Johnny Depp’s blinding affection for late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson convinced him to play the writer’s alter ego – again – in ‘The Rum Diary.’

That casting made sense for 1998’s ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,’ a Thompson-inspired film produced while Depp was still in his early 30s.

Now, as the actor creeps up on 50 (he’s 48), he’s far too old to be playing Thompson at the dawn of his muckraking career. Yet the age disparity isn’t what leaves a sour taste here. The film lacks a third act of consequence, and a text coda plastered on at the end hardly makes amends.

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But there’s still Depp dabbling in his hero’s life story and a snappy script which treats Thompson’s one-liners like those tiny liquor bottles lurking in a hotel room refrigerator. You know you shouldn’t gulp them down, but they’re too tantalizing to resist.

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Watch Billy Bob Thornton and Aaron Eckhart make perfect sense as Amber Heard practically breaks down crying at the beauty of it all…

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Occupy Wall Street does remind me of the 60’s anti-war movement inasmuch as they were both based on a lie. The dirty, filthy hippies didn’t care about the Vietnam War; what they wanted was an end to the draft. That’s why, after Nixon ended the draft, the anti-war movement broke up even though the war would rage for a few more years.

OWS is based on the same lie. These smelly, selfish, narcissistic, spoiled loser creeps want their student loans forgiven. They claim to be outraged over the government’s bailout of Wall Street (which is worth being outraged over) and yet they want their own government bailout and in large part support President GoldmanSachsFailureTeleprompter.

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Liberal film critic, Roger Ebert, called Battle: Los Angeles “noisy, violent, ugly and stupid”.  BigHollywood.com Editor-In-Chief, John Nolte, called it “wildly entertaining and subversive”.  That was all I needed to read to know this was a “must see” movie.  And it most definitely is…in fact, movie goers overseas agree as this epic sci-fi film garnered a first place finish in its second weekend overseas bringing in $27.1 million…with Rango, the animated film about the chameloen sheriff (Johhny Depp) earning $17.5 million in its third weekend.  Now that’s American exceptionalism…on the big screen!

As a retired Air Force veteran, I viewed this movie from a slightly different vantage point than one who has never served in our armed forces. And I loved every minute of this fast-paced, heart-stopping, riveting movie…silently cheering on the small platoon of courageous Marines, led by 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez), sent out on what seemed like a suicide mission to rescue a few stranded civilians in Santa Monica before the Air Force was to completely level the entire city that had fallen to a devastating alien invasion.

What was originally reported to be meteors falling into the ocean along the Los Angeles coastline (as well as the coastlines of 20 other major cities around the world) was quickly determined to be a well-orchestrated invasion of a massive force of seemingly impossible-to-kill aliens… and they were everywhere… annhilating everything and everyone in their path.  As I watched the fast-paced, chaotic, and gripping action unfold, I often found myself holding my breath and sitting on the edge of my seat — myheart racing wildly, pulling for our heroes.  It has been a long time since I’ve been to a movie that left me exhausted like that, in a good way.

I appreciated how they introduced each member of the platoon and gave us a little insight into their frame of mind just prior to their embarking on this terrifying mission, setting the stage for some of the heart-wrenching actions and decisions that occurred throughout the movie.  It made them more real to me, as real as the stories and situations faced every day by our men and women deploying overseas into hostile combat zones.

The main hero of the movie, Staff Sergeant Nantz (Aaron Eckhart), was very convincing as a tough, no-nonsense, war-weary Marine.  In spite of having just gotten his retirement papers signed — a man who was struggling with some demons from his past (something not uncommon to our brothers and sisters who have served in a war zone) — SSgt Nantz displayed the kind of leadership, ingenuity, courage, selflessness, and compassion commonly found in the members of our military, most especially in our Marines, who are always on the front lines … and go where few dare to go.

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The entire leftist, elitist entertainment media agrees: “Battle: Los Angeles,” the new alien invasion flick from director Jonathan Liebesman, is not worth your time.

So clearly, you have got to go see this movie!

