The Rum Diary

Indie, Comedy
4.5 stars
Very good film starring Johnny Depp who is hired as a journalist in Puerto Rico in 1960. Part comedy and part drama. The film covers the underbelly of San Juan including cock fighting, dirty dealing developers and dangerous locals. But it was a very interesting few weeks as Depp finds different ways to get himself into trouble. Aaron Eckhart, Giovanni Ribisi and Richard Jenkins costar. Good movie.

Margin Call

Indie, Drama
5 stars
Very well done portrayal of the day the house of cards fell on Wall Street with Mortgage Backed Securities. During a very tense 36 hours we watch as an investment firm struggles with both the moral and financial dilemmas they must face as they try to decide how to handle the situation. Includes an impressive cast of Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany Zachary Quinto (Star Trek 2009), Jeremy Irons, Simon Baker, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci. Excellent film.

The Three Musketeers

Action, Comedy
3.5 stars
Cute, but not as good as I’d hoped. A brash young kid (Logan Lehman who was the title character in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief, as well as the indie My One and Only) goes on an adventure with the famed musketeers to try to prevent a war between England and France. The costuming and the setting at Versailles were lush and opulent. However, the aerial scenes looked phony, like the landscaping that goes with those fancy miniature train sets. The characters were enjoyable, especially Freddie Fox as the flamboyant King Louis the XIII of France, as well as James Corden who played the musketeers’ chubby sidekick. Christoph Waltz and Orlando Bloom also co-star. The plot felt thin – I thought the whole story with the diamond necklace was a stretch. I also thought the brash young kid looked like a girl – though I really liked him My One & Only. I’m also not a fan on Milla Jovovich with her 17th century Mission Impossible-type antics. Despite my nitpicky complaints, it was a fun, frivolous film.

Footloose (2011)

Drama, Dancing
3 stars
Cute remake which follows the original very closely. The first film had much better actors, but the new version has better dancing – too bad we couldn’t have both. For those who weren’t around when the original came out: a city boy moves to a strict religious small farming town where public dancing became prohibited after a tragic accident. Kenny Wormald stars as Ren, Julianne Hough plays sexy rebel Ariel, and Dennis Quaid plays her preacher father. I liked the amiable Miles Teller as Ren’s buddy. Scene by scene this film is faithful to the original with only 3 minor deviations: 1) the location is set in Georgia and Ren hails from Boston, rather than the original’s Midwestern locale with Ren arriving from Chicago 2) that crazy tractor racing scene was changed to souped-up school buses and 3) the tragic accident that defined the town is played out for the audience. Even many of the original songs were used, which surprised me. Cute but corny movie with lots of dancing.

Killer Elite

Action
3.5 stars
An exciting “guy movie” starring Jason Statham as an assassin forced to avenge the deaths of an Oman sheik’s three sons. The three killers Statham must kill are in a branch of the UK Special Forces called the SAS (Special Air Service). Clive Owen plays an ex-SAS who wants to know who is killing off his former colleagues. Robert De Niro co-stars as Statham’s mentor. The story is a little complicated with many characters (I got two who looked similar confused) and the location bounces back and forth from Australia to Oman to London to Paris. Jim loved it.

The Big Year

Comedy
3.5 stars
Enjoyable film about “birders” –they don’t like to be called “bird watchers”. Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin are all avian enthusiasts who compete against one another to win a contest of who sees the greatest number of bird species within a year’s time. Owen Wilson plays the smug reigning champ, Martin plays a NYC tycoon who retires to live his dreams and Jack Black sees this contest as a way to make a name for himself. Despite starring three well known comics, this is not a slapstick, falling down, silly comedy, although they do try to trip each other up from time to time. It’s a nice story of three men from differing backgrounds with their own sets of baggage and obligations who share a passion for birding. It also opens our eyes to the world of competitive birding. An interesting film based on a true story.

The Way

Indie, Drama
5 stars
Excellent film starring Martin Sheen who after learning that his son died on the first day of a 400 kilometer hike across northern Spain, decides to carry his ashes on the journey his son had planned. The hike is a pilgrimage called Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James where people journey for their own personal reasons to arrive at a cathedral, Santiago de Compostela, where it is believed St. James’s remains are interred. Sheen’s character is a grumpy old man who wants to be left alone, but he reluctantly takes on three travel companions: a jovial Dutchman, an odd Irishman, and Canadian woman with a chip on her shoulder. The scenery is gorgeous, the story is poignant and the characters are quirky. Emilio Estevez produced, directed, and wrote the screen version of the story, as well as appearing in the film as Sheen’s son. Excellent, excellent film.

Ides of March, The

Drama
3.5 stars
Decent, but not as good as I expected. Ryan Gosling stars as a deputy campaign manager for George Clooney’s run for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency. It starts out really slow with typical campaign stuff, gets interesting when the double crossing begins, but then ends a little ambiguously. Co-stars include Evan Rachel Wood as Gosling’s love interest, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Gosling’s boss, Paul Giamatti as the campaign manager for Clooney’s opponent, and Marisa Tomei as a reporter. Wait for cable.

50/50

Comedy, Dry
4 stars
Very good movie, as long as you don’t mind Seth Rogen playing his usual lewd and crude self obsessed with getting laid. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a regular guy living a healthy lifestyle when he learns his back pains are caused by spinal cancer. His best friend Seth Rogen tries to cheer him up, his Mom, Angelica Huston, drives him nuts and his psychologist, Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), is woefully inexperienced. Although it's a comedy, this film still treats cancer with sensitivity and tact as you root for Gordon-Levitt, a young man whose future may be cut way too short. Well done.