The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

"If we burn, you burn with us"

It's the most magical time of the year... again. No I'm not talking about Christmas yet. It's November; which means a brand new installment in 'The Hunger Games' trilogy! Actually, the book series is a trilogy, the film series however somehow miraculously managed to become a quadrilogy. Along with the hype the series has gained and the fact that I managed to actually read them all, I was wholeheartedly, completely, 100%, without a shadow of doubt... nervous about the release of this film. Did seeing this movie continue to nurture my love for the dystopian series, or did Mockingjay Part 1 diminish the fire in my heart?

'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1' is the third installment of the story centred around Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence); the girl on fire. So far we have seen Katniss survive the 74th and 75th Hunger Games and now it's time to see what happens as a result of her defiance against the Capitol. Katniss has been rescued and brought to District 13, previously thought to have been destroyed in a past rebellion against the Capitol. She must now live alongside them with the surviving inhabitants of the newly destroyed District 12. Due to the capture of Peeta (Josh Hutchinson), Katniss is reluctant to trust anyone, particularly District 13's President, Alma Coin (Julianne Moore). After refusing to play the Mockingjay, President Coin's idea of the symbol of the rebellion, Katniss is sent to see the burning remains of her former district. This trip, along with TV broadcast showing Peeta alive and being used as the Capitol's symbol against the rebellion, convinces Katniss that she must become the beacon of hope for the rebelling districts of Panem in the fight against the Capitol.

Having read and loved the books and the previous two movies, I was very worried about how this book would translate onto the big screen. The fact that this book has been split into two films had me convinced that I was going into a car crash of a movie. However, the first half of this story held its own and I found my love for the series growing once again. In all honesty, I think the story could have been kept as one long film rather than this drawn out hell I am experiencing waiting for the conclusion (even though I do already know mostly what is going to happen) but I also understand that this golden chicken of a series simply can't stop laying these golden eggs quite yet. The bigger budget means even better production than we saw in 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' with some truly breath-taking scenes of the rebellion. These scenes, along with the quality fitting score you would expect from this brilliant series, make this installment as epic as the previous two. The acting gets better and better with each film. Jennifer Lawrence has built upon the character, even though Katniss has mostly fallen to pieces since the events of the previous film. Her delivery of the line, "If we burn, you burn with us" has to be a personal highlight. Another highlight is the brief moment we learn that J-Law can also sing and quite well too. Hats off to all the equally great actors, in particular Julianne Moore who plays the part of President Coin better than I could have imagined. Also Elizabeth Banks gives another outstanding performance as my favourite Hunger Games character Effy Trinket. So all in all another great installment in this phenomenal series but it does lose a few points for the pace and plot, largely due to being torn in two for monetary gain.

 

8.5/10 for 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1' placing it number 7 of 64 on my 2014 league table. Great film but didn't quite get to me as much as 'Catching Fire'.

 

Interstellar

'Interstellar' was the next film to take my fancy. After reading about this movie online a couple of months ago, and after the amazingness that was 'Gravity', I was very much looking forward to getting lost in space once again. Did it live up to my expectations? 

 

'Interstellar' is an American science fiction film starring Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway. Blight has occurred on planet Earth causing many of our crops to die out. The only crop currently surviving is corn which seems to be on its way out shortly. Widowed Cooper, a former NASA pilot, now runs a family farm presumably in the south of the United States with his father-in-law, son, and 10-year-old daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy - Breaking Dawn Part 2). Cooper's daughter Murphy believes her room is being haunted by a ghost seemingly trying to communicate to her via Morse code. After a particularly dusty storm, Murphy discovered a pattern in the dust on her bedroom floor. Cooper realises that gravity has part to play and works out that this code is actually a set of coordinates. These coordinates lead Cooper, and his stowaway daughter, to a secret NASA headquarters run by Professor Brand (Caine). It turns out that a wormhole has been created by 'Them' situated just off the rings of Saturn. The wormhole can be used to travel through the universe to a very distant galaxy with multiple Earth-like planets that are possibly capable of sustaining human life. Cooper must make the decision to leave his family behind in search of a new home to solve the ever growing problem on Earth and save mankind. Much to his daughters despair, Cooper sets off on this mission with no idea of if/when he will return. Along with Professor Brand's daughter Amelia (Hathaway), he must travel through the wormhole and find a new home before it's too late.

