Boogie Woogie

The bad news is that this movie is full of self-serving, egotistical, London art snobs. They lie cheat and steal. The good news is that they appear to only prey on each other. They other good news is that there actually IS a story. You just have to wait for it.

The other good news is that there are some great names and wonderful performances. There is also a very disturbing scene involving a removed body part that has little or nothing to do with the story.

Gillian Anderson, Heather Graham, Amanda Seyfried, and Gemma Atkinson lead a strong stunning female ensemble. Danny and Jack Huston, Stellan Skarsgård, Simon McBurney, Alan Cumming, and the legendary Christopher Lee all give the male gender a bad bad name. Very bad name.

The story, as such, is about a fictional painting that everyone appears to want. The story ends with as many questions as it poses. What really happened to the painting? Where did the money go? And where did it come from? Oh, and why do some characters appear to have different names depending on the scene. I clearly didn't have the score card to keep track.

Watch this if you are really really really into art, hard-R for sexual content movies, and vague story lines.

Outlander

Not to be confused with the 1981 classic with Sean Connery "Outland", this story takes place a few thousand years earlier. In fact, this story takes place in what is now Norway in 700 and change A.D. Basically a group of Vikings meets a guy from the future who crash-lands his ship on earth with a stowaway in the form of a bio-luminescent dragon.

James Caviezel plays the uber-tough ET. John Hurt and Ron Perlman play warring kings and are totally convincing. Well done guys. Jack Huston plays a king wannabe and romantic competition for the space traveler. Sophia Myles is that love interest and tougher than nails daughter of the reigning king. See the story developing?

There is a thin spot in the plot that is never really cleared up, but it does not really matter. Why was this space traveler transporting the bodies of his dead family someone other than where he lived, and what caused his ship to crash? Did the stowaway cause the damage that lead to the crash? Perhaps, but that is never made clear.

With an R-rating for violence and some gore, this movie could easily have been PG-13. I'm guessing some lobbying was done to get the R-rating in the hopes of more ticket sales.

Watch this movie with someone who likes dragon movies.