McFarland, USA

Kevin Costner is Jim White, the cross country coach at McFarland High School, an almost entirely Latino high school in a very poor agricultural area of California. White takes his rag tag band of kids, who work in the fields before school and after practice, and transforms them into a real team. This movie is based on a true story* and is made by Disney, so you can probably guess how most of the movie will play out. Still, it has some nice moments, the cast is good, and the movie is entertaining. Costner is Costner. Personally, I love the guy and enjoy his work in pretty much everything. He's a great "everyman" and fits that role here very well. Bottom line: liked this a lot. 8/10.

3 Days to Kill

A rather un-serious take on the spy thriller genre. Kevin Costner is an assassin who has just retired and wants to establish a relationship with his daughter before he dies. Turns out he's got some cancer that's going to kill him. He also has specific knowledge and skills the CIA needs to another assassination. They, in turn, have some magic medicine that's going to make Costner all better. Quid pro quo, ya know. The result is a pretty entertaining movie with some nice funny spots, like Costner's phone ringing at inopportune times with his ringtone for his daughter. Amber Heard co-stars in a completely useless role. She's Costner's CIA contact but her shtick is some kind of noir femme fatale or something. Whatever. She can't act and her part is terrible. Fortunately, she's not on screen all that much. Anyway, this is hardly a great movie but it's amusing and Costner is pretty good in it. 5/10.

Draft Day

Kevin Costner is the GM of the Cleveland Browns and it's the first day of the NFL draft. Costner is under pressure from his owner to "make a splash". He's under pressure from his coach to "get him players". Jennifer Garner is Ali, the Browns' salary cap guru and also Costner's girlfriend. This movie is something of a mess. The storyline with the Browns and Seahawks throwing around the #1 overall pick is decent but not realistic - typical overdone Hollywood sports movie stuff. The problem comes with the "other" stuff. You've got Garner - a football fanatic and Browns employee - deciding that the day of the NFL draft is the perfect time to inform her GM boyfriend she's pregnant - and then she's miffed that he doesn't respond properly. You've got Costner's mom coming to his office in the middle of the day - dragging along his ex-wife, to boot - to ask him to participate in a memorial for his dad right then. Her husband was a lifelong NFL coach and she knew it was draft day. Both of these things, with the women doing stuff that makes absolutely no sense, drag the movie down big-time. Add in the fact that Costner gets a brand-new intern that day who then claims his "whole life" is on a company laptop that gets destroyed (say what? he's been there less than a day). Topping it all off is that Costner isn't that busy. It's the biggest day of the year and he's not BUSY. Phones in the office aren't ringing. People aren't hustling around. And so on. And yet, even with all that, the movie ends up being pretty entertaining. It's got football, Jennifer Garner, and some decent work from Costner. That's OK for a Sunday afternoon. My wife, presumably the target audience for all the forced "drama" stuff that's added in, came out of the movie wishing for more football in the movie. I agree. Entertaining but not great. 5/10.

The Company Men

Ben Affleck plays a sales guy who gets downsized in the wake of the economic crisis. Tommy Lee Jones is his boss and Craig T Nelson is the CEO. Kevin Costner plays the brother-in-law. This is a somber movie with a few light moments that takes a pretty realistic look at what happens to upper-middle class (or above) folks who lose their jobs and their employment prospects afterward. Affleck is solid, Nelson is good, Tommy Lee plays himself, and Costner demonstrates the hilarity of his (in)ability to do a good accent. Good movie that doesn't really strive for greatness and thus never gets there. I did get a bit of a chuckle out of the financial situation Affleck is in - he makes $125k + incentives and is his family's sole paycheck, yet they live in a home that's worth well north of $1m. If that doesn't just explain the mortgage crisis in a nutshell, LOL. Anyway, good movie that just creeps over the Tabedoza line - 8/10.

Rumor Has It

Jennifer Aniston is the granddaughter of the woman who supposedly inspired The Graduate. Kevin Costner is the guy who supposedly inspired the Dustin Hoffman character in it. Aniston seeks out the truth and ends up entangled with Costner, who is now a charming billionaire. What follows is pretty standard rom com stuff. There's some funny moments, the cast is pretty good (I'm a big Costner fan) and it's generally inoffensive entertainment. 5/10.

The Guardian

Ashton Kutcher is a high school swim champion who wants to be a Coast Guard rescue diver. Kevin Costner is the crotchety veteran diver whose best friend dies so he's made a trainer for awhile. Costner is unconventional but he gets results. This is not a movie that breaks any new ground but it looks good, has some nifty looking stunts, and is generally entertaining. I liked it. 6/10.