Million Dollar Arm: It's no Million Dollar Movie

Million Dollar Arm has two things going for it: Jon Hamm, of Mad Men fame, and the national pastime. And that was enough for the Movie Slut.

Still, this Disney family movie, which clocks in at just over two hours, is a little too simplistic for adults and a bit long for kids.

The plot, based on a true story, is about a desperate Los Angeles sports agent who goes to India to recruit the first Indian baseball players. His plan: to turn cricket athletes into pitchers.

So, we, the audience, go to India, which is played for laughs with every stereotype in the books. As is California, for that matter.

Still, we've got Hamm and baseball. No home run here. But you can call it a double.

The German Doctor: Does No Harm

Here we have a perfect example of a movie nearly ruined by tell-all critics. Unfortunately, the Movie Slut read a review prior to seeing the film. And sure enough they gave away the farm. Don't worry, she won't.

The action takes place in Patagonia, in 1960. An Argentinian family befriends a German doctor, who helps them with their health problems. The daughter, who's 12 years old, is tiny for her age, and he says he can help her. The pregnant mother is having twins and he seems to be an expert in multiple births.

He's a mysterious character, but only the husband is suspicious of him. In the end, the moviegoer lucky enough to see this flick without prior knowledge discovers the truth about him and postscripts fill us in on his future. But by this point, MS was equally interested in the family. Although the movie is narrated by the daughter, we don't learn what becomes of her or the twins.

Movie critics can be blamed for telling too much. But it's the script writer's fault for not telling enough.

Locke: Driving Without Miss Daisy

Tom Hardy is Ivan Locke 

In a season of action movies, this inaction flick might be the antidote for fast, loud and special effects overload. Except for a minute or two at the opening and voices on the other end of a cell phone, this one-character drama takes place completely in a car that's not being chased.

It helps that Tom Hardy is the driver.

He's a responsible, honorable family man and alpha employee at a large construction firm, whose one mistake has turned his life into a formidable mess. As he drives to London to deal with his error, the other parts of his life— his job and family— begin spiraling out of control.

About 20 minutes into the film, the Movie Slut wondered if he'd ever get out of that car and if the movie could work if he didn't. The answers are "no" and "yes."

This is a surprisingly fine move that focuses on both human frailty and strength.

The Other Woman: Plus One

Kate Upton, Cameron Diaz & Leslie Mann

Three women, one lying, cheating man, and a Count of Monte Cristo-sized revenge plot. That's what this sometimes funny flick is all about.

It could be funnier. And drawing comparisons to The First Wives Club, does not raise the enjoyment quotient.

Still, if you're in the mood for a chick flick, by all means rush to your local multiplex. And don't read one of those tell-all reviews, or watch one of the give-everything-away trailers. It's best to let the insanity unfold without foresight.

If you need another incentive to see this movie, think fashion— Patricia Field caliber fashion. Remember what she did for the Sex and the City friends.

Fading Gigolo: Oy Vey!

First things first.
FG is not a Woody Allen movie. Although he is a star. John Turturro is the director, writer and co-star.

The movie is a testament to the power of excellent acting to transcend a plot that's lame, ridiculous and a times downright mean spirited.

Masquerading as a flick about what women want, it's actually the embodiment (pun intended) of a popular male fantasy: The menage a trois. And as if that weren't enough, the women involved are Sharon Stone and Sofia Vergara!!!

But moving on.

The film takes us into a Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhood, where we meet a lonely widow. And here's where the movie takes a sharply wrong turn. Sure, the Hasids, with their strange get-ups and archaic customs, can appear comical. And some of their customs, especially attitudes toward women, can  seem cruel to modern folks. But the degree to which they are ridiculed and scorned in this movie defies a live-and-let-live philosophy that much of the movie seems to espouse. Light comedy this is not.

The wonderful New York scenes and engaging characters, including Liev Schreiber as a Hasidic neighborhood watchman in love with the lonely widow, don't make up for this narrow-minded portrayal of a group of people who live differently.

Or is the Movie Slut being too PC?

The Railway Man: A Worthwile Ride

Colin Firth as The Railway Man

Based on an autobiographical novel by World War II veteran Eric Lomax, this painful movie is, in the end, about much more than the ravages of war. To say what that is, however, would give away too much.

Suffice it to say that this is a film with the kind of emotional truism that will touch your heart.

Lomax is a young British soldier, who was captured and tortured by the Japanese, and miraculously lived to tell his story.

He's a railroad nut, at times appearing obsessed with the time tables and routes. And so, it seems natural  that he meets his wife, who'd been an army nurse, on the train. His wife, wonderfully played by Nicole Kidman, is unable to help Eric overcome the emotional scars that threaten to take his life.

His decision to return to the place where he suffered his darkest days brings this powerful movie to its poignant conclusion.

Noah: Yes. Ahhh!

Whether you believe it's fact, fiction or a bit of both, this big screen epic is awesome in the original sense of the word.

Oh, the flood! Oh, the arc! Oh, the disaster that struck the wicked on Earth!

This story starts at the beginning—creation, Adam, Eve, the serpent, the apple, all presented in rapid fire and repeated, like a chorus several times during the movie. It quickly moves through the generations that led to the birth and life of its main character, played brilliantly by Russell Crowe. As a man who cherishes his creator above all else and believes the human race must be annihilated, he's a scary character. Today, some might call him a zealot.

It's this dimension of his personality that makes Noah the powerful movie that it is.
Believe it. Or not.