Popcorn Flicks: Marry Me & Uncharted

Want a break from foreign movies and Oscar bait? Well you could do nothing better than head to the theater to watch a JLo romcom or a Tom Holland action comedy. Do you need some mindless entertainment for President's Day? These movies have you covered!

Marry Me: If you've seen the trailer for this movie, you already know what you're going to get. But that won't stop you from having a super fun time nonetheless. This is a cute, feel-good film about what happens when a glamorous pop star (Jennifer Lopez) gets jilted at the altar (well, technically it's the stage of a pop concert being watched by millions, but roll with it) and decides to marry a random stranger named Charlie (Owen Wilson) from the audience instead. Does it make sense? No. Is it the perfectly plausible plot of a romcom and allows for much zaniness and romance to ensue? You bet!

Wilson and Lopez have strangely compelling chemistry, but this might be down to the fact that we're talking about Jennifer Lopez here - this lady oozes so much charisma that she could make any pairing work, even if the movie consisted of her romancing a mop. But also, casting a music superstar as your leading lady means you're going to get some insanely catchy songs that will stick in your head for a while. I would catch myself humming the main Marry Me theme song months before I saw this film just from seeing the trailer.

There's a sassy best friend (the always engaging Sarah Silverman), a protective agent (the lovely John Bradley who now seems to be in everything post-Game of Thrones), and a cute little moppet child (the charming Chloe Coleman who also seems to be the de facto adorable kid in everything): this movie has all the familiar and fabulous ingredients of a great romcom and serves as nourishing comfort food for the soul. Directed by Kat Cairo, this movie will effortlessly carry you along for the ride and deliver everything it promised. Go ahead, say I do.

Uncharted: An action movie based on a popular videogame franchise, starring Tom Holland as Nathan Drake, a young adventurer who is a fountain of knowledge of lore about ancient explorers and where they may have buried their treasures, and Mark Wahlberg as Victor "Sully" Sullivan, a more hardened fortune hunter who needs Nathan's help to find some of Magellan's lost gold from the time he tried to sail around the world. Read that sentence again. It should tell you everything you need to know about whether this movie is for you or not.

In my case, I was all in. I love me some Tom Holland (Wahlberg, less so, but Holland has enough charisma to carry everyone in this movie), and this movie felt like a breezy Bond film, with plenty of rooftop chases in foreign locales, some dubious women who may or may not be trustworthy (both Tati Gabrielle and Sophia Ali show up as fun characters for these men to tangle with as the plot proceeds), and ultimately, a Da Vince Code-esque treasure hunt that requires both brains and brawn.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, this movie will deliver action, laughs, and good times. Some of the plot twists you'll see coming from a mile away, but overall, it is well-produced, well-acted, and just oodles of fun. This feels like a summer movie that has been released in February to save us all as we weather snow squalls and wait for spring. So grab some popcorn and indulge in some wonderful escapism: it's what Hollywood does best.