Either It’s a YA World or It’s The End of the World
The Movie Tipper Recommends
That You Just Grow Up Already
The Movie Tipper Recommends
That You Just Grow Up Already
Movies Reviewed
The Giver | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | If I Stay
When The Game Stands Tall
The Giver | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | If I Stay
When The Game Stands Tall
The Giver
Movie Tipper Rating: C
Take Lois Lowry’s 1993 Newbury-winning novel ‘The Giver’, a book beloved by millions and a staple of smart middle school reading lists, in some ways an important book that tells important truths about narrative, and meaning and even about resolution and really just get really nervous and decide to make a movie that apes the tropes of ‘Divergent’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ instead of a film that stays in any way true to the seminal YA book. Does that sound like a good idea to you? Well guess what, you are right - it’s not. The problem of course with a film that depicts a dystopian world of mindless conformity is that, even with Meryl Streep gnawing in the sets and the great Jeff Bridges bringing some gravitas to the proceedings with his performance, the end result can be a … well. a bit boring. That could have been overcome though if the really striking, really fresh and thought provoking elements of the book were even present at all in this film, but they are not. I give it mostly the raspberry.
~~~~~~~~ Buy Tickets if You Must: http://www.fandango.com/thegiver_171115/movieoverview Rated: PG-13 Metacritic Score: 46 http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-giver Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 32% (yike) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_giver/ Official Site: https://thegiverfilm.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGiverFilmOfficial Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegivermovie |
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Movie Tipper Rating: B+
Movie Tipper Rating: B+
The original Planet of the Apes in 1968 may have been the mother of all disturbing dystopian fantasy films but the recent iterations are just as respectable. The first of the contemporary ones set us up for this darker and more unsettling continuation of the narrative and Andy Serkis is back with another brilliant turn forging new ground as the world’s greatest motion capture actor. This time the stakes are higher, the apes are smarter (and better organized - they even ride horses) and Gary Oldman is there to wrong headedly try to ‘save humanity’. This movie has brains and brawn though after the boneheaded behavior of the humans it’s no surprise that both are mostly on team ape. By the end you will be siding with the simians. Good times! |
~~~~~~~~ Buy Tickets: http://www.fandango.com/dawnoftheplanetoftheapes_156265/movieoverview Rated: PG-13 Metacritic Score: 79 (way too low) http://www.metacritic.com/movie/dawn-of-the-planet-of-the-apes Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 90% http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dawn_of_the_planet_of_the_apes/ Official Site: http://www.dawnofapes.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ApesMovies Twitter: https://twitter.com/dawn_of_apes |
If I Stay
Movie Tipper Rating: D
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Buy Tickets Anyway
http://www.fandango.com/ifistay_171309/movieoverview
Rated: PG-13
Metacritic Score: 46 (generous really)
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/if-i-stay
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 39% (ouch!)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/if_i_stay/
Official Site:
http://ifistaymovie.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ifistay
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ifistay
When The Game Stands Tall
Movie Tipper Rating: D
Movie Tipper Rating: D
An icky treacly sports drama serving up every single supposedly inspiring sports cliche ever written and then larding on some new ones of it’s own. The dispiriting thing about this film is that the strong Christian themes that should uplift and expand this movie are weighed down by a wooden afterschool special script. It’s a shame. The teens that the film it is directed at will be eyeball rolling, and surreptitiously texting with boredom within minutes. The real-life story of the De La Salle High School football team’s metamorphosis from nobodies to record book smashing all-stars and the real life adversity that they faced together is a really good story sourced from a terrific book by Neil Hayes (read it instead!) |
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Buy Tickets if You Must:
http://www.fandango.com/whenthegamestandstall_164735/movietimes
Rated: PG
Metacritic Score: 41
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/when-the-game-stands-tall
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 18% (oh my)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_the_game_stands_tall/
Official Site:
http://whenthegamestandstall-movie.tumblr.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WhenTheGameStandsTall
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/WTGST
Buy Tickets if You Must:
http://www.fandango.com/whenthegamestandstall_164735/movietimes
Rated: PG
Metacritic Score: 41
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/when-the-game-stands-tall
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 18% (oh my)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_the_game_stands_tall/
Official Site:
http://whenthegamestandstall-movie.tumblr.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WhenTheGameStandsTall
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/WTGST