The original plan for my critics screening card

When I first came into possession of my critics screening card nearly a year ago, I described it as the perfect way to see bad movies without spending a dime on them.

Fifty-three movies later, I have, almost without exception, used the card to see movies I wanted, or at least planned, to see anyway.

Not so with Money Monster, Jodie Foster's new financial crisis hostage thriller that feels like a retread of at least a dozen other movies (even if the one that sounds the most similar, John Q., is something I actually haven't seen). Remember Foster's The Beaver? Well, so much for making interesting directorial choices.

I don't know if I'd even seen a full trailer for Money Monster, but I got enough of a whiff of the trailer to know it was something I could easily avoid.

But my reviews for ReelGood have been a bit scarce lately, a combination of my own busy period and the fact that the guy who runs the site (and is also my friend) has been claiming most of the interesting stuff lately.

So sometimes, just to keep in the rhythm, you have to go for the uninteresting stuff.

I thought Money Monster might at least be an interesting failure, but no so. It's loud and strident and humorless, the last being a particular failure as it actually tries to be funny in certain spots and fails spectacularly. You can read my full review by following the link to the right, which should be up within a couple hours of this posting.

It's especially funny to have to be resorting to cinematic screenings of movies like Money Monster in June, since the summer movie season is in full swing and there should theoretically always be something I need to catch up with, especially since I'm getting out to the theater only about once a week these days. But I'm having trouble summoning the requisite excitement for movies like X-Men: Apocalypse and Now You See Me 2, while I've already decide to continue boycotting the Johnny Depp Alice in Wonderland movies (having successfully boycotted the first to this day). The next new Thursday will bring new potentially interesting choices, I'm sure, but for this week it was Money Monster.

And yes, I sure am glad I didn't spent money on it -- even the $3.50 necessary to rent it from the Hoys kiosk.