The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Movie Review

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

This movie ain't too bad despite the fact that the whole series is a ripoff of an awesome Japanese movie. Battle Royale came first people!

A soldier and it's fellow comrades stalk through a steamy foreign jungle. Bugs buzz around them, biting them. Their weapons are drawn. They just want to stay alive. This is war. What I am describing is the new Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. At the same time, I'm also describing the Vietnam War. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), is the heroine of the Hunger Games films. She was the victor of the last games and is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. She goes hunting and lives with her family, trying to make things normal. But she is plagued to flashbacks and dreams and horrific images that all remind her of the awful experience that was the last Hunger Games. People applaud her and shower her with the attention that celebrities of today all get. She wants no part of it. It all seems so fake compared to her actual reality. All the excessive and ridiculousness of the Capitol (the central city of the dystopian world) seems unnecessary and almost cruel. She goes cross country on a Victory Tour. It's supposed to be a fun affair. But it is all a masquerade. She had become a Mockingjay to the people, a symbol of hope for the rebellion against the totalitarian government. Again, she really wants no part of this. To make matters worse she's shipped off to the Hunger Games again as part of President Snow's (Donald Sutherland) and Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) plan to destroy the image of Katniss as a beacon of hope for the downtrodden peoples. Yeah, things aren't looking to bright for Katniss Everdeen. So before I was making a comparison between Catching Fire and the Vietnam War. You see, I think these movies are pretty great and want to be serious deep films. Yet, they get caught up in pleasing the (mostly) teenage female audience and have to put in these cheesy forced "love" subplots. There's nothing wrong with a little romance here and there, but this movie doesn't need it. It's really about a girls struggle to stay sane in the face of war, similar to movies like Platoon and Apocalypse Now. It isn't really about the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale. That stuff is in there for more for the entertainment and appeal of the Twilight audience.

Honestly, this movie would be a lot better if it didn't shoehorn in stupid subplots like that. Besides those few issues, Catching Fire is an intense and fairly entertaining entree into the Hunger Games series. I think it's a decent entree into the dystopian sci-fi genre itself. Director Francis Lawrence certainly knows how to handle that stuff after his 2007 film, I Am Legend. Jennifer Lawrence (no relation to the director) gives a very nice performance here. She is already has an  Oscar and another nomination to go along with it. Lawrence does the whole wounded veteran thing as nicely as one can do the wounded veteran thing. I can't say the same for the rest of the cast. Woody Harrelson and Josh Hutcherson both do their roles fine, nothing special though, but Liam Hemsworth plays his character as if it were a block of wood with hair. Unlike his much more talented brother, Chris, Liam Hemsworth has yet to show he has any acting ability at all. Jena Malone (who I last saw in Donnie Darko, where's she been?) does a nice job as the very angry Joanna Mason.

One of the best parts of the film in my opinion, was the effects and set pieces. There's one particular sweeping shot of the very realistic rain forest that was reminiscent of movies like Blood Diamond. It's really pretty cool how damn far we've come special effects wise. A lot of people have been saying how Catching Fire can't be that good because it's the middle of the series. Wrong, I say! Catching Fire is actually a lot better in my opinion than the first flick. And I actually really liked the first. This one is actually trying to be a deeper, more psychological movie. It doesn't always succeed, but it's quite good when it does. Despite it's pratfalls, I'd say it's a nicely done film.

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12 Years a Slave Movie Review

 12 Years a Slave (2013)

This film is directed by Steve McQueen. The art house director, not "The King of Cool". Just wanted to clear that up.

I've heard a lot of people call 12 Years a Slave 'the best movie they never want to see again'. I couldn't disagree more. While 12 Years a Slave is a damn good film, I would love to see it again. Many people are saying how gruesome and visceral it is. It was hard to watch at parts, sure. Yet, I feel like multiple viewings would be helpful in getting a truly full experience from the movie. All the terrific performances and techniques the movie has are just too good not to see again. Some movies, like Lincoln for example, were very well done, yet so incredibly boring that I wouldn't want to sit through it again. 12 Years a Slave isn't boring. I know the reason people wouldn't want to see it again is because of how sad and violent it is. Even so, I'd still want to recreate the incredible experience it was to see this film again. The movie is really gritty and bloody. but that's how it should be.

