Much Ado About Nothing: It's Really Something

"Methinks the Bard would love this flick 'more than words can wield the matter,'" saith the Movie Slut.

This contemporized version of Shakespeare's comedy about love and trickery, both good and villainous, is nothing short of a glittering gem. Director Joss Whedon filmed the play in black and white in his Southern California home and hit just the right stride between modern-day amorous madness and the craziness of love six centuries ago.

To put it as Shakespeare did in Act 3, "Love goes by haps; Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps."

This Is The End: Wishful Thinking

As far as the Movie Slut is concerned, there's nothing like a scary/funny armageddon flick.

Sadly, this isn't it.

Unless you're a fanatic Jonah Hill or Seth Rogan fan stay away. Yes, James Franco is here, too. But even he can't make up for the infantile antics, sophomoric dialogue and unfunny scatalogical jokes.

In fact, this "End" was so bad that Movie Slut couldn't wait for the end. She walked out in the middle.

The Internship: Googleliscious

Someone had to do it. And who better than Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.

Someone had to tell the Millennial Generation that there's more to life than texting, tweeting, Facebooking, pintristing, instagramming, prowling the Internet on smartphones and shuffling around, obliviously, with their cell crammed to their ears.

Does the Movie Slut sound angry? Well, yes, especially since she nearly ran over one of these walking-while-texting zombies when he lurched in front of her car.

But not to dwell. Wilson and Vaughn make the same point with humor in this flick by landing internships at Google and having to compete with those half their age, aka, the Millennials, who know lots about computer innards, but nothing about life.

It's said that Wilson and Vaughn were asked to make a sequel to Wedding Crashers, their laugh-a-minute 2005 film, and decided instead to do something original. Internship won't have you falling off your seat like WC probably did, but it's a ton of fun and the MS applauds the guys for creating something new in this summer of reruns.

Now You See Me: But Do You Want To?

Much is said about magic in this hyperbolic thriller about four magicians brought together by an anonymous leader, a la Charlie in Charlie's Angels. But the one truism to keep in mind if you choose to take in this flick is that the more you look the less you see. Or something to that effect.

In other words, don't try to figure it out. All will be revealed in the end. The smoke will lift. The  mirrors will shatter and it will make sense — sort of.

So the movie isn't exactly play fair and the big reveal may be anticlimactic, still there's fun to be had at this slick flick, which is strangely satisfying in the end.

The sterling cast includes Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.

The Great Gatsby: Great Fun and More

If you're thinking of seeing Baz Luhrmannn's extravagant recreation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel, the Movie Slut gives you the green light.

 Oh, yeah, the green light. It's the image that opens this 2-hour and 23-minute spectacular with Jay Gatsby gazing across the water at the blinking light on Daisy's dock. And then you're off, lost in this tale about hectic Jazz Age New York, the careless lives of the rich and shallow and the young man who had the temerity to believe, heart and soul, in the American dream.

"Over the top" are words that have been used to describe this film in a negative way. But the MS, who read the novel last month, found the movie an accurate portrayal of Fitzgerald's work in both tone and story.

Much has been made of the soundtrack, which features contemporary artists, including Jaz-Z, and Beyonce. But the music that soars was composed by George Gershwin, no matter that the action takes place in 1922 and "Rhapsody in Blue" was written two years later. It fits the sweeping arc of the tragic story, which reaches tremendous heights before crashing to its inevitable end.

The cast — with Leonardo DiCaprio as the irrepressible Gatsby,  Carey Mulligan as the superficial Daisy and Toby Maguire as Nick Carraway, the awed narrator — is impeccable.

The costumes are magnificent.

It's been said that more copies of this poignant novel were sold in 2013, the week before this movie opened, than in Fitzgerald's short life. Maybe his contemporaries weren't ready for the truth  about ugly class divisions and prejudice in their supposedly egalitarian society.

The Hangover Part III: Three's a Charm

Do we need another Hangover movie?
Of course not.

Is the world a better place because we now have three sophomoric flicks about guys behaving idiotically?
No, no and no.

Still, the Movie Slut was amused by this third installment about three law-abiding married guys who are forced to choose between stupid sucky decisions and stupider, suckier ones. They know they're spiraling down into a black hole of ridiculousness and yet, there's no intelligent way out.

Is it a clever flick?
Not really.
But it is fun if, like the Movie Slut, your cinematic standards are as low as they can go.

Kon-Tiki: Peru to Polynesia is 101 Days

Think Life of Pi. Hold the tiger. Add a parrot. And that will give you an idea about what this flick, based on a true event, is about.

It's 1947 and a young Norwegian explorer named Thor Heyerdahl is out to prove that Peruvians were first to settle Polynesia and they did this by sailing across the Pacific on a balsa wood raft. The powers that be think he's daft. That it couldn't be done now or ever. But he wouldn't let that stop him from recreating the voyage.

The movie doesn't do a great job of explaining why this would be so important to a young man from Norway, but let's chalk it up to adventure and wanderlust. And so, we, the viewers, set out with him on this ocean journey.

This is not a film for everyone, but it happens to be one of the Movie Slut's favorite genres :the try and try and try and try and try and try and try and — you-will-succeed movie.

Remember, at one time anyone who thought the world was round was considered a wacko.