The Flick Filter: Flawless, Fatboy, Stop-Loss, and 21
Our no-BS guide to the newest movies …
FLAWLESS
Period crime drama
Rated PG-13, 100 minutes
(with the once-so-luscious Demi Moore and the aged-but-still-reliable Michael Caine)
In 10 words or less: Old janitor + hot woman = diamond heist.
The critics, abridged:
• “exceedingly cloudy,” “[a] false gem,” “a movie that barely sparkles” — Entertainment Weekly
• “a perfectly entertaining small crime picture, until the end,” “botched with 11th-hour moralistic nonsense” — Baltimore City Paper
• “Demi Moore can’t move face or movie” — Seattle Weekly
• “Not the jolly sort of heist film (Gambit, The Italian Job) that Caine fronted in the ’60s, this one plods a bit, but it makes fine use of the actor’s sweet gravity and rueful charm.” — Time
RUN, FATBOY, RUN
Comedy
Rated PG-13, 97 Minutes
(directed by former Friend David Schwimmer, with Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, and Hank Azaria)
In 10 words or less: Left pregnant fiancee at altar? Run marathon to win back.
The critics, abridged:
• “stays out of sitcom quicksand long enough to make you think that Schwimmer has a knack for this comedy-directing thing” — Rolling Stone
• “Overplayed manchild genre gets no help from this lackluster comedy” — msnbc.com
• “Schwimmer gives the movie a warm, slightly scuffed look that suits its spirit” — Denver Westword
• “Run, don’t walk, from mindless comedy” — Chicago Sun Times
STOP-LOSS
Drama
Rated R, 113 Minutes
(directed by Kimberly Peirce, whose Boys Don’t Cry won an Oscar, with Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant and the goofy-looking but still desired Ryan Phillippe)
In 10 words or less: Young soldiers and that sucky war in Iraq.
The critics, abridged:
• “pro-soldier, anti-bureaucrat, war-neutral, and deeply, deeply affecting” — Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)
• “[the] promising premise runs into a rut of incompatible accents and melodramatic excess” — New York magazine
• “Ryan Phillippe has undermined yet another promising film” — austin360.com
• “one of the best of the many Iraq War/War on Terror dramas … built on a career-making performance by Ryan Phillippe” — Orlando Sentinel
21
Crime drama
Rated PG-13, 123 minutes
(with Across the Universe’s Jim Sturgess, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth)
In 10 words or less: Math geniuses play blackjack in Vegas. Somebody’s getting whacked.
The critics, abridged:
• “isn’t pretentious, exactly, but it’s damn close, and in trying to whip up a melodramatic morality tale the film becomes an increasingly flabby slog” — Chicago Tribune
• “escapist fun,” “a glossy, engrossing yarn” — Inquirer (Steven Rea)
• “Lack of originality is where 21 really deals a losing hand” — starpulse.com
• “In a multiplex of dumb-luck hits, it’s a kick to watch Spacey and a gifted young cast use smarts to deal audiences a winning hand” — Rolling Stone