The Hunger Games

Ingredients: One part satire with one part survival thriller with a pinch of a love story

Plot: In a dystopian future, the totalitarian nation of Panem is divided between 12 districts and the Capital. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by a random lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal retribution for a past rebellion, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors while the citizens of Panem are required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

*Based of the book series of the same name written by Suzanne Collins.
**Plot summary from IMDB.com

Review: Whats this a big budget hollywood blockbuster reviewed by me!? Yeah it does happen every once in  a while. So onto the review of this survivalist tale of teenagers killing each other.

Going into this movie, I had not read the book and honestly I still have not. I have done my research about my differences and I am starting into reading the book series. That being said I had heard the plot synopsis long ago, before it was even put into production, and thought of it as a Battle Royale knock off. Well I didn't get that completely right. It does have a very similar theme. You know teenagers killing each other. But I can't make any more comparisons due to the fact I have not seen Battle Royale for years,  the Dvd is sitting on my shelf in a backlog of other films for reviewing. Okay now to the main part of this review.

You're reading this review and after the paragraph your probably thinking one thing. How was it? Well to my surprise it worked. Young adult films haven't been done kindly in recent cinema years. Prissy vampires and emotionless sociopathic lead actresses have been the big hits. This has none of that. It has a strong female lead who honestly is able to carry this film on her shoulders. Jennifer Lawrence has shown some strong acting chops. She was fantastic as Mystique and continues being fantastic as Katniss. The rest of the actors and actress turn in some strong performances, from Woody Harrelson to Elizebeth Banks. Elizebeth Banks is clearly having the time of her life as Effie. Honestly I didn't know it was even her until I watched Brad Jones*  vlog. I do have to discuss the look of this film, the capital residents are a bit odd looking.  Given no reason in the film they look like Tim Burton characters. It is an odd design choice, but given the fact that in this dystopian future is not exactly normal it kind of fits. When you see the city in a few shots it looks suitably futuristic, and the run down districts look like Robin Hood villages. There are a few things that do not work, and that biggest one is the camera work in the action scenes. The issue being they use the bourne series shaky camera work, making the film horrible disorienting during the bigger action scenes. While the action scenes, when you can see them, are intense for a Pg-13 young adult film. The shaking can get too much and during the main action scenes, it becomes incredibly obvious that they where shot, or changed post production due to the Pg-13 rating. The shaky cam is incredibly jarring, if you see it in Imax it can be nauseating. The next issue comes the changes stem from the book to movie transition. Having not read the books I didn't know just what changes where made or how drastic they where. Not sensing the fact that they changed things is a credit to this film, but I wish they didn't change them. Spoilers incoming, the first change is that  of Rue's death the film has her die when Katniss turns the corner and finds Rue in a net, she proceeds to free her and then another "contestant" rounds the corner and throws a spear at Katniss missing and hitting Rue thus killing her. The book has it mostly the same, but instead of Rue being freed and then being accidentally hit, she is killed while still being trapped in the net. She is stabbed as soon as Katniss rounds the corner very cold bloodily. I assume that this change was made because of  the rating. The other changes are the dogs, in the book they have the eyes of the other "contestants" if done right it could have been absolutely chilling and really effective. The third change is Peeta the male lead is injured and loses his leg. This is remedied via a magic drug. Between Rues death and the leg amputation, some emotional impact and tension gets lost. The leg thing could have been incorporated, since How to Train Your Dragon has the main character lose a leg, and that was a pg rated kids film. I wanna see a uncut version on Dvd/bluray removing the shaky cam or at least deleted scenes showing the left out scenes or at least rough cg design of the dog faces via special features.

Recommend? Yes, I do recommend this. It really was a great film. It worked well enough as a standalone film for those like myself who have not read the book. I recommend reading the book before or after seeing the movie, or at least do research about those left out scenes. Check this movie out, be warned of the shaking camera though.

The Woman in Black (2012)

The Woman in Black (2012).
Flavor: Ghost/Thriller.
Ingredients: Old creepy mansion, disturbing dolls, jump scares, angry ghost.

Plot: Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a young lawyer who is depressed by the loss of his beautiful wife after giving birth to a son. His son, now grown to a toddler, draws pictures of him with a sad face. He is assigned to prepare a large house for sale in a marsh and travels to an obscure village where he is shunned by most of the townspeople. He visits the Eel Marsh House, the estate of the late Alice Drabow, to look it over, but finds his job has grown more perilous as it is haunted by the ghost of a woman scorned. He learns from the villagers that the ghost of the woman in black seeks revenge against their children because her child was taken away from her. Kipps is befriended by Sam (Ciaran Hinds) and his wife Elizabeth (Janet McTeer). They, too, have lost a son, and they help the lawyer to investigate the background of the estate and what happened. -IMDb


Review: I hate this movie. Not because it's bad, but because its good, very good at what it does: it scares me. Now i will watch your run of the mill slasher film (yawn) or the gory zombies, without batting an eyelash. But make me watch a suspenseful movie where you just know the jump is coming, and I'm the one hiding behind the pillow with one eye open. And that is exactly what The Woman in Black does well.

