MOVIE REVIEWS: CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

Critics have clearly sharpened their machetes for their assault on Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills. Kyle Smith, of the New York Post goes for the kill, writing that the movie “is another Robert Rodriguez film that (like pretty much all of the others) bleeds out on its own ridiculousness. Entertainingly gruesome in parts, and not without a certain anarchic wit, it’s the kind of movie you pause to watch when it’s on TV, but after half an hour, you’ll click over to something else. In a year of superfluous sequels eagerly awaited by no one, this one is nearly as unnecessary as Red 2 and The Smurfs 2.” Stephen Holden in the New York Times says that the movie quickly “collapses into a deranged, directionless splatter comedy that exhausts its bag of tricks.” And Joe Neumaier’s review is a series of cutting remarks, including: “Rodriguez’s love for the cheesy, scratchy-looking films of his childhood is appreciated; what isn’t is how Machete Kills kills all the fun by being too in on the joke. There’s a fake trailer for Machete Kills Again … In Space at the start of this movie that feels as if a kid with a new Super-8 camera was so excited to start playing, he forgot to come up with a story.”