Movie: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Action, Adventure, Sci Fi

I am joining the masses in swooning over Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, Winter's Bone) - she is amazing, though I'm more impressed with how she handles herself in the spotlight. She is a proper role model for young girls. This isn't her best film by a long way but I have to applaud her for making me more sympathetic to Katniss.

When I read these books (by Suzanne Collins) Katniss annoyed the absolute hell out of me. She is even more complacent than Bella (Twilight). She seems to achieve things but really it's more the people around her helping her. You don't get any of her internal monologue in the films - thank goodness - because she spends most of the time completely oblivious to the things going on around her. I felt like slapping her sometimes. JLaw seems to bring a bit more confidence to the character, which I like.

The two love interests - yes, I said two - are Peeta (Josh Hutcherson - Red Dawn, Bridge To Terabithia) the baker's boy who's always had a thing for Katniss and fellow Hunger Games winner, and Gale (Aussie Liam Hemsworth - Neighbours, Paranoia) Katniss' best friend and hunting partner. Unfortunately for Katniss and Gale, in order to win the Hunger Games Katniss and Peeta had to pretend to be madly in love. This is where the books annoyed me; it's damn obvious to us that Peeta actually has real feelings for Katniss but she is so absorbed in her own self and not being able to have Gale that she completely disregards Peeta. Ugh! There is a little of this in the film but it's not nearly as blatant as in the books.

Stand out performances for me were Effie Trinket played by Elizabeth Banks (Zack and Miri Make a Porno, 30 Rock) and her amazing outfits! Donald Sutherland (Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, MASH) as the nefarious President Snow. Lenny Kravitz as Cinna (sobs). Stanley Tucci (Burlesque, Captain America) as the very bronzed Caesar. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Moneyball, Almost Famous) as the new game maker, Plutarch Heavensbee. Woody Harrelson (Zombieland, Natural Born Killers) as drunken Haymitch. And finally, Sam Claflin (Snow White and The Huntsman) as Finnick Odair.

This film was much better than the first and I'm sure the next one will be even better! That's the way it was with the books too, it's got a really nice build up and by the end the whole game has changed. I can't think of anything from the books that I missed in the film. The arena was just as I imagined it from the Lightning Tree to the Tsunami. Well done!

Next film we get to see The Mockingjay in action! Can't wait!

4 out of 5 crazy false eyelashes...

Movie: Red Dawn (2012)

Red Dawn (2012)
Action

I've been wanting to see this film since it was announced and people got all up in arms about it and Tomorrow When The War Began being the same film and turning it into this massive Oz vs. US drama. Well, I have a few things to say about this... 

Being an Aussie, I love the Tomorrow series. These books written by John Marsden are classics and are actually part of the English syllabus for high school students in Australia. Tomorrow was written in the early 1990's and was followed by a series of 6 books which are all about a small group of teenagers resisting the invasion of Australia. (There is also a set of 3 or 4 books of the aftermath, brilliant!) These books are huge in Australia and pretty much everyone I know has read them. 

You can imagine the excitement when we found out it was being turned into a movie... and the disappointment when we finally got to watch it.... I won't go on about it here (I'll do a separate review). Back to the actual movie I'm talking about. 

Funnily enough, it stars Aussie Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Cabin In The Woods - gosh he chooses good roles!) as big brother Jed, fresh back from the Marines which comes in real handy when Korea invades his hometown. Along with his little brother Josh Peck (lots of voice over work and a Nickelodeon Kid) and friends (Including Josh Hutcherson fresh from The Hunger Games, the gorgeous Isabel Lucas from Transformers and Tom and Nicole's son Connor Cruise) they form a rebellion to take back their town. 

People have said Red Dawn is more realistic than Tomorrow but I'm not sure I agree. Maybe I'm Tomorrow series and it just seems to work better for me. Lots of people probably didn't like Tomorrow because its longer, there is a lot more to it and so the movie seems to be slower paced than Red Dawn which contains a lot of action and explosions. I was also more attached to the Tomorrow characters (again, probably because of reading all the books as a kid then again as an adult.)
completely biased or maybe it's because I read the entire

I'm going to have to follow this review up with a review of Tomorrow... stay tuned! 

3 out of 5 yellow-eyed demons...

PS. Great to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan ie. Daddy Winchester from Supernatural! 

Movie: The Hunger Games (2012)

The Hunger Games (2012)
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

I watched this film a while ago when it first came out, then I read all the books in a week. There are three books by Suzanne Collins and I'm pretty certain that they've signed to have all three made into movies as well.

Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class) is Katniss Everdeen, and I have to tell you that she is one of my least favorite heroines ever. If Jennifer falls flat on the screen it's because that's the way Katniss is. She seems a bit dull to me at times and she can never make a decision. Her character frustrated me to no end and I swear it's just dumb luck that keeps her alive throughout the whole series. I noticed during the movie that you don't get a lot of her inner thoughts coming across, whereas the books gave you a lot more info about why she acts the way she does sometimes... still, the character herself annoys the crap outa me.

Josh Hutcherson (Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant) is lovable Peeta Mellark. You are meant to instantly like him. He kinda gave me the creeps in the books, but I really liked Josh's portrayal of him. Then there's Liam Hemsworth (The Last Song) who plays Gale. I can't really say a lot about him without giving away the other two books but I did hear from a friend how annoyed they were with the ending of this film as it didn't give away what happens with Gale and Katniss. Don't worry people, that is resolved in the next two instalments!

I liked the casting for all three of these main characters but the highlights for me were Lenny Kravitz (the singer) as Cinna, Woody Harrelson (Zombiland) as District 12's drunken mentor, Haymitch, and Donald Sutherland (MASH) as the evil President Snow. Those three were cast perfectly for me! Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) also impressed me as the flamboyant Caesar; the Hunger Games presenter. Can't wait to see his outfits for the next movie.

The flamboyant, almost cross-dress style was not quite what I envisioned but they were described to be overly dramatic in their dress. It's still a bit shocking to see. I was also wondering how they were going to keep death scenes family friendly, I'm pretty sure it's a PG-13 rated film... They did a nice mix actually, the cornucopia scene when they first enter the arena was done very well, lots of scene flashing and blood on swords but no gory wounds. Well done!

There was a lot of controversy over the casting of Rue (Amandla Stenberg) though I don't understand it myself. She was described as being dark of skin and to have a quality about her that reminded Katniss of Prim, not that she actually looked like her. Anyway, I have no beef with the casting or Rue's death scene. They were great.

Sorry about the ramble, you might get a few posts of this length when I've read the books to whatever I'm watching 'cos I like to compare the two. The only bit I was annoyed that they missed was the dehydration at the very beginning... missing that part made Katniss seem indestructible whereas in the books she came very close to dying. The next two instalments will be interesting to see, that's for sure!

4 out of 5 bullseyes...

[Score is mostly 'cos of the books and 'cos I know what happens]