With terrorist attacks and mass shootings occurring regularly, it can be all too easy to forget or blur the details of some of the most dramatic, recent violent attacks. There’s a sense of history being preserved and archived through the mediated lens of fiction filmmaking in Anthony Maras’ "Hotel Mumbai." Maras makes his directorial debut with the gripping, nearly minute-by-minute account of the carnage that unfolded in the grand Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai during the terror attacks of November 2008. It’s a meticulous depiction of the events that is at once disturbing, yet also illuminating.

Perhaps it’s a post-"Inside Out" phenomenon that animated films aimed at children need to tackle complex emotions or psychology, translating it into terms kids can understand. This is the case with "Wonder Park," a film that is part "Roller Coaster Tycoon," part lesson on grappling with the fear of losing a parent. It’s a complicated dynamic where both storylines seem deeply at odds with each other. The wonders of Wonder Park are dampened by the pall of grief that the protagonist is experiencing, while the wacky amusement park antics prevent the story from going especially deep.

With mislaid alliances and stealthy maneuvering, the Keira Knightley vehicle "The Aftermath," about an English woman’s affair with the German man whose home she’s occupying in post-war Hamburg, truly is a film that embodies the phrase "the war at home." But though it purports to be pleasurable, with taboo trysts unfolding in a palatial estate, this adaptation of Rhidian Brook’s novel feels overly staid, often ridiculous, and can’t bring the heat.

There’s cosmic significance in "Captain Marvel" -- the first female-led installment of the seemingly endless Marvel Studios Avengers franchise -- opening on International Women’s Day. As a story of a woman overcoming her own self-doubt and the forces that control her to discover latent powers that can literally save the world, it is just the kind of feminist myth we need when our male leaders seem so feckless and overcompensating.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Kennedy Johnson, writer of “The Last Sons of America,” also plays the trumpet in the U.S. Army Field Band.

Here are a few military-themed entertainment options that are scheduled to come our way.

In the aftermath of the massacre at the Route 91 Harvest festival in October 2017, country star Jason Aldean -- who was performing when the gunman started shooting -- vividly remembers when he first started to emotionally recover from the horrific tragedy.

The steely gaze of Na’vi warrioress Neytiri welcomes visitors at the entrance to some of Hollywood’s most fantastical worlds. Towering in the corner of a hangar, an "Aliens" xenomorph menaces, frozen in place. Upstairs sits the Heart of the Ocean, daring passersby to never let go. No, you’re not in Kansas anymore. You’re at Lightstorm Entertainment, the solar-powered, eco-friendly Manhattan Beach headquarters of Oscar-winning "Avatar" filmmakers James Cameron and Jon Landau.

The comic actress Rebel Wilson makes any movie better -- and frequently steals the show. She did it in "Pitch Perfect," among many other films in which she plays the second lead, with a combination of oddball line readings, out-of-left-field reactions and inspired slapstick. Finally, we can celebrate her elevation to the star (and co-producer) of "Isn’t It Romantic," a visually and verbally ingenious sendup of romantic comedies that wears its candy heart on its sleeve.

The 2017 thriller "Happy Death Day" took a "Groundhog Day"-like concept -- a young woman must relive the same day, over and over -- and put it in service of a largely uninspired college-set horror movie. (Turns out the day in question is the day of the protagonist’s murder, which she must re-experience until she solves the crime.) But unlike the 1993 Bill Murray comedy, some people never learn from their mistakes, no matter how often they repeat them.

Will Arnett’s secret to making Batman so funny in the "Lego" movies is he’s not trying to be funny. He’s playing the animated version of the comic book hero with the same seriousness as Michael Keaton or Christian Bale.

Creepy children are a mainstay of the horror genre. Going back to "The Bad Seed" and beyond, children have proved capable of unnerving audiences with a combination of precocious dialogue and psychopathic behavior. The chilling new horror film "The Prodigy" continues that fine tradition, with one intriguing complication: in the hands of director Nicholas McCarthy and screenwriter Jeff Buhler, the young villain is a metaphor for parental failure.

