Side Effects

I love a well crafted thriller. I'll spare the personal suspense and tell you that this is, indeed, a well crafted thriller. For about the first hour, you just try to sort out some sort of truth. For the second hour, you are into the unraveling of the mystery. No matter how I'd try to explain the plot, it would ruin it for you because every detail means something- so pay attention!. So I'll say this- Jude Law and Rooney Mara just steal this movie. Catherine Zeta-Jones is just not that good here, but it doesn' t  matter one bit. Law and Rooney walk away with it. I was ready for a nap when I sat down in my IPic recliner,  just because I'd had a long day. The minute the movie started, it just grabbed me and continued to hold on to the very end. It was well scripted, well acted and well directed. I'd go see it again just to see if I missed anything. Go see it. Go. Right now.

Identity Thief

Well, evidently most of the reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes don't follow the cardinal rule of the Flickerchick: It is what it is.  Don't expect a comedy with Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman to rise to some level of sophistication. Don't expect it to not be predictable. But you can expect it to be raunchy, occasionally time wasting, silly, graphic, weakly scripted and HIGHLY DEPENDENT on the talent of its cast. Luckily for the audience, McCarthy's comedic skill combined with Bateman's deadpan and kindly delivery make for a fair amount of hilarity and some laugh out loud moments.  I had seen the 29% approval rating on rotten tomatoes, but the viewers gave it a 72% at last count- so something is rotten in tomatoland. There just shouldn't be that sort of discrepancy. And I was right. It will certainly entertain alot of people - alot more than 29%-who are just tired of the heavy dramas that have been out there. It entertained me and I am a tough audience. The theater was packed, too.  I'd say you should take the attitude of "do I think I should spend time watching silly comedy?" and if the answer is yes, them by all means go enjoy it. (If I could give an actor a star rating, I'd give McCarthy 4 of em).