From the Vault: Divergent

In which I review a film from my movie collection.

This was originally meant to be last week's Unreality Companion, but a disadvantageous work schedule paired with the perplexingly delayed publication of my article lead me to hold off on this review.  I wasn't about to let this one go to waste, though.  If I forced myself to sit through Divergent, I sure as Hell was going to make use of it.

When humanity turned on itself, it nearly wiped out the entire species.  Two hundred years after the devastating conflict, mankind has crawled back from the dystopian squalor in the ruins of what was once Chicago.  In order to promote harmony, society has divided itself into five different factions - based on a person's aptitudes and interests - each with a unique social function.  Dauntless are the combined police and military force, Amity are the farmers, Candor are the judiciaries, Erudite are the scientists and Abnegation are the governing body.

A rare few - known as Divergents - do not fit into any one faction.  They represent chaos within the carefully regimented Faction system and will invariably be executed if discovered.  One newly come of age Divergent, Triss, must choose which faction she is to join: a choice made all the more difficult by her infidelity toward any one of them.

A lot of issues that I took with Insurgent had taken root in the series' first installment.  Triss' divergent exceptionality still plays out like the personal fable - in which "an adolescent believes that they are the only super, special, rainbow, sparkle, sunshiny snowflake in the entire world." The Faction system ultimately still feels "like an especially angsty tween’s diary entries about why everybody else at her school is wrong for not let her sit at their table during lunch."  Plus there's still the implicit subtext that intelligence is an inherently corrupting virtue.

Where Divergent wins out over its sequel, however, is that these negative aspect haven't gotten fully out of hand yet.  The Faction system, despite its school cafeteria parallels, is still just a semi-unique twist to the whole sectioned-off dystopia trope.  Divergents don't quite seem like the self-aggrandizing plot device that Insurgent would turn it into.  While Erudite is still the antagonistic faction, it ultimately has less to do with them being too smart for their own good than it does with a Vulcanized rendition of their ideals.

The coming of age story that's at the core of the narrative is a perfectly sound one: emphasizing adolescents' struggle in finding their place in the world.  Triss is an ultimately likable character, even if she's shoehorned into the role of audience surrogate a little too forcefully.  The factions are well conceived and well designed, even if they are a little simplistic (although I admittedly came into the movie with Ravnica's ten-guild system in mind).  The set design was an imaginative blend of futuristic design amid the crumbling skyscrapers of the old world.  I even found myself  caring about who was cut from Dauntless and who progressed through the ranks.

There were only two places where the film dropped the ball.  I did not buy into Four's and Triss' relationship.  Understand that I'm not saying that their relationship would never work, because I really think that it would: down the line, at a different point of the narrative.  Their shared background, faction defection and divergence necessitated their eventual romance.  Their differences in age and rank, however, inherently precluded their romantic involvement during Triss' basic training.

The second point where the movie lost me was its awkwardly tagged-on climax.  Triss' basic training, upward trajectory through the Dauntless ranks and eventual acceptance into the faction should have been the end of it.  Yes, they established that there were increasing troubles between the Erudite and Abnegation factions, but nothing so substantially developed as to warrant as rushed and unfulfilling a climax as what actually occurred on screen.

The fact that the Dauntless were all mind controlled into serving the Erudite felt like a sorely missed opportunity to explore the political dealings between different factions and the conflicting loyalties of the Dauntless to protect everybody while simultaneously following orders.  There's even an evocative parallel to be made between the Dauntless' surprise attack on the Abnegation neighborhoods and the Nazi consolidation of the ghettos during the Holocaust.

But forget all of that jazz: mind control.  Easy.  Simple.  Done.

While far from the best YA franchise to come out of the post-Potter years, Divergent is an interesting addition to the adolescent cinematic landscape.  It's reasonably well acted, reasonably well written and reasonably well directed : serving as a perfectly reasonable coming of age story despite its obvious flaws.  Young fans of The Hunger Games will find a lot to enjoy in this story, even as older fans roll their eyes at it.

Rating:  7/10

Buy on BluRay:  Not if you already own the far superior Hunger Games

So what is your favorite movie adaptation of a YA novel?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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AdapNation: The Legend of Zelda TV Series

In which I make the case for film and TV adaptations, sequels and remakes.

