The Identical – D+

Starring Blake Rayne, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano.
Screenplay by Howard Klausner.
Directed by Dustin Marcellino.

Rated PG for thematic elements and smoking.

I can't begin to tell you how bad this movie is. I was suckered in by the fact that it involves Ashley Judd, Seth Green, and Ray Liotta. The first two must have become involved because of the fact that Liotta financed this thing. Or they were off their meds.

They are all good actors and do well in this. But that is the only redeeming characteristic of this train-wreck of a movie.

The creators pose the question, "What if Elvis's twin brother had not died at birth?" It then creates the least imaginative and most unlikely response possible to that question: Why, he'd have been adopted, grown up to be an Elvis impersonator, and would have become almost as famous as the King himself by touring and singing covers of Elvis's songs! (Honestly. That's the plot.)

This movie is basically a vanity project for the "actor" who plays the main character. This actor is an Elvis impersonator in real life. This movie gives him a chance to live out his fantasy of having Elvis see his act and then receiving his blessing as the world's best Elvis impersonator. (Which he isn't.)

Tomorrowland - B+

Starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Hugh Laurie, Tim McGraw.
Screenplay by Brad Bird, Damon Lindelof, and Jeff Jensen.
Directed by Brad Bird.

Rated PG for sequences of sci-fi violence, action, and peril, and for some language. IMHO, it should be a PG-13. Many scenes could be very scary for younger grade schoolers.

I absolutely love many things about Tomorrowland but the film as a whole falls short of the greatness it could have and should have achieved. I may likely watch it several more times over the years and there are elements that will always touch and inspire. But I know many others will find it disappointing in the extreme (especially the ending) and move on. And I can't really blame them.

It's hard to review this movie without spoiling it because so much of the plot hinges on mystery and big reveals. So you are forewarned.

What's so disappointing about the movie? Here it comes. The biggest spoiler yet: Tomorrowland doesn't really exist. At least not fully. The characters never actually go there. The utopian vistas and gleaming cities that Casey sees when she touches the pin are, as Frank puts it, just a commercial for a place that was never completed. "An invitation to a party that was canceled."

And that's the gamble that Brad Bird takes in this movie. He stakes the film on the hope that you won't get pissed off when the climax of the story turns out to be a speech. A speech telling you that only you have the power to make Tomorrowland happen. Hollywood can't do it for you. So stop being cynical and lazy. If you want to see it, don't go to the movies. Get out and start creating it. The end.

As cinematically dull as this sounds, I'm just enough of a dreamy idealist to buy into it. But many people may howl in disdain and demand their money back.