Movie Beat 10/28/11: Anonymous, Puss in Boots, In Time, The Rum Diary

Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried in "In Time"

There’s four new movies in theaters this weekend and it looks like something for everyone, and they all could be good. We’ve got Anonymous, Puss In Boots, In Time, and The Rum Diary.

Anonymous:
This opens in limited release this weekend, and I can’t even count the number of times that I’ve had the conversation about whether Shakespeare really wrote his plays or whether it was Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford, who actual wrote them. Francis Bacon’s name always gets thrown in the mix too. We really just don’t know. Well, this film tries to answer that question about the fact that it was the Earl of Oxford that did, in fact, pen Shakespeare’s plays, and just used him as a nom de plume. Rhys Ifans, Derek Jacobi, and Vanessa Redgrave star in this.

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Puss In Boots:

Puss In Boots opens this weekend… I think I rented that, but I don’t think it was the same thing. Those boots looked good – leather and thigh-highs. Oh, Puss In Boots – you loved him in the Shrek movies, and now Antonio Banderas stars in Puss’ own adventure. Salma Hayek is also in the film, and Zach Galifianakis provides a voice as well. This is the story of events leading up to Puss’ meeting of Shrek and his friends, so it’s a prequel, in a sense.

This actually looks kinda good to me. I mean, if you’ve got to go see a kids’ movie, this looks very funny. It’s a great character, and it’s in 3D. Puss In Boots. (I just like saying “puss” without management calling us on the hotline.)

In Time:

Who thought Justin Timberlake would make a convincing action hero??? But in the trailers and commercials for this movie, I think he looks pretty good! (Let’s just accept the fact that freakin’ Justin Timberlake can do anything!) He looks like an ass-kicker in this film, much to my surprise! Also starring in the film is Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, and Matt Bomer (from White Collar).

It’s an interesting premise – in the future, people stop aging at 25 – that’s when you’re dead. You have to buy yourself more time. They just sort of implant in in you, and that’s how you exist. Justin plays a guy who decides to garner as much time as he can, and there’s a corrupt police force that is trying to take his life. It looks like an entertaining, fun futuristic thriller.

The Rum Diary:

Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, and Amber Heard are in this movie that’s based on the book by Johnny’s good friend, Hunter S. Thompson. He kinda made this in his honor. He plays a journalist working in Puerto Rico in the early 1960′s. Amber Heard is his love interest. Booze. Drugs. Sex. What more do you need?

I love Johnny Depp and Hunter S. Thompson. Great combination. He’s almost doing a younger version of the character he played in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

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