The Hunger Games

4/5

This was a nice surprise. After all of the hype and comparisons to the awful romance in Twilight, I was about ready to drop this film off my radar. But the romance was actually more believable than most tween focused films. And that brings me to my first problem with the movie. I wish it wasn't tween focused. This is a brutal, violent story. It felt brutal enough emotionally, but not nearly so physically. Violence seemed too nice, to simple. This is a story where I feel brutality has to be shown, and it really wasn't. Despite this, the acting really did save it. The shock was lost, but the sadness and pain was there. And in a movie that has been repeatedly compared to Twilight, it's an unbelievable step up. Push aside one or two plot holes only someone paying a ridiculous amount of attention would find, it was a solid movie. The only other complaint I had was one or two places where it felt like the movie was trying to hard, if that makes sense. The costuming is the first example that comes to mind. It felt a little forced, a little bit fake. The other instance was the opening shots, all done in shaky cam style. I feel that shaky cam was a bit of an inappropriate choice. That style is trying to place our audience into the actions of the characters. I guess the idea was to make the audience feel that they were part of the selection and had just as much of a chance to be selected as anyone. Instead, it felt a touch jarring as it then immediately flipped to a nice steady camera for the rest of the movie. Still, that's a clear artistic choice instead of bad film making, so I can respect it. Check it out, I don't think anyone will regret checking this out.

21 Jump Street

4/5

A nice little comedy sandwich. It started really funny, by the middle lost some of its pizzazz, by the end was absolutely hysterical. Channing Tatum forces a few jokes once in a while, but it's forgiven when his natural humor really shines. Jonah Hill is a little bit too much Jonah Hill-y at times, but they're forgiven when he's just the right amount of Jonah Hill. The action is as campy and stupid as you want it to be. I love the parody portrayal of modern high school students. There were two problems I had with this movie. The middle was one problem. It lagged, it got a little boring, the jokes weren't as funny, and it became a little preachy in lessons we had already been taught. The other was the kiss. If you go see it, you'll know which one I mean. But overall, it's really saved with its freakin awesome ending, it's natural humor, and its fun chemistry between two actors I would never have thought of together. Add some fun pokes at hollywood, funny costumes, and a great car chase, it's a solid comedy.

John Carter

1/5

Okay, before it's questioned, YES I know this is based on a book. NO I never read the book. I'm looking at this solely as a movie. And my god, what a TERRIBLE movie. Maybe it was an important, influential book, one of the primary sci-fi stories of its time. But that doesn't mean the story has aged well. And it hasn't. AT ALL. We know there is no water that isn't frozen on Mars. We know that the atmosphere is red (could have at least given us THAT). Moreso, we definitely know the rules of gravity. It doesn't just turn on or off whenever the movie sees fit. It's not like John Carter can decide when it's an inconvenience and when he can deal with it fine. We also know the proportions of Martian gravity to our own. Look at the moon videos. We're not flying around uncontrollably on the moon, are we? Mars is BIGGER than the moon. That means LESS gravitational freedom. Enough of the science. Onto our complete WUSS of a hero. He can't fight at all! Every other scene is Carter getting his ass kicked, punched in the face, thrown to the ground. Why should I support him!? Clearly he can't hold his own! I'd also like to know how this society could possibly allow a princess, a PRINCESS, to discover technological advances made by the opposing side before SCIENTISTS COULD. In addition, in every parallel society, marriages are arranged to expand territory and kingdoms. So the princess whining about wanting to marry who she wishes is a little bit bitchy, isn't it? If it means saving the people who expect you to save them, DO IT. I can go on and on and on about this movie, but honestly, it can be safely put into 3 words. SAVE. YOUR. MONEY.

The Lorax

2.5/5

I wouldn't call it bad. But it wasn't all that fun or impressive. It has a light, fun sense of humor sometimes, but a boring, dragging sense of humor others. Jokes that were either tired, cliche, or too long. Characters really weren't easy to connect with, and that certainly isn't helped when there's really bad voice acting. The story telling is rough. It jumps back and forth and back and forth at strange points, with too much time to really want to follow the story, and with not enough time to really understand why the breaks were taken. The music was for the most part awful, save the last song which was close to bearable. In fact, most of this felt lackluster for a great Dr. Suess book. Moreso, while I agree with the films message, it wasn't overbearing as much as it was spoon feeding. Children are smarter than they look, and this is one of those movies that aimed for an older elementary school audience that didn't need spoon feeding anymore. That became frustrating as the kids in the audience started talking and losing interest. If there was one thing that was impressive, it was a clean, realistic image with all of the heart of Dr. Suess artwork. But still, I'd skip it. The year is looking great for animated movies anyway, we can skip this one.

Act of Valor

1.5/5

I have to give some props to the recognition of the heroic actions of the Navy Seals. But this was an insulting way to go about the recognition of their acts. To have real Navy Seals be put into this cliche, obnoxiously predictable, terribly written script is annoying. The villains were better actors than the heroes. The lines were cutout standard action lines. You can tell from the first 15 minutes who's gonna die. The technology that was supposed to be all real was definitely there. But unfortunately, Hollywood's been doing a decent job. We've seen every form of technology that was used in other movies. The tactics were exactly the same as well. There were no surprises, nothing great to look at. I know that that's partially the point, that the real technology isn't Hollywooded up, but at the same time the technology in the movie was bragged about as if it was something really cool. Instead it was underwhelming. It's a shame. I'd have loved to see real Navy Seals perhaps narrate a story reenacted by Hollywood actors. That would have been a lot of fun, and really interesting to boot.

The Secret World of Arietty

4/5

It loses a point for being not quite as brilliant as other Studio Ghibli movies (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, etc), but it was still a great movie. I loved the detail on water being poured, the bugs that crawled up their bodies, etc. Detail is always something that Stduio Ghibli is known for, and it's certainly not lost here. I love the voice acting, another thing not lost from the Japanese translation. The world created in the context of the world we live in is really fun, and really easy to immerse oneself into. Arrietty herself is spunky, likable, and fun. I love the sense of adventure and wonder she finds in a kitchen, and the same emotions I felt standing along side of her in this vast, enormous world of a single house. This was a decent story, with great characters and amazing detail to the environment around them. Definitely one to recommend.