Welcome to the premiere of AdapNation: an article series in which I argue the case for film and TV adaptations, sequels and remakes.  While I won't address anything that's currently in the works - like Warcraft or Wonder Woman - anything that's not been announced or is currently stuck in Developmental Hell is fair game.  And as luck would have it, I've had to scratch off two potential topics already, as plans for a Mulan remake and a Hawkgirl movie were just announced.  Still, every potential project that I can't discuss here can only be a good thing.

I figured that an apropos start to this series would be to discuss a project that seemed to get everybody excited, but was recently announced to not actually be in the works: a live-action Legend of Zelda TV series.  Nintendo has been understandably guarded about their intellectual property since they allowed that God-awful Super Mario Bros movie to go into production, but their reservations have prevented them from making use of a full library of cinematically viable properties.

Metroid, Mega Man, Star Fox and to a lesser degree Pokemon have been denied their chance to prove that themselves on the big screens.  The one that stands the best chance of making it big, however, is The Legend of Zelda.  And while Nintendo's denial wasn't strictly dismissing the possibility of such a project in the future, it did strike down the possibility that it was an idea that the company was moving forward with.

The timing for a series like this couldn't be any better.  Technology has finally caught up with the human imagination in its ability to physically render the heroes and monsters of our childhood.  Look at Gollum, Caesar or Rocket Raccoon.  All of these characters were possible because of advanced motion capture technology and look as perfectly real as anything surrounding them.  Dragons, Balrogs and Leviathans have all been convincingly rendered on screen, and all of them are creatures that Link is likely to square off against in a live-action adaptation of the series.

Furthermore, Fantasy as a genre has never been this mainstream nor this popular before.  The Lord of the Rings was so insanely popular that they turned The Hobbit - a relatively short children's book - into a trilogy.  Game of Thrones is the must watch TV show on the air right now, and that's on HBO.  Even Warcraft has been able to overcome the video game stigma and is set for a 2016 cinematic release.

The Legend of Zelda series boasts a massive host of entries, all of which are fraught with cinematic potential, dynamic characters and expansive stories.  The problem with adapting The Legend of Zelda into a movie is the inherent brevity of the medium when weighed against the inherent breadth of the games.  Link often has to fight through double digits worth of dungeons - sometimes across multiple dimensions or time lines - most of which would have to be cut out when limited to 90-120 minutes worth of screen time.

A TV series has the luxury of letting its story and characters breathe, however.  If it went for hour long episodes, then it would have upwards of 24 hours to tell its story, as opposed to 2.  This would allow for the full nuances of the games' stories to play out in full: every dungeon, every quest, every epic showdown.

A Legend of Zelda series could potentially adapt one game's worth of story per season, inherently giving it 17 seasons worth of stories from the start.  Since the series officially features multiple generations of Links over multiple time periods, the series could go into one of two directions.  It could either streamline the series' expansive canon into a single man's quest to save his kingdom and princess or it could split every season (or set of seasons) up into a technically different cast and story (ala American Horror Story).

Although die-hard Zelda fans will invariably hope for the latter, its the former that would best work in a television series, which primarily aims to develop dynamic characters over far-reaching stories.  In theory, you could start with the first season as an adaptation of the incessantly popular Ocarina of Time, which largely features Link as a child.  This can continue into its direct sequel, Majora's Mask, and then potentially lead into Link's Awakening, where he is caught in a storm and stranded on an island.  Between A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, Twilight Princess and the dozen other unnamed entries, it would be an expansive series with boundless narrative potential.

And remember, that's not even considering the possibility of original stories, nor adaptations of the franchise's spin off media (of which I'm especially fond of the comic that loosely adapted A Link to the Past).  Given to the right talent, there's absolutely no reason to expect the same mess that we got with Super Mario Bros.  Batman & Robin existing didn't keep Batman Begins from being awesome, nor did Ang Lee's Hulk prevent The Incredible Hulk from finding its stride.  And more to the point, Daredevil the movie won't keep Daredevil the series from working as its own story.

So would you watch a Legend of Zelda series?  If so, what stories would you want to see adapted as part of it?  Which ones should they simply leave alone?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Trailer Park: Spectre Teaser Trailer

In which I discuss the latest movie trailers.

With Spectre already in the news and still getting through its primary shooting, my expectations were astoundingly low for the newly released teaser trailer.  After all, if they're still shooting the damned thing, how much footage can they really have to string together into a cohesive - if admittedly shortened - trailer?  What could it possibly be but a few hurriedly edited together - and ultimately unfinished - action scenes.  And then I saw this:

If they released that a month from now and called it a full trailer, I wouldn't have had any issues with that, its brevity aside.  It's essentially a methodically paced short film with a real sense of drama, intrigue and surprisingly very little action, and it was awesome!

