Quick takes on 5 films

Tommy’s Honour is a biopic focusing on a couple of golf’s early pioneers, “Old” Tom Morris and his son Tommy. Old Tom is a golf club maker and is a traditionalist. He plays golf at the behest of rich gentlemen, who place bets on the outcome, and keep all the winnings to themselves. Young Tommy believes that as the player, he should be entitled to a bigger payday. He also has ideas about changing some of the rules of golf, which his father obviously does not agree to. In general, Tommy is of the younger generation, forgoing some traditionalist ideas about golf (and life). The film is rather ho-hum and a bit hard to get through, despite some good acting by all involved. Just ok overall.

It’s hard to root for a drug dealer, and that’s what Sleight wants you to do. A “good kid” and wanna-be street magician, who resorts to selling drugs to support his little school-age sister after their parents die, he gets more and more wrapped up in terrible dealings with his supplier. Personally, I found it hard to pull for him, when I just want to scream, “You shouldn’t have been selling drugs in the first place.” Even when his predicament gets really bad, you can’t help but think he did it all to himself. Not to mention there’s a weird almost super-hero like power he has that makes no sense. This one’s a waste of time.

Warm Bodies isn’t a new movie, but I haven’t seen it before. This is an interesting film. On the surface, it is yet another teen romance, but this one has a twist. A zombie apocalypse has taken out most of the population. An unnamed zombie wanders the ruined city, unable to communicate the thoughts in his head. Julie is on a team of living fighters that scavenge for medicine beyond the safety of their protective wall. Her group is overrun by a mob of zombies, but the thinking zombie saves her. As the two spend time together, he becomes more “alive,” able to speak and feel more every day. This unorthodox relationship has far-reaching consequences. A very good, refreshing movie, it stands out among the multitude of others in the teen drama field.

Maybe if I had liked poetry, I would have liked A Quiet Passion, the story of Emily Dickinson’s life. As I do not, I found the movie to be exceedingly dull. Even I, who usually like period dramas, had to get up and move around to prevent falling asleep through this one. The acting by the lead, Cynthia Nixon, is good enough I guess, but much of the story really doesn’t lead anywhere; it just meanders along, with Dickinson’s discussions with her family showing her feelings about life and family, feelings we later saw from the poems published after her death. This one’s a real snoozefest.

Baby Driver is a tremendously fun ride from beginning to end. Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a young getaway driver for a group of bank robbers, headed by Kevin Spacey’s character. Constantly found with a pair of headphones in his ears, the tunes he listens to provide the soundtrack to the film, with exciting songs to go along with the thrilling car chases around town. The crew is ruthless and barbaric, yet Baby seems to be a good kid, and he dreams of getting out of the lifestyle. The plot of the film is predictable to a point, yet the awesome soundtrack and the larger-than-life robbers (including Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm) are tons of fun. The movie starts with heart-pounding action in the first 10 minutes and never lets up off the gas.