Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Hunger Games








What would you do for someone you love?  There is no greater form of love than giving your life for someone else.  Sacrifice is often talked about, but how many have ever faced death willingly?

North America toppled after severe war, drought and famine.  She has been rebuilt into one country known as Panem.  There are 12 districts and in each district a male and female's name is chosen randomly in an annual hunger games event.  It is the 74th annual Hunger Games and Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields) is terrified at the thought of her name being chosen to compete. 


Every time a citizen wants food, the government will provide for them on one condition, their name gets added to the list of people chosen for the hunger games.  Each time someone gets food, their name gets added again.  Primrose has never taken much food so the odds of her name being picked for the games are very small.
In the games, a total of 24 participants are selected to fight to the death.  It is a game of survival and only one male or female can win.  As the announcer goes over to the jar full of names tension is rising, she opens the piece of paper and says, "Primrose Everdeen."  There is silence as Primrose slowly walks towards the stage, the guards surround her and all of a sudden her sister Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) shouts, "I volunteer!"

Katniss makes her way to the stage and a male is selected, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).  Mellark has a crush on Katniss since 'forever' so how will he compete to the death against his childhood love?  Once Katniss learns of Mellark's admiration she is immediately torn between him and Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), her first love.  The chances of either of them winning are slim since district 12 has only won the hunger games once. 

Director, Gary Ross, delivered the sense of fear, hope and love to the audience using visual effects such as a bleak background while filming district 12 then changing into colorful costumes and hair as Katniss and Peeta made their way into the Capitol city.  I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, routing for Katniss.  I loved that it kept you guessing the whole way through to the end, even the end was surprising.  I throughly enjoyed the suspenseful nature of the film as well as the eccentric costumes.  It is hard to pick apart this movie since every actor, even the villians, did an amazing job.  Go see The Hunger Games you will be throughly entertained!


Suspenseful

Rated: PG-13

142 minutes

Monday, March 19, 2012

Jump Street 21



High school is the best four years of your life.  A phrase so commonly used by the people who were responsible for singling out the nerds, the band geeks, the goths and the general outcasts leaving the genetically gifted ruling the halls.

So many people hate high school. Why? Because it is in high school where you are either sentenced an aristocrat or a measly peasant.  The jocks and cheerleaders hurl insults and laugh at those beneath their social ladder.  And the nerds gather together brainstorming over the piece of legislation they will one day enact to "pay" back the people who were dumb enough to make fun of them.

In a time where "The Real Slim Shady" was the theme song of every teenage boy Eminem want-a-be and paroxide bottles were sold out in pharmacies across the country was an insecure boy named Schmidt (Jonah Hill) desperate for the approval of his peers.

 Jenko (Channing Tatum) is the stereotypical jock.  He lives for high school, but to his demise high school is a finite institution, eventually it ends.  He tries to pick up the pieces and move on as a cadet in the police academy.  There he meets the man who he constantly made fun of in high school.  Jenko is forced to ask Schmidt, his counter part, to be his friend due to Jenko's highly inadaquate test scores.  And so it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


Together Jenko and Schmidt graduate from the academy leaving them with the job only given to new guys, park patrol.  But the story makes a surprising twist when Jenko and Schmidt get themselves thrown off park duty and tossed into Jump Street 21

The movie started out hilarious.  I have not laughed at a movie that hard in a long time, however as the movie progressed it became increasingly more vulgar.  The constant obscene sexual references as well as the constant use of the F-word was extremely distracting.  It took away from the humor and I walked out disappointed that the rest of the movie was disgusting instead of funny. 


Sophmoric & gruesome

Rated: R

109 minutes

Monday, March 5, 2012