Film Review: THE HUNGER GAMES (2012)

Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Suzanne Collins (screenplay/novel), Gary Ross (screenplay), Billy Ray (screenplay)
Running time: 142 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

Genre: Action/Drama/Sci-Fi
UK Release date: 23^rd March 2012

Watched at the cinema Saturday 31^st March 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I first have to admit I’ve never read the books and so this franchise is all shiny and new to me. Knowing that it is aimed at a teenage audience, I took a risk and decided to go and see a Saturday afternoon screening. The (young) audience were quite well behaved over all, although the staff did seem to take a very long time in getting something up on the screen (they was getting a bit rebellious). But when they did eventually start the film they soon settled down (after a little coaxing… from me). But back to the film, very well made with some good performances and, despite the level of violence being toned down (a lot), quite entertaining. I will give you full skinny after this brief summary.

In a future North America, now called Panem, (the rest of the world doesn’t exist for some reason) and after a civil war, a way is found to keep the defeated ‘Districts’ in tow. The Hunger Games are invented; a boy and a girl for each of the twelve districts must fight it out, to the death, until there is only one winner. The whole event is televised and broadcast across the nation with host, Caesar Flickerman, giving a blow-by-blow account. The games organiser, Seneca Crane, has the ear of the President Snow and uses his influence to make the games bigger and better each year. Now, the District we’re interested is District 12, and its contestants, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. We see the selection process and their training, with which they are aided by former champion, Haymitch Abernathy and style guru, Cinna, amongst others. See, it’s not just about training to fight, it’s all about winning the hearts and minds of the viewers (sponsors), who might send you some help during the games. And so we come to the games themselves, and this is where I’ll leave you hanging or the Spoiler Police (Futuristic Movies Division) will be entering me for the next event (even though I’m far too old!).

This is a very well made film with some nice CGI in places, although I did feel it was a little over-used in a couple of scenes. I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of the sound, although that might have been down to the equipment at my local cinema (not a multiplex). As far as performances go, well, the stand-out has to be Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. She was ably supported by; Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane (with some extraordinary beard sculpturing), Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne, Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Donald Sutherland as President Snow and finally, although he didn’t have a lot to say, Toby Jones as Claudius Templesmith.

There are so many similarities (in part) to other films it’s hard to know where to start. I guess ‘Battle Royalle’ is a pretty good start, although I could see influences from; ‘The Truman Show’, ‘Rollerball’ (the original one) and ‘The Running Man’ in there too. I did get the impression that there is a lot more explained in the book than there was time for on the screen because I did feel I had missed out on a few plot points here and there. These particularly surrounded the relationship between Katniss and Peeta; I won’t discuss it here as I don’t want to go putting down spoilers. Over all though, the 142 minute running time seemed to pass quite quickly (always a good sign) and so I’m happy to deem this one… Recommended.

My score: 8.2/10.

IMDb Score: 7.8/10 (based on 56,220 votes when this review was written).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 85/100 (based on 239 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 87/100 (based on 84,278 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_hunger_games/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
President Snow: And it was decreed that each year, the 12 districts of Panem should offer up a tribute of one young man and woman between the ages of 12 and 18 to be trained in the art of survival and to be prepared to fight to the death.

Katniss Everdeen: May the odds be ever in your favour.

Katniss Everdeen: So you're here to make me look pretty.
Cinna: I'm here to help you make an impression.

Caesar Flickerman: What did you say to your sister when you volunteered at the reaping?
Katniss Everdeen: I told her that I would try to win for her.
Caesar Flickerman: And try you will.

Rue: You have to win.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://www.thehungergamesmovie.com/
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehungergamesmovie
Trailer:

Film Review: THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (2010)

Co-Writer/Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Running time: 106 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Comedy/Drama
UK Release date: 29^th October 2010

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 25^th September 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Ok, I had better make it clear from the start that this film does not feature the rock band ‘The Who’… They did a film with a similar title back in 1979 so I didn’t want there to be any confusion from the start. This, on the other hand is about a lesbian couple with two children… more or less the opposite of ‘The Who’ really. But to be serious for a moment, this film gained quite a lot of critical praise when it came out and so I thought I might give it a look. Although it’s not my usual fare, I did find it quite interesting up to a point, but it kind of ran out of steam towards the end (IMO). More of my thoughts after this brief summary.