 

So I went into the movie theatre rather naively looking for a film to best my favourite film of all time 'Gravity'. Instead what I found was 3 hours of mostly weirdness held together by a plot more similar to the 1997 film 'Contact'. The movie is very much one of two halves. The first being the depressing and lifeless world our planet has become due to the dusty blight. Humans are barely surviving with a rather bleak future. As for the second half, it focuses more on the weirdness of this film. The weirdness being the wormhole and how it got there, massive waves on a planet covered in water and a hard to grasp fifth dimension theory. For all of its efforts this film never quite reaches the emotion or epic scenes like those in 'Gravity'. Also this films score is all over the place where with 'Gravity' it could not be faulted. Anyway I'll stop comparing the two now as I feel my need for another believable, realistic, emotion-packed space adventure is clouding my judgment a touch! 'Interstellar' kept up the pace and didn't drag as much as it could have with its lengthy duration. The acting ability in this film was also one of two halves. I didn't feel like Matthew McConaughey was at his best, not like how we saw him earlier in the year in the amazing 'Dallas Buyers Club'. To go with that Anne Hathaway could have been replaced by a number of better actors. However, hats off to Mackenzie Foy and Jessica Chastain who shine bright as a star in the role of the younger and older incarnation of Murphy. This character and the actors playing her provide pretty much all of the much needed emotion in this film. The production of the film was great with some epic shots of outer space and some equally amazing shots of the other worlds within the alternative galaxy. The bad points are the mish-mash, ill-fitting score and the zero gravity shots. I just felt that they weren't as fluid as in other space films I have seen.

 

So it's a 7.5/10 for 'Interstellar' placing it at number 25 of 63 so far on the league table. Not bad but not quite 'Gravity'!

 

Fury



To finish our two film Saturday afternoon, Mr B and I went to see 'Fury'. Not my usual type of film but did it convert me...

'Fury' is an American war film set during World War II. It's 1945; allies are making their final push through Nazi Germany. The film follows Norman, an army typist thrown into the battlefield to take over as assistant driver/gunner on board the tank known as 'Fury'. This tank is commanded by 'Wardaddy' (played by Brad Pitt) and his fellow band of soldiers. Norman has never seen the inside of tank let alone driven one. As the film progresses you see how little Norman knows about war on the front line, but with no time to lose he must learn as the tank advances into the final stage of this war.

 

Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) really acts his ass off in the role of Norman. This is easily the best acting we have seen from this young future megastar. Brad Pitt is solid as usual, although I can't help never being that impressed by him. The rest of the crew provide the vulgar and humorous side of how these men could have been. Shia LaBeouf could have been a cardboard cut-out for most of this film. He had a couple of glassy-eyed moments but other than that we could have easily lost him. The plot of the film isn't necessary anything amazing but that could just be my minor disinterest of war films. Also I didn't get the feeling that these men were close like family which is what I'm sure was intended. There are some great shots, superb explosions and laser-like shooting scenes which, with the acting of most of the cast, make this film a worthy watch.

 

 

Nightcrawler

Off we went to Milton Keynes on Saturday to catch up on some much needed movie time. To start our two film Saturday afternoon we decided to see what 'Nightcrawler' had to offer.

'Nightcrawler' is an American action thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko, The Good Girl - we all know who I'm on about right!?) who plays the dark and devious Lou Bloom. Lou is a young determined criminal trying his best to land a legitimate job however he can. Following a night of thieving, Lou accidently stumbles across a car crash being filmed by a local amateur film crew. After hearing how much cash can be made in this line of work, he trades a recently stolen bicycle for a camcorder and police radio and decides to go on the hunt for a crime scene worthy of filming. A few botched attempts later, Lou captures some fairly graphic scenes and heads to the local TV station to see what his footage is worth. Here he meets Nina, the hard faced, quick talking news director played by Rene Russo (Lethal Weapon 3+4, Thor) who sees potential in him and encourages him to pursue a filming career. As Lou continues trying to find more and more shocking, graphically upsetting scenes in this intrusive line of work, things get darker and more dangerous leading to an explosive final scene.

Wow, what a film! Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic in the role of Lou. It took me a while to get used to the extreme quirkiness of the character but once I got it, it was a thrill to watch. You won't finish this movie liking Lou but there is a touch of admiration for his hard working, never quitting, determined character. The rest of the cast are almost as interesting to watch especially Rene Russo as Nina. Such believable characters in this film are part of what holds it all together. The other part is the story itself. The tension is held for almost the entire film with the final scene grabbing 100% of my attention during the whole affair. Dazzling filming, brilliant acting and explosive scenes make it hard to fault this film. However, it did start off slow and the character of Lou was hard to get into and ultimately unlikable so there are points lost there. That being said, I highly recommend seeing this film.

8/10 for 'Nightcrawler' placing it at number 17 just below the equally awesome 'Lego Movie'.

The Equalizer

Wednesday night and what better way to spend it than with a packed lunch and an action type thriller film. This evening we went to see what 'The Equalizer' was all about...