On the most recent addition of Take A Movie to Work over at Declaration Entertainment, Bill Whittle discusses the importance of this terrific action movie, which – MOST SHOCKING, EXHILARATING SPOILER ALERT OF ALL TIME – makes American soldiers, the best people our society has to offer, look like THE BEST PEOPLE OUR SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER!

Missing are all of the clichés we have come to expect from movies that depict our fighting men and women. There are no brooding loaners bemoaning the futility of war, no racist loud-mouth adrenaline junkies itching to kill anything they don’t understand, the troops aren’t victims of nefarious political posturing or trying to steal from the third-world…

Even the relationship between Aaron Eckhart’s battle-hardened Staff Sergeant Nash and the fresh-faced, just-out-of-school, naive Lieutenant is respectful and authentic. When the Lieutenant breaks down from his first exposure to the chaos of battle, there is no condescending moment of the wise-old enlisted man rising up to take command. Instead, Eckhart reminds the younger man of his responsibility, pulls him out of his own head, prompts him to make a decision, and then says “Yes sir.”

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It must be the pro-military slant. There’s not a lot of other reasons I can think of why critics have been so eager to trash “Battle: Los Angeles,” a hybrid of “Black Hawk Down,” “District 9,” and “Independence Day” that incredibly manages to crib mostly the best parts of the three. It’s not as thematically sophisticated as the former two, true, though it’s easy to marvel at the ability of critics to selectively decide that one piece of slam-bang entertainment is worthy of our attention, then turn and denounce another as worthless for its lack of “useful” subtext.  

In a role that will have many an important casting director take note, Aaron Eckhart stars as SSgt. Nantz, a battle-hardened Marine who finds himself at the epicenter of the Los Angeles front during an alien invasion. His squad, which consists of a number of character types standard to war pic fare (the inexperienced officer, the engaged guy, etc.), in most cases successfully engender sympathy, providing they survive long enough. Many don’t, and die faceless to us, though the sight of Marines being butchered by extra-terrestrial intruders is affecting. The aliens, who never speak a word and clearly have no interest in diplomacy, are a stock sci-fi design of flesh and metal hybrid, but are rendered convincingly, and present serious danger as their lethality is unveiled over the course of the film’s many encounters.

For the sake of foreign grosses (and perhaps the good sensibilities of the average left-wing film critic), pic avoids any outright pro-America patriotism, though its admiration of one of the USA’s most revered institutions is none-too-subtle. Truthfully, this might actually be the most respectful and reverent portrayal of American servicemen since “Black Hawk Down,” certainly light-years away from the extreme pessimism of, well, any military pic about our dual wars. It’s telling of the direction our culture has been steered that scenes depicting Marines engaged in unvarnished heroism are often simply dismissed as shameless and simplistic, though an attentive news reader will find evidence of such bravery occurring daily on the front. When Nantz and squad opts out of an exit late in the film to launch a suicidal attack on the alien fortress, it’s in fact one of many moving, unironic moments that draw attention to the risks taken by those in uniform. Detractors may sneer at this as fiction, though consider a scene in the aforementioned “Black Hawk Down” that sees two Delta Force operators volunteer their lives to cover a downed chopper crew; that was genuinely real, so, in comparison, how one accuse can the fictional Marines of “Battle: Los Angeles” of bravery manufactured purely as propaganda? 

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A fight to the death in an urban hell between US Marines and an implacable, evil foe who murders civilians without a second thought – if only Hollywood had the moral courage to tell that story straight, the story of America’s finest who battled to victory over jihadi degenerates in Fallujah and throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.  But Hollywood can’t tell that story, not without exchanging the real menace our men and women are fighting everyday for a horde of CGI space aliens.  Sadly, the industry lacks the moral courage of the men and women it portrays.

Let’s be clear – Battle: Los Angeles is a terrific action film that makes no bones about its pro-American, pro-military agenda.  And that fact has invited carping from the usual suspects, lefty movie critics who work themselves up into a lather over the portrayal of better men than they will ever be.   

And note that when I use the term “men” here, I include the fighting women of the US armed forces – don’t worry, critics:  Heroines like Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester will protect you . . . just move to the rear with the children and try not to get in the way. 

