Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last week and THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch yourself!

Wknd Box Office: The Magnificent Seven, Queen of Katwe, Storks, The Hollars

By Debbie Schlussel

Unfortunately, the best new movie in theaters today is very politically correct and racist (it kills off ALL of the White heroes). Even more unfortunate, there are themes of political correctness, anti-White racism, and/or Black supremacism running through virtually every new movie.

* The Magnificent Seven – Rated PG-13: The first thing you need to know about this very politically correct movie is that ALL three of the White Magnificent Seven members are killed off by the end of this movie. Only the minorities survive. Oh, and also, the movie’s villain is also White (as is his large band of mercenary thugs–where’s da diversity?), and he’s an evil businessman/real estate developer. Always gotta insert that gratuitous, hypocritical Hollywood faux-hate of capitalism in the plot line. Plus, this movie is incredibly violent and bloody–much more than I expected, especially for a PG-13 flick. Still, despite all of that, I mostly liked the movie. That’s also despite its running time of two hours and 12 minutes.
But would it have killed them to write a movie in which at least ONE of the White Magnificent Seven lives??? This movie gets the Colin Kaepernick Black Racist Seal of Approval.
There have been several remakes of what was originally Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s truly magnificent “The Seven Samurai,” including a 1998 CBS TV series co-starring my high school friend Rick Worthy. But most Americans remember the best “remake” to be the original English language version, the 1960 “The Magnificent Seven” movie, in which a Mexican village requests the help of the White Magnificent Seven.
In this movie, a White town requests the help of a mostly minority Magnificent Seven–led by a Black guy (Denzel Washington) and also comprised of an American Indian, er . . . “Native American,” a Mexican, a Chinese dude, and three White guys (Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D’Onofrio. It’s unlikely that really would have happened in the 1800s Old West, the setting for this “update.”
Also, in this movie, there isn’t always stark good-versus-evil, at least at the beginning. Chris Pratt kills one or two gamblers who rip him off, and he shoots a guy’s ear off. (Of course, it’s a White member of the Magnificent Seven who does these things.) Though, this is before he joins the “Seven.”
The story: an evil White real estate developer from Sacramento (played by ultra-left-wing America-hater Peter Sarsgaard) terrorizes the people of a small town and murders some of them in cold blood–all because he wants their land at a cheap price. The wife of one of the men who is killed hires Denzel Washington and his band of six other men to come to town and fight off the real estate developer and his band of mostly White thugs (there is one exception–he has an American Indian thug, Denali, but other than that–the rest of his bad guys, which number in the hundreds, are all White).
The Magnificent Seven come to town and train the townspeople to shoot and fight. And then they help the people fight off the bad guys. But their battle is bloody, and they’ve been forewarned that many people will die.
As I watched the battle and saw the three White Magnificent Seven (plus the Chinese one) get killed, I thought, “Wow, there isn’t a lot of room for the sequel here.” But, then, I realized that White people are disposable, and they can be recast. My mind was also screaming . . .
White Magnificent Seven Lives Matter!
Just not in this racist, politically-correct movie.
Still, I love a good western, and this movie wasn’t bad as far as that goes–despite all the racist, PC baloney.
So I give it . . .
TWO REAGANS PLUS TWO COLIN KAEPERNICK RACIST SEALS OF APPROVAL

Watch the trailer . . .