'The Equalizer' ('The Equaliser' if you want it the British way) is an American Thriller film based on the TV series of the same name. Denzel Washington takes on the role of Robert McCall, a retired government agent currently working in a homeware/hardware store. Since working in the store McCall has befriended and is rather popular amongst his fellow colleagues. He is helping one particular colleague, Ralphie, as he tries to train himself up to become a security guard at the store. Robert seems to be a perfectly normal old guy working in a hardware store but behind the scenes he is a meticulous planner capable of serving justice to wronged innocent people. Robert spends his evenings reading in a café close to where he lives. He is on a mission to complete the '100 books to read before you die' as homage to his late wife who was recently trying the feat. Over time Robert has grown to know some of the customers, in particular a young Russian prostitute named Alina. She is being mistreated by her pimp and after one near fatal incident Robert decides to ditch the vow he had made to his wife and seek vengeance on behalf of Alina. As Robert gets deeper and deeper into the web of criminals how far will he go to 'Equalize' the score?

 

Again I'm not a huge fan of action thriller, they either grab my attention and hold it, or I end up sleeping through the second half. This film had me hooked from the first action scene. Washington was sensational as Robert. He held my attention as he gave me genuine belief in this Robin Hood type guy. The film was well paced with just enough content and no long drawn out fight scenes. Speaking of fight scenes, good god the scenes in this were incredible, something I'm not usually a fan of. My only criticism with this film would be the lack of back story. It is briefly brushed over here and there but it is so few and far between. I would have liked a scene, possibly a flashback, looking into what Robert was like in the past. Shout out to Chloë Grace Moretz who played Alina so well. It's hard to make you root for a prostitute usually but I felt for this girl and found her character very likeable. Again though it's a shame we didn't see much of her back story. Having said all of this negative about back stories, I did love this film and will definitely watch it again in the future.

 

7.5/10 for 'The Equalizer' which places it at number 22 currently on the 2014 League Table placing it just below '22 Jump Street'. It could easily have earned a higher spot on the league, if only the main character's back story had been explored in more depth. Possibly in the potential sequel? Go see this if you liked Taken, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit or The Sweeney.

 

  

Top 20 Of All Time

20

Ghost

Mini review to come!

19

 Beaches

 Mini review to come!

18

 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Mini review to come!

17 

 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Mini review to come!

 

16

Dumb & Dumber

Mini review to come!

 

15

The Beach

Mini review to follow!

14
Superbad

Mini review to follow!

 

 

13
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Mini review to follow!

 

 

12

Little Miss Sunshine

Mini review to follow!

 

 

11
 The Matrix

Mini review to follow!

 

10
The Green Mile

Mini review to follow!

9
 Edward Scissorhands

Mini review to follow!

 

 

8
Titanic

Mini review to follow!
  

7  

The Shawshank Redemption 

Mini review to follow!

 

 

6

Inception

Mini review to follow!

 

5
 Life of Pi 

 Mini review to follow!

 

4
12 Years a Slave

Mini review to follow!

3

The Magdalene Sisters

Mini review to follow!

 

2

Empire of the Sun 

Mini review to follow!

 

1

Gravity

Mini review to follow!

The Judge

To kick off our two-film Saturday, we decided to check out what 'The Judge' had to offer. Personally, I usually find this type of film dreary and drawn out (see August: Osage County), but I was willing to give it a shot based on what I had heard.

'The Judge' is an American drama starring Robert Downey Jr. (The Iron Man films) and Robert Duvall (Gone in 60 Seconds, Jack Reacher, the list goes on!). It tells the story of Hank Palmer (Downey Jr.), a lawyer who is considered to be one of the best in Chicago, who must leave it all behind and travel back to Indiana to attend his mother’s funeral. Once there, he meets up with his two brothers, Dale (Jeremy Strong) and Glen (Vincent D'Onofrio), his high school sweetheart Samantha (Vera Farmiga), and finally his dad (Duvall). After the funeral, as Hanks stay is coming to an end, he stumbles upon his dad's old car. It seems to have been in some kind of accident and even worse there is blood in the grill. Hank decides to stick around to see what will come of this situation. With tensions already high amongst this family due to events of the past (one in particular but I won't spoil it); this new event blows the family apart. As the story unravels you learn more about why this family is so tense, while Hank learns that his dad needs him for more than just legal support.  

 

Unexpectedly, I rather enjoyed this film. The story starts off quite shaky and I wasn't quite sure that I was going to be able to sit through the whole thing. However, as the story unravelled, I found myself hooked and truly caring about what was going to the happen to Hanks father. The film goes to depths I never could have imagined from seeing the trailer. Finally we have a believable family situation with back stories that support the angst you see in the present day. The acting was of course flawless with the two main characters stealing the show. Also, it was lovely to see a great performance from Emma Tremblay who plays Hank's daughter. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing and even shed a tear or two here and there.

 

8.5/10 for 'The Judge', placing it at number 11 in My 2014 League Table, just outside the current top 10.