The plot isn't exactly original, (ghost in an old mansion, superstitious unwelcoming villagers..etc. etc.)
But it is well made, and there are enough little touches of originality to keep it fresh. The mansion is just what you'd expect a haunted mansion to be. And i quite liked the part they had the tide play in this. Creepy house with surrounding graveyard not enough? Hey lets make it totally cut off from the world when the tide is in! The shots of the marshes were really convincing as well in showing how remote and desolate the area was.

The suspense was well played out, if a little typical of this sort of movie. Personally i can't stand this sort of thing. I mean you know there's something down that dark hallway that's gonna jump out at you. You just don't know when...and BAM! that's the brilliance of suspense, and why i have no fingernails left.

Daniel Radcliffe's acting was truly great, as well as the supporting cast. Overall this is a really well made film. And I liked the old fashioned vintage feel of the movie too.
The only things i can say against it is the plot isn't mindbogglingly original, the woman screeching gets a little old, and the scares are good but not totally unexpected.

Recommended: Yes. Especially if you like suspenseful ghost movies. Have to give props to a horror movie that depended on convincing acting, story and atmosphere instead of naked screaming girls and gore.

The Woman in Black is owned by Hammer Films

Chronicle

Super powered teenagers are not a new thing in cinema. They are just as frequent as annoying teenagers in a slasher films. So what does it take to break the mold and make something original from a cliched idea?

Plot : High school senior Andrew, is an outcast. He purchases a camera and lives behind it as an extension of himself. While filming everything he goes to a rave with his cousin and in the woods Andrew, his cousin, and his cousins best friend find a mysterious hole in the ground that contains a glowing rock. They are gifted with new telekinetic abilities and from there grow as friends and enemies.



Review : 2012 is here and with it comes more Found footage films, some bad and some good. How does this film stack up to the other 8000 found footage films? Well lets dive into this review and find out

So as I sat down in the theater to watch Paranormal Activity 3, I was greeted with a trailer for a new film Chronicle. It looked like a decent film. One that would show what happens when teenagers get powers and miss use them, and turning into a Superhero film where one became the villain. Predictable and amusing but forgettable. Boy was I wrong on this one. While the film's first half does follow my ideas about the teenagers misusing there powers for selfish needs, the second half does some different stuff.

Andrew is a senior in high school and isn't very well liked by anyone. He is picked on by everyone and has become an outcast. Even at home he is abused by his father while his mother is in critical condition by an unnamed disease. The movie starts with the fact that he has recently purchased a video camera to capture the daily activities of his life, thus starting the Found footage gimmick. He takes this camera everywhere and it becomes an extension of himself never parting with it, setting up that unsaid idea of false protection behind the lens. From here we are introduced to Andrews cousin who befriends him, taking him to a rave. After a misunderstanding Andrew leaves the party and meets Steve, his cousin Matt s best friend. From this point the film allows you to bond with these three characters, and watch them bond as friend while they experiment with the powers they found in a dark hole during the party. They slowly learn that they can control certain objects with their minds and proceed to mess with people in stores and in public. What starts as innocent fun, never hurting anyone  slowly morphs into something far darker and sinister. Andrew uses his powers to force a vehicle off the road and nearly kills the driver. From there we see more of Andrew life showing him as an outcast from everyone but his friends and truly showing a teenage on the verge of a mental breakdown, which for someone with Andrews' special talents could be very bad. Without spoiling anything we all know well anyone who has seen the trailer know Andrew does snap leading to a very intense and tragic climax.

Lets call this film a very big surprise for me. I expected a fun ride but nothing special, what I got was that fun ride with a tragic story with some great unknown actors giving some fantastic performances. I thought the found footage genre was dried up of all the original ideas it had, I was wrong instead of a gimmick for the film it adds to the ideas of the film. Unlike most found footage films you can't watch it and say "why would they film this?" everything filmed fits and feels natural. They do some creative things near the end with different camera shots and switching perspectives.

With everything said it has a couple minor flaws. Its a very short film, running a mere 85 mins and at times it feels pretty edited. Nothing offensively edited but I can promise we will see a directors cut upon DVD release. The other flaw relies on the climax, it changes the tone of a mostly character driven film into a action film. Again its not a huge complaint.

Overall: I recommend it highly, it does flaws but not enough to drag down a fantastic film for the beginning of 2012. I await the aforementioned directors cut with glee

Recommend? YES 

Chronicle is owned  20th Century Fox.

Chronicle is rated Pg-13 for intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content and teen drinking