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Friday, March 6, 2015
Movie Reviews: Chappie, Unfinished Business, Timbuktu
Posted By Scott Renshaw on March 6, 2015, 7:56 AM
An experiment in robot artificial intelligence and a gross-out comedy with very little intelligence are among this week's new releases in Utah theaters.
Scott Renshaw found some weirdly interesting elements in Chappie (pictured)—the latest sci-fi allegory from Neill Blomkamp (District 9)—but once again found the director better at big ideas than pulling them together into a cohesive movie. Unfinished Business tries to make its story of struggling salesman on a make-or-break business trip into a mix of transgressive gross-out comedy and sensitive What-Really-Matters family drama, but isn't funny enough or perceptive enough to work as either one. The Oscar-nominated Timbuktu is the week's best choice, a fascinating exploration of a jihadist militia takeover of the titular city in Mali, and the human realities of people who believe they can institute God's law on earth.
In this week's feature review, Scott Renshaw laments the great cast of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel being subjected to rote romantic anthology stories straight out of The Love Boat.
Scott Renshaw found some weirdly interesting elements in Chappie (pictured)—the latest sci-fi allegory from Neill Blomkamp (District 9)—but once again found the director better at big ideas than pulling them together into a cohesive movie. Unfinished Business tries to make its story of struggling salesman on a make-or-break business trip into a mix of transgressive gross-out comedy and sensitive What-Really-Matters family drama, but isn't funny enough or perceptive enough to work as either one. The Oscar-nominated Timbuktu is the week's best choice, a fascinating exploration of a jihadist militia takeover of the titular city in Mali, and the human realities of people who believe they can institute God's law on earth.
In this week's feature review, Scott Renshaw laments the great cast of The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel being subjected to rote romantic anthology stories straight out of The Love Boat.
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