It’s not often that directors get a second crack at their own work. But Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland has undertaken the task of remaking his own 2014 revenge thriller, "In Order of Disappearance," for American audiences, now titled "Cold Pursuit." With Moland behind the wheel, he can ensure the preservation of the film’s dance of tone, which is bone-dry, ice-black, darkly violent and laugh-out-loud funny.

There’s something so wonderfully ironic about a black woman taking over the sequel to a Mel Gibson vehicle. The effervescent Taraji P. Henson stars in "What Men Want," the gender-flipped reboot of "What Women Want," the 2000 Nancy Meyers film starring Gibson as a playboy who can hear the inner monologues of women after a freak accident. But director Adam Shankman is no Nancy Meyers.

This year’s advertising Super Bowl had, again, lots of celebrities and lots of dogs.

Hollywood director Rob Reiner drew a crowd of reporters on his first visit to Japan in more than three decades to promote his Iraq War journalism film “Shock and Awe.”

Sub-zero temperatures. Blistering 40-mile-per-hour winds. Snow as far as the eye can see. These are only a few of the unsparing conditions actor Mads Mikkelsen had to overcome over the course of 19 days filming in Iceland for his new survival movie, "Arctic," about a pilot stranded in a snow-covered wilderness after his small plane crashes.

It was around this time seven years ago that Gina Rodriguez was deemed the "It" girl out of the Sundance Film Festival with her role as a struggling East L.A. rapper in the hip-hop drama "Filly Brown." Maybe it was naivete, but she had hoped the attention would bring the same sort of career boost it had brought other young ingenues, such as Carey Mulligan or Jennifer Lawrence.

Do the Middle Ages hold the key to saving the world? "The Kid Who Would Be King" suggests so. This contemporary, Arthurian-themed adventure encourages kids of today to look to the legends of the past -- and to the lessons of medieval chivalry -- in their search for a peaceful future.

Spike Lee watched the Oscar nominations Tuesday morning on television from his bed, with his wife, Tonya, his two grown children, Satchel and Jackson, and their dog, Ginger. Screaming ensued. Lee landed his first directing Academy Award nomination for “BlacKkKlansman,” his comic and furious send-up of white supremacism.

In "The Sixth Sense," just before uttering the now-famous "I see dead people" line, young Cole (Haley Joel Osment) interrupts a badly improvised story by Bruce Willis’ Dr. Crowe. "You haven’t told bedtime stories before," Cole says. "You have to add some twists and stuff." Right from the beginning of his meteoric-rise-to-crash-to-reborn career, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan was winking at his audience about what would become a defining penchant: the twist ending.

Not everyone loves going to work, so it’s only fair that actors will sometimes sour on the characters they portray. That’s the case right now for Penn Badgley, who has been on the receiving end of a flood of amorous messages from thirsty fans of his Lifetime show "You" imploring him to "kidnap me, pls."

Kevin Hart’s transition from brattily charming comic persona to serious dramatic cinematic presence isn’t going quite as planned. His extracurricular controversies notwithstanding, the comedian’s first turn in a more serious role in "The Upside" -- a remake of the award-winning French hit "The Intouchables," across from Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman -- should have been a slam dunk. And yet, "The Upside" is missing some critical elements, and it’s a struggle to find the bright side to this rather hackneyed film.

With the proliferation of dog movies in the past couple of years, it’s no surprise that the astonishing animal journey film would soon resurface. "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" and the "Homeward Bound" movies were wildly popular family movies in the 1980s and ’90s, and now joining the canon is "A Dog’s Way Home."

In "Bird Box," Sandra Bullock leads two children, all blindfolded because of a mysterious danger, on a journey to safety. The movie, which received mixed reviews, became an inexplicable well for memes over the holidays. Netflix announced that 45 million people had viewed it on the platform in the first seven days since its release. And then, just as Bullock became known as "the lady from 'Bird Box'" in a bunch of memes, doing things on camera while blindfolded for laughs has become the "Bird Box" challenge.

"Will (Ferrell) and I joke that we single-handedly ruined Paul Thomas Anderson's producing career before it started," Adam McKay says, casually splaying his 6-foot-5 frame across the couch, as though in a weekly therapy session.

