X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Just because I can't go to a theater doesn't mean I'm going to spend the whole summer without a typical summer movie! This one may have been the most popular superhero flick I hadn't seen yet, which, at this point, isn't saying much.

Most of the action takes place in 1983, a decade after most of the action in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which came out only two years earlier. The world at large has only recently discovered superpowered mutants, but it turns out that they predate civilization; they just became more common in the last century. One (Oscar Isaac) who would eventually go by "Apocalypse" had reigned as a god-king many times over, destroying nations when he saw fit, but an uprising in ancient Egypt resulted in him being buried and comatose for more than 5,000 years. It's not entirely clear what wakes him -- maybe a cosmic phenomenon or the mysticism of an inexplicable present cult -- but soon after, he decides the whole world is long overdue for a cleansing. No, he doesn't have halfway-noble reasons; he believes that the strong should rule. It doesn't take long for telepathic Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) to notice something's off, but while his school's students and staff are powerful, they haven't been training in combat for some time. They can barely be called X-Men. And the ensuing struggle is nothing to phone in.

Spy (2015)

I surprised myself by watching this. Not only do I rarely like modern comedies anymore, but spy parodies are too easy and overdone. Still, it had been a while: Get Smart had its final adaptation in 2008, the last Austin Powers entry was in 2002, and James Bond hasn't felt like a self-parody since Die Another Day. More than that, I must have been in the mood for something female-centered (however tomboyish) after so many masculine works, and the fairly high marks across all major ratings sites got me curious.

Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) provides remote tech support to the CIA's answer to Bond, Bradley Fine (Jude Law), from a vermin-infested basement. When an enemy in contact with Fine, Rayna (Rose Byrne), reveals knowledge of him and several other spies, Susan volunteers to enter the field as an unknown, with friend Nancy (Miranda Hart) doing for her what Susan did for Fine. Her mission is strictly track-and-report, but since only Rayna knows the location of an ill-gotten nuke, Susan reluctantly sees fit to do a bit more for Rayna's protection. A further complicating factor is rogue CIA agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham), who places a million times more faith in his own skills than in Susan's, but his contribution has mixed results. (Gee, a lot of British agents work for the U.S.)

Adam (2009)

As soon as I heard "Asperger" in the trailer, I wanted to see this movie. That's right: I apparently have the syndrome and thus take interest in these things. This may sound strange to those who know how bored I've gotten with literary accounts by Aspergians, but movies rely more heavily on plot. In this case, it's a romantic drama that looks a bit like an indie.

Adam is a 29-year-old space-loving engineer whose widowed dad dies in the beginning, requiring him to grow up some more. Soon he bumps into a new apartment neighbor, Beth, who could use a little assistance while settling in. Despite his social ineptitude -- literal-mindedness, brutal honesty, self-absorption, introversion, emotional tone-deafness -- she finds him kind of sweet and attractive. The path from there is cute but very bumpy, with further complications as Beth's dad goes on trial for an offense that wasn't entirely clear to me.