It appears now that Spectre is the functional successor to the underrated Quantum of Solace.  I don't mean that it's going to be another so-called "bad Bond movie," nor that it will have narrative ties to that film more than any other Craig-based Bond film has to by virtue of continuity.  It's position as a latter-day Quantum of Solace is owed to being a direct narrative continuation of its immediate predecessor (in this case Skyfall), dealing first-hand with the personal fallout from that previous film's denouement.

You are a kite dancing in a hurricane, Mr. Bond.

It appears that some of Bond's family effects that were recovered from Skyfall point to a conspiratorial agency known only as Spectre, the implication being that Bond's father - and possibly Bond himself - have ties to this organization.  And, like Skyfall, this is a much more personal mission for Bond than what we've been used to seeing: turning over the stones of his guarded past rather than reading a mission profile and jetting off to face some nameless criminal.

We of course will get Daniel Craig as Bond, and his new supporting cast of Ralph Fiennes as M and Naomie Harris as Moneypenny.  Cristoph Waltz appears to be the Blowfeld stand-in within Spectre: the likely head of the organization and are chief bad guy.  We even get our first look at Dave Bautista in a movie since Guardians of the Galaxy, which I'm increasingly excited about the more that I think about it.

Welcome, James.  It's been a long time.  And finally, here we are.

This trailer pretty much abates any lingering fears that I had about the film's protracted production, inflated budget or twelfth hour rewrites.  The cast looks fantastic in their briefly-glimpsed roles, the cinematography is brilliant and the story is fraught with dramatic potential.  It is, in short, as fine a looking Bond movie as either Casino Royale or Skyfall.  I think that I'm more excited for Spectre at this point than I am even for The Force Awakens, which is an astounding feet when you stop to think about it.

So what was your favorite part of the Spectre teaser trailer?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Phase 1 Revisited: The Incredible Hulk

In which I revisit a previously explored topic with fresh eyes and an open mind.

If you had to name the best solo movie from Marvel's Phase 1, chances are that it'd be Iron Man.  It seems to be the go-to answer whenever this question crops up, and it's not without good reason.  It kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, teased The Avengers four years before it hit screens and showed that you could go light-hearted with superheroes without getting shticky with them.  For my money, though, it doesn't get any better than The Incredible Hulk.

When altruistic scientist Bruce Banner is exposed to gamma radiation in an experiment gone horribly wrong, he gains the ability to transform into a being of herculean strength when he becomes angry.  When the military wants to weaponize his transformations, he's driven into hiding: forced to look for a cure to his condition in slums half a world away from home.  But when a desperate general injects a psychopath with a would-be super soldier serum, he creates an abomination that only the Hulk can put down.

It's easy two phases into the Avengers meta-franchise to look back harshly on The Incredible Hulk.  For as great an actor as Edward Norton is, his Bruce Banner is as poor in comparison with Mark Ruffalo's as Gravity was to Interstellar.  While both are excellent, one is obviously superior to the other.  Furthermore, his loner status among the Avengers team, his lack of a sequel and the non-appearance of his supporting cast since 2008 have all telegraphed the same, albeit untrue, message: The Incredible Hulk wasn't good - or at least not good enough.

But was it really?  Its protagonist is a latter day Jekyll / Hyde duo that in no way feels derivative of its Victorian inspiration.  The dark, pseudo-horrific tone - although an outlier among the generally light-hearted nature of the MCU - is a perfect fit for its story.  Although Norton is a second-rate Banner when you consider Ruffalo's turn as the character, he is none-the-less a superior actor turning in a superior performance in an ultimately superior film.

I would go so far as to say that The Incredible Hulk has the best action scenes of any Phase 1 film not named The Avengers.  Iron Man had surprisingly little action, and most of what it did have was an ultimately forgettable smack-down with Iron Monger  Thor succeeded mostly by way of the Shakespearean dynamic between Thor and Loki, not in their climactic showdown.  Only Captain America comes close, but it really played out more as a historical drama than an action film.

