Divergent
I have high hopes for this one. This runs solidly in the same vein as The Hunger Games, as have many young adult novel adaptations with female leads lately, but this one has a lot more going for it. The lead herself, Shailene Woodley, made a splash a couple years ago with her turn in The Descendants. A role for which she was nominated for approximately one billion different awards and she won eleven of them. When she was hired for this part the producers were effectively saying to the world "we're serious about this." And most things about this movie indicate that they are still serious and are taking care to produce something good.
God's Not Dead
The entertainment news industry only pays attention to two kinds of movies, for better or worse. Major studio films that are meant to entertain, and small independent films that are meant to be seen as art. So when a small independent film is made to entertain I don't usually hear about it. But then they usually go the direct to video route and never end up in theaters, and certainly not as a wide release if they do make it to theaters.
Here is one exception. God's Not Dead is centered around the classic case of a christian college student in a class with an atheist professor. It's a common situation that - I daresay - almost all christian college students today have faced. And if they haven't then they know someone who has. It is probably for this reason alone that this is getting a (barely) wide release. There will be many preachers freely urging their congregations to see this movie. (I took this copy of the poster image from the website of one such church)
The director is Harold Cronk and by the looks of his IMDB page he's directed half of all the movies you didn't rent at Redbox in the last two years (they are the types of movies that go straight to Redbox).
The trailer features other characters in other situations, but only long enough to get you confused. The movie will likely be similarly disjointed and seemingly undecided on which message to share first. So, if this movie is good, I expect it will be entirely because of the message upon which it is based, and not because of the technical ability and talents of those involved.
Oh, did I mention the atheist professor is Hercules?? Maybe that's why I kind of want to see it.
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| Kevin Sorbo plays the atheist professor |
Muppets Most Wanted
I'm a big Muppets fan so I'm looking forward to this. I'm not as excited as I was for the last one, but I am excited. On the one hand, it is almost exactly the same creative team as the first, and that can be problematic. And on the other hand it is Disney, and they have been handling all their properties extraordinarily well in the last few years.
The basic premise is that there is a bad frog that looks almost exactly like Kermit, and he secretly trades places with Kermit.
At least the title was changed from the original and much worse title "The Muppets . . . Again!"
Also, Ty Burrell's character was originally going to be played by Christoph Waltz, which leaves me pondering right now on what might have been.
The one. The only. Big Shot Critic
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