RonenRecommends | All posts published by author 'Ronen Divon'

Ronen's Rating System:

*****	A must watch
****	Worth seeing
***	If you must watch a movie and there is nothing else out there
**	Don’t bother
*	It’s so bad its almost good... not... These are films I walked out on, or just fell asleep
(K: stars)	Rating by my children. As they are easy to please, would typically be higher than mine...

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) ***

Posted on 8/16/2014 1:19 PM By Ronen Divon

Here’s to the launch of a new Superhero franchise. Can you hear the cash machines ringing? Sequels, action figures, video games, you name it. If there is one thing the Marvel - Disney partnership learned how to do well, it is to guard their revenue streams using superheroes. What can I say – kudus. All in all, Guardians of the Galaxy provides for a light afternoon at the movies and serves as a typical summer blockbuster. But holding my breath for the sequel, I do not.

A Most Wanted Man (2014) ****

Posted on 8/16/2014 1:13 PM By Ronen Divon

Based on a John le Carré novel of the same name, A Most Wanted Man is a 2014 British espionage-thriller, directed by Anton Corbijn to a screenplay by Andrew Bovell. It stars an excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman in his last leading role before his death, further underlining the film-world loss by his passing on. All in all, A Most Wanted Man is a worthy film for fans of le Carré, espionage movies and for Philip Seymour Hoffman devotees.

Begin Again (2014) ***

Posted on 8/2/2014 9:40 PM By Ronen Divon

Begin Again does enjoy several sincere moments, a few decent pieces of music, and an occasional laugh, but all in all, it is a disappointment. It tries too hard where flow is needed, it is overdramatic where a lighter touch is called for, and it lingers on and on where better pacing could have saved the day. Once it is not; begin again, it should.

Searching for Sugar Man (2012) ****

Posted on 7/27/2014 7:36 PM By Ronen Divon

Searching for Sugar Man is a modern Cinderella story. It is a story of a search, of a journey that changed lives forever, and that is its charm. At the heart of the search is an American named Sixto Rodriguez, a Detroit based unknown musician, whose career in the early 1970s proved to be short lived with two albums that hardly sold in the USA. Unbeknown to him, his music became very successful and much influential in South Africa. Fast forward to the 1990s, when two determined South African fans, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, manage to track Rodriguez down, a task not made easy given Rodriguez' obscurity.

We Are the Best! (Sweden, 2013) **

Posted on 6/14/2014 10:02 PM By Ronen Divon

We Are the Best! is a 2013 Swedish-Danish adolescence drama, written and directed by Lukas Moodysson to a screenplay adapted from the graphic novel Never Goodnight by the director’s wife Coco Moodysson. The story focuses on three pre-teen girls in 1982 Stockholm, who are outcasts to their classmates for their oddness. The trio creates a world of their own, focusing mostly on the then passé Punk music.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) ****

Posted on 6/8/2014 3:34 PM By Ronen Divon

Turns out that if one mixes Groundhog Day with The War of the Worlds, and throws in a bit of Alien spicing for gruesome effect, the result would be Edge of Tomorrow. Story recipes aside, Edge of Tomorrow is no masterpiece. But as far as using time-loops in a plot is concerned, none had been as effective since the days Punxsutawney Phil ruled the screen.