* Queen of Katwe – Rated PG: Hmmm . . . since nearly half of the greatest chess players of all time were/are Jews, when I think of chess champions I think of Uganda. Don’t you? Of course, that’s the absurd conceit (and deceit) of this movie, even though the movie is ultimately uplifting after moving very slowly for the first half. Also, FYI, when I think of Uganda, I think of their late Muslim leader, Idi Amin, and the Muslim hostage-taking of Jews who were held and terrorized in Entebbe, NOT chess.
Also, I was horrified that a Disney movie aimed at and heavily marketed to kids–especially Black kids–repeatedly features a child prostitute who gets pregnant. And it doesn’t exactly look down on her and her exploits much. Walt Disney is turning over in his grave.
The movie goes out of its way to downplay, minimize, and whitewash the role of Christianity in the story. And, since mostly Americans and Brits play the main characters, they go out of their way to overdo their “Ugandan” accents, making it hard to understand them and what they are saying for most of the first half of the movie. The first half of the movie is also slow and boring, and the movie doesn’t really heat up and get interesting until half way through, when the chess competitions get going.
“Based on a real-life story,” this is about a Ugandan girl, Phiona Mutesi, who becomes Uganda’s first chess master, and ultimately plays and beats chess champions all over Uganda and internationally. She and the other kids in the movie live in an extremely poor ghetto of Katwe in Uganda. They are destitute. A local community organizer (really a man working for a local Christian church ministry) is a chess player and coach. He reaches out and teaches them chess. Ultimately they beat the stock Hollywood-cast snobby rich kids. But the star is Phiona. She is so good that she beats the top Ugandans and goes to international competitions. Her dream is to become a chess “master.”
Phiona’s father died, and her mother (Lupita Nyong’o) is a single mother because of that. She’s struggling to survive, and so she is skeptical of Phiona’s chess aspirations. Phiona’s sister is a teen prostitute who takes money for sex, dresses like a whore, and eventually becomes pregnant by one of the men. I was disappointed that this darkness (and other darkness–Phiona’s home, an old church, is completely flooded like a river and they lose everything) was in a Disney kids’ movie. It wasn’t necessary.
The coach, played by David Oyelowo, is actually a Christian minister, but you’d be hard-pressed to know that because–as I’ve noted–Disney mostly washed that out of this ultimately inspiring and uplifting story. The only hint of it is that in one scene you can see the van he drove has a barely-visible cross and the name “ministry” on it.
The kids in the movie are very cute and funny. And eventually the story is uplifting and inspires ambition. I liked that message of empowering one’s self and taking personal responsibility to get out of poverty. But, let’s be real: Uganda ain’t known for its chess champions, despite what the movie wants you to think.
HALF A REAGAN PLUS TWO MICHELLE LAVAUGHN ROBINSON HUSSEIN OBAMA IDI AMIN DADAS PLUS TWO COLIN KAEPERNICK RACIST SEALS OF APPROVAL

Watch the trailer . . .

* Storks – Rated PG: This dumb, cockamamie “kids” movie was soooooo incredibly annoying. And the very stupid story looked like it was slapped together by a two-year-old (with apologies to two-year-olds for the comparison with the writers of this crappy waste of time). In an era–and in a year–when there are so many far-superior animated kids’ movies, this falls stunningly flat. It also highlights the lack of good, original story-telling that apparently befuddles so many in Hollywood. I was surprised at the silliness of this movie. Plus it is very slow and very boring. The animation is fine, but nothing outstanding. Just the basics that we’ve already come to expect, given today’s technology. Pixar this ain’t. Not even close.
The “story” (if you can call it that): storks used to deliver babies to new parents. But it was too hard, and they had so many near-accidents. So, now, they are out of that business and into something else. Today, the storks are delivery men for a giant Amazon.com-like company, called “CornerStore.com.” The main character stork in the movie is about to be promoted to “boss” by the CEO stork. But, first, he has to attend to the orphan girl who lives in the company’s facility in the sky. She’s left over from the days of when the storks used to deliver newborns. Unfortunately, the girl and the stork accidentally set off the old factory machinery from those days, and a new baby is delivered.
The rest of the movie basically follows the stork and the orphan girl trying to brave the elements and other obstacles in order to deliver the baby to its family. (The cutest–and only interesting–scene is when the two are trying to escape a very smart and resourceful pack of wolves.) Meanwhile, the orphan girl longs to find her own family and be united with them, after all these years. And, at the same time, a “Valley Guy-esque” stool pigeon is telling on them to the CEO because the pigeon wants to be boss instead of the stork. While all of this is going on, a young boy wants a baby brother because his real estate agent parents are neglectful and devoted to their jobs instead of him. So, he begins building a giant amusement-park on the family home’s roof, in order to attract a delivery stork.
At the end of the movie, the storks accidentally set off the baby factory, and thousands of kids pop out. So the storks have to deliver them to their families. This is exactly when I thought to myself, “here’s where the political correctness starts and we see gay families and so on getting deliveries.” Sure enough, Hollywood never disappoints the PC crowd. You see all-female and all-male couples getting baby deliveries. Soooo predictable.
The first ex-Mrs. Brad Pitt (Jennifer Aniston) and Andy Samberg voice characters in this movie. I’m not a fan of either.
Believe me, I’m making this dumb story sound far better than it is. This is a snoozer, and pointless. But kids will probably love the colors.
ONE-AND-A-HALF MARXES

Watch the trailer . . .

