Crisp Criticism - "Divergent", "The Lego Movie", "Muppets Most Wanted", "13 Sins"

by

Julien Faddoul

Divergent

In a world where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues, one girl possess the virtues of more than one.

Facile, humorless copycat cinema based on yet another piece of Young Adult fiction that is more like a 140-minute fitness commercial. Hardly any of the world building is clear and even less of it is interesting.

d – Neil Burger

w – Evan Daugherty, Vanessa Taylor   (Based on the Novel by Veronica Roth)

ph – Alwin H. Kuchler

pd – Andy Nicholson

m – Junkie XL

ed – Richard Francis-Bruce, Nancy Richardson

cos – Carlo Poggioli

p – Lucy Fisher, Pouya Shabazian, Douglas Wick

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Maggie Q, Kate Winslet, Ansel Elgort, Mekhi Phifer

The Lego Movie **

An ordinary Lego mini-figure, mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary MasterBuilder, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil Lego tyrant from gluing the universe together.

Manic, funny product-turned-artwork that has every indication of being brilliant until an extremely off-putting third-act twist that reveals its directors’ rather dubious reasons for their subversive purposes.

d – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

w – Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman

ph - Barry Peterson, Pablo Plaisted

pd – Grant Freckleton

m – Mark Mothersbaugh

ed – David Burrows, Chris McKay

p – Roy Lee, Dan Lin

Cast: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders, Jadon Sand

Muppets Most Wanted

While on a grand world tour, The Muppets find themselves wrapped into a European jewel-heist caper headed by a Kermit the Frog look-alike and his dastardly sidekick.

Once again, we have been given a Muppet movie that fails to understand The Muppets, spending far too much time with superfluous characters and milking its vast array of celebrity cameos for all their worth.

d – James Bobin

w – James Bobin, Nicholas Stoller   (Based on the Characters Created by Jim Henson)

ph – Don Burgess

pd – Eve Stewart

m – Christophe Beck

ed – James Thomas

cos – Rahel Afiley

p – David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman

Cast: Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey, an endless list of celebrity cameos

13 Sins

A bright but meek salesman receives a mysterious phone call informing him that he's on a hidden camera game show where he must execute 13 tasks to receive a multi-million dollar cash prize.

Dim remake of the Thai horror film that doesn’t supply enough invention to justify its existence.

d – Daniel Stamm

w – David Birke, Daniel Stamm

ph – Zoltan Honti

pd – James A. Gelarden

m – Michael Wandmacher

ed – Shilpa Sahi

cos – Marcy Rector

p - Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Kiki Miyake, Steven Squillante

Cast: Mark Webber, Devon Graye, Tom Bower, Rutina Wesley, Ron Perlman, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Judd Lormand, Stephanie Honore, Thomas Francis Murphy