REDBOX - 'Divergent', 'God's Not Dead', 'Under The Skin'

Time to start catching up.  Still gotta write about cancer stricken lovers, animated dragons, an action comedy sequel, apes on horses with guns in 3D, a bunch of crooks trying to save the galaxy, CGI turtles, and old people blowing stuff up.  But first, I'll talk about a few movies that I rented from Redbox.

'Divergent' (PG-13) **3/4
Based on the best-selling young adult book that I never read, 'Divergent' follows Tris (Shailene Woodley), a teen living in a dystopian future where the people are divided up into factions based on dominant personality traits determined by both an aptitude test and by personal choice:  Abnegation (selfless), Amity (peaceful), Candor (honest), Dauntless (brave), and Erudite (intelligent).  Her test results tested positive for each and every trait so she is labeled a Divergent, meaning that she won't easily fit into just one of the factions.  After choosing to be in Dauntless, Tris stumbles upon a plot to not only remove Divergents but to also remove one of the factions from existence.  Co-starring Zoe Kravitz and Miles Teller as fellow Dauntless initiates Christina and Peter, Jai Courtney ('A Good Day To Die Hard') and Mekhi Phifer as Dauntless leaders Eric and Max, Theo James as Tris' trainer and love interest Four, Tony Goldwyn and Ashley Judd as Tris' parents, Ansel Elgort ('The Fault In Our Stars') as Tris' brother Caleb, Ray Stevenson as the Abnegation leader Marcus, Maggie Q as the mysterious Tori, and Kate Winslet as the mysterious Erudite leader Jeanine.

Didn't see this when it initially came out because I kept hearing wildly mixed things about it...and it partially looked like a ripoff of 'The Hunger Games'.  But after it had a very successful run at the box office I became interested just to see what the hype was all about.  It does help that Shailene Woodley is a really good actress (go watch 'Fault In Our Stars', 'Spectacular Now', or 'The Descendants' for proof of her acting abilities) and the rest of the cast is usually really good as well.  So it can't be all that bad with this amount of talent.
   
Yes at times it is rather similar to 'Hunger Games', but there are enough differences to keep the similarities from being a distraction.  Inevitable 'Hunger Games' comparisons aside, this actually is a pretty solid movie.  It's shot very well and has good performances all around by the cast.  The special effects are also quite good.  The dystopian future in which the movie is set is pretty interesting and I'm quite curious to see where the story goes from here.  As I said before, I can't exactly compare this to the book because I haven't read the book.  I have gotten several lengthy texts about the differences between the book and the movie if that says anything...but hey I still liked it.  I'd rather see a movie that's similar to 'Hunger Games' than see yet another movie that's similar to 'Twilight'.  'Warm Bodies' is the only exception to that. 




'God's Not Dead' (PG) *1/2
So after watching the first trailer for this, I thought it looked bad and didn't have much of an interest in seeing this.  But I knew a handful of people who went to see this and actually liked it a lot, so I decided that I'll finally check it out on DVD.

This is an ensemble movie that weaves many different story lines together. 

• Josh Weaton (Shane Harper), a freshman in college who is taking a philosophy course.  This particular philosophy course is taught by Professor Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) who is making every student in the class write "God Is Dead" on a piece of paper, sign it, and turn it in for 30% of their semester grade.  Josh refuses to do this because of his Christian beliefs.  So for the next few class sessions Professor Radisson challenges Josh to a debate over the existence of God.  If he can sway his classmates, he wins and he passes the class.  If he fails to do so, he loses 30% of his semester grade.
• Martin (Paul Kwo), a foreign exchange student also in the philosophy class, is intrigued by all this talk of God and Christianity but his father heavily disapproves.
• Radisson is dating Mina (Cory Oliver), a former student of his who also comes into conflict with Radisson over her own Christian beliefs.
• Mina's atheist brother Mark (Dean Cain), a successful businessman, refuses to visit their mother because of her dementia.
• Mark's girlfriend Amy (Trisha LaFache), is an atheist liberal writer who likes to interview people by ambushing them who soon finds out that she has cancer.
• Reverend Dave (David A.R. White) simply wants to get away from it all for a little while and wants to go to DisneyWorld with his missionary friend Reverend Jude (Benjamin Ochieng).  But strange things keep preventing them from their trip.
• Ayisha (Hadeel Sittu) is a Muslim student who secretly converts to Christianity and has to deal with her rather strict Muslim father.
  
  Includes cameos by "Duck Dynasty" stars Willie Robertson and Korie Robertson, and the Christian pop/rock band Newsboys.
    

All that happens in the movie yet it still feels way too long and each most of the story lines are spread way too thinly.  Heck, some of the story lines could've, and should've, been eliminated entirely since they really don't add much to the overall story.  Now I get the message the movie is trying to make and I agree with it.  But some rather poor acting and writing, combined with the thin stories make for a rather long movie watching experience.  Parts of the actual debate were interesting, but the movie seems to speed right through those.  And really that's the only thing I can kinda praise about it.  Let's just say I'll have a lot to say about this movie in a future "Movie Nitpicks" post.






'Under The Skin' (R) **
An alien seductress (Scarlett Johansson) drives around Scotland and kidnaps lonely men.  After one particular kidnapping, she starts to question her own identity.  That sums up the plot of this indie sci-fi flick that played in limited release earlier this year to critical acclaim.  It does feature great cinematography, but the movie as a whole feels uneven.  At times, it's pretty darn suspenseful.  At other times, it's a bore to watch.  The acting is all right overall I guess.  Most of the actors in this aren't professional actors.  As Scarlett Johansson is driving around and asking questions to random Scottish men, these are literally people randomly chosen off the street and filmed hidden camera style.  Kind of an interesting fact to know and bore you by.  Well this was a short review... 









Since I have several more movies to catch up on, expect a blog post a day for the next few days.