I rented these knowing that they required no brain and that I was going "off list" and that they hadn't really received critical acclaim.
I was going for summer blockbuster silliness. And we got it. Oh brotha, we got it.
Spoilers included because you've likely heard of these and they each had one point that annoyed me like crazy. As always, good reminders not to get your theology from Hollywood.
The A-Team
I suspended disbelief and so all was very well until we got to the part where Mr. T took up nonviolence. Actually, all was very well after that for some time because I was surprised and pleased that they would play with the action movie template in such an unexpected way.
Where I was annoyed was when Mr. T is pushed to give up his renunciation of his gangsta ways by using Gandi's quotes against him. Now, I get it. Obviously there's the set up so that Mr. T must choose to save his buddy from secondary villain. I was hoping that he would cleverly find a way to do it without killing him. Which would have shown Liam Neeson's character that he didn't know everything (btw, Liam looked like a wimpy grandpa amongst the macho guys in this film - he's no George Peppard ... I'm just sayin'). Wrong. When he pulled off his helmet to sport that gangsta/hood mohawk, I was so disappointed. Hannah said, "The worst thing is, most of the audiences probably saw this as positive character development." Ouch. That hurt even worse.
I'm not even gonna get into the "what were they thinking" comments we had about Jessica Biel's casting. No personality, an uptight character, and no chemistry with Bradley Cooper (who's got chemistry and to spare ... am I right, ladies?). Oh, I guess I did get into it.
Overall: not horrible if you are going for brainless action movie. Just not as good as it could have been. On the other hand, it was no Transformers movie, so it's got that going for it. What the heck. Rent it.
The Adjustment Bureau
If only I had known that it was based on a story by Philip K. Dick, I'd have expected the lack of free will nonsense being shown throughout the movie. Now, I haven't read the story but I'd bet it didn't have the nice, happy ending that they put in this. I'd bet there was memory erasure going at high speed. As for that "you can have free will if you're willing to fight for it" line ... that was pretty much nonsense if you look at all the trouble they went to hunting down Matt Damon and also freezing and adjusting people who got out of line with "the Chairman's plan." They weren't angels and the Chairman was a creepy vision of God. I was pulling for them to be fallen angels with the Chairman down under, if you know what I mean. However, stupid theology aside, the plot holes are big enough to drive a bus through.
Avoid this one.
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