* The Hollars – Rated PG-13: Oy vey. Directed by and starring John Krasinski, this movie is HORRIBLE! Absolutely awful. High quality Gitmo torture material and 1.5 hours of my life I’ll never get back. Who on earth would pay ten-bucks-plus to see this? Only a sucker or a dupe. They’d have to pay me a lot to see this again. Yuck. And it’s incredibly depressing.
Make no mistake: this movie is a deliberate and loud attack on middle American life by snobby Hollywood elitist creeps. (And it’s also, sub rosa, an attack on the lives of average White Americans, too.)
The story: Krasinski plays a guy living in New York trying to “live the dream.” But it turns out he’s not exactly living the dream and isn’t happy with his life. That comes out after he returns home to the small town from which he came to see his family. He learns that his mother has had a seizure because of a brain tumor and she must get immediate surgery to remove it. He also learns that his father’s business is about to go bankrupt and has been losing money, that the family is completely broke, and that his divorced-dad brother is living in his parents basement and lost his job in the family business. The father is a dopey, infantilized, incompetent fool. On top of that, they don’t know how they’re going to pay for their mother’s surgery. And they worry that she won’t survive the operation. But, other than that, GUH-REAT! movie.
Oh, wait. I forgot that Krasinski’s girlfriend (Anna Kendrick) is pregnant, but he really doesn’t think he wants to be a father or to marry the girlfriend. His career is basically non-existent, though, and he’s being “floated” by her financially, as she is very rich. Still, he realizes his life ain’t so bad compared to that of his family in “red state” G-d’s country. Virtually everyone in the small town is a “lesser than” and either a jerk or backward or something.
Shame on Josh Groban for co-starring in this garbage. Also, I’m not sure how this avoided an R-rating. Standards have clearly disintegrated.
I couldn’t stand this movie from the beginning, and each time when I thought it couldn’t get any worse or more boring and depressing, it got worse, more boring, and even more depressing. This is absolute crap. And that’s an understatement. I hated the veiled, sneering, arrogant, and smug politics of this. And I just hated this in every other way, too. Who needs this? Not me. And definitely not you. This movie is so bad that it won awards at all the major movie festivals. That’s how it works. Crap rises to the top.
Pointless trash. Avoid like the plague.
FOUR MARXES PLUS A COLIN KAEPERNICK RACIST SEAL OF APPROVAL

Watch the trailer . . .

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Weekend Box Office: 2 Guns

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last week and THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch yourself!

Weekend Box Office: 2 Guns

By Debbie Schlussel

It’s August, the pet cemetery where Hollywood sends all crappy movies to die. And that’s why this first August weekend of a very lackluster summer at the movies brings you “2 Guns” at the movies.

2 Guns is a hackneyed, predictable, cop buddy movie, and it’s not even as good as “Tango and Cash.” I felt like I was back in the ’80s, as it has the tired anti-American plot that used to populate such movies back then, in which the “evil” Reagan Administration’s CIA allowed drug dealers to fly drugs into America in exchange for pay-offs. Yes, no Reagan in this movie, but same difference (whether or not Obama is Prez, which isn’t referenced in this movie). It’s also got a stereotypical White South male (with a thick Southern accent, in case you didn’t get it) as its murderous CIA agent chief villain (Bill Paxton). Yup, same old yawnworthy Hollywood with its typical anti-American crap. No thanks. On, top of that, it’s extremely violent, bloody, and just unbelievable.

Oh, and add to that, a blatant statement on the “plight” of “poor” Mexican illegal aliens who are “forced” to smuggle themselves into the United States over harsh terrain at the border, while trying to evade the evil Border Patrol. Hey, just in time for amnesty. In one scene, a Mexican drug lord tells a DEA agent and US Army intelligence agent that they must go back to America “the way you force my people to go there.” Huh? We “force” illegal aliens to violate the law and sneak into our borders under cover of night? Thanks for the tip, Edward James Olmos (who plays drug kingpin Papi Greco).

