By Debbie Schlussel

It’s an unusual weekend at movie theaters, with several terrific movies (three FOUR REAGAN flicks), and only one bad choice among the new releases.

* “Interstellar“: As I noted in my full review column, I very much enjoyed this movie, with a few reservations. A fabulous unfolding of several stories, including a sci-fi thriller, a love story between a father and his daughter, and so much more. A smart person’s “Gravity,” but better. Read my complete review.

FOUR REAGANS (with slight reservations, as noted above)

* “Camp X-Ray“: This is Kristen Stewart’s attempt to show she’s something beyond the constantly sullen vampire’s girlfriend of the “Twilight” movies. And it’s also Hollywood’s attempt to show what fabulous, great guys the Islamic terrorist inmates at Guantanamo Bay are. And in that, it’s simply laughable. Oh, and did I mention that the commanding officers are portrayed as sex-crazed, anti-Islamic meanies?

The story: Stewart is a soldier in the Army’s Military Police. She’s assigned to Gitmo and becomes a guard in the detention center. She becomes friendly with one of the detainees, Ali, who insists he is innocent and loves reading Harry Potter books. There is some funny dialogue when they first meet and he discusses his love for Harry Potter books, including how upset he is that Gitmo doesn’t have the last of the series. But that’s about the only good part of the movie.

The head of the military police is an oversexed stock Southern bad guy, who has a stash of porno magazines and hits on Stewart. He says “f— you, bitch!” when after kissing him, she doesn’t want to have sex with him. Then, he forces her to watch Ali take a shower because he knows this will embarrass her and Ali. Stewart files a report against the Southerner over this, saying he is disrespecting the Muslim detainee. Again, ridiculous.

Ali insists he is innocent and unfairly detained at Gitmo, and Stewart becomes apparently convinced of this. She buys him the last Harry Potter book and writes what is basically a love letter to the guy, telling him how great he is and signing it, “Love.” She also cries upon leaving him and Gitmo. PUH-LEEZE! I was at the same time appalled and laughing.

A friend of mine was a Gitmo guard who did the same job in real life that Stewart does in this movie, and some of the things portrayed are things he told me actually happened there, such as the “sh-t cocktail”–detainees saving their feces in a cup and throwing it on the military police–and the spitting on and biting of the military police by the detainees. But a good deal of the detainees’ disgusting, horrible behavior is not shown in this flick. And that figures.

This is propaganda–just the latest that Hollywood’s put out against America and in favor of Gitmo’s Islamic terrorist killers. I have a solution: move all the Gitmo detainees to the Hollywood Hills and Malibu.

Reader SeanM, who proudly served in the U.S. Army:

How cool that they’re releasing it just in time for Veterans Day. Nice way to take a steaming dump all over our soldiers, guys.

I just saw the trailer on YouTube. How many Islam-loving stereotypes can we cram into one trailer? The guy was kidnapped while devoutly praying (not assembling a car bomb or suicide vest)(CHECK!), one of the guards allegedly told him he KNEW the detainee was innocent (CHECK!) … which makes TOTAL sense to me (eye roll) since we obviously were so hurting for actual terrorists we were asking Middle Eastern countries to kidnap random people to fill up Gitmo. He speaks to her like a nice person, not like he thinks she’s a piece of property (CHECK!). One last little nit-pick: Stewart’s character is a Private First Class (PFC), which is a very low ranking person in the Army. So how did she get access to his file, which I’m sure MUST have been classified and under strict access controls? Also, I can’t imagine they would have a small woman on the team of guys rushing into the cell with protective gear on. And since she just stood there in the doorway, we can see why.

Spot on.

FOUR MARXES PLUS FOUR OBAMAS PLUS FOUR BIN LADENS PLUS FOUR ISIS BEHEADINGS

Watch the trailer . . .

* “Big Hero 6“: I absolutely loved this movie. Even though it is a Disney animated product aimed at kids, it’s a great movie even on the adult level alone. So parents taking their kids will be completely entertained. The animation, story, plot, and everything else in this are terrific. And it’s also very funny. The movie is a comedy, a drama, a suspenseful action thriller, and much more. Plus I love that it glamorizes science and technology, something in which America is far behind because America is too far ahead in Kardashians and Real Housewives. Before the movie begins, there is a separate, short animated cartoon about a dog, and that alone, is worth seeing–sooo cute and funny. I saw this movie in 3D, and while the 3D was very good, it’s just fine in regular 2D. (This is from the makers of “Frozen” and “Wreck-It Ralph.”

The story: Hiro, a young boy in the fictional city of San Fransokyo, spends a lot of his time bot-fighting (using the small robots he builds to fight other people’s robots for money), and he’s something of a hustler. After getting into trouble for the bot-fighting hustling yet again, his older brother, Tadashi, suggests he enroll in the nerd program for geniuses at the local university. Tadashi is in that program and has invented Baymax, a healthcare robot (perfect for the age of ObamaCare!). Hero invents micro-bots in order to get into the program. But one night, there is a fire at the university, and Tadashi races in to save their professor. Tadashi dies in the fire. While moping about in mourning for his brother, Hiro comes upon Baymax and one of Hiro’s micro-bots. The micro-bot leads him and Baymax to an abandoned warehouse. And, soon, Hiro & Baymax, along with the other nerds in the program at the university, use their technological skills to find a mysterious figure who may be behind the fire and some other mysterious occurrences.

Funny, charming, so funny and cute. But one caveat: while the movie is not politically correct in most aspects, it goes out of its way to have an ethnically diverse, PC cast of nerd genius characters (that does include a White guy; filmmakers say the White girl is supposed to be Hispanic), but the two bad guys are old White men (there’s one very bad guy and one semi-bad guy). Parents need to explain to their kids not to buy into what isn’t spoken but quite clear on the screen, when it comes to skin complexion.

FOUR REAGANS (with one reservation, as noted above)

Watch the trailer . . .

* “Whiplash“: This is a fabulous study in when perfection demanded by mentors, teachers, and gurus goes too far. Sadly, it is only applicable to a very minute group of Americans, since we are a country of mediocrity and less-than-perfection. And that’s because the “problem” identified in this movie is really not much of a problem in America. Instead, the opposite–mentors, teachers, and gurus demanding too little, if anything–is far more of a problem facing this nation. And, so, as I watched this very smart, well done movie, I also wondered if it wasn’t just a tiny bit of a veiled attack on having high standards in America, when the actual problem is that we have such low ones.

Still, the mentor in this movie does go way over the line. There is a fine line but that line is clearly crossed here. A young musician striving to be “the best” does whatever is demanded of him by the teacher/mentor and what is demanded is far beyond what should be asked. It nearly kills the young musician. Miles Teller, of whom I’m normally NOT a fan (in fact, I was an anti-fan), is that young musician, and he’s just terrific in this movie. His acting, along with that of J.K. Simmons as the teacher/mentor, is really very good and will probably garner Oscar nominations for one or both. The movie, while not suitable for young kids, is R-rated only because of language, most of it used by the mentor against his musician student. Despite the language, I think it’s fine for older teens.

Teller is a drum-playing prodigy who is on scholarship at a fictional, highly competitive music conservatory in New York (it’s clearly supposed to be Juilliard). We learn that he is Jewish and that his mother abandoned him and his father, who is a working-class guy without a lot of money or a fancy apartment. (These things are relevant in that his mentor later uses this knowledge in verbal attacks on him, and perhaps the abandonment is the reason he strives so hard to be the best, to prove something.)

Teller is practicing on his drums one day at school, when he’s approached by Simmons, a professor at the school and the leader/organizer of the school’s prestigious jazz band. Simmons invites Teller to try out for the band, and, thus, begins a series of abusive, psychological mind games and teases by the teacher upon the student. Simmons heaps insults (including the use of anti-Semitic slurs) and verbal abuse, much of it in public and in front of other band members, upon Teller and some others. But his attacks are primarily focused on Teller, always demanding more from him.

And Teller always answers the challenge, at one point drumming until all hours of the night. The whole thing drives Teller to crazy lengths. He practices until his fingers and hands are bloody (and even after that), and he breaks up with his beautiful girlfriend, telling her that he wants to be the best in the world and having a girlfriend will get in the way. And his striving to be the best and to please a never-satisfied, demanding mentor almost costs him everything.

The question raise here is, how far would you go to be the best? How much abuse would you take? And when does the demand for perfection go too far? When does it exceed legitimate demands for excellence to abuse?

In this movie, to learn the answers, it costs. And it costs a lot.

Like I said, this is a smart movie that asks excellent questions and makes great points. But, again, the problem rife throughout America is not too many demands for excellence. It’s too few.

If you like jazz, as I do, you will especially like this movie, as there is a lot of it in here.

FOUR REAGANS

Watch the trailer . . .

* “Elsa & Fred“: This is an English-language remake of the far superior, far more charming Spanish-language film, “Elsa y Fred” (read my review). With Christopher Plummer and the always-annoying Shirley MacLaine playing the two single senior citizen leads in this version, it just doesn’t work as well. Not even close. They don’t have any chemistry, and they simply lack the grace, class, and charm that the leads in the original had.

The story: two single seniors (one is a widower) and the other a woman (whose single status and the reason for it are matters for debate) end up living as neighbors in the same New Orleans building. At first, they are at odds–the woman rammed her car into the man’s son-in-law’s car. But, eventually, they fall in love and engage in adventures and craziness brought on by the woman. She also has a sad secret.

I really didn’t like this much because I was spoiled by the much better original. Still, you might like it if you hadn’t seen the original. But if you have the choice, Netflix (or whatever other service) the original. It’s sooooooo much better.

HALF A REAGAN

Watch the trailer . . .

* “Laggies“: I enjoyed this movie because it addresses a growing problem in America: 20-something and 30-something adults who are in perpetual adolescence (or think they are) and refuse to grow up. They refuse to act adult and take responsibility. And, as in this movie, part of the problem may be their choice of friends and lovers, as well as their parents’ un-adult and enabling behavior.

Keira Knightley is Megan, who lives with a rather fawning, effeminate boyfriend. Ten years after high school graduation and not long after earning her master’s degree, she’s working as a sign-holder for her father’s accounting business. And she doesn’t have any ambition. She hangs out at her parents’ home and mooches off of them endlessly. Her mother wants to institute tough love and make her grow up, but her father coddles her and invites her to dinner at home all the time.

Megan’s friends from high school are all married, getting married, having children, and moving on with their lives. She has nothing in common with them, and they pressure her to be like them. But, probably because these friends are all so superficial, annoying, and obnoxious, she rebels against them. When they coach her aforementioned effeminate live-in boyfriend to propose to Megan, she needs a break from him and all of it. So, she pretends she’s gone away for the weekend to a self-help retreat, when she’s actually hiding out with a teen-aged high school student (Chloe Grace Moretz), whom she met when she bought the girl alcohol. Yes, she’s not a very responsible or civic citizen.

But in hanging out with the teenaged girl, Megan finally grows up (though, in real life, not sure you can say the same for Knightley, who, today, is asking the world to view her naked topless pic). She assumes a sort of motherly role with the teen and her friends. And she begins a relationship with the girl’s father. Some of the movie is very predictable, but it’s also hysterically funny.

TWO REAGANS

Watch the trailer . . .