video

'Hemingway & Gellhorn' overreaches

Intending to re-create the torrid romance between two of the 20th century's most talented writers, the fanciful but slapdash "Hemingway & Gellhorn" (not rated, HBO) instead portrays a couple who engaged in a decade or so of grudge sex, using civil wars and populist uprisings as marital aids. Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman are Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, two people who couldn't get turned on unless guerrilla forces were advancing over a nearby hill. There's also David Strathairn as a haughtily righteous John Dos Passos and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich as propagandizing filmmaker Joris Ivens. There's plenty of scenery to be gnawed on, and Owen in particular has fun gnawing on it. But "Hemingway & Gellhorn," directed by Philip Kaufman ("The Unbearable Lightness of Being") from a script by Jerry Stahl and Barbara Turner, is overly enamored with its ridiculous sense of sweep.

Washington Post

Also out Tuesday:

Movies: "John Dies at the End," "Planet Ocean," "Knuckleball," "The Kick," "The Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection: Romance," "The Sweeney," "Charlie: A Toy Story," "Forbidden Woman," "Tormented," "A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape From Paradise."

TV: "Frontline: The Untouchables: Money, Power and Wall Street," "American Masters Philip Roth: Unmasked," "Earth's Final Hours," "The Bible," "Dirk Gently," "Route 66" (Season 4).

Blu-ray: "Jackie Robinson: My Story."

apps

This iPhone app takes Kickstarter's crowd-funding tools to a mobile platform so anyone can contribute to projects from a phone. If you want to lend a few dollars but don't have a project in mind, the app allows you to sift through open projects by subjects such as art or games. If you're on the creative side, the app lets you manage ongoing Kickstarter projects — but you can't start undertakings straight from your phone. While the app doesn't take much advantage of the mobile platform other than the ability to look at nearby projects, it's a good initial effort from one of the most interesting places on the Web. Free, for iOS devices.

Washington Post