The “story”: Denzel Washington is an undercover DEA agent trying to set up another guy (Mark Wahlberg) to rob a bank containing $3 million in drug money deposited by drug kingpin Olmos. Mark Wahlberg is an undercover U.S. Army intelligence agent trying to set up another guy (Washington) to do the same. Neither knows the other is an undercover agent, though they eventually find out. But not before they rob the bank and find over $43 million in the safety deposit boxes, not the $3 million. It turns out each has been set up and betrayed by his own agency and a corrupt DEA agent (Washington’s love, Paula Patton) and a corrupt Army commander (James Marsden) have been colluding with each other against them. Also, a vicious CIA agent, who is killing and torturing lots of people is looking for that money and plays Russian roulette on people’s crotches and knees. Or just kills them.

A couple other things: Wahlberg’s commanding officer told him to murder Washington, knowing he is a DEA agent, and then sets out to kill Wahlberg, too, to leave no witnesses. Wahlberg and Washington break into a military base, and Wahlberg gets to the base’s commanding officer to tell on his superior who set him up and ruined his military career. But the commanding officer tells him he won’t help because it will make the Army look bad. Yup, another anti-military movie by Hollywood. Shocker. Both Wahlberg and Washington have been to visit troops overseas (with Washington also giving a lot of money to help our wounded warriors), and it’s kinda hypocritical when they then turn around and make this kind of crap. Connect the dots, guys.

I just can’t recommend this movie. And, so, for the reasons given, I give it . . .

TWO-AND-A-HALF MARXES PLUS TWO OBAMAS PLUS TWO BIN LADENS

Wknd Box Office: Flight, The Sessions, The Bay, The Details

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last weekand THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!

Wknd Box Office: Flight, The Sessions, The Bay, The Details


By Debbie Schlussel



Two movies that were okay this weekend, two that were absolutely horrible. I did not see “Wreck-It Ralph,” as the critics’ screening was on the Jewish Sabbath, but I may see it later this weekend and post a review later.


* “Flight“: This movie was extremely depressing, though it has a very redemptive message at the end, so I had mixed feelings about it. I could have done without the gratuitous, unnecessary full-frontal nudity of an airline stewardess, er . . . flight attendant for several minutes at the beginning of the movie. Yup, you guessed it. This movie is a hard “R” for nudity, language, and drug usage. It ain’t for kids. Oh, and I didn’t care for the scene mocking religious Christians in a hospital room. Sadly, that is standard fare in Hollywood, as we know.



We’ve all seen movies about alcoholics and drug addicts and how they ruin everyone’s lives around them, plus their own. That isn’t new ground here, and the melodramatics and walking wreck of an addict are depressing. So, is the pilot’s co-dependent relationship with an addict who wants to get clean, ground which also isn’t novel. But this movie mixes that with action/adventure, as a faulty, defective airplane is in mid-air and the flight’s captain, who is hopped up on drugs and alcohol does what most sober ones could not and lands the plane. It’s also mixed with intrigue–will the pilot get caught, or will he get away with it.



Denzel Washington is a great actor no matter the role. And he’s superb here as the alcoholic, drug-addicted pilot. He lands his plane in an amazing feat by flying it upside down and pulling all kinds of moves out of his playbook when the plane is defective and essentially loses all of its important functions in mid-air during a storm. But as we know, they take blood samples from the pilots after crashes. And while he’s hailed in the media as a hero, he knows a different sort of infamy is impending, or is it?



The movie is entertaining and riveting. You won’t be bored by this fast-moving flick. But I’m not sure I’d enjoy myself, spending ten bucks and over two hours’ time watching such depressing stuff, even knowing that there is repentance and redemption and the messages the movie sends are good ones in the end. Remember, this isn’t a happy movie. It’s very sad.



Also stars John Goodman (who is funny, per usual), an aged Bruce Greenwood, and Don Cheadle. Don’t drink too much liquid before this movie. It’s nearly 2.5 hours long, though it flies by.



TWO-AND-A-HALF REAGANS

* “The Sessions“: Watching this movie, I was reminded how uncreative the forces of Hollywood are these days. When they can’t come up with yet another remake or sequel, they, instead, look for the most deviant and uncomfortably odd stories that fall starkly in the TMI category and parade it as high brow. The mainstream liberal media movie critics are gushing over this disgusting, creepy waste of time. People who praise this weird porno flick are pretentious frauds.