Hulk vs The Abomination is an absolutely brutal fight.  You not only feel every superpowered punch, kick and slam, but you see the fatigue set into the two combatants as the battle wages on.  It's a savage, bloody spectacle of blunt force and improvised weaponry and every last second of it holds up upon repeated viewings.  Compare that with Iron Man 2's non-climax, which is ultimately just something for Tony to get through after upgrading his hardware.

What's more is that the movie understands that the Hulk transformation is its money shot and restrains itself to using it as sparingly as possible.  We see his point-of-view rampage at the Culver University lab in an opening credit montage, and an almost completely obscured sequence at a Brazilian bottling plant.  The next time that we see the Hulk is when he fights the army at Culver University - the first time that we get a good look at him.  After that there's just on induced episode that serves as a stakes-raising plot point for the climax and then his confrontation of The Abomination in Harlem.

That's not to say that the movie doesn't have its issues, just that they are far milder than anybody seems to give it credit for.  Norton is a bit too physically confident as Bruce Banner.  Betty Ross' rebound boyfriend serves little purpose and could have easily been written out of the script.  The movie bent over backwards to establish that it and Iron Man existed concurrently, which seems more than a little heavy-handed in retrospect.

That being said, however, the emotional core of Banner as a tragic hero grounds the narrative in something much more somber than anything else that Marvel has put forward.  It's a movie that desperately deserves a sequel, whether it ends up being Planet Hulk or continues with the obvious setup of Samuel Sterns as The Leader.  And with as popular as Hulk has become since The Avengers, I expect that that's something we'll be seeing sooner as opposed to later.

Rating:  9/10

Buy on BluRay:  HULK SMASH!!!  I mean, yes.

So what would you like to see in an Incredible Hulk sequel?  Would prefer to see Sterns as The Leader, adaptations of Planet Hulk / World War Hulk or another story / villain entirely?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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The Weekend Review: It Follows

In which I review a selection of last weekend's entertainment.

Going into the movie, all that I knew about It Follows I probably could have already guessed from the title: it's a horror movie.  I had no idea what it was actually about, no idea that it was receiving strong word of mouth from those who had seen it and no idea that it was currently enjoying a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  I didn't even know that it was rated R until I was carded at the theater.

And really, if it can be helped, that's the way that I like to go into a movie: completely blind to anything that I couldn't already have guessed from its title (and maybe its poster too).  This goes double for horror, as the genre benefits most from the inherent tension of the unknown.  And while It Follows was certainly an intriguing exercise in independent horror, it never quite came together the same way that similarly styled genre entries - like The Babadook - have in the recent past.

When Jay finally sleeps with her boyfriend, she becomes the target of a shape shifting supernatural entity.  Although slow, it follows her with undeterred persistence and murderous intent: until she sleeps with somebody else and passes it along to them, that is.  But should they die, the creature will once again stalk her.

Although all of the elements were there, It Follows never quite coalesced into a worthwhile horror movie in its own right.  The slowly lumbering creature, invisible to all except for its victims, has all of the incessant dread of Romero's living dead.  Its ability to transform into different people meant that it could literally be anybody.  It also provided its director with the potential for any number of inventive or psychologically-targeted scares.

And then there's the obvious metaphor for the creature.  A slow, but deadly, force, invisible to everybody except for those "infected" by it, which only targets those who have had sex with those already infected by it is an obvious stand-in for sexually transmitted diseases.  It inflates an all too real fear of infection among sexually active adults into a malevolent physical entity, much like The Babadook itself did with depression.

While it's brilliantly conceived, it's somewhat less than brilliantly executed: highlighting the specific challenges that face horror as a genre.  Tense shots are held on for mere moments too long, which sadly proves to be just long enough to ruin the effect that it was building towards.  The realization that the creature isn't merely phantasmal, but has a physically manipulable form, somewhat lessens the inherent terror of it.

Although the creature's ability to transform offered boundless potential to psychologically torture its victims, it never quite capitalizes on the concept.  Why wouldn't the creature take on the form of Jay's boyfriend cum assailant whose post coital abduction understandably reduced her to paranoid hysterics.  When it takes on the form of Jay's presumed father, it ultimately means nothing to us because the film never invested us in any of the character's pasts, only in their supernaturally-charged present.

That's not to say that it's a bad film, just that it doesn't quite live up to the hype surrounding it.  It works better as a metaphor than as a narrative, but even its metaphorical aspects seem incomplete.  There are some genuine moments of terror when the characters can see, but can't quite escape from, their assailant - particularly when Jay is first chased by the creature through the corridors of her school - but those are too few and far between to amount to a good horror movie.

