Movie reviews of the day

Rico says one's a thumb up, and one's a thumb down.

Rico says a big thumb's up for Havana, starring Robert Redford and a host of other familiar faces. Set in its namesake just prior to the Revolution, it's a love story between Redford and the radiantly beautiful Lena Olin, who's married to the (we think) murdered Raul Julia. From the imdb.com plot summary:

December 1958, Cuba: Professional gambler Jack Weil (played by Robert Redford) visits Havana, trying to organize a big poker game. On the ship, he meets Roberta Duran (played by Lena Olin) and falls in love with her. Shortly after they arrive in Cuba, Roberta and her Cuban husband, the revolutionary Arturo Duran (played by Raul Julia), are arrested and tortured. Arturo is reported "shot while trying to escape", but Jack manages to get Roberta free again. He can't, however, keep her from continuing to support the revolution. Jack has to make a choice between the beautiful woman who keeps putting herself in harms way and the biggest poker game of his life; between the man he could be and the man he is.

Rico says a big thumb's down for The Blood of Fu Manchu, starring (who else?) Christopher Lee as the good doctor, out to rule the world again by inoculating ten women with poison to kill ten world leaders. Florid and overdone, even for a Fu Manchu movie, Rico didn't watch much of it before (a rare thing for Rico) turning it off.