In this movie allegedly based on a true story, John Hawkes plays Mark O’Brien, who was paralyzed as a kid after he suffered from polio. He is paralyzed from the neck down and survives mostly in an iron lung. Living in Berkeley, California in 1998, O’Brien gets permission from his Catholic priest (William H. Macy) to hire a “sex therapist” (a hifalutin’ phrase for what she really is: hooker) so he can lose his virginity. The movie was filled with gross sex jokes and the absolutely unattractive full frontal nudity of Helen Hunt, who plays the married sex therapist (and does a horrible version of a Salem, Massachusetts accent . . . or something). Oh, and I love how Judaism is forced onto this icky story. Hunt, who is a lapsed Catholic (and attacks the religious Catholic upbringing of her new “customer,” O’Brien), is married to a Jewish man with tattoos, played by Adam Arkin. She discusses how she is converting to Judaism for her husband. But, in real life, it’s more likely that a man would be more concerned with his wife’s profession as a prostitute than with her converting to Judaism. Here’s a tip: her job ain’t permitted in my religion, nor are tattoos. So, I was sickened when they showed this homely skank bathing in the mikvah [Jewish ritual bath, where men and women go to be purified]. But the rest of the movie is even more sickening and bizarre.



I’m sure I’m the only movie critic who will have the guts and honesty to say so. The rest will only continue to drool over this warped flick as if it’s noble. It is not. I feel bad for those who are disabled, and I know I’m lucky I’m not in their shoes. But my sympathy and empathy for them doesn’t mean I must endure and applaud this distasteful, depraved movie in some sort of aberrant “celebration” of the disabled.



FOUR MARXES


* “The Bay“: You’ve seen plenty of this type of movie. A fictional documentary-style movie with shaky video, showing us how a mysterious virus and bug-like creatures invade the bodies of people living in and visiting a Maryland seaside town. There’s nothing new here, but it’s slightly entertaining, if very slow moving. It isn’t that scary, either, for a thriller of this genre. Director Barry Levinson made this, so I expected maybe a little bit better. They never really explain why the virus struck or the oversized bug-like organisms. It seems like merely an attack on corporate America, as the characters in the movie imply that the disaster has something to do with chicken plants dumping chicken parts and chicken fecal material in the water. I felt like I’d seen a million far superior versions of this movie. It’s a highly derivative, boring rehash.



HALF A REAGAN



* “The Details“: Oy vey. I can’t believe I sat through this crappy movie. Toby Maguire and Elizabeth Banks are a shallow upper middle class couple who illegally remodel their house, after the city refuses to issue them a permit. Maguire also cheats on his wife with his married friend (Kerry Washington). Because of these two things, Maguire’s life is turned upside down, after he is blackmailed and seduced by his wacky next-door neighbor (Laura Linney) and loses $70,000, after being blackmailed by the husband (Ray Liotta) of the wife with whom he cheated. Believe me, I’m making this absolute piece of excrement sound far better than it is. It’s excruciatingly awful. A horrible movie that tries very hard to be cutesy and offbeat, but not hard at all at being a good movie, having a good story, or any semblance of a plot. Also stars Dennis Haysbert. And the point of this movie is . . . ? Nothing, other than taking ten bucks and 1.5 hours of your life you’ll never get back. High-quality Gitmo torture material.



Skip this.



FOUR MARXES

Wknd Box Office: Safe House, The Vow, W.E., Journey 2: Mysterious Island

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/  reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post some of the movies from last week and  THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed!  This all  follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!




Wknd Box Office: Safe House, The Vow, W.E., Journey 2: Mysterious Island

By Debbie Schlussel



Incredible but true, I actually didn’t hate any of the new movies in theaters, today. But, two of them, I really liked.















* “Safe House“: To my surprise, I really liked this (though I do really like Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds as actors). When, at the beginning of this movie, they describe rogue CIA operative Denzel Washington as first going off the reservation when he was believed to have leaked information to the Mossad, I wondered if this will be your typical Hollywood leftist anti-Israel fest. I wondered the same again when quick flashes of documents on a giant CIA projection screen show emblems of the Mossad and the Government of Israel. But, thankfully, it turned out not to be. In fact,without giving away movie spoilers, Washington’s dealings with Israeli intelligence turn out to be the thing that saves the day, in the end. While it’s vague positive stuff on Israel, from Hollywood that’s a big deal, since it’s usually the same old anti-Israel crap.



