We just got home from three nights at the Rio in Las Vegas with unlimited movies.



Here are the movies I saw and what I thought of them.

Mamma Mia: Lame, just lame - bad acting, lousy singing, goofy plot. Meryl Streep did some of her own singing as did Pierce Brosnan (shudder). It reminded me of Paint Your Wagon where Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin tried to sing. I fast-forwarded through a lot of the songs just because the singing was so horrible. The whole thing lacked energy and spark that I suspect is present in the live musical. In case you don't know, this musical is built around songs by Abba, which I like, but not as performed here. Re-reading this I realize that it isn't fair to judge the acting because it's not meant to be good acting or even have much of a plot; I just wish they could have done the songs justice.

Burn After Reading Very good. This is the latest Coen brothers movie with the expected murders, but fewer of them than No Country for Old Men. Brad Pitt plays a bimbo exercise instructor, and George Clooney is Cary Grant-ish as a US Marshall who has never had to use the gun he carries as part of his job but gets hooked into murder. It is set in Washington DC/Georgetown and the convoluted CIA plot is excellent.

Tropic Thunder Horrible. Starring Ben Stiller, directed and written and probably produced by Ben Stiller, always a bad sign that it will be a self-indulgent waste of the viewer's time. It is a satire of Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and other Vietnam war movies and includes a lot of inside Hollywood jokes that are might entertain those in the movie business but left me cold because it is so pretentious. It is not a good movie for PTSD folks - lots of violence and guts spilling out. The most irritating thing was Robert Downey Jr. playing a white Australian guy playing a black guy. That type of role is usually tedious to watch and what with the phony accents it was just unbearable. Even Jack Black couldn't save the movie for me. He was playing the part of a heroin addict who has lost his supply out in the jungle so has to go cold turkey.

Pineapple Express Horrible. Some have described it as a "Stoner Action Flick." Well, maybe I would have thought it was worth watching if I'd been stoned but I don't do drugs. Remember the old Cheech and Chong movies: Low budget, glorified smoking pot, drugged out characters? If they were younger it would have starred them. It is definitely not suitable for teens or children, but the humor is adolescent and only twelve year olds would be impressed by it on any level, and then they'd want to go find some pot and smoke it. I was surprised that Rosie Perez agreed to be in it; maybe she needed the work.

Wanted Really, really good. The special effects in this movie are fantastic, and brought back the feeling we had the first time we saw Star Wars back in the late 1970s. As a matter of fact, the story line is almost identical to Star Wars, right down to 'Wesley, I am your father.' It reminded me of The Matrix without the martial arts, which is a real plus in my book.

Swing Vote Mediocre but not horrible. Kevin Costner plays a Joe Six-Pack kind of guy whose single vote is going to decide who is elected President of the United States. He has this cute 8 or so year old daughter who pushes him to vote and continues to nag at him through the process of being courted by the two candidates played by Dennis Hopper (Liberal) and Kelsy Grammar (Conservative). Kelsey G didn't do his Frasier persona, he was more presidential. It might have been more fun to watch before our real election, because by the time we got done with the Sarah Palin circus, a movie about the media hype and shameless pandering for votes doesn't come close for entertainment value. My favorite Kevin Costner movie was Tin Cup - not saying it was the greatest movie ever either, but this latest one just isn't as engaging.



21 Okay but I would turn the channel if it came on TV. Kevin Spacey stars in this movie about the MIT students who beat the Las Vegas casinos out of a lot of money by coming up with a card counting and more system for winning at Blackjack. The 'more' part involved the use of spotters and watchers. Based on a true story, this film lacked any spark that would make it entertaining.

Just Buried Different. Described as a dark comedy this is about a nerdy guy who inherits a funeral home and there are lots of murders and graphic descriptions of the embalming process. Lots of people are murdered by various clever means and if it came on TV I would watch it again, but I wouldn't go out of my way.

We also watched Ice Harvest from Netflix during this time. Enjoyed it. This 2005 film stars John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton and the plot is based closely on a novel by the same name. Supposedly the characters aren't very likeable - a mob lawyer and pornographer and set in strip clubs, but none of that bothered me. It was intentionally done in Film Noir style, and reminded me of the Coen brothers' films for plots and the number of dead people. It's a good escape movie if you enjoy crime drama, and it kept me guessing right up to the end.