Ed's Review Dot Com

Color Force, Lionsgate, Studio Babelsberg,

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland

At the end of Part One, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) was back, but severely affected by this time in the capital where he was brainwashed. He jumped at Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and tried to strangle her leaving her in the hospital severely injured. But as we pick it up, she’s recovering and the rebel alliance is planning to bring all the districts together to take on the capitol and President Snow (Donald Sutherland). The want to leave Katniss out of it, but you know she’s going to do her own thing and sets off on her own secret mission to assassinate President Snow. This is a fight to the finish with a war designed to determine the outcome of a free democratic Panem once and for all. But the odds are not so good.

THis is a very fitting finish to this series of films, and it’s sad to see it end. Jennifer Lawrence has grown so much through these films and it opened so many new avenues for her. She deserves all the praise she gets. This is filled with so many big stars, but we don’t even notice as they are all so well familiar to us at this point. This is one hell of a story, and the production values are out of this world. This one, however, if filled with nitty-gritty down and dirty fighting less so much of the super glitzy special effects that the other ones had, but still the scenes of the capitol are very awesome. Some of the traps that the defenders of Panem have set are amazing to watch. There’s plenty of action, lots of excitement, and explosions galore! The only negative I could think of is that as it wraps up, there are a couple “surprises” thrown in that are so predictable, that probably any of us could have written the screenplay to wrap this up. But that’s okay, we still enjoy watching it. This is a must see film, and a superb ending to what is one of the classic series of all time. See it!

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Prospero Pictures, Sentient Entertainment, SBS Productions,

Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson, Olivia Williams, Evan Bird, Sarah Gadon

The Weiss Family, Dr. Stafford Weiss (John Cusack), shrink to the stars, Benjie (Evan Bird), spoiled rotten child star, wife Christina (Olivia Williams) stage mom of epic proportions, and Agatha (Mia Wasikowska), estranged psycho sister, come together in this most dramatic, dark, comedy you’ve seen in a long time. This is a parody piece making fun of the Hollywood lifestyle while doing it in a seriously warped dramatic way. This family is desperate to maintain their celebrity status no matter what it takes. Throw in a washed up film star Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore) and Limo driver wannabe actor Jerome Fontana (Robert Pattinson) and you have the wacky cast that might bring down the entire Hollywood system as they crash and burn everything and everyone they touch.

A few minutes in to this cockeyed movie you realize you’re being put on. This is told like a true life story until it becomes clear everyone is connected to everyone else in ways you could hardly expect. Very frank and in your face brutal from the language to the really explicit scenes to the actual story, everything is rude and crude. There is a fairly good deal of humor in it all, but it’s like an inside joke for those in one the inside, unless you’re a Hollywood Celebrity yourself, it may not really make a lot of sense. Much like my review of “Birdman (or the unexpected virtue of ignorance)” this feels like you’re an outsider at at insider party and you are not welcome. Perhaps I’m wrong, but this is how I felt through this whole thing. It was used to watching news on TV, but when my wife started turning on “Good Morning ” I hated it. It felt like a party was going on and I was watching in through the window. A lot of jokes and dancing and laughing going on and I didn’t know any of it. That was the feeling I got in this movie. Perhaps I’m being a little bit harsh, as it wasn’t really terrible, but I just didn’t really get into it. I never found myself “in” the story and it was mostly just over my head. I gave this a 3 star review because of the quality of the performances of the actors in this film, but I don’t really recommend it unless you are interested in the subject or the actors.

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Color Force, Lionsgate,

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman

At the end of Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) brought the special games, with all the former champions, to a sudden halt when she shot an arrow into the force field. The last we saw them, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) was missing and presumed dead, and Katniss had been rescued by the rebels and taken to their secret hideaway. This is where this story begins. Katniss is now being persuaded to become “The Mockingjay” who is the image of the revolution. The capitol has hit the area’s very hard, and District 13 was completely destroyed as punishment. The government has no qualms with killing innocent women and children. But when they find out that Peeta is alive, and seems to have turned his back on the revolution, now acting as a pawn for President Snow (Donald Sutherland), Katniss agrees to be the Mockingjay under the condition that somehow at the first available window, they will rescue Peeta.

