channel the heroism of the characters on screen. And then there are war stories that are all of that but also engage in the most visceral terms with questions of purpose and meaning that touch us all. “The Outpost” is that rare film in the second category, an intimate, immersive drama from director Rod Lurie, a West Point graduate and Army veteran who knows this world inside out and brings us from the outside in. His next film, coming out this summer, is “Lucky Strike,” based on the true story of a WWII soldier trapped behind enemy lines, starring Scott Eastwood.

The Blue Angels Glen Powell, who played a pilot in “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Devotion” is also a real-life pilot who has flown with “the best of the best,” the Navy’s Blue Angels. He produced this documentary that takes us behind the scenes and into the sky, even “inverted” (upside down!) with the Blues.

Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds This 2025 Netflix documentary takes us through the history and training of the legendary flight squadron, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama.

Gardens of Stone James Caan and James Earl Jones star in a film about the 1st Battalion 3d Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Fort Myer, Virginia, the U.S. Army’s Honor Guard. They conduct the funerals of fallen soldiers and guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Francis Ford Coppola directed this touching, elegiac story.

Hallowed Grounds This PBS documentary explores 22 overseas military cemeteries, with stories of the soldiers who are buried there and the people who keep their memories alive.

Taking Chance An officer (Kevin Bacon) escorts the body of a young Marine killed in Iraq. Each stop along the way is meaningful.

Mr. Roberts is a WWII story about a Navy cargo ship, based on the experiences of author Thomas Heggen. Henry Fonda stars in the title role or an executive officer who tries to protect the men from a tyrannical captain. Broadway, and the outstanding cast includes William Powell, James Cagney, and Oscar-winner Jack Lemmon.

Band of Brothers is the extraordinary series from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks about ordinary men who came together to do extraordinary things as soldiers in Easy Company in WWII.

Red Tails is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary heroes who risked their lives for a country that did its best to hold them back.

If the words “Mandalorian” and “Grogu” are unfamiliar to you, but you like sci-fi/action movies with a warm heart and visual imagination plus exciting fight scenes and crazy monsters are more important than “Project Hail Mary”-style scientific authenticity, you will enjoy “The Mandalorian and Grogu.” If you are a fan of the Star Wars universe and have watched every episode of the “Mandalorian” television series, you wil really enjoy “The Mandalorian and Grogu.” I’m somewhere in the middle and I thought it was a lot of fun.

A quick refresher for those who are unfamiliar with this part of the Star Wars universe: Mandalorians are kind of like Jedis (with whom they were once at war), but with a wider range of fighting skills and an honor code rather than The Force. They are a clan-based warrior culture from the planet Mandalore. They share some qualities with ninjas, some with knights, some with Western heroes like the Lone Ranger. They wear armor from an impenetrable metal, including helmets that cover their faces at all times. Having their faces exposed is a very deep dishonor.

The three seasons of the television series take place five years after the Empire has been defeated and the democratic regime called the New Republic is in its early stages. The title character is a Mandalorian bounty hunter named Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) who was sent to capture someone who turned out to be an infant of the same species as Yoda. Instead of completing his mission, Din rescues the baby, named Grogu and they have various adventures together. By the time of this movie, Grogu is still quite young, not talking but learning and mastering his powers, including levitation, and they are closely attached.

This film begins with a fight scene as Din takes on and takes out a cell of pro-Empire conspirators and a series of Storm Troopers, filmed like a first person shooter game, introducing newcomers and reminding fans of his extraordinay skills with every possible kind of weapon, plus being able to dodge every one of a barrage of bullets, along with cool gadgets many of which are a part of his armor. Including a jet pack.

“It got messy,” he explains to his boss (Signourney Weaver, fabulous as always). She sighs and gives him a new assignment: the twin siblings of the late giant evil slug, Jabba the Hutt, need Din to rescue their nephew, Jabba’s son, Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) has been kidnapped, and they’ve agreed that if Rotta is returned to them, they will reveal the location of one of the New Republic’s most wanted criminals.

