The Hunger Games

I am an unabashed lover of the Hunger Games trilogy. At first I felt a little bad about it. You know, with all of those inevitable comparisons to Twilight and everything. [Side Note: Twilight and The Hunger Games have absolutely NOTHING in common. One is a story about life or death, survival and love of family while the other is about a boring pale girl who has to choose between a whiny werewolf and an even whinier vampire.] But, the more I became immersed in The Hunger Games, the less I felt bad about it. The heroine of these books is an actual good role model for teen girls. She's a strong, kick ass teenager who will do anything to help her family survive.

First some quick background in case you are one of the 10 people in the entire world (all whom I presumably work with) who didn't read or even hear of the books. The Hunger Games takes place in the future, after a long and bloody war when the states are no longer and the country of Panem is divided into Districts. In order to keep a rebellion in check, the Capitol stages a yearly game in which a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district must compete in a live televised fight to the death. Our heroine Katniss (a superb Jennifer Lawrence) is from District 12 and when her 12 year old sister Prim is chosen, Katniss volunteers in her place. So, Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) go to the Capitol in order to prepare and compete in the 74th Annual Games. They are joined by their mentor Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), the only person ever from District 12 to previously win, Effie (Elizabeth Banks), a sort of guardian and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Katniss' personal stylist. Once inside the Arena, they must fight a host of other Tributes including the sweet and smart Rue, who Katniss befriends, and the deadly Careers, including Cato, who is ultimately the villain of the story.

Overall, I have to say that I loved the movie nearly as much as I loved the book. Movies are never, ever as good as the books, but this one was pretty damn close. There is so little for me to complain about, that it almost feels nitpicky to even try. The only main concern I had was with the breakdown of the film. It's two and a half hours long and it absolutely needs to be that long. But the beginning of the film takes a lot of time to show all the details (which is great) and then once inside the Arena, the movie sort of speeds through a lot of information, leaving out little details that seemed important while reading the book, like Katniss' initial dehydration and struggle for survival.

But the movie does a lot of things better, too. I loved that the Mockingjay pin wasn't from a school friend of Katniss' but instead passed back and forth between the Katniss and Prim, in order to show how strong their bond is. I also loved the sort of behind the scenes vibe that we got with the announcers (Stanley Tucci) and Gamemakers (headed by Wes Bentley, with bad ass facial hair). I also loved the scenes outside of the Arena with Bentley's Seneca Crane and Donald Sutherland's President Snow. Also, the juxtaposition between the dark and deadly Games and the bright and colorful reality spectacle of the whole thing really worked.

The performances were all fantastic with Lawrence and Harrelson stealing best in show. Hutcherson, who I thought was terribly miscast as Peeta, was actually pretty right on. Although, another thing I disliked about the film was the way they down played the fact that he was very strategic and kind of cunning. They played him as just a nice guy. Liam Hemsworth was barely in it, but his story line really expands in Catching Fire. Banks, Tucci, Sutherland, Bentley, and Kravitz were all perfectly cast and did great jobs. This was a fantastic adaptation of a fantastic book and I can't imagine any fans of the book being let down.

Grade: B+

Silent House & 21 Jump Street

Silent House - There are good things and bad things about Silent House. First, the good news. It's ridiculously creative. Filmed in one continuous take, the 88 minute long film was filmed in real time and features creative direction and camera tricks. Also, Elizabeth Olsen is INCREDIBLE. Her performance is so terrifyingly real and sincere that it's hard to not become involved in the story. The story, of course, is about Sarah (Olsen) who goes to her family's old lake house with her dad and her uncle in order to fix it up to sell it. It's been mostly abandoned for the last year and there are squatters who keep breaking in and destroying the house. Or maybe the squatters are still in the house. Because Sarah soon finds herself locked in the house. Then she finds her dad's unconscious body and so begins a game of cat and mouse with Sarah trying to stay alive and make it out of the house. Now for the bad news. The movie just isn't scary at all. Plus, it gets a little too weird at one point. Also, it's full of all the same old horror movie cliches. Then there's that ending. SPOILER ALERT. I'm not going to totally ruin the ending. I did like the IDEA of the ending. The problem is I don't think it was executed properly. An ending similar to that has been done so much better before in films like High Tension and Triangle. All in all, Silent House was merely mediocre. The creativity and Olsen's incredible performance definitely make it watchable. If it wasn't for those things, Silent House would just be another run of the mill, trite, boring wanna be scary movie.
Grade: C


21 Jump Street - A few days ago when I reviewed last year's remake of Footloose, I talked about how the best way to remake a classic film (or, in this case, TV show) was to make it your own while still paying homage to the original. Well, 21 Jump Street totally succeeds at both of these things. The film is based on the TV show that made Johnny Depp a mega star and is about a group of young looking cops who go undercover at local high schools. In the movie, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as ex-high school enemies (Tatum was uber popular, Hill was a loser) who become besties and then find themselves going back into their old school to infiltrate a drug ring. This time around, Hill finds himself in with the cool kids (including James Franco's equally strange and talented younger brother Dave) while Tatum is a nerd who is mistakenly signed up for AP-Chemistry. So, the plot is pretty commonplace, but here's the thing - the movie is actually really, really funny. In fact, at certain points, I kept thinking about how this movie really has no right to be this good. In fact, after the barrage of trailers that took over for a while, I was convinced this movie was going to be terrible. But it's not. We all know Jonah Hill is funny but here, again, he's proving that he's a pretty damn good actor as well. Tatum is known as being a pretty face but after seeing A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, I always suspected there was a good actor in there somewhere. Here, he's funny and charming and absolutely great. The supporting cast (from Franco to Ice Cube to Ellie Kempler to a small scene stealing part from Johnny Simmons) is all fantastic as well. Plus, there are cameos by a bunch of the original cast members of the show (including Johnny Depp - whose cameo is absolutely great). All in all, 21 Jump Street is a GOOD movie. The only thing keeping it from being a great movie is the too long run time. Other than that, it's totally recommendable.
Grade: B