A lesbian couple, Jules and Nic had two children by artificial insemination. They are a boy, Laser (now 15) and a girl, Joni (now 18). Joni is about to move away to college and Laser asks her, being of age, to get in touch with the sperm donor that was used to conceive them. She agrees and they make contact with restaurant owner Paul who also happens to grow a lot of organic food as well. They meet and, after a faltering start, eventually get on quite well together. The kids tell their moms and Paul eventually meets them. The film then goes on to explore the effect Paul has on the lives of the members of this rather unusual family. Not wishing to enrage the Spoiler Police (lesbian division) I will end my brief summary here.

A well made film without any spectacular cinematography or music, this film is more of a character study than anything else. A lot of the critical praise was aimed at the performances and I can see why; both Julianne Moore as Jules and Annette Bening as Nic did a brilliant job! I thought Mark Ruffalo as Paul was also very good, but I was most impressed with the kids. Both Mia Wasikowska as Joni and Josh Hutcherson as Laser were great. It was so refreshing to see a couple of young characters that were not the greedy teenage morons we usually gets stuck with.

As I hinted at the beginning, the film does kind of lose a bit of steam towards the end but that’s not to say it was all bad. There were a couple of laughs along the way, but I did find it quite a serious piece. For all the great performances I was surprised that it didn’t have the emotional impact that I’m sure the filmmakers wanted it to have. Nicely paced with an interesting plot (for the most part) it did keep me entertained for much of the time, but ultimately lost it in the end. I’m going to deem it recommended (just) despite this.

My Score: 6.4/10.

IMDb Score: 7.2/10 (based on 36,349 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0842926/

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94/100 (based on 204 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10012141-kids_are_all_right/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Laser: Why did you donate your sperm?
Paul: Because it seemed more fun than donating blood.

Jules: I wish you were gay; you'd be much more sensitive.

LINKS:
Official Site: http://filminfocus.com/the_kids_are_all_right
Official Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheKidsAreAllRight
Trailer:

Film Review: CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT (2009)

Co-writer/Director: Paul Weitz
Running time: 105 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

UK release date: 23rd October 2009

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 18th September 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Based on a series of books by Darren Shan, this film received mixed reviews when it was released almost a year ago. I have not read the books, so I cannot make any comparisons there, but I have read that people that have read the books were somewhat disappointed with this film. I’ll give you a brief synopsis before I tell you what I think.

Best friends, Darren and Steve go to see a Freak Show after a mysterious car drops a flyer by them in the street. There they see many fabulous acts, including Mr. Tall, Evra the Snake Boy, Madame Truska and last but not least, Larten Crepsley, who Steve believes to be a vampire. Darren is fascinated by the fantastic spider that appeared on stage with Crepsley, and goes to his changing room to kidnap it. Taking the spider to school, Steve finds it and is bitten by it. Darren goes to Crepsley and asks for his help, but he will only cure Steve if Darren is made a half-vampire and becomes his assistant. Darren eventually agrees and Steve is saved. Unfortunately, it means that Darren must now leave his friends and family and join the Freak Show. Throw in a war between two different factions of vampires and the mysterious Mr Tiny and that’s the bare bones of the film.

Now, given the success of the Harry Potter films I can see what the studio were after here, unfortunately it didn’t work too well. I thought the story was a little too complicated and all the way through so much dialogue was wasted explaining what was going on. It is visually very well made, but this didn’t make up for a poor script. Decent performances from all of the main cast, so honourable mentions go to; John C. Reilly as Larten Crepsley, Chris Massoglia as Darren Shan, Josh Hutcherson as Steve, Jessica Carlson as Rebecca, Michael Cerveris as Mr Tiny and Ken Watanabe as Mr Tall. Also nice cameos from Salma Hayek as Madame Truska and Willem Dafoe as Gavner Purl.

It did have its moments and the ending was quite good, but this didn’t make up for a rather uneven and over-complicated plot. I believe it didn’t do all that well at the Box-Office and I can see why. It’s not a great movie at the end of the day, it’s a bit too long and the teenagers will get bored quite quickly. Unfortunately, not recommended.

My score: 5.4/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0450405/
Official Site: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant - Official Site
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/screenplay/vi828178969/