David Le’aupepe was looking for salvation. Instead, he found rock stardom. With his tight black jeans, black button-down, wild mane of curly black hair, unkempt beard, armful of tattoos and silver nose ring, the 26-year-old looked every bit the rock star during a recent interview. But his is a strange origin story.

"I don’t think this lighting is going to work," Jennifer Lopez says. She has just turned up at a photo shoot, and she is dismayed. "Newspapers don’t do retouching," the actress points out, "and ugly don’t sell movies." Best friend Leah Remini stands by patiently. The two will be posing together in a photograph for a story about to their new film, "Second Act," but Remini seems less concerned about the images.

Peter Ramsey knows how closely the entertainment industry is following the movie he just co-directed. After all, that film, the animated "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse," is supposed to blow the doors off the end-of-year-box-office, save a major studio and also rocket mature animation and superhero film categories into a new future. You know, minor goals.

To director Thom Zimny, the key element in his filmed version of Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway show was in the star’s eyes. The Netflix documentary makes its first appearance on the service early in the morning of Dec. 16, hours after the singer’s 236th and last performance of “Springsteen on Broadway” at the Walter Kerr Theater. A soundtrack is being released Dec. 14.

A journal entry penned when Shameik Moore was teenager laid out one of his dreams — to play Spider-Man on the big screen. That dream is now partially realized with Moore serving as the voice of the web-slinger in the new animated film, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

The spirit of inspiration runs stronger than usual through this year’s batch of holiday music collections, with fresh melodies and lyrics in some of the best. Veteran country singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell, Oklahoma recent arrival JD McPherson, the long-running Nashville-based genre-defying band the Mavericks and Texas’ barnstorming Old 97’s each have delivered Christmas albums built around inviting new songs that make them worthy additions to the favorites you might turn to year in and year out.

Recording Academy voters were most impressed this year with the sound of Wakanda, the fictional African country from the film "Black Panther." The music Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar assembled to accompany the Marvel Studios blockbuster received a field-leading eight nominations for its album and singles, including the hat trick of recognition in the top three categories of record, album and song of the year.

Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro Jr., survivor of a 2005 roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan, appeared on an episode of "Bumping Mics With Jeff Ross & Dave Attell."

CNBC executives have said “deal” to bringing back the television game show “Deal or No Deal.” Almost 10 years since the competition program hosted by Howie Mandel went off the air, new episodes will air on the cable channel.

In "The Favourite," Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone play Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill, three women sparring, seducing and strategizing their way through the corridors of power in 17th-century England. It's just the latest sprout in a bumper crop of movies depicting women, if not at their best, then at least in some form of sisterly solidarity: From the depraved sisterhood of "Suspiria" to Viola Davis coolly leading a team of henchwomen in "Widows," 2018 is shaping up to be a year singularly devoted to the vicarious pleasures of feminist troublemaking.

Pamela Ribon was so anxious about her idea, she had to pause to ask herself: If I write this, will it get me fired? It was with a taste for the satiric that Ribon began to muse: What if, at one point in the film, I surrounded Vanellope Von Schweetz, the "Ralph" franchise’s endearingly daring video-game racer (voiced by Sarah Silverman), with enough Disney princesses that it resembled a sorority reunion -- and then teasingly lampooned their tropes?

Roughly halfway through "Green Book," about one of the unlikeliest friendships of the pre-Civil Rights era, Jamaican piano prodigy Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), explains to his Italian American driver and companion, Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), that though he’s found success playing popular music, he was trained for the classical stage. "Trained?" says Vallelonga. "What are you, a seal? People love what you do. Anyone can sound like Beethoven or Joe Pan or them other guys you said. But your music, what you do, only you can do that." "Thank you, Tony," Shirley says patiently. "But not everyone can play Chopin, not like I can."

The producers of the Netflix series hope the eight stories will inspire new generations of Americans and that they’ll be able to continue telling stories of the more than 3,500 Americans who have received the country's highest military award.

