Wknd Box Office: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Devil Inside

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/  reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post some of the movies from last week and  THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed!  This all  follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!




Wknd Box Office: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Devil Inside

By Debbie Schlussel



I didn’t particularly care for either of the new box office releases out this weekend.


* “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy“: I’d looked forward to seeing this, even though John Le Carre a/k/a David Cornwell, the author of the novel on which this book is based, is openly anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian (see, “The Little Drummer Girl” for evidence of that–the villain is a Jewish Israeli and you know who the victims are) and admitted that he desperately wanted to defect and become a spy for the Soviet Union when he worked for Great Britain’s MI-6.  And yet, like all John Le Carre novels turned into movies, including the far-left, sleep-inducing, “The Constant Gardener”  (read my review), this was long and boring.  And it was extremely confusing.  Normally, spy thrillers about double agents are, well, “thrilling.”  This wasn’t.  Even with the always-excellent Gary Oldman as the lead character, it’s still lackluster and dull.



The story takes place during the Cold War. After an MI-6 agent is murdered in Eastern Europe, it becomes apparent that there is a double agent working for the Soviet Union, and that this agent is in the top ranks of MI-6, the British version of our CIA. Oldman, who was forced out and made to resign from MI-6, is brought back to find out who the mole is, among a cast of characters, including Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, and others. The problem is that this was so slow, boring, and confusing that I didn’t care who the mole was. I frankly wanted them all to be the mole and then executed to get it over with.



This is one of those pretentious movies by a pretentious, left-wing novelist, and we are all expected to like and fawn over it, or we’re not highbrow or intelligent enough in the eyes of the elitists. It’s a high-class emperor wears no clothing scenario. There’s nothing worthy there, but the people have fancy English accents, it’s written by an “intellectual,” and it’s being shown at arthouse theaters. Therefore, it must be something special, right? Wrong.



TWO MARXES


* “The Devil Inside“: It’s obvious why this movie debuted in January, where bad movies are often sent to die. It’s about a girl whose mother was possessed and who killed several people during an exorcism at her house. The girl has grown up and is making a documentary about this. She goes to Rome, where her mother is in a mental hospital. And she recruits some Catholic priests who perform exorcisms without the permission of the Vatican.



While this movie is being marketed as a supernatural thriller, it’s hardly thrilling. It isn’t scary, but mostly silly. I laughed at some of the scenes, which wasn’t the intended result of the filmmakers. Worst of all, the ending is a complete rip-off, and you’ll realize you just wasted nearly an hour and a half for absolutely no reason.



ONE-HALF MARX