If you liked The Babadook, there's doubtlessly some aspects of It Follows that will appeal to you.  The metaphorical nature of the creature make it a far more intelligent take on supernatural horror than most other would-be screamers right off the bat.  Its R-rating keep it from the tameness inherent to most mainstream genre entries.  On the whole, though, I can't quite bring myself to recommend this to the general public.

Rating:  4/10

Buy on BluRay:  No.

So what is your favorite metaphorical horror movie?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Netflix Update: What's Leaving in April 2015

In which I report on the upcoming changes to Netflix's streaming services.

April's going to be another hard month for Netflix subscribers, as a lot of popular and quality titles are leaving the company's streaming service in as soon as the next few days.  We'll have to wait and see what they're replaced with, but judging from the outgoing list, it's not going to be enough.

April is unquestionably hitting horror fans the hardest.  Despite being my favorite genre, even I have to admit that most entries into the genre are terrible.  It's hard enough to find a good horror movie, let alone one that's simply passable.  That's why the wholesale removal of the entire Friday the 13th series comes as such a shock.

Becky and I just finished marathoning them (having to rent the few that weren't available through Netflix) and I actually realized that the slasher series was a far better one than I had ever given it credit before.  They weren't good (or at least most of them weren't), but they were solid, entertaining and mostly better than they ever should have been.

Shadow of the Vampire is another exiting title that will be sorely missed.  It was the subject of a Date Night back in October, and was an intelligently gruesome entry into its genre: a supposed historical biopic about the making of Nosferatu in which actor Max Schreck turns out to be an actual, factual vampire.  Willem DeFoe plays the twisted actor in question and John Malkovich tackles the role of director F.W. Munrau, the movie's desperate director willing to go to any length to complete his film.

In addition to those, both Jeepers Creepers, The Amityville Horror and Paranormal Activity 4 are all leaving by the end of the month.  While they certainly aren't the best of their kind, they are varyingly good to serviceable entries that bolstered Netflix's scant-enough offers in the genre.  It's going to take some real adventurous choices to find anything horrifically worth while in April, I'm sad to say.

Reindeer Games' departure hits me right in my childhood.  While it does suffer from "one twist too many syndrome," it's a surprisingly smart take on the heist genre featuring a young Ben Affleck before he got his street cred.  It's definitely one that you should check out if you have the time.

Good Morning Vietnam is another one that hits close to home.  It's the first Robin Williams movie that I watched following the actor's passing.  My review of it was the very first article that I had posted on Unreality.  While it's far from being either the best or the most memorable Williams movie, it was exactly the kind of movie (and performance) that we grew to expect from him: manically energetic and full of life.

Other notable titles that will be leaving us in April include 1982's Annie (having run its course as a promotion for the remake), the first three Karate Kids, The Cable Guy and three seasons worth of Astonishing X-Men.  That last one - Astonishing X-Men - would have bothered me more if the first season was ever made available through Netflix, as that's the reason why I never watched it in the first place.  The full list of movies and shows that will be leaving are listed below:

April 1st

• 28 Hotel Rooms (2012)
• America Declassified (2013)
• Annie (1982)
• Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations Collection (2006)
• Astonishing X­-Men: Dangerous 
• Astonishing X­-Men: Torn
• Astonishing X­-Men: Unstoppable
• Baby Genius: A Trip to the San Diego Zoo
• Baby Genius: Animal Adventures
• Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern Collection (2008)
• Blue Mountain State (2010-2011)
• Bo on the Go! (2007)
• The Brian Boitano Project (2014)
• Chalet Girl (2011)
• Clue (1985)
• Color Splash Collection: Collection 1
• Coneheads (1993)
• Cousins on Call (2013)
• Cutthroat Kitchen (2013)
• The Dead Files (2011-2012)
• Flea Market Flip (2012-2013)
• Franny’s Feet (2003)
• Friday the 13​th (1980)
• Friday the 13th: Part 2 (1981)
• Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982)
• Friday the 13th: Part 4: The Final Chapter (1984)
• Friday the 13th: Part 6: Jason Lives (1986)
• Friday the 13th: Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
• Get Shorty (1995)
• Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
• Guess Who (2005)
• Holmes Inspection Collection (2011)
• Hotel Impossible (2012-2013)
• Income Property Collection (2011)
• Inventing the Abbotts (1997)
• The Inexplicable Universe with Neil deGrasse Tyson (2013)
• Jane Eyre (1944)
• Jeepers Creepers (2001)
• Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003)
• Les Miserables (1935)
• Madeline (1989)
• Miral (2011)
• Mumfie (1995)
• Murder by Numbers (2002)
• Mystic Pizza (1988)
• Mystic River (2003)
• The Pioneer Woman Collection (2012)
• Pee­wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
• Philadelphia (1993)
• Rachael Ray’s Week in a Day Collection (2010)
• Reindeer Games (2000)
• Rehab Addict Collection (2010)
• Restaurant: Impossible Collection (2012)
• Sabrina’s Secret Life (2003)
• Selling New York Collection (2010)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995)
• Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
• Taking Lives (2004)
• The Amityville Horror (1979)
• The Cable Guy (1996)
• The Karate Kid (1984)
• The Karate Kid: Part II (1986)
• The Karate Kid: Part III (1989)
• The Quick and the Dead (1995)
• The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

