The Divergent Series: Allegiant,
directed by Robert Schwentke
(PG-13, 120 minutes)
Bad writing and indifferent performances plague The Divergent Series: Allegiant, the third adaptation of Veronica Roth's young adult dystopia novels. Again we are in the none-too-engaging company of glum heroine Tris (Shailene Woodley), along with Four (Theo James), Tori (Maggie Q), Christina (Zoe Kravitz), Tris' brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort), and sneaky Peter (Miles Teller), who are leaving a darkly crumbling Chicago against the orders of Four's mother Evelyn (Naomi Watts).
After a not very exciting escape, Tris discovers that Chicago's residents were actually lab rats that a local council leader named David (Jeff Daniels) dreamed up in order to see if a genetically pure individual could be produced in the urban wilderness. Being divergent means that Tris, empowered as she is, is such a person and a sign that there's hope for humanity after all.
Despite a new setting, the characters from the previous film (2015's Insurgent) seem to have learned nothing from earlier challenges, and director Robert Schwentke can't find any way of getting around clunky use of CGI that will never be mistaken for the genuine articles they seek to portray.
Because nothing in this dreary film looks anything close to believable, the bloodletting and stunts lead to more yawns and leg-crossings than gasps.
Green Room (R, 94 minutes) A clever, intelligently crafted horror thriller, Green Room stars an appropriately devious Patrick Stewart as Darcy Banker, an imperious club owner who causes havoc for a young punk band desperate for success by booking them at a deteriorating club in the backwoods of Oregon, where the natural surroundings are much more unpredictable and violent than the band members ever thought possible. With Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole; directed by Jeremy Saulnier.
Everybody Wants Some!! (R, 116 minutes) Richard Linklater (Boyhood) directs this witty glory-days comedy, set in 1980, about a hotshot winning college baseball team that is determined to compete on and off the diamond. With Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin, Wyatt Russell, Ryan Guzman.
The Blu-ray Combo Pack with Digital HD features 45 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage including 25 minutes of outtakes, the comical audition process each cast member had to complete in order to land his role, the cast's experiences with Richard Linklater's impressive memory, and their transformations into their 1980s counterparts.
Road Games (unrated, 95 minutes) A lean, occasionally suspenseful action drama that concerns Jack (Andrew Simpson), a young-adult Brit whose dismal European summer travels wind up with him hitchhiking through rural France with an ever-increasing awareness of the dangers that surround him and his fellow traveler, dishy Veronique (Josephine de La Baume) -- among them a serial killer on the loose. Language barriers add to his troubles. With Barbara Crampton, Feodor Atkine, Pierre Boulanger; directed by Abner Pastoll.
Mountains May Depart (unrated, 131 minutes) In this somber political melodrama, the transforming forces of tradition and progress, as viewed through the life of a Chinese shop worker named Tao, are examined in three separate time periods: 1999, 2014 and 2025. With Tao Zhao, Yi Zhang, Lu Liu, Sylvia Chang; directed by Zhangke Jia. Subtitled.
MovieStyle on 07/15/2016