“The Flash” is centered in the sweet spot between action, comedy, and heart because is is grounded in a deep affection for the source material but is not afraid to play with some of its absurdities. I’m going to tread very carefully to avoid spoilers (and alert you to what I hope will be just two of the jokes in this review), but if you want to go into the film knowing nothing, including what is in the trailer, come back and read this after you’ve seen it.

Ezra Miller shows no signs of the instability that has led to troubling behavior and disturbing headlines in his excellent performance as not one but two Barry Allens. The storyline allows for something of an origin story without the too-often superhero film mistake of making it all about the adjustment to the use and purpose of superpowers and attendant vulnerabilities. We first see Barry Allen (Flash’s secret identity) trying to get a high-protein sandwich at a cafe counter. He is, unsurprisingly, in a hurry because first, he is running late, and two, as a result of the energy he burns in his super-fastness requires a lot of food for fuel. It’s not quite like Popeye and spinach, but it’s not not like it, either.

Barry is awkward and shy. He works as a forensic scientist, looking at evidence from crime scenes. And he is hoping to exonerate his father, Henry (Ron Livingston), who is in prison for murdering his wife, Barry’s mother, when Barry was a child. Barry knows his father is innocent, and is hoping that his friend Bruce (Batman) Wayne (Ben Affleck) can help him with a crucial piece of evidence, security camera footage from a grocery store that would substantiate Henry’s alibi. But the enhanced clarity of the tape, shot from above, does not show Henry’s face, only his baseball cap. Barry, devastated, goes for such an intensive run that he passes the speed of light and goes back in time. If he can do that, he reasons, maybe he can go back further and prevent his mother’s murder. Bruce Wayne warns him it is a big mistake. Butterfly effect, etc. He, of course, knows very well what it is like to have your entire live defined by a devastating childhood loss.

Barry cannot resist. And that is when things start to scramble. First, one very small choice somehow had a lot of major repercussions, some strangely random. Somehow, instead of Michael J. Fox coming in to replace him, the original star of “Back to the Future,” Eric Stoltz, stayed in the role. The people he knows from his timeline are either not there or very different. And second, Barry misjudged and instead of returning to the present, he finds himself 10 years ago, which means, yes, that his teen-age self is there, too. The interaction between the two Barrys (both played by Miller), one formed by the murder of his mother and wrongful conviction of his father and one who grew up in a home with intact, loving parents, is at the heart of the film. In fact, the villain (Michael Shannon as Kryptonian bad guy General Zod) is almost an afterthought in this film, relying on our remembering him and his whole deal from previous encounters.

Instead, the movie is more about Barry, both Barrys, their interaction and their growing understanding of their situation and, if it can be put this way, each other. From a small, witty hiccup in the presentation of the movie’s title to the throwaway lines about other anomalies in the pile of spaghetti that is what happens when you splinter linear time, to some funny cameos (Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth provides one of the film’s best moments), the film is more interested in concept and character than mayhem.

That’s a good thing as the mayhem is more serviceable than memorable. This is a movie that is more about the people than the powers, and that is a superpower worth having.

Parents should know that this film includes brief non-sexual male nudity (bare tush), some strong language (s-words and one f-word), and extended comic book-style peril and action violence, with injuries and some sad deaths.

Family discussion: What one small decision have you made that had a surprisingly big impact on your life? If you could go back in time ten years, what advice would you give yourself?

If you like this, try; Other time-warp movies like “Back to the Future” with Michael J. Fox and “Frequency” as well as other DC Comics movies

To honor our veterans this weekend, John Holway’s oral history ebook, Bloody Ground: Black Rifles in Korea, is available at no cost through May 31, 2023.

Korea is “the forgotten war.” But to those who fought in it, it was the “unforgettable war.” If the names of all those killed were put on a wall, it would be larger than the Vietnam Wall. And Korea lasted only three years, Vietnam about ten. The agony of the winter of 1950-51 is an epic to compare with Valley Forge and the Bulge. Holway writes:

Korea was also our last segregated war. This is the story of the black 24th Infantry Regiment, told in the words of the men themselves. Like all black troops since the Civil War, they were reviled by whites and their own commander for “bugging out” – running before the enemy. The charge can still be read in the Army’s own official histories. Yet the 24th left more blood on the field than their white comrades – if they did bug out, they must have been running the wrong way.

It’s a good thing we weren’t with Custer,” one black GI muttered – “they’d have blamed the whole thing on us.”

The 24th won the first battle of the war, won its division’s first Medal of Honor, and guarded the shortest and most vulnerable road to Pusan. If the port had fallen, the war would have been lost, leaving a red dagger pointed at Japan. It did not fall.

That winter, after the Chinese attacked, the entire American army bugged out in perhaps the worst military disaster in American history. “That,” said another black veteran, “was when I learned that whites could run as fast as blacks.”

This is the story of those unsung heroes, who helped turn the Communist tide for the first time. The men bring that forgotten war and their own unsung bravery to life in their own sometimes funny, often heart-breaking, and always exciting words.

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 over the weekend to think of those we have lost. Some 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.

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.

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.

And; Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Midway, Flags of Our Fathers, Act of Valor

Sebastian Maniscalco’s stand-up routines about his immigrant father are very funny. The transition to a narrative feature for “About My Father” is mildly amusing, with all of the highlights in the trailer. What you have not seen already seems like filler, mostly exposition and a tacked on “meet the parents,” “aren’t our cultural differences a hoot” overlay.

Sebastian Maniscalco plays…Sebastian Maniscalco. That is his character’s name, and Robert De Niro plays Sebastian’s real-life father, Salvo, who left Sicily as a young man to emigrate to America, served in the US Army in Vietnam, and then established a successful hair salon in Chicago. In this film, Sebastian is not a performer but manager of a boutique hotel. Like most first-generation Americans, he has tried to separate himself from his heritage, and he is very much in love with a woman who is from a very different background.

Ellie is a sunny-tempered artist who grew up in a wealthy WASP family with several homes. She is played by Leslie Bibb, doing her best with her dazzling smile, trying to give some substance to a low-level manic pixie dream girl whose job is to be upbeat and supportive.

Ellie’s mother is Tigger (Kim Catrall), a US Senator. Her father, Bill (David Rasche) owns an international hotel company. She has two brothers. The first is heir apparent Lucky, nicknamed because he is the 13th generation to carry the ancestral name. He is played by Anders Holm, nailing the entitled frat boy. Then there’s Doug (Brett Dier), who is all about chakras and standing bells and healing meditations. If this is sounding a bit like “Wedding Crashers” and “Annie Hall” but not as good, you’ve got the idea.

Bill and Tigger are vaguely supportive of all three children, not usual for high-performing parents or for the kind of conflicts that hold an audience’s interest, but okay, this is not “Meet the Parents.”

When Ellie’s parents invite Sebastian for the first time to the annual 4th of July gathering, he is delighted, planning to propose to her. But Salvo makes him feel guilty — and won’t turn over the family ring if Sebastian leaves him alone. So, with a lot of trepidation, Sebastian brings Salvo along. And of course this leads to a lot of hijinks of various kinds, but they’re pretty low-level jinks, if you know what I mean. Salvo embarrasses Sebastian. Then Sebastian embarrasses himself. Then Salvo ingratiates himself. Then Salvo horrifies Tigger. Sebastian is not happy about any of this. It is sit-com-ish without much imagination in the sits or laughs in the com. There are a few good lines and it is funny to see how Sebastian and Salvo put on cologne every night before bed.

Stand-ups are often natural actors. When they tell stories on stage they act out all the parts. Maniscalco is especially good at this, with great physicality to assist in creating characters and showing reactions. But as an actor, he is more subdued and older than the character is written to be. The boy/girl and parent issues would be more fitting for someone in their 20s or 30s than for someone who is 50. A few guest appearances by TV stars and some wisecracks do little to brighten the various sit-com style incidents. We should not feel that the actors had more fun than the audience. Wait for streaming.

Parents should know that this film includes some strong language, comic nudity (bare tush), some sexual references, social drinking and references to drug use, the killing of a family pet, and some tense family confrontations.

Family discussion: What do Sebastian and Ellie have in common? Have you ever been embarrassed by your parents or children?

If you like this, try: Maniscalco’s stand-up and “Meet the Parents”

Lots of great movies coming our way! Of course the usual blockbusters and sequels and a new Pixar, and, as always, what I am most looking forward to is being surprised by some new director or star or filmmaker I don’t know now but will soon be unable to imagine the world without.

Some highlights about what’s coming:

JUNE

Past Lives A love story across time and distance.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse The sequel to the unexpected hit and winner of the Animation Oscar.

Flamin’ Hot Eva Longoria directed this origin story of a janitor who came up with the idea for spicy Cheetos.

Elemental You just know Pixar will make us all cry again in this story of a girl made of fire who falls for a guy made of water.

The Flash One of DC’s most popular superhero characters gets his own movie.

Asteroid City We don’t know much about Wes Anderson’s latest, but we do know that the visuals will be filled with dazzling visual details and quirky characters.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Harrison Ford as Indy. Time travel. Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Enough said.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but an animated sea beast!

JULY

Barbie Writer/director’s film about the world’s most popular doll has a spectacular cast including Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, America Ferrara, Alexandra Shipp, John Cena, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Dua Lipa, and Michael Cena, and Dame Helen Mirren.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part 1 Chases, explosions, fake-outs, saving the world, and Tom Cruise performing crazy stunts and running very fast.

Theater Camp This festival darling about theater kids looks adorkable.

Oppenheimer The story of the brilliant man who created the most powerful bomb the world had ever seen, with Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, and Florence Pugh.

The Haunted Mansion One of Disney’s most popular attractions inspired this thriller starring Rosario Dawson and LaKeith Stanfield.

AUGUST

Meg 2: The Trench Jason Stratham is back and so is that gigantic sea monster.

Gran Turismo Is this every gamer’s dream? A gamer got so good he became a real race car driver in this film based on a true story.

Blue Beetle In this DC story, Xolo Maridueña plays the title superhero and his alter ego, Jaime Reyes.

Also coming: the raunchy comedies “Joy Ride” and “No Hard Feelings,” another Transformers movie, another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, a new Dracula movie (set aboard ship!), and an R-rated movie about dogs!