April 10th

• Sleeping Beauty (2011)

April 12th

• Paranormal Activity 4: Unrated Edition (2012)

April 16th

• The Woman Who Wasn’t There (2012)

So what movies or TV series are you most disappointed with leaving Netflix next month?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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The Weekend Report: It Follows Chases After Home and Get Hard

In which I run down the big winners (and losers) at the box office this weekend.

Unsurprisingly, the big animated family movie and the Will Farrell / Kevin Hart comedy topped the box office this weekend.  Cinderella's still hanging in there like a champ, thanks to a much broader appeal than any of the weekend's new or expanded releases can boast of.  The real surprise of the weekend, for me at least, was It Follows.

While there've been plenty of kids movies to come and go from theaters in the last couple of months, there have been surprisingly few animated ones.  Cinderella is a live-action fairy tale that doesn't even appeal to the very young, Paddington was a live-action comedy with a CG bear, Sponge Out of Water maligned every parent, aunt, uncle and grandparent that had to sit through it and Strange Magic hardly even counts at this point.

Until now, 2015 had lacked the broadly drawn, big budget, family-friendly animated movies that generally make up a large percentage of the year's top grossers.  It's lacked a Big Hero 6 or a How to Train Your Dragon 2.  And while Home still doesn't fit quite that role, its come closer than anything released so far this year, and has reaped the benefit of that fact.  While I haven't seen it yet, expect a review of it sometime either later this week or early next week, as Becky has this little purple alien on her mind.

A friend of mine once accused me of hating all comedies.  While it's true that it's not my favorite genre, I hardly hate all of them.  I'm just extremely picky and know exactly what I like.  Despite its undeniable mainstream appeal, Get Hard is not the comedy for me.

Nor is it the comedy for lots of people, it would seem.  It's another movie that benefits from an advantageously timed release date, some big names and the lack of a real competitor at the box office.  The last R-rated comedy that didn't bomb was The Wedding Ringer, and that was released in January.  Will Farrell is popular beyond reason and Kevin Hart has a strong following as well; their appeal and the fact that their only real competition didn't cross over into their demographic resulted in an impressively strong weekend finish.

Although It Follows was technically released to theaters weeks ago, it's finally expanded into a somewhat wide release, meaning that this is pretty much the first time that anybody's heard of this movie, let alone had the opportunity to see it.  It snuck its way to fifth place at the box office this weekend thanks to strong word of mouth and a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  And like Get Hard, it enjoys little competition from other horror movies, and none from R-rated ones.

My feelings on this movie are pretty strongly mixed.  On the one hand, it was an extremely interesting premise and was more of a metaphorical danger than a tangible one - a lot like last year's The Babadook - but on the other hand, it never quite coalesced into a horror movie the way that it should, and certainly could, have.  While I can't see myself recommending this to too many people, I would have to imagine that those who loved The Babadook will find a considerable overlap with It Follows.

Box Office Standings:

1)  Home - $54m

2)  Get Hard - $34.6m

3)  Insurgent - $22m

4)  Cinderella - $17.5m

5)  It Follows - $4m
6)  Kingsman: The Secret Service - $4.6m
7)  Run All Night - $5.1m
8)  The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - $3.5m
9)  Do You Believe? - $4m
10)  The Gunman - $5m

So what movie did you see this last weekend?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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