DVD new releases

Like Crazy - I was in love with the trailer for this movie from the first time I saw it. I've probably watched the Like Crazy trailer more than any other ever. The movie is everything I thought it would be based on those two minutes. It stars Anton Yelchin as an American furniture designer and Felicity Jones as a British writer. The two meet in California at college and fall instantly crazy in love with each other. They can't stand to be apart. Which is why she over stays her student visa and then when she visits home for a friends wedding, isn't allowed back into the country. Our distraught love birds try to make it work despite being on separate continents. Then they try to see other people (including the lovely Jennifer Lawrence). Like Crazy is bittersweet and beautiful, touching and heartbreaking. The performances are sensational. The direction is perfection And that ambiguous ending is just plain great.
Grade: B+


Footloose - So, by now everyone should be well aware of my obsession with dance movies. They are my guilty pleasure. I love me some Step Up and Stomp the Yard. So, despite my hatred of remakes (in general, not always), I was kind of psyched about Footloose. Well, it's pretty damn good. Directed by Craig Brewer (who also directed two of my favorites - Hustle and Flow and Black Snake Moan), the remake of Footloose manages to stay true to the original while creating its own sort of swagger. They pay homage to the original - Ren still teaches his bestie to dance to Let's Hear it For the Boys, but still keep it modern - these days Ren is solo anger dancing to the White Stripes. And while newcomer Kenny Wormald is no Kevin Bacon (but, really, who is??), he is still pretty damn good as the city boy who suddenly finds himself in a small country town where dancing is illegal. Julianne Hough proves she can actually act and isn't just a pretty dancer. Overall, the Footloose remake proves that sometimes it's not such a bad thing to remake a classic, if you do it with respect.
Grade: B


Martha Marcy May Marlene - Despite the fact that this movie may have the single worst ending of any movie I have ever seen in my entire life (TRUTH!), I loved it. In fact, I wish I had seen it pre-Oscars so I could have used my blog (and my three readers) to campaign for Elizabeth Olsen and John Hawkes. The story follows Olsen's character as she escapes from a cult where she's been living for the last two years. She gets taken in my her sister and her husband but finds it increasingly difficult to assimilate to regular life. She has no idea why it's not appropriate to skinny dip in a lake with children or why you shouldn't curl up on the foot of the bed while your sister is having sex with her husband. Plus, she's super trouble. We see why during flashbacks to the cult where she has to deal with the super creepy but charismatic leader (Hawkes) and his seemingly nice but possibly psychotic followers (including Brady Corbet). Olsen's performance is ridiculously good. Like, so good, she may have topped my Best Actress list good. No wonder she is going to be a huge star. She's incredible. Martha (her real name) Marcy May (her cult name) Marlene (a code name they use when answering the phones) is a great little gem of a movie, interesting and intense, artistic and fascinating. Too bad about that ending.
Grade: B+

Wanderlust

I had zero interest in seeing Wanderlust. Yes, I love me some Justin Thereoux. And, yes, Paul Rudd is adorable and awkwardly funny. Yes, I even love Jennifer Aniston who somehow manages to get hotter with age. But, the movie itself just seemed silly. Then it got an A- from Entertainment Weekly (who, obviously, I trust more than I should). Then a friend of mine said it was the funniest movie he's seen in years. So, my interest was peeked. Guess what? I should have stuck to my original gut feeling.

Wanderlust is about a yuppie New York couple (Aniston and Rudd) who work long hours and live in a tiny apartment and are addicted to coffee and cell phones. They think they've got it made. Then they both lose their jobs and they move from NYC to suburban Georgia, where they eventually find their way to a hippie commune where they struggle with their self-identity and experience with free love, blah, blah, blah. It's a meandering, unfunny, annoyingly trite film. And that's being nice.

The cast is the absolute only thing it has going for it. Aniston is charming and Rudd is endearing. Thereoux is a special kind of crazy as the de facto leader of the commune. The lovely and beautiful Lauren Ambrose (aka Claire Fisher from the criminally good Six Feet Under) is sweet and funny. Katharine Hahn all but steals the show. And Alan Alda even shows up! However, overall the movie just doesn't work. It takes a basic premise that is so silly and then adds silly jokes to make things even more ridiculous. There were maybe two parts where I actually found myself laughing but even that was more at the ridiculous nature of this film that took away part of my afternoon than anything else. So, basically, don't waste your time or your money. Stay home and watching something really funny - my newly discovered obsession with the funnier than should be legal It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (I know, I'm like 8 seasons late but whatever).

Grade: D