Even better is that the main bad guy you constantly see chasing after Washington–and who finally gets his–is very obviously, visibly an Arab. I was shocked that PC Hollywood would do this. Sure, in the credits, the guy is listed as “Vargas,” but he’s played by a Lebanese actor named Fares Fares. I smiled as the old Jewish couple behind me clapped and loudly cheered both times this guy gets shot. Glad to see that not all of my fellow co-religionists have turned left and Islamopologist. (Who was that Jewish couple? If you’re reading this, e-mail me!)




Washington is Tobin Frost, the CIA’s most legendary and skilled agent. He’s been off the grid and a rogue agent wanted by the CIA for the past ten years. He just bought a computer file of some sort from a former colleague and friend who is former MI6. And suddenly a group of Arab-looking and other men with machine guns are chasing and trying to kill him. He’s in South Africa and, when he sees no way out from their pursuit, he sees the U.S. Embassy and turns himself in to save his life.



Ryan Reynolds is a rookie CIA agent who is a “housekeeper.” He spends all day maintaining a CIA safe house in South Africa, but after nearly a year of this and lying to his girlfriend about what he does for a living, he’s bored to tears waiting for a “guest” to be interrogated and yearning for action in the field. That day comes when a CIA interrogation team brings Washington/Frost to the safe house and all hell breaks loose. There’s a mole in the system, and everyone’s getting killed.



I could have done without the waterboarding scene and references to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being waterboarded, as if that’s supposed to make me think this is torture or feel bad for the mastermind of the 9/11 mass murder of 3,000 Americans. But other than that, I enjoyed the thrilling, non-stop action and suspense throughout. It’s my kinda movie–intrigue, guns, shooting, explosions, car chases, etc. Definitely NOT a chick flick.



The ending is sort of predictable, but you’ll like the movie anyway. It’s very violent and bloody and not for kids. But it’s one of the “good guys win” movies of which we’re in short supply these days. And, like I said, Israel is the good guy, even if it’s by vague reference. Given the state of Hollywood these days, I’ll take it and laugh as HAMAS CAIR and the other Muslim grievance theater actors whine.



THREE REAGANS





* “The Vow“:  Finally, Hollywood makes a movie in which the guy/husband is a mensch–the kind of guy all American men should be (even if he is sort of a hipster).  While I did feel that this movie was kind of manipulative, I still recommend it enthusiastically.  It’s a great date movie and the kind of chick flick which guys will find very bearable.  I really liked this, despite a few instances of unnecessary melodrama and a vague, sub-rosa element of class warfare.  If you liked Channing Tatum in “Dear John” (read my review), then you will definitely like this.  He plays a similar type of “classy guy” romantic lead role.



Based on a true story, the very hot Channing Tatum plays a Chicago husband whose sculptor/artist wife (Rachel McAdams) suffers a concussion in a car accident. When she wakes up from a coma, she cannot remember him and has regressed back to the time when she was still in law school, living with her wealthy family in Lake Forest, and was engaged to a previous boyfriend (Scott Speedman). As she is challenged to recover her memory, Tatum must win her back all over again, since she not only can’t remember him, but doesn’t feel attracted to him.



The couple is a hipster/artsy couple living in downtown Chicago, but McAdams character came from a very preppy, wealthy suburban family. There is a subrosa class warfare thing going on in which the parents are “evil, wealthy” parents, while McAdams’ character was living without health insurance and voted for Obama. I didn’t need that part.



But, otherwise, it’s really romantic–though not in your typical saccharine or unrealistic Hollywood kind of way. And I found it enjoyable and entertaining. The husband in the movie is really very heroic and puts up with a lot, whereas the female is kind of bitchy. You almost never see this dynamic in the movies, even though that’s the way it is, many times, in real life.



THREE REAGANS



* “W.E.“: I didn’t hate this Madonna-directed (and co-written) vehicle like most of the mainstream liberal movie critics. While it is a bit disjointed and the camera moves way too much in the first third or so of the movie, I liked the dynamic of the modern story connected with the older story of the romance between Wallace Simpson and King Edward, who everyone knows gave up the throne to marry her, a commoner divorcee. And that’s even though I believe the Wallace Simpson/King Edward story has been done to death and isn’t all that important or fascinating. But, guys, you will not like this. So stay home or see “Safe House,” instead. This is a disjointed chick flick.



