I suspended my beliefs at the door when I stepped into the theater to see Francis Lawrence’s (I Am Legend, Water For Elephants) sequel to The Hunger Games. I couldn’t do this for the first movie and was dissatisfied. I wanted the film to be more of a survival movie and less a fantasy/science fiction movie. When I wasn’t able to do that, I just started to question everything that was happening. I liked The Hunger Games but did not love it. I liked it enough to continue with the franchise, though. Every successful fantasy book franchise is being made into a movie these days. I have never read a word of a book or seen a second of the film in either the Harry Potter or Twilight series. I get the cult-like following to both of these movies, though. I do understand how you can be engrossed in a franchise like this. I have not read, nor will I read, any of The Hunger Game books, but I will continue to see the movies, even though I am upset about the franchise’s finale Mockingjay, split up into two movies. I am also lukewarm about the Insurgent franchise coming to the theaters. They showed a trailer for the first Insurgent movies before Catching Fire, and I was disappointed to see Kate Winslet on the screen. In these movies, you don’t need superstars outside the main character or two.
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Category Archives: Genre
Out of the Furnace (2013)
Finally, a gritty drama for 2013 to win you over with complex characters and excellent acting performances. This movie is, first and foremost, about flawed characters who want to do the right thing but don’t always know how. Well…I say that except for Woody Harrelson’s (The Messenger, Rampart) character. He is as vile, violent, and rotten to the core as he’s ever been. There are no redeeming qualities in Harrelson’s portrayal of Harlan DeGroat, a fight organizer/crystal meth dealer who drinks way too much, dabbles a little too much in his product, and looks to physically hurt anyone and every one every time they do anything to set him off, regardless of what it is. He is a ruthless jerk to the nth degree. Unfortunately, he plays his role perfectly. Without giving anything away, he dominates the movie’s first scene and makes him the person we are to fear for the next two hours.
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This is 40 (2012)
This Is 40 is an incredibly depressing movie that is not really funny. I love a good, raunchy comedy as much as anyone, but when it’s raunchy and not funny, it becomes dumb. I say this with lots and lots of love for director Judd Apatow. Apatow has written and directed two of the funniest movies of all time (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up). He has also helped produce some of the other major comedies of the last decade, including Superbad, Step Brothers, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Still, this is just the fourth movie he is directed, and one of those, Funny People, was anything but funny. This Is 40 should have been a big hit. Apatow is talented enough to make a movie surrounding this topic into something funny. But ultimately, This Is 40 is a failure. I have yet to talk to someone who has seen this movie and said, “I loved it and can’t wait to see it again.” I’ve heard, “I didn’t like that.” I’ve heard, “I saw it, and I’m glad I saw it, but I wouldn’t watch it again.” My thought on the movie was, “I saw it, and I’m not sure that I’m glad I saw it because, being near 40, I found parts of it to be too real and parts of it to be not real.” I’ll try to explain.
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Dallas Buyer’s Club (2013)
Dallas Buyer’s Club was a movie I thought I would like, wanted to like, and started off liking until it became a biopic that just started to bore me. This movie will get lots of recognition during awards season and, in many cases, deservingly so. The performances of Matthew McConaughey (Mud, Killer Joe) and especially Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream, Girl Interrupted) are top-notch. I could see McConaughey getting a nod for best actor for portraying the real-life HIV-positive Ron Woodroof, even though I thought his performance in Mud was better (note, he might get a best-supporting actor nomination for that movie). Leto is a lock for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. His performance as Rayon, a transsexual HIV-positive drug addict, named Rayon, is out of this world. The chemistry between the two main actors was top-notch. While Jennifer Garner (13 Going on 30, Juno) underwhelms as a local doctor whose specialty is working with patients infected with HIV or AIDS, Steve Zahn (Joy Ride, Rescue Dawn) is nearly unrecognizable (in a good way) as Ron’s brother and a local police officer. Jean-Marc Vallee did a pretty good job directing this movie. The cinematography is awesome. The movie takes place in 1985 Texas and feels like 1985 Texas. McConaughey is a cocaine-addicted womanizer who earns money as a small-time electrician, part-time rodeo rider, and small-time drug dealer. His lifestyle is reckless, and his body shows its wear and tear. He looks like he is about 30 pounds underweight the entire movie.
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Gravity (2013)
Okay…here we go. Gravity had the potential to be the greatest movie of 2013. It was a very, very good movie and will finish in my Top 10 of 2013 by the time everything is said and done. My preliminary thought is that it currently will be my #3 for the year, behind World War Z and Elysium. What do these three movies, in my opinion, have in common? Originality. I thought that, in a time where there Hollywood seems to be lacking great original ideas that aren’t based on true stories, these three movies achieved just that. I loved World War Z. I do not think it will end year #1, but it will be tough. It was an amazing, adrenalin-pumping story that had an awesome twist. Gravity aimed for the same, albeit in a slightly different way. Was it as successful? Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I will discuss, in-depth, the one or two major problems I had with this movie and will give you plenty of warning before I get there so that you can skip this section if you have not seen this movie yet.
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