A Ghoul Versus Source Code

“Dueling Movies: The Adjustment Bureau Vs. Source Code!”

Click here for the Adjustment Bureau review! 

Since 2004 every year Hollywood publishes “the Black List”, which lists the top unproduced screenplays as voted on by studio and production executives. In 2007, a script written by Ben Ripley about a time traveling Army pilot made the list but collected dust for years until finally three years later it was green lit.

Duncan Jones, the son of MR. DAVID BOWIE, was hired to direct the film. Riding a wave of success off his indie smash Moon, he was the personal choice of Ripley to bring his story to life. The movie was another smash, made for $30 million dollars and making almost five times that back. Even more impressive is it succeeded despite coming out a month after the Adjustment Bureau, as it was able to overcome the “dueling movie fatigue” that often happens to the film that comes out second.

Will this turn out to be as good as the Adjustment Bureau was? Or will it end up being a movie that looks like it was written by the guy who wrote the third and fourth Species movies?  Good God I hope not!  Grab some Dunkin' Donuts, take a seat on the train, and get ready for A Ghoul Versus Source Code!

A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau (Part 2)

Click here for Part One!

David invites Elise to come along because he doesn't want to let her out of his sight, but she tells him she has to go rehearse for her big show later that night. Then immediately after that she says “Actually, I just heard they're moving my rehearsal to Pier 17, right next to the bridge.” Huh? What is going on? SLOW DOWN MOVIE!

We see the angels are able to send fake texts to people's phones, so it's safe to assume this is how they got Charlie to the cafe and Elise to learn her practice session was being moved. It would have maybe been nice to SHOW them getting the texts, as this comes off so abrupt in the movie. The pace of this scene is so fast I had to rewind it a couple of times to make sure I didn't miss anything. Repeat: I had to rewind a talky scene! This scene had more action than the entire the film Max Payne.

Before he's sprinted off by Charlie to the bridge, David tells Elisa he won't let anything come between them again. This is supposed to be all touching and romantic, but again, THEY HAVE NOTHING BETWEEN THEM to inspire this kind of dialogue. I suppose you could make the case for “love at first sight” but come on... this movie is way smarter than that.

A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau (Part 1)

“Dueling Movies: The Adjustment Bureau Vs. Source Code!”

One of my favourite phenomenona in Hollywood is when studios release two identical looking movies at around the same time. It's been going on for years for numerous reasons, despite the fact it almost always ends up hurting both movies because it only serves to confuse most people which is which. For instance, take the recently released films White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. I CANNOT tell these two movies apart. I honestly think they just released the same movie twice and changed the titles to make some extra money.

In some cases one movie is so vastly superior, while the other is lost to the vague memories of time. See Babe vs. Gordy. In rare cases both movies become very popular and each spawn their legions of fans. See A Bug's Life vs. Antz. A lot of the time despite looking the same they're actually radically different stories. See The Prestige vs. The Illusionist or Observe And Report vs. Paul Blart: Mall Cop. And sometimes they're both just miserable flops that make you wonder why they even bothered going through with it. See First Daughter vs. Chasing Liberty or Mission To Mars vs. Red Planet.

Today we're going to look at the first of two films that released within a month of each other in 2011, The Adjustment Bureau (March 4) and Source Code (April 1).  These fall into the “different despite looking the same” category as I believe they have completely different premises but damn the trailers made them look similar: a handsome young man battles fate to save the woman he loves.  Grab Emily Blunt by the hand and try not to look down her dress and get ready for A Ghoul Versus The Adjustment Bureau!