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DreamWorks' cunning casting of the silky Spaniard Antonio Banderas as a swashbuckling Puss in Boots pays off, brilliantly, in "Puss in Boots," a star vehicle for the nursery rhyme kitty cat from the "Shrek" movies.

Thanks to Banderas and his Corinthian-leather purr and writers who know how to use it, "Puss" is the best animated film of 2011.

This is no mere "Shrek" sequel. There is sex appeal in every syllable, swagger in every line. And even kids get the joke of a voice that sensual and grand coming out of a kitty so small.

"I am but a humble gato (cat) looking for his next meal," Puss insists. But that's after he's mentioned that, as a legendary lover and swordsman, "I am known by many names - The Ginger Hit Man, Chupacabra, Frisky Two Times." So we know better than to take this con artist, thief and seducer seriously.

His childhood pal Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) has a plan for stealing magic beans from the burly thugs Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sedaris). If Puss can pull off the theft, there are riches at the top of the beanstalk those beans will grow into.

"We go up the beanstalk outlaws; we come back legends!"

But first, he has to get past a competitor, a cat-suited cat-burgling kitty who turns out to be Kitty Soft-Paws (Salma Hayek). Before you can yell "Cat FIGHT!" they launch into an epic 3-D flamenco dance-off. Being cats, their moves include one any dog or cat owner will recognize - the butt scootch.

"How dare you do the Litter Box to me!"

This quest will test Puss, and may cost him his boots. But a gato has his principles, a code he lives by. They need cash. Maybe the local church?

"I do not steal from churches!"

Maybe from the homeless kids?

"I do not steal from orphans!"

Banderas vocally vamps this up in ways he never gets to do in live-action films. And the writers - Brian Lynch, David H. Steinberg, Tom Wheeler and Jon Zack - never forget how funny these words will be coming out of that voice inside that itty-bitty kitty cat.

A couple of dandy 3-D chase scenes suggest theme park rides to come, and the sight gags almost outnumber the verbal ones. In a flashback, Puss and Humpty remember the day they became "blood brothers" as kids - pricking their fingers and swapping blood … and yellow egg yolk. Humpty's "plan" for climbing the beanstalk is written on a child's pop-up book.

Director Chris Miller ("Shrek the Third") never lets this settle into the lazy "Shrek" music videos and pop-culture riffs. The comedy here comes from the characters, and the incongruity of that wondrous voice saying those dashing lines in the body of a small, but not-remotely "humble" gato.

PUSS IN BOOTS

*** 1/2

• Rated: PG for some adventure action and mild rude humor.

• Director: Chris Miller.

• Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Sedaris, Billy Bob Thornton.

• Running time: 89 minutes.

The stench of cheap booze, stale cigarettes, newsprint and pre-air conditioning sweat wafts off the screen in "The Rum Diary," Johnny Depp's second shot at paying tribute to his friend, the late journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

Though it only rarely reaches the level of gonzo farce that it might have been, "Diary" is still an agreeably drunken stagger through the novel Thompson based on his formative year as a writer - 1960 - which he spent drunk, getting into trouble and first tangling with "The Man" in Puerto Rico.

Paul Kemp (Depp) has come to San Juan for a job interview at the San Juan Star newspaper. He's made a bad impression by being late and seriously hung over for his meeting with Lotterman, the editor.

"Conjunctivitis," he insists.

"This is not the Last Chance Saloon," Lotterman (Richard Jenkins) gripes, demanding to know what kind of drinker he's dealing with.

"At the upper end of 'social,' " Paul lies. "I'm poised to give it up!"

Writer-director Bruce Robinson ("Withnail & I") packs the script with pithy Hunter-isms, hurling many of Thompson's euphonious locutions at us in this opening scene. Puerto Rico, with its two languages and two flags, is "like England with tropical fruit," Lotterman explains.

Kemp settles in, but his cynicism (he's a failed novelist) works its way into his stories, the bowling alley tourists who are "beasts of obesity … gluttons" and "locusts." He has to learn "Nobody wants what's wrong with the place," and if not from Lotterman, perhaps from Paul's cynical colleagues, roommates and fellow drunks - photographer Bob Sala (Michael Rispoli, pretty good) or columnist-on-a-bender Moberg (Giovanni Ribisi, way out there).

It's the oily press agent Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) who sells Paul on Puerto Rico's place within the American Dream, which was to become a running obsession with Hunter S. Thompson. The island is "a gold mine" thanks "to something that doesn't exist - land."

