Opinion

Directed by Jonathan Levine (“Warm Bodies,” “50/50”) and written by Katie Dippold (“Ghostbusters”), “Snatched” does absolutely nothing new or special — or better than good, for that matter — but it does what a comedy should: make you laugh.

Watsonville mayor's update, July 2017

"Dunkirk” is director Christopher Nolan’s 10th feature film and it is without a doubt his most fresh and innovative piece of storytelling. There’s not much dialogue, the characters — in terms of background, depth and personality — are underdeveloped and t

The second movie of a spinoff series in “The Conjuring” universe about a killer demonic doll, “Annabelle: Creation” is far and away better than the first entry, which debuted in 2014 and gave me one of the best 1-hour-and-40-minute, movie-theater naps I’ve ever taken. The scares are OK, the writing is better and — thank God — tighter than the first and the overall story is good enough to keep you guessing at least for the first third.

Daniel Craig recently signed on to return as James Bond for the 25th installment of the iconic film franchise. I love Craig as Bond — he’s without a doubt my favorite Bond — but after watching him in “Logan Lucky” that news has me a bit sad. Craig absolutely crushes it as the aptly named Joe Bang in director Steven Soderbergh’s return to the heist film genre and his performance has me itching to see him continue to branch out in different roles. I definitely want him to leave the Bond franchise on a good note — and we all know that “Spectre” was far from good — but I’d much rather see the 49-year-old chase interesting and wacky roles like Joe Bang the rest of his career.

Relying on its humor and wacky yet grounded performances, the Thor franchise has finally found its true voice with Waititi's “Ragnarok.” The two previous installments in the franchise felt like bland films merely there to setup future occurrences in the M.C.U. but the third decides to go in a completely different direction, ditching its Tolkien-esque approach to the god of thunder and instead embracing a whimsical cosmic adventure feel with plenty of funky visuals.

As the year comes to end, I want to take a moment to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season. I also want to share some of the county’s major initiatives we’ve been working on during the past year.