The fact is that science fiction has long been a tool to comment on the present, including the relationship between our warriors and our society.  Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers was a fascinating depiction of military life as well as what the author saw as a degrading, decaying culture.  The Paul Verhoeven film of the same name, though different in tone, had its own insights into military vulture, including coed showers and a machine gun-packing Doogie Howser.

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I first heard about Battle: Los Angeles last year while attending Comic Con in San Diego.  As you can imagine, there were quite a few projects being hyped that weekend and, honestly, I didn’t pay too much attention to this particular film.  Why?  Because, when it comes to projects that feature our military, I’ve been let down too many times before.  My first reaction is typically, “Here we go again.”

As the trailers started to circulate the web, I begrudgingly admitted they looked pretty cool.  My geek streak is certainly wide enough to get down with some old-fashioned alien invasion stuff and I realized that the movie would feature my beloved Marine Corps, OSR (Ooh-Stinkin’-Rah). However, my distrust still prevented me from getting excited about it.

As the release date neared, I was torn.  Do I go see the movie, take my licks and try to enjoy the action aspect of it or do I give it a pass?  I decided on the latter.  I was not going to pay good money to go watch my brothers and sisters get crapped on again.

Then, last week I read an article in which Aaron Eckhart talked about the film:

“This movie, in my opinion, is meant to be a love letter to the Marines. We had their full cooperation. They had my full cooperation. I tried to get it right. I think this movie is very reverent towards the military and reverent towards the ranks, both the officers and the Marines and the grunts. I don’t see how any Marine can see this movie and feel like they’ve been at all taken advantage of. I think this is going to be an oo-rah moment for them.”

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You want to know how clueless too many of today’s lock-step thinking,  left-wing critics are? They’re so blinded by ideology and partisanship that their number-one complaint about the thoroughly entertaining, engrossing, exciting, edge-of-your-seat “Battle: Los Angeles,” is that it’s somehow lacking in important themes, subtext, a social conscience and meaning.  Okay, it’s Lent and there’s a Swear Jar right here on my desk, which means that the following is going to cost me a dollar — but it’s worth it: Every word of that criticism is complete and utter bullshit. These critics and their many counterparts are either lying or they’re so blinded by partisanship that they can’t see the forest for the trees they’re hugging.

When The Washington Post talks about how the film isn’t “interested in allegory, nuance or social comment,” what they really mean is “left-wing allegory, nuance and social comment.” In other words, they want allusions to how George W. Bush is a war criminal. When the Leftists at Movieline declare the film “the emptiest form of sci-fi action,” they mean empty of the left-wing stuff that makes them wet — stuff about how Marines are jarhead racists and the aliens are really us, or something. When the New York Times laments a lack of “interesting political implications to chew over,” they mean left-wing political implications to chew over — like how man-made Global Warming means we deserve an alien invasion.

And finally, when Left-wing extremist Roger Ebert is made so upset by the film he declares those who disagree with his hit-job review  ”idiots” and writes: “Its manufacture is a reflection of appalling cynicism” —   well, to be honest, no one knows what the hell he’s talking about.

Let’s go down the list, though, shall we?

1. Lacks allegory:

A film that gives us a ruthless enemy only interested in submission  has plenty of allegory — what you might call a refreshing allegory.  Not the kind of allegory left-wing critics like, but allegory nonetheless. The enemy we face now in the form of Islamists don’t want to talk, debate or discuss terms. They want us dead. All of us. Even Hollywood pansies who suck up to them in mega-flops.

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The Drew Barrymore-produced romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You has made the jump from catch-phrase to self-help book to movie hit. With an all-star cast this classic ‘chick flick” appears to be winning the weekend after posting a spectacular $10.5M in opening day ticket sales. That should mean a 3-day start of $27.4M or so, easily out-pacing holdover Taken (Fox) and three other new wide releases. With this kind of opening, Not That Into You could reach almost $60M by the end of next weekend (a 4-day Presidents/Valentine’s combo), which would forecast a potential $90M in US ticket sales.

The new movie developed by New Line and now released by Warner Bros is based on the book of the same name co-written by former Sex & the City scribes Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo. The line itself has come to be a reassuring fallback for women in the dating scene (and I’m guessing single guys have adopted the mentality as well in the rough-and-tumble world of dating).

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