A movie about the horror's of slavery shouldn't be sugar coated and censored. Therefore the sheer bloodiness of the film is unfortunately necessary. I hope the academy doesn't snub McQueen with a Best Director nod like they did with Kathryn Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino last year for the subject matter of their movies. 12 Years a Slave is well acted, directed, and shows an unbelievable true story for what it is: a tale of survival and horror. It's not Hollywood-ized or made into some heroic adventure tale. Yeah, it's heartbreaking and sometimes very painful to watch, but it works. I think it's safe to say 12 Years a Slave is one of the better films of the year. Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a well-to-do free black man with a nice family living in Saratoga, New York. One day, he is kidnapped and sold into slavery. His past life is stripped away and everything that once mattered to him is seemingly forgotten. Even his name is changed. He is first a slave under the kind Master Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). Unfortunately, Ford's second in charge, named Tibeats (Paul Dano), is quite cruel and hates Solomon right away. A series of brutal events leads Solomon to serve under the crueler and angrier Master Edwin Epps (Micheal Fassbender). There, he is worked hard and beaten. Northup's will is put to the test. At Epps' plantation is where he spends most of his time in the film.
Solomon's fantastic skill of playing the violin is of some help, but he is still targeted by Epps and his wife. Some of the most depressing and harsh moments take place in this point of the movie. As harsh as they were, they were necessary in making the movie as realistic and gritty as it is. I can't stress that enough. As I said before, the performances are terrific. The best being form Chiwetel Ejiofor and Micheal Fassbender. I feel like Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt could have given some truly memorable portrayals here, but they are only given a very small amount of screen time. I have no doubt whatsoever that Ejiofor will get a Best Actor nomination and I hope Fassbender will get a Supporting nod. The acting, while good, isn't the only good part of the film. McQueen does a great directing job here. Regretfully, I haven't seen Shame or Hunger (yet!) but I already know he will go on to be one of the great directors of our time. 12 Years a Slave is filmed with a certain character-based realism that almost made me believe I was there. At the end there's a close up shot of Ejiofor's face with the background blurred out. The rack-focus close up technique ,especially used with Chiwetel Ejiofor, just shows how worn out and weary the once free man was. It's powerful stuff. I was expecting 12 Years a Slave to be a pretentious over-hyped bore. It wasn't any of that. As much as I loved Prisoners, I think '12 Years' tops it as Best Movie of the Year So Far. Believe the hype. 12 Years a Slave is damn good.

R.I.P.D. Movie Review

R.I.P.D. Movie (2013)

This movie is basically Men in Black with dead people.

R.I.P.D. is the new sci-fi action-comedy directed by Robert Schwentke, who directed Red. it's about a cop named Nick Walker (played by Ryan Reynolds) who is killed by his scheming partner (played by Kevin Bacon) and is sent to the Rest In Peace Department or the R.I.P.D. The R.I.P.D. are a bunch of dead cops who hunt down evil dead guys, called Dead-Os . Dead-O's are bad guys who died and escaped judgement and cause chaos. So, Nick is partnered up with Roy (portrayed by Jeff Bridges), who's a lawman from the Old West, and together they try to kill some dead guys and solve some confusing case involving gold, an ancient staff, and Nick's old partner. Yeah, it's a weird movie. So, going into this I didn't really know what to expect besides what I saw in the promos. It was a lot stranger and complicated then I originally thought. R.I.P.D. has a lot of problems with it. Besides the really weird parts, it was very predictable. I saw a lot of things coming. The script, while interesting was full of plot holes and as I said, was incredibly predictable. And yes, it was just way, way too similar to Men in Black. Most of the acting was sub-par, although Jeff Bridges gave a funny and entertaining performance as Nick's partner Roy. Even though Bridges was essentially doing the same Rooster Cogburn character he did for True Grit, he's still fun to watch.

Mary-Louise Parker was also pretty good as Nick and Roy's boss, Proctor. Other than them, the acting is just mediocre. Kevin Bacon is usually a very good actor, but he's wasted here. Ryan Reynolds is also just mediocre but it's not like anyone was expecting an Oscar-caliber performance out of him, especially in a movie like this. One thing that is good about this movie is the direction. Robert Schwentke was able to swiftly move the camera along and create scenes that weren't boring at all. Sure the plot was incredibly silly and the script sucked, but at least it was exciting.  The CGI is nice but it's not as mind-blowing as one would expect. Considering you can make a movie like Pacific Rim nowadays, the CGI is kind of disappointing. Apparently, R.I.P.D. is based on a graphic novel. I can see how this story could thrive in comic book format with a good writer. In movie format it just fizzles. Now, say you forget everything I just said. Say you forget everything you know about a good film. Then go see this movie with your kids just to kill some time on a hot summer afternoon. Then, you may enjoy R.I.P.D.

G.I. Joe Retaliation Movie review

 G.I. Joe Retaliation (2013)


I wanted to review The Place Beyond the Pines not G.I. Joe. Unfortunately it was only playing in limited release indie theaters. So, here's my review of G.I. Joe Retaliation. So If you're going to see this movie you should know some things. One, you shouldn't be going for the plot or dialogue. Two, (This is for you girls) if you're going to see Channing Tatum, I'm just gonna say maybe you shouldn't. Three, despite a weak plot there are some totally ass-kicking fight scenes and explosions! This movie stars Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, and Bruce Willis (though neither Tatum or Willis are in that much of the movie). The plot is basically some Cobra baddies kidnap the president and have an impostor replace him. Then they have some convoluted plot to have every country destroy their nukes so they can use their new weapon to destroy a lot of countries. So, overall the movie was all style and no substance. It had some cool fights but wasn't much to talk about.