http://youtu.be/0YUx36yLLug
In a sea of remakes and movies that can only be described as cinematic crap, came a movie that had the potential to change the status quo. “The Rum Diary,” failed to change the image brought about by the half rate movies that have been produced by un-original directors.
Although the plot line differed from any other movies produced recently it still captured the apathetic tone set by directors over the past few months.
The ever-famous Johnny Depp stars as Paul Kemp, an alcoholic freelance reporter for an American run newspaper in Puerto Rico. Starting out as a fluff piece reporter, writing horoscopes and bowling alley reviews, Kemp is almost immediately roped into writing for Sanderson, an American man pushing the citizens off the streets of their own city to make Puerto Rico tourist friendly for economic gain.
The plot line in “The Rum Diary” goes back and forth following Kemp as he tries to overcome alcoholic tendencies and keep a steady job. Though the plot line sometimes hard to follow the Director Bruce Robinson did manage to film in a perfect location adding to the overall quality of the movie.
Johnny Depp failed to show the emotion that was implied through situational clues and seemed very mono-emotional, but this was to be expected with Johnny Depp’s hit or miss acting style.
With somewhat of a dark humor, this movie was based on a semi-autobiographical piece written by Hunter S. Thompson, a journalist, deeply troubled by Cocaine, LSD, and alcohol. He managed to scribble out “The Rum Diary,” later picked up by Robinson, who rewrote it into a useable script.
The script, coming from the cracked out ramblings of a freelance journalist is surprisingly in order but it’s obvious that the delirium is still contained in the role of Kemp. The plotline contained holes; causing me to ask myself the question “wait, what happened to that part?” The movie does tie back together nicely and manages to deliver a few laughs and delivers a polished feeling.
“The Rum Diary” has a lot of potential, and some may have considered it reached; it was a nice change from the remakes that seems to be the only thing being produced right now.
