Captain Jack has a few too many Rum's.

'The Rum Diary'

Bruce Robinson is back, first movie he has directed since 1992. Of course he is well know for one of the best British comedies ever 'Withnail & I'. With the constant pestering from Depp, who saw a great movie in Hunter S. Thompson's Novel which is loosely based on the writers own experiences of working in Puerto Rico in the 1960's, Robinson was talked to come out of semi- retirement to be at the helm for this. So the expectations are very high, of course.

Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) is a writer, who has failed at get his own books published, so he travels to Puerto Rico to work for the island newspaper 'The San Juan Star', which is failing miserably. He becomes involved in a group of businessmen who want to develop the island into a luxury venue, Paul struggles with his own morality with his involvement here. He also becomes quite obsessed with one of the businessmen, Sanderson (Aaron Eckharts) Girlfriend. He asked's himself a lot of questions in this crazy experience.

The movie lacks punch, with a weak story-line, which is disappointing, with especially with Depp and Robinson on board, you would of set this out to be a winner from the word go, but alas, I was let down a bit. With the air of a bit of anti- climatic way about it. The jokes run very much a far between.

Depp is fantastic, great to see him out of that silly Captain Jack costume, delivering a very comical performance, his face movement is wonderful. His screen sidekick Sala played by Michael Rispoli is very good and very deserved a mention here. Amber Heard who plays Sanderson's girlfriend and Kemp's keen interest, just lights up the screen with her beauty and is sweetly played, would like to see her take up a more meaty role. There are very laugh out loud moments within this movie, which shows some sparkle, which doesn't make the movie seem all bad and quite watchable. The first scene of the movie, where we see Paul on the morning after the night he arrives, very hungover, yes there is a lot of drink consumption in this movie. Well it wouldn't feel right if there wasn't in a Bruce Robinson movie.

For all it's faults, this is an alright movie. It would be nice to see Bruce Robinson take up something else to do, and not let us wait 19 more years again for his next outing. Worth a rent if you fancy a winding down Sunday night movie. Nothing more, nothing less.

3 out of 5