Once again Max (a Jack Russell Terrier), and his sidekick, Duke (Newfoundland mix), take viewers on a journey into secret pet world. In this film, Max faces a potentially radical life change: his owner Katie gets married and has a child, Liam. Originally unsure about how Liam’s coming on the scene will affect him, Max prepares for the worst. Only to have Liam love him as much as Katie does.

On a family trip to his grandparents’ farm, Max meets Rooster, a Welsh Sheepdog, who teaches Max lessons that will help in the countryside and beyond.

Before leaving, Max leaves his favorite toy with his pal, Gidget (a Pomeranian) for safekeeping. But the toy bounces out the window into a cat-packed apartment. She has to figure out how to get it back. Snowball (a rabbit) visits a circus and decides to free an unfairly treated white tiger named Hu.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 has the same characters featured in the start-of-the-art 3D animation which made the original film a success. But it has more plots than you’d see in a two-hour drama. The market for this film is children; however, I have to wonder if they want to see all of this on-screen busyness.

There’s a star-studded cast providing the voices: Patton Oswalt, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Dana Carvey, Bobby Moynihan, and Harrison Ford. Kevin Hart’s voice just doesn’t fit the little white rabbit named Snowball.  Maybe a Pitbull. But not a small bunny.

As I have said before I don’t understand why studios spend bundles hiring big name stars to do the voices. Kids don’t care. The characters’ voice can be from unknown performers.

Ultimately, The Secret Life of Pets 2 provides the visual stimulation and characters that viewers would like to see, and it musters a See It! rating.

It’s rated PG and is 86 minutes in length.

42 is the saga of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color barrier and becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball. Chadwick Boseman plays Robinson.

Veteran actor, Harrison Ford stars as Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager who signed Robinson.

Nicole Beharie is featured as Robinson's biggest fan and wife, Rachel.

42 is a stimulating, historic, well-produced, and directed movie and it gets our highest rating: See It!.

While the cast is strong, Chadwick Boseman lacks the on-screen presence to succeed in the leading role. He's overshadowed by Harrison Ford in every scene they share. Boseman is even minimized by Nicole Beharie when they are on camera together. It's a combination of Boseman's weak persona and stellar performances of Ford and Beharie.

While much praise has been given to Branch Rickey for his courageous move in signing Robinson, 42 touches briefly on one of Rickey's primary motivations: economics. Urban areas where most major league teams played, had large black communities who stayed away from the segregated major leagues. Signing black players was one way to get those communities to come to games.

The movie focuses upon the racism faced by Robinson but also taught subtle lessons on bigotry. In one scene, a father and son sat excited in their anticipation of seeing the Dodgers play their home team. When Robison was introduced, the father along with other adults began calling the Dodger rookie the "N" word. The boy seemed a bit confused at first. But then soon joined in the slurring of Robinson. The kid had just learned to be a racist.

The film also references the fact that some players threatened to leave the league rather play with Robinson.

One final point, the baseball scenes are well staged, so sports fans won't be disappointed.

42 is rated PG-13 and is less than 2 hours. And again it's a See It.

What's The 411 Celebrity Guest List

This What's The 411TV promo video is a slice of video interviews that were conducted by the "411" team for our flagship television show, What's The 411. The video consists of the following celebrated personalities:
Jamie Foxx
Denzel Washington
Kerry Washington
Halle Berry
Regina King
Mos Def
Alicia Keys