Lovelace

‘Somewhat Near Deep Throat’ struggles to achieve documentary’s depth.  Miscasting, misdirection, and an excess of inference result in a tedious unpalatable drama that relies on fragmented chronology and repeatedly shoving it’s message down the viewer’s throat to compensate for a lack of compelling material.  But James Franco’s in there, so…

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Next 90 pages gains Legolas, love story, and load of steaming gold garbage.  Peter Rabbit eats carrot and strikes perfect blend between barrel-riding book’s cartoonishness and Laketown’s Lord-of-the-Ringsy epicness, but gets greedy for gold with bloated, ridiculous last act.  Also suffers trippy Necrosauron zoom and go-pro shots of orcish hideousness.

Movie 43

Outstanding cast of A-listers assemble to breathe life into SNL rejected short scripts… and fail. Stolen jokes, weak performances, and senseless frame story further ensure disaster.  Like ‘Funny or Die’ but mostly the latter as each segment manages a moment of humor, then milks it to painful and poisonous death. 

Lee Daniels' The Butler

Interesting civil rights history lesson lacks drive as it meanders through a string of oddly cast presidential cameos.  Whitaker winds his through a compelling family drama with a winning Winfrey and outstanding Oyelowo but Gumps his way into the wrong Forrest and gets lost in a dense thicket of history.

Prisoners

Gyllenhaal rechecks his zodiac and flinches at the result while Jackman and his co-stars deliver soulful, vulnerable performances as they navigate this mystic labyrinthine river of mystery (with s whistle of predictability).  Painted shades of gray by the moral ambiguity of characters and brilliant (or anti-brilliant) eye of DP Deakins.

Rush

Howard ducks away from Da Vinci crap to deliver another great film.  Hunt/Lauda features distinctive vintage visuals, gripping races and the best casting and characterization of any true-story film.  Exhilarating action is welded onto stunning historical accuracy creating a vehicle that defies formula but flies through every turn with ease.