And Paul listens to Sanderson, because the guy is offering to pay him off and because Sanderson has the most gorgeous blond girlfriend this side of Monroe, a clothing-optional bombshell perfectly embodied by Amber Heard.

Among the supporting players, Ribisi stands out as he plays Moberg as almost a Thompson prototype - ever blitzed, always in sunglasses, stealing soaked filters from the Bacardi rum factory to distill his own high-test brew from. He staggers everywhere, rages at authority and listens to old Hitler speeches on the phonograph.

Nothing much happens here that we don't see coming - cops and cockfights, flirtations and drug trips. Depp is too old to be starring in a coming-of-age-as-a-journalist tale. (Thompson himself was 21-22 while he was there.) But Depp makes the performance work by suggesting a burn-out case in need of a second chance, someone world-weary enough to recognize the ethical temptations of the job and the alcoholic temptations of the island.

In these politically correct times, we've lost the "amusing drunk," except in frat-boyish "Hangover" movies. "Rum Diary," however predictable the trip and perfunctory the arrival, is worthy because it's just plain fun to watch the actor who so nailed Thompson in the cult hit "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" work through the earlier version of what would become Thompson's obsessions - Nixon, who "lies like he breathes," hallucinogens and writing "the truth," as he sees it, come what may. As vanity projects go, this one's a perfectly passable Hunter S. Thompson valentine.

THE RUM DIARY

** 1/2

• Rated: R for some language.

• Director: Bruce Robinson.

• Cast: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Aaron Eckhart, Giovanni Ribisi, Richard Jenkins, Michael Rispoli.

• Running time: 110 minutes.

"Gattaca" director Andrew Niccol's sense of the zeitgeist is as on the money as ever with "In Time," a sci-fi parable that plays like "Occupy Wall Street: The Movie."

Though its action beats and story arc are nothing if not conventional, this startling commentary on a world of haves and those-we'll-keep-from-having touches on the greatest sci-fi trope of all - dystopia, how the future looks because of the things we do wrong today.

Justin Timberlake is Will Salas, a young guy who will be "25" to the end of his days. Or hours. In this future, people stop aging at 25. Then, unless they can buy, borrow or steal time from another, they die. "I don't have time" has a whole new meaning to the working poor. They sprint, breathlessly, from home to work t0 date night and constantly stare at the luminescent digits counting down on their arm. Time, for all of them, is running out.

The gangs that rule the place are "Minutemen," thieves who steal from others, kill at will and drive cool retro cars. Portis, given a nicely petulant taste by Alex Pettyfer, is leader of the pack.

The rich, barricaded in their own fortress "time zones," stockpile the years, live spectacularly well and spectacularly long. But they live without risk, in fear of the one thing that can get them - accidental death. "The poor die, and the rich don't live."

But an act of kindness earns Will time - enough of it to change time zones. He goes undercover and resolves to live it up and take the rich "for everything they've got." That's where he gambles with the rich guy ("Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser). That's where he meets the rich man's stunning, rebellious daughter, Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried). And that's where he runs afoul of the timekeepers, led by the obsessed Javert-like maintainer of the status quo, Ray Leon (Cillian Murphy, terrific).

Timberlake is more adequate than epic in this leading man turn, and Seyfried, in a red flapper's bob, impossibly high heels and provocatively short skirts, still seems an innocent young thing playing at being bad. But she's good at suggesting a woman bored with a life where she doesn't dare so much as take a dip in the ocean behind the mansion she grew up in. (A girl could drown, after all.)

Writer-director Niccol manages to cover the same ground as the most recent "Spy Kids" movie without tumbling into silliness. But "In Time still has its silly side, its eye-rolling moments mixed in with the pungent observations about modern society. The poor are sentenced to poverty, and the hint that even one of them might escape enrages the system. What do the rich enjoy if not the luxury of leisure - servants to handle mundane tasks, travel expedited, lives lengthened by a system stacked in their favor? Has Sean Hannity labeled this "class warfare" yet?

But "In Time" is more a potentially great parable than a particularly good one. The earliest scenes, where Will meets a rich man tired of his excess years, are preachy. When Will and Sylvia go on the lam, the film gets a needed jolt of adrenalin. It's a pity Niccol's script doesn't give them anywhere to go. Even with its thoughtful nods to "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Les Miserables," "In time" never delivers that transcendent "Blade Runner" moment, and never rises above cult classic to simple classic.

Review

In Time

** 1/2

• Rated: PG-13 for violence, some sexualty and partial nudity, and strong language.

• Director: Andrew Niccol.

• Cast: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser

• Running time: 109 minutes.