The Rite: Wrong in so many ways

When Michael, a Catholic priest in training, begins to question his faith, he is sent to The Vatican in order to attend a special class on exorcism being taught by the church. Once there he is introduce to Father Lucas, a man intent upon showing Michael the true power of the devil.

The "exorcism" film really begins and ends with the classic which started the entire sub-genre, The Exorcist. In that respect, it is hard for any new film which deals with the same subject to match or even surpass what most people consider to be one of the best (and scariest) films of all time. The Rite had a chance to at least match The Exorcist due to its seemingly compelling storyline as well as the acting prowess of its star, Sir Anthony Hopkins, however it falied to be anything more than a substandard by-the-numbers supernatural thriller which did not even thrill. The story of Michael was never interesting enough to follow or take seriously, this was due to the pedestrian acting of Colin O' Donoghue (who played Michael) as well as the second-rate directing by Mikael Hafstrom, who simply recycled all of those ideas and plot points from films like The Exorcist and failed to introduce anything fresh or exciting to the sub-genre. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the movie was the performance of Hopkins for it felt like he channeled Hannibal Lector for half of his time on screen. His act got so tawdry at points that the audience could not help but feel as if the man who made fava beans famous was in the film for nothing more than a nice paycheck.

The Rite was wrong in so many ways that it never came close to being half as good as the movie it was trying to imitate.

Grade: D

Predators: Finally, a sequel that delivers!

A group of warriors are dropped into the jungle of an alien world with no explanation. But soon after they realize that they were brought there for a nefarious purpose, to be hunted. If they want to survive, they’ll need to band together and fight off their hunters.

No one expects to go into a film such as Predators and see Shakespearian style acting and storytelling. For the most part, an audience is just looking to be entertained for an hour and forty-five minutes. Not only did Predators have to capture the attention of people new to the film series, but it also carried the extra burden of having to satisfy fanboys and girls of the Predator franchise who had suffered through two lousy Alien Vs. Predator films and were ready for something good.

Thankfully, the fanboys and girls have no reason to fear this new take. Under the watchful eye of Producer (and Predator fan) Robert Rodriguez, director Nimrod Antal delivered a highly entertaining action movie with an effective mix of homage to the Schwarzenegger classic to go along with new characters, environments and creatures. Adrien Brody is no Schwarzenegger, but he more than held his own as Royce, a former Black Ops soldier turned mercenary whose sole purpose in the beginning of the film was to get off the planet, with or without the help of the others. His character seemed to mirror, in a broader sense, that of the current “Me” generation that has to tweet their every move and then post a clip of what they did on You Tube moments later. Schwarzenegger’s Dutch was a soldier, a leader, so his struggle to defeat the Predator in the original made it easy for an audience to pull for him. With Royce, there needed to be some internal conflict in which he was given the opportunity to possibly change and grow from a selfish bastard into a redeemable man an audience would root for. His dilemma of staying a self-interested mercenary or teaming up with the other “targets” (including the beautiful Alice Braga as Isabelle, an IDF sniper) formed the emotional backdrop to the story and succeeded in further sucking in the audience when they were not busy squirming in their seats as Antal effectively built the tension throughout the movie.

Predators is a welcome return to what made the original such a blast to watch.

Grade: B