As all the major adventure stories have done, Lionsgate has determined to split this film into two separate movies. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t do that considering that they’ll double the income by breaking into two movies. This really irked a lot of people, and brought a lot of criticism, but I think it was a good choice. I wish they could have filmed it all at once, though, since it is a guaranteed hit, so that they didn’t have to wait a whole year for Part 2! Many have criticized this film as dull and boring, but I found that not to be true. There is some decent action sequences here, although, of course, there are no more hunger games. Now it’s a real life fight for survival. But there is a lot of background info and story building here, and a lot of effort is put into developing Katniss’ commitment to the revolution, and her and Peeta’s relationship. She is learning a lot about herself as well. I found the film to be very well done, and the settings are spectacular looking. The character’s are well developed by now, and we get to further refine their character. I totally enjoyed this film, and am anxious for the finale.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

StudioCanal, Silver Pictures, Anton Capital Entertainment (ACE),

Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Scoot McNairy, Anson Mount, Corey Stoll, Linus Roache, Nate Parker, Jon Abrahams, Omar Metwally

Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) is a US Air Marshall on board a flight to London far out over the Atlantic, when he starts getting text from a terrorist who claims to be on the plane, and threatening that someone will die every 20 minutes until one and a half million dollars are deposited into a bank account. But not only does Bill have his share of unresolved issues, there seems to be a lot more going on that meets the eye. This is suspenseful cat and mouse game as Bill tries to convince his superiors that there is a threat, all the while trying to solve the ever changing puzzles that are in front of him.

I’m really getting to think that Liam Neeson is one of the best actors today. I can think of anyone else who can carry a suspenseful airplane drama like he can. We’ve seen a lot of dramas set inside the captive area of an airplane cabin, but none just like this. It’s “Non-stop” action and suspense all the way through. There are so many twists and turns all the way through. Julianne Moore has a smaller, but really interesting role as well, and it was a great addition to the cast. The rest of the people were also very good, so all in all it’s a good script and a very fast paced thriller. I really enjoyed this film, and I would recommend it to fans of great action and suspense.

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Screen Gems, Misher Films,

Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, Gabriella Wilde, Michelle Nolden, Alex Russell, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, Samantha Weinstein, Max Topplin, Cynthia Preston

Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a shy young girl being raised by a religious fanatic mother (Julianne Moore) who punishes her by locking her in a closet and making her pray all day. Carrie is curious, but doesn’t fit in with the rest of the kids and is made fun of all the time, but Carrie is trying to learn to control some supernatural powers that she has, and when she is pushed too far, all hell breaks loose in this remake of the Stephen King story that made into a 1976 movie and now being brought up to date.

I have often made the assessment that some movies don’t need to be redone. We used to call it remaking, but now they prefer to call it reimaging. To me, reimaging would be making a new physical copy of an old print, but it sounds better I guess. Well, this movie does get the new 2013 technology update that wasn’t there in 1976, but I think it was a lot better film without Twitter and Facebook and YouTube. Imagine Carrie’s embarrassment when her shameful incident goes viral! It was a lot simpler terrifying story in 1976, I would much rather watch that version of the story. Don’t get me wrong, Chloe Grace Moretz does a really good acting job, but it’s not really her fault. I had a hard time with Julianne Moore because I know her so well, and I just had a hard time buying her as the mean old mother that she was supposed to be. I suspect she did a good job too, but it wasn’t the right role for her I’m afraid. But the biggest problem is that they had so much fun with all the fake CGI stuff, and some of it was frightening (a car crash for example), that they didn’t pay much attention to the nuances of the story. Carrie was an innocent little girl, but a really nice kid that you could see asking to the prom for real, and then suddenly threw the switch and became an evil bitch. Likewise, Carrie’s Mom garnered so much sympathy that you actually end up feeling really sorry for her which is not supposed to happen. She had a rough childhood which helps explain why she was so wacky, and she had good intentions. This is all wrong.

There are some other examples of this miscasting that is similar in a way. Take the musical Camelot for example. Arthur is supposed to be a little boy who never grew up. The impish Peter Pan way he runs around hopping from table to chair is supposed to show us how much he was so childish, that he never could have been a husband to Guenevere. We are actually supposed to feel sorry for her and Lancelot as what happened was Arthur’s fault because he was such a childish little boy. But when they cast Richard Harris in the movie version of Camelot, we loved him. He was such a warm and loving character that we hated Lance and Jenny for the horrible thing they did to him.

In Carrie, the remake, we feel a lot of sympathy for Mom Margaret, and don’t like Carrie at all by the end. It’s kind of backwards, and doesn’t come off that way in the original. But those of us who were frightened by the original movie are old now, and millions on millions of people have never seen the film. This is a modern version of a really good Stephen King story, that should be told. So if you’re not, like me, going to keep comparing the old with the new, for heaven’s sake, watch this version and you’ll really enjoy it. But if you like good classic cinema, and if you can find the original version, in my opinion it’s far superior to this version. This one is for the new generation, and has a purpose. I’m stuck in the middle on this one, but I don’t want to totally discourage you from seeing it. It’s a darn good book.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog