New movies this week
Captain Phillips
The gist: Tom Hanks stars in a recreation of the 2009 hijacking of an ocean freighter by Somali pirates. He has been promoting the movie by also revealing the 2013 hijacking of his pancreas by Type II diabetes. PG-13
The cast: Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Catherine Keener, Michael Chernus, Corey Johnson and Max Martini.
The buzz: Director Paul Greengrass is on target with this one. "Hostage situations have inspired so many shallow, primitive genre films that it's eye-opening to see what an inspired filmmaker can achieve with the material," the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says.
Romeo & Juliet
The gist: Another retelling of two kids from rival gangs who probably would have benefitted from accessibility to Snapchat. At least, until their parents found their smartphones. PG-13
The cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Ed Westwick, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Paul Giamatti and Stellan Skarsgård.
The buzz: You know, you could always just try reading the play. It's been around forever. "It makes Baz Luhrmann's 1996 contempo update — the one with Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio and the plus-sign in its title — look like some kind of masterpiece," the Philadelphia Inquirer says.
Machete Kills
The gist: Robert Rodriguez continues to make his own grindhouse legend grow. This time Machete apparently kills someone. Probably with a machete. R
The cast: Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Sofía Vergara, Amber Heard, Carlos Estévez, Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderas and Jessica Alba.
The buzz: What are you expecting from a movie that lets Charlie Sheen play the president? "A surprisingly long-lived gag finally runs out of gas in Robert Rodriguez's noticeably duller, less outrageous sequel to Machete," Variety says.
Also playing
The Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival concludes this weekend. For more information, go to tiglff.com.
— Joshua Gillin jgillin@tampabay.com