I could have done without some of the melodrama in the relationship between Wally Winthrop (Abby Cornish)–the modern-day admirer of Wallace Simpson, who daily visits the Sotheby’s exhibition of Simpson’s jewelry and belongings about to go up for auction–and her psychiatrist husband. And I could have done without the absurd seen of Wallace Simpson and the Duke of Windsor dancing to “Sex Pistols” music with modern-day Black model Alex Wek in the late ’30s/early ’40s or Wallace Simpson with bad “old-people” make-up in 1972, dancing to “The Twist.” Plot devices like that are just silly. And I didn’t like that Madonna gave a free pass to Simpson and King Edward on their support for Hitler and the Nazis.



But I liked the story of Wally, the modern day woman who imagines what it must have been like back then. I guess you could call it an “Antiques Roadshow” romance. I like to read letters back and forth between American soldiers fighting in World War II and their loved ones, so I can identify with someone reading Simpson’s letters and looking at her belongings, imagining what it might have been like. (But this woman’s occupation with Simpson goes much further. It’s an obsession–check out how much she pays for her winning bid on Wallace Simpson’s leather gloves.) I also liked rising star Oscar Isaac, who plays the most likeable character in the movie, a security guard at Sotheby’s. He’s probably the best actor in the movie and does a convincing Russian accent most of the time.



As I noted, the movie intertwines two stories: the story of how Wallace Simpson and Edward meet and eventually marry, he gives up the throne, and they forced to leave England and live a boring in France. Wally Winthrop, a modern woman whose mother and grandmother were obsessed with Wallace Simpson named her for the woman. She becomes fascinated with Wallace Simpson, as well, visiting the Sotheby’s exhibit daily, in order to escape her loveless marriage to an abusive, absentee husband. At the exhibit, she meets a Russian immigrant security guard, Evgeni (the handsome Oscar Isaac), who is attracted to her and keeps an eye on her. Will she eventually give Evgeni the time of day? That’s the story I found more interesting that the Wallace Simpson one.



Sadly, the acting isn’t all that great. Abby Cornish is cold and like a dead fish, as is James D’Arcy, the actor who plays the Duke of Windsor. It’s not a “great” movie, but it’s not bad and it’s entertaining enough. Plus, it’s a high-styled movie, with the most detail and attention having gone to exquisite period wardrobe, jewelry, and decor. Women will love that. But as I said, straight guys, this ain’t for you.



TWO REAGANS




* “Journey 2: Mysterious Island“:  This is fine for families and taking your kids to see.  It’s sort of a sequel to 2008′s  “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (read my review), but you don’t have to see that one to get this one.  They are completely different.  This is far inferior to the 1951 and 1961 version of  “Mysterious Island.”  But, like I said, it’s fine to take your kids to.  It’s wholesome, and it features good grandfather/son dynamics and father/stepfather dynamics.  I must note, though, that I hate Luis Guzman, whose inanity ruins every movie he’s in.  Also, I definitely could have done without Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s “pec pop of love” schtick in which he flexes his chest muscles.  Please make it stop.



Josh Hutcherson plays a teen boy who is always getting into trouble and is saved by his stepfather (The Rock/Johnson) from his latest stunt, crashing a motorcycle into a neighbor’s swimming pool. But Hutcherson, who dislikes his stepfather, really just wants to decode a message he believes was transmitted via satellite from his absentee grandfather (Michael Caine), who is an explorer believed to have discovered Jules Verne’s “Mysterious Island.” His stepfather helps him decode the message, and soon they are on a bonding trip to the other side of the world to try to find the island and his grandfather.



If you’ve seen the far superior previous versions of “Mysterious Island” mentioned above, you know the drill: giant animals and creatures, amazing, lush landscape, and a quest to get off the island before they are doomed. Captain nemo’s notebook and submarine/ship, the lost city of Atlantis. All that stuff is in this version, too. But this one seems too hurried and dumbed down for kids, even though I believe kids would really enjoy the original and other previous versions.



Nothing objectionable about this and entertaining enough for kids and families.



ONE-AND-A-HALF REAGANS