LOS ANGELES - Michael Douglas has always excelled at playing arrogant - think his Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street." He could also play arrogant on a downward spiral, as he did in "Wonder Boys."
In "Solitary Man" he plays Ben Kalmen, once known as "New York's honest car dealer," who's had a fall. The reality is that he cheats on everybody. His marriage is over, and his ex-wife (Susan Sarandon) watches in disdain as he chases other women. His daughter is saddened by what her father has become. He even two-times his mistress, Jordan (Mary-Louise Parker). Worse, he promises to help Jordan's daughter (Imogen Poots) get into his alma mater. Yet when he accompanies her to the school, well, you guessed it. Then he helps a lovesick student (Jesse Eisenberg), only to use him.
Like many a car salesman, Douglas' Ben works hard to make you like him, but there is desperation growing in his eyes. The scenes with Danny DeVito as Ben's longtime friend who knew the man before he became "honest" are among the most telling.
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"Solitary Man," from Brian Koppelman and David Levien, suffers a bit because it's so Ben-centric. But it's Douglas' movie, and he does a great selling job. It's one of his finest performances, and the Oscar-winning actor, who has throat cancer, has given us many. We wish him well.
"The Killers" - not to be confused with better films with the same name - stars Ashton Kutcher as an undercover agent who hides his profession from his suburban wife (Katherine Heigl). Mayhem and action ensue in this romantic-comedy thriller, which has little romance, comedy or thrills.
"MacGruber" is the full-length movie version of a "Saturday Night Live" skit that parodies the 1980s TV hit "MacGyver," an inventive secret agent who could defuse any situation or bomb with whatever he had handy. The movie tries to parody the Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger action flicks of the era, bringing in Powers Boothe and Val Kilmer for some weight, but the concept was already thin. Emmy-nominated Kristen Wiig is a bright spot as one of MacGruber's (Will Forte) team.
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"Blood Into Wine"
"Loss of a Teardrop Diamond"
"That Evening Sun"
"Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection"
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"Smallville: The Complete Ninth Season"
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