The ensuing adventures include a variety of different settings, from a “Blade Runner”-style decadent city with a four-armed food truck cook amusingly voiced by Martin Scorsese to some cute, gremlin-like tiny mechanics. Grogu is adorable. The contrast between his solomn expression, extraordinary powers, and childlike perspective — wait until you see him try to hit all the buttons on the navigation console of the spaceship — is charming. And when he tries to hide Din from the bad guys, he does something very smart and also very funny. Note the villians here, more like drug kingpins and petulent but cruel bureaucrats than the powerful and scary Darth Vadar and Darth Maul.

Director and co-screenwriter Jon Favreau gives Din a bit of an Iron Man set-up, with his built-in jet pack and cool built-in gadgets. He balances the heart, humor, and excitement effectively and the action scenes are well staged (please, see it in IMAX) and paced. Pascal somehow makes a character in full-body armor and a face-covering helmet feel human, or humanoid, whatever they are on that planet. It’s not especially memorable, but it is fun.

Parents should know that this is a sci-fi action movie with many fight scenes and scary monsters. There are guns, knives, swords, hand-to-hand fights, robots, and explosions.

Family discussion: Din has to choose whether to save another character knowing he is putting himself at great risk. What would you do and why? Colonel Ward decides to help one enemy to defeat a more dangerous enemy. Do you agree?

If you like this, try: the television series, “Andor” and all of the Star Wars ouvre, especially the first three films

Four high school seniors impulsively “borrow” a driver’s ed car from their school and go off on a journey to Chapel Hill in a movie from director Bobby Farrelly that just about makes up for its predictability with its unpretentiousness. This is a “just go with it” movie, with paper-thin characters and contrived situations, but it invites us to go along for the ride.

Sam Niviola (“White Lotus,” and son of Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola) plays aspiring film-maker Jeremy, who desperately misses his girlfriend, Sam (Lilah Pate), already in college. In French class, the teacher catches him texting her and makes his classmate Evie (Sophie Telegadis) read it aloud. The earnest but ineffectual principal (Molly Shannon), more concerned about her job security than educating students or molding their characters, gives him a week’s detention.

An ineffectual but not earnest substitute driver’s ed teacher with both arms in casts (Kumail Nanjiani) takes Jeremy, Evie, and two other students out for a driving lesson. Don’t bother with the explanation of why four 18-year-olds don’t already have their licenses or how contrived it is that they are four ethnically diverse non-overlapping stereotypes who apparently have been watching each other closely since elementary school and have bite-sized story arcs to resolve their issues. Just go with it.

The other two students are Aparna (Mohana Krishnan), the study-all-the-time girl and Yoshi (Aidan Laprete), the apathetic slacker drug dealer. The appealing young actors all do their best to give some life to these paper-thin characters, but struggle with the lightly sketched emotional scenes. Inexplicably, both in terms of narrative and character, the one person who does not get a moment of confession leading to understanding and connection is Evie, whose reason for not having a driver’s license two years after eligibility is that she used to have friends drive her around but she “divorced” them all. This seems ripe for further examination, and failing to give her any kind of depth except for a palpable long-simmering crush on Jeremy might create more of a sag in the storyline if it wasn’t primarily focused on the incidents along the way.

Those include hitching a ride with a high-spirited couple, transporting a refrigerated truck filled with expensive furs they keep insisting have aphrodisiacal qualities, being chased by a determined cop (Bri Giger) who happens to be the former partner of the high school’s thrown off the force ineffectual (do we see a theme about the grown-ups here?) security guard, an encounter with an armed robber/drug dealer, and, in the film’s brightest performance, a. pre-med student (Marley Aliah) bringing an emotional support dog to comfort some sick kids.

It’s difficult to judge this film harshly because it is so soft-hearted that it is even sympathetic to a gun-toting drug dealer and even gives Jeremy a soft landing when he finally makes it to the campus and gets to talk to Sam. If it shifts his obsession with Sam into another relationship as ridiculously quick as Duckie at the end of “Pretty In Pink,” we cannot help but think a happy ending for everyone is just right.

Parents should know that this movie has teen drinking and drug use and two characters are drug dealers. Characters use very strong and crude language, peril and violence includes an armed robber and car chases and crashes and several crotch punches (no one badly hurt), sexual references and brief nudity and a lot of irresponsible behavior.

Family discussion: How did you/will you learn to drive? Why do you think Evie broke up with her friend group?

If you like this, try: a much better teens taking off for a road trip movie, “Paper Towns” and some of the movies Jeremy is inspired by