Movies: The Trip to Italy, A Summer's Tale, Five-Star Life, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Three foreign films and an American box-office loser. It has been an interesting few weeks at the movie theater.

The Trip to Italy is the followup to the Steve Coogan/Rob Brydon film The Trip, a re-cut BBC TV series. Coogan and Brydon are big stars in Britain, not so much here, although Coogan is slightly better known. They are both hysterically funny in a British deadpan way and both do stunning impressions, especially of Michael Caine. Frankly, this film would be worth watching for the hotels and meals in Italy, even if you hated the stars. I want a tour of the places they went!

A Summer's Tale sprang from the mind of Eric Roehmer, a French director best know in the U.S. for Claire's Knee. It follows his usual pattern: well-educated middle classs young people, talking more than acting. One of those foreign films where "nothing happens," but still quite a bit of fun. It is 20 years old; God knows why it was in a theater. You can rent it if you like subtitled, intellectual French films. We do.

Five-Star Life is the picaresque tale of a woman who reviews five-star hotels for a living. It's Italian, but the hotels are all over the world. Good but not great. About what you'd expect; this woman's job has taken over her life. Amazing shots of amazing places to stay.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is a sequel, remarkable for its weird mostly black-and white photography and its buckets of blood. If you can't treat over-the-top violence as a form of entertainment, don't even walk by a theater showing this film. I thought it was interesting for what it was, and I was swept up in the graphics. Not so much the plot, and the fact that the film was at least a half hour too long irritated me. Alas, since it flopped at the box office, there probably won't be another one. No spoilers, but I think you'll find the ending satisfying.