THE IDENTICAL (2014) – My rating: 6.5/10

This one almost got by me. The Identical is considered a really bad movie.  I disagree!  This story starts off in 1936 during the Great Depression and is about two families, a couple with twin boys and a childless couple who couldn’t have children. There was no work, no money and no promise of either, so William and Helen Hemsley (Brian Geraghty and Amanda Crew) respectively, decided to give up one of the boys to the childless family, Evangelist Reece Wade (Ray Liotta) and his wife Louise Wade (Ashley Judd) who was financially able to raise the child. As they grew, the boys were identical in every way.  One pursued music, becoming an iconic rock star named Drexel Helmsely (Blake Rayne) and the other, under the name of Ryan Wade (Blake Rayne) tried to please his father by studying the ministry, with plans to follow in his father’s footsteps. This is where the story stops making good sense. Both boys looked the same, sounded the same and had a connection even though they had never met. Eventually, together with his best friend Dino (Seth Green) Ryan breaks away from the ministry and his father’s wishes in order to peruse his dreams. He had memorized his brother’s songs and was able to start a career substituting as the great Drexel Helmsley.  All the while, Ryan never suspects Drexel Helmsley is really his twin brother. Drexel even comes to one of Ryan’s performances and still nothing clicks. No one else got it either. This is what ruins the movie for me. Some don’t like the idea that the voice and music mimics Elvis Presley but it’s authentic so I don’t mind. Good music is good music. How this ends up would be a huge spoiler so I won’t reveal any more but I will say, I waited and waited for the obvious to happen but something else happened that really made me unhappy with The Identical.  Overall, the movie was damned entertaining and not predictable. I think the rotten tomatoes and bad reviews were rotten and way over the top. The likelihood that this story (in real life) would go the way it went in this movie is extremely unlikely. However, I think The Identical is worth seeing, especially since it’s now on DVD.  Check it out, there’s so much more to the story I haven’t begun to to talk about!

DIVERGENT (2014) – My rating 8/10

The trailers on Divergent were a little fuzzy, as I didn’t really get what the movie was all about.  Now that I’ve seen it, I have to do a little comparison to The Hunger Games.  Like the Hunger Games, the world was categorized into sections.  In Divergent, there is 1 choice from the existing 5 categories one can choose to spend their life perusing.  There’s no going back once the choice is made.  Like Hunger Games, the government totally rules every aspect of your life.

The one thing you don’t want to be is a Divergent.  Being a Divergent is a death sentence since a Divergent cannot be controlled.  The movie starts out with a seemingly normal family.  Ashley Judd plays Natalie, the mother.  Tony Goldwyn of TVs Scandal plays Andrew, the father.  Their son and daughter (Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley) plays Caleb and Tris, respectively.  The 2 children have come of age to be tested and classified in one of the 5 categories.  The adventure starts when the children pick their respective category and begin their life training.  The movie focuses mainly on Tris who is the Divergent.   Kate Winslet plays one of the villains and does quite a convincing job.  While Divergent doesn’t quite reach the heights of The Hunger Games, it is close enough to rake in mega bucks and earn a place on the box office hall of fame.  I wasn’t jumping up and down but I was entertained.  All in all, not bad.