‘The Giver’ a reverent, finely crafted adaptation of beloved YA novel

If you’re in the film industry and hoping to make a splash at the box office, it never hurts to bring a popular young adult book to the big screen.  With post-apocalyptic YA adaptations The Hunger Games and Divergent cashing in with audiences, an adaptation of the legendary novel The Giver couldn’t have been too far behind. Lois Lowry’s Newbery-winning story, a beloved tale about the importance of a vivid life, has been favorite of many since its 1993 bow. Similar to the two titles above (but written far before those two), The Giver centers on a young protagonist (in this case, Jonas) who, within the perimeters of a limiting society, sets off a chain of events that could disrupt the status quo. Even though Katniss and Tris beat Jonas to the cinemas, The Giver stands apart from the stories that followed it. The film’s contemplative ways only serves to push the original ideas of the novel home in a new setting. After an unknown series of events, society has turned into a vanilla world of predestination, paleness and politeness. Children are told what their futures will be, there is no such thing as color and no one ever speaks out of turn or in anger. Even the simplest offenses receive a prompt apology. When he becomes of age, Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a bright young man, is given his life’s job by a deciding council (anchored by Meryl Streep’s Chief Elder). Jonas is summoned to receive the memories of the past from a man named the Giver (Jeff Bridges) in order to become an adviser to the higher-ups in making...

Surprising ‘R.I.P.D.’ gets by with likable leads, swift sense of fun

Recycled fun. That’s the name of the game when it comes to R.I.P.D. Take a scene of The Avengers, throw in a plot point from The Dark Knight, add a full-on Coens’ Rooster Cogburn impersonation and mix it all together in Men in Black‘s central idea. And voila, you have R.I.P.D. Robert Schwentke (director of the extremely entertaining and surprisingly successful Red) once again tries to coast off of the charisma of his leading actors. And when the leading actors are Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, that charisma can carry the film a long way. The sheer enjoyment of watching the leading duo, combined with the comfy familiarity and easily digestible material, leads for a night of recycled fun at the movies. Reynolds and Bridges toss zingers back and forth at each other with a pace that is almost as quick as the action-packed movie itself. The film wastes no time setting up the plot. It dives headfirst into the action with the death of Ryan Reynolds’ character, Nick Walker, only minutes into the movie. Walker is then promptly taken up to that big police department in the sky (the Rest in Peace Department, wink, wink) and is assigned to his native Boston division. Walker is assigned a partner, the grizzled chatterbox lawman Roy Pulsipher, who was literally lifted straight from the Old West. Their personalities clash and hilarity ensues, same as any other buddy cop film. Mary-Louise Parker (playing a high-ranking official for the R.I.P.D. named Proctor) more than holds her own with Reynolds and Bridges. The films’ marketing team also made the fascinating decision to give hardly any...