Weekend Movie Guide: But I Haven’t Even Read The First Chapter Of Insidious!

Opening Everywhere: Insidious: Chapter 2, The Family

Opening Somewhere: Blue Caprice

FilmDrunk Suggests: I’ll be honest, neither of the big opening movies look very good to me, so I’m going to hit my local art house and hopefully check out this small, independent film that I’ve been hearing great things about.

Insidious: Chapter 2

Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 39% critics, 75% audience

Gratuitous Review Quotes:

Wan is getting better and better at figuring out what to do with the camera, and maneuvering actors within a shot for maximum suspense, while letting his design collaborators do the rest. – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

All the standard spooks pop up: creepy baby toys, a piano that plays itself, a lady in white roaming the house, predictable jump-scares galore. – Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic

Armchair Analysis: I liked Insidious a lot, as I thought it was a pleasant and more creative departure from the typical horror movies that are made over and over. However, I’m not sure how good a sequel could be, since I assume it will kind of be the opposite of the original film’s plot. Obviously, I won’t use any spoilers, but the poor reviews make me think I’m right.

The Family

Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 32% critics, 65% audience

Gratuitous Review Quotes:

The casting of Robert De Niro as an ex-Mafioso hiding in witness protection is witty in only the silliest, most superficial way. It’s a joke with its own tinny, built-in laugh track. – Adam Nayman, Globe and Mail

If cultural treason were a capital offense, “The Family” director Luc Besson would be on death row. – Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Armchair Analysis: I still have this stupid dream that Robert De Niro will have one last film, something at least on par with Ronin, that will remind us of all the greater moments and make us forget that he’s currently content with a life of mob boss retreads.

Blue Caprice

Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 94% critics, 79% audience

Gratuitous Review Quotes:

I understand Moors’ impulse to avoid both tidy moral explanations and sensationalistic gore, but we don’t spend long enough with either victims or perpetrators to get a sense of what those terrible few weeks in Washington were like. – Dana Stevens, Slate

Viewers may crave more anatomy of murder, but unlike Mr. Muhammad, Mr. Moors isn’t on a mission. What he and his actors are interested in is character. – John Anderson, Wall Street Journal

Armchair Analysis: Now that Isaiah Washington is earning rave reviews for his performance in Blue Caprice, which is the story of the Beltway sniper, he’s opening up about how he was shunned by Hollywood after he called his Grey’s Anatomy co-star T.R. Knight the F-word (the one that is offensive to gay people), and it’s not that great of a story because, whatever, he’s a dipshit. But I enjoyed this little nugget from the HuffPo:

“After the incident at the Golden Globes, everything just fell apart. I lost everything. I couldn’t afford to have an agent…I couldn’t afford to have a publicist…I couldn’t afford to continue.”

Dude, you were on 61 episodes of Grey’s, what happened to your savings account? Cry me a river.

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