All posts filed under: Hollywood

*NEW* INSURGENT REVIEW *NEW*

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Originally posted on The MAD MOVIE RANTER:
Dull-vergent returns. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice . . . Well, shame on me again, I guess. Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) must confront her inner demons and continue her fight against a powerful alliance which threatens to tear her society apart with the help from others on her side. Well, it killed the time. But would I watch it again? Would I recommend it? Ah, no. I haven’t read the Divergent books (and I’m certainly not going to after this) BUT I actually liked the first feature film adaptation. It was racy, engaging if a little predictable. BUT as I said back then, if there was going to be a sequel, they would need to take it up a notch. It was watchable enough but if anything, Insurgent took the wind out of Divergent’s sails. It was slow, overlong and cliched as hell. It only really got going in the last twenty minutes. Not good enough. It doesn’t help that the silver screen has been flooded with endless teen bestseller adaptations…

*NEW* AMERICAN ULTRA REVIEW *NEW*

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Originally posted on The MAD MOVIE RANTER:
Ultra-boring, more like. A stoner (Jess Eisenberg), who is in fact a government agent, is marked as a liability and targeted for extermination. But he’s too well-trained and too high for them to handle. Eisenberg and co do their best BUT for all the promise, it fails to reach anything you could have expected. The slow opener didn’t get things going BUT it suggested a Burn After Reading meets Pineapple Express vibe. Unfortunately it offered little on both. Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart reunite (Adventureland) and make a watchable couple. BUT it wasn’t long before I got bored of all the pot smoking and arguing. Especially when it wasn’t even funny. The first 20 minutes was mind numbing. Connie Britton did her best to make the CIA back room melodrama seem interesting BUT it was dull as dishwater. Some waffle about a “project spring clean” and Eisenberg’s sleeper agent facing termination. This was thankfully reprieved by a fantastic turn from Topher Grace (That 70s Show). There wasn’t enough of him. He…