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The Shallows:
Just when you thought it was safe to watch a shark movie again, comes this thriller starring Blake Lively, which will keep you in a perpetual state of near-panic. She plays Nancy, a medical student who lost her mother to cancer, and who remembers mom’s stories about a fabled beach in Mexico where the surfing was so perfect as to be almost heavenly. She seeks out the remote location, hidden behind miles of poorly-marked jungle roads, and finds herself nearly alone – there are two locals in the surf. Initially, we think that’s what Nancy has to fear, alone and far from any kind of help, with two strangers whose intentions are unknown. As the day wanes, the two guys pack up and leave, and Nancy decides on one more wave … when she encounters the recently-killed remains of a grey whale, protected by a great white shark of immense proportions. She escapes to a bit of rock 200 yards from shore … but the tide is coming in, and so is the shark. Excellent film, gripping and realistic! Rated 14A.
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Central Intelligence:
Not the best work of either of its stars, Dwayne Johnson, and Kevin Hart, this alleged comedy doesn’t have enough funny parts to actually be categorized as such. The problem is that we don’t get what we pay for when we see a Kevin Hart movie. The premise has two guys who haven’t seen each other since high school getting reacquainted – Cal Joyner (Hart) is now an accountant, and Bob Stone (Johnson) claims to be in the CIA, although soon Cal is being told that Stone is actually a rogue agent. They team up, with Stone needing Joyner’s accounting skills to find a deep-cover bad guy. The problem: Dwayne Johnson’s character tries to be the funny one, while Kevin Hart’s is the straight man … and that just doesn’t work. As mentioned, not the best work of either of these talented performers. Rated 14A.
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Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates:
Although we are told that this story of two guys who place a Craig’s List ad to get a couple of girls to accompany them to a family wedding in Hawaii, is “inspired by actual events,” most of what we see never happened at all. The advertising for dates part happened – the part where the guys (Zac Efron and Adam Devine) actually GET dates, is fictitious as are the exploits of the two girls who answer the ad (Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza) but have their own agenda at play, unbeknownst to the hapless, and not-all-that-smart guys. Out-hustling the hustlers is what they do, and a fine job at that, but much of the humour is R-rated and many of the situations are hard to believe, even for this kind of movie. Rated 18A.
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Public Enemies (2009):
Johnny Depp is excellent at the notorious bank robber John Dillinger, who led a 1930s crime wave in the American Midwest that included such desperadoes as Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) and Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham). Christian Bale plays the real-life G-Man Melvin Purvis, leading the law enforcement group that would become the FBI. Marion Colillard is Billie Frechette, Dillinger's love of his life, and you can watch for a cameo of a torch singer played by Victoria's Diana Krall. The final takedown of Dillinger was the result of a betrayal and a tip to the Feds, and resulted in a very uncharacteristic ending. Rated 18A for violence.
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| Arbitrage (2012):
Richard Gere is perfect as Robert Miller, a multi-millionaire hedge fund manager with a perfect life - perfect wife (Susan Sarandon), perfect daughter poised to take over his business (Britt Marling), and a perfect business ... but one that hides some secrets. It's when the secrets start to leak out that everything changes - he has been doing some things with client finances that are not strictly legal, and he has been doing things behind the back of his wife that are not strictly moral. As the entire empire is threatened with collapse once the secrets come out, a surprising, and not always popular ending comes into play. Excellent look at just how the world of big money works. Rated 14A.
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