Among the promises of Netflix’s streaming revolution is the notion that people who excel at creating one kind of TV (people such as Chuck Lorre, Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy) might truly flourish when freed from the challenges of prime time. No more worries about overnight and time-shifted Nielsen ratings. No more structuring episodes around precisely measured commercial breaks. No restrictions on adult themes and language. But those are mostly technical matters. What about artistry? Can a producer who succeeds within network boundaries rise to the challenge of creating something surprising and authentic, while still retaining that broad sense of appeal?

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was such an unlikely song that became an even more unlikely hit. The Queen biopic of the same name, now in theaters, depicts the original story of how the rock-operatic single came to be, with a cameo from none other than Mike Myers.

Justin Timberlake only needed a couple hours to write one of the biggest — and most personal — songs of his career. The pop star revealed he churned out “Cry Me a River,” the breakup ballad widely believed to be about Britney Spears, extremely quickly.

Kali Uchis is highly particular. She likes the design of D.C.’s Line hotel but wishes the TV in her room could swing out from its wall mount. She enjoys Los Angeles, but the lack of seasonal weather makes her feel as though she’s caught in a "Groundhog Day" loop. She’s selective about whom she works with, she says, because she’s averse to other people telling her how she should sound.

Q&A

Jonah Hill has always wanted to direct. He worships filmmakers and has treated what he describes as an “accidental” but “wonderful” 15-year acting career as a partial film school, learning from people like Bennett Miller, who directed him in “Moneyball” and Martin Scorsese on “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But Hill didn’t just want to make any film, he wanted to have something to say, and the confidence and “emotional maturity” required to lead people.

It has been a dozen years since Jennifer Garner starred in the spy-vs.-spy television series “Alias.” Since then, she’s been working almost exclusively in film, with productions such as “Catch and Release,” “Valentine’s Day,” “Dallas Buyers Club” and “Peppermint.”

Although he hit pay dirt with his successful series “Castle,” actor Nathan Fillion is starting all over again. In his new role on ABC’s “The Rookie,” he plays a rookie cop. And not just any novice. He’s the oldest recruit on the Los Angeles Police Department -- a 40-year-old who has decided to reinvent himself by taking on one of the toughest jobs in the city.

As a screenwriter and director, Drew Goddard has racked up a virtually unbroken string of success, whether working on scripts for box-office hits like "Cloverfield," "The Martian" and "World War Z" or directing the critically acclaimed 2012 horror-satire "The Cabin in the Woods."

If there’s one truism in this era of too much TV, it’s this: Old shows never die -- they simply get rebooted (or revived).

When Sony Pictures released the first trailer for “Venom” almost six months ago, there was almost too much in it to fully process: Investigative reporter Tom Hardy is a regular Bob Woodward, which apparently means he needs to threaten Jenny Slate while standing near boxes of penne rigate! She definitely mispronounces “symbiote” while referring to evil geniusRiz Ahmed’s villainous experiments! Oh, and Venom is super, super ugly!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s norm is there’s no doubt about who’s good and who’s bad. Think of Thanos, the Vulture or Dr. Doom. There’s plenty of conflict in director Ruben Fleischer’s (“Zombieland”) action-filled “Venom,” but there’s a lot more gray area when it comes to the characters.

Most of each episode of the “America’s Funniest Home Videos” is scripted for host Alfonso Ribeiro. That includes the clever introductions to the video clips sent in by viewers in hopes of winning $10,000 and the commentary Ribeiro delivers during and after each funny on-screen moment. One thing not written ahead of time for the 47-year-old host is the final interview Ribeiro does with the family whose home video has been deemed funnier than the two other contenders by a vote of the studio audience.

When Kevin Hart came up with the idea for "Night School," he conceived of it as an adult version of John Hughes' classic "The Breakfast Club."

At first, Keira Knightley thought everything was going to be fine.

Eli Roth sat in an editing room on the Universal Pictures lot in September, eagerly preparing to show off a scene from his latest movie, "The House with a Clock in Its Walls." Given his filmography, which features such gory and gruesome low-budget horror movies as "Cabin Fever" and "Hostel," this would normally be the moment when you’d steel your stomach for an evisceration, a disemboweling or perhaps an impalement. But this is a different kind of Eli Roth movie altogether -- about an awkward, innocent young boy discovering the wonders of magic.