Category Archives: Movie Reviews

The Hunger Games – Review

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The Hunger Games Now Playing !!!Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be theUnited States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games.” The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When her sister is chosen by lottery, Katniss steps up to go in her place.

In the futuristic nation of Panem, there is a drastic contrast between the lives of residents living in the Capitol, the hub of government, and those living in the 12 districts that keep the Capitol supplied with food, luxury items, electronics, lumber, textiles and coal — some of the districts are poorer and more bleak than others. As punishment for previous rebellion, every year the Capitol selects a boy and a girl from each of those districts to engage in a fight to the death.

That’s right. It’s a pretty dark scenario — children being forced to train alongside one another before entering an arena where all but one will die as their families, friends and neighbors watch on their television screens at home. It’s perhaps the ultimate reality TV show, more like Survivor on CBS, but different.

The film — and book — follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence(Winter’s Bone), who volunteers for the annual games in place of her younger sister, Prim. A skilled hunter with a bow and arrow, Katniss enters the arena — a highly-controlled landscape where the 24 tributes try to survive not only each other, but dangers created by the head game maker tasked with ensuring an exciting show.

Katniss is joined in the Hunger Games by fellow tribute and District 12 resident Peeta, played by Josh Hutcherson, leaving longtime friend Gale, played by Liam Hemsworth, back home in District 12. Yes, it’s love triangle for teens between the two main characters and possible spawns several sequels in the book series.

So now moviegoers have romance, action, drama and a strong but sensitive protagonist to root for — a combination that makes The Hunger Games shine much more brightly than another young adult book-to-movie series adaptation, The Twilight Saga.

Also of mention are the remaining cast members — Woody Harrelson as the former games victor turned drunken mentor Haymitch; Stanley Tucci as the colorful games announcer Caesar Flickermam; Donald Sutherland as the controlling and sinister President Snow; and Elizabeth Banks as Katniss’ and Peeta’s ever-polite escort Effie Trinket.

The visual effects of the movie is somewhat good, but it looks like it was related to the book. The dome shape arena where everything was taken place, everything was in a control environment. It looks Suzanne Collins worked with the screen writer to get the visual scene of what she would like to see on the screen.

Other special effects, where the characters were on fire didn’t seem real enough, more like a B movie, low budget movie, with great expectations on the film, it made a lot of money this weekend.  Will the sequel be better?  It will be in the future.

I was very pleased with the story, if someone disagreed with story due to the violence in the movie; it carries the plot and make the scene more interesting to watch. What’s a movie without violence – it would be a boring and people will leave. This movie got my attention, the story was interesting and it kept me on the edge of my seat. The Hunger Games will only leave you hungry for the next installment.

When actors get the parts, they have to audition and to get the part, they have to read the story. Since Jennifer Lawrence was a big fan of the book and when she audition for the director, executive producers and casting director. She really got their attention when she nailed a scene with her acting partner which was Willow Sheilds.

Another interesting fact was the make-up department which was led by Ve Neil, she was judge on the popular show called Face Off on the Syfy network. She design and create make-up effects for the movies.  In one scene of the movie, when Peeta, Josh Hutcherson, was painting a log on his arm, it was her creation. Another would be when Peeta was camouflage on the rocks near the river, for his other partner crime was killing contestants to get ahead of the game. Katniss Everdeen saw blood on the rocks and started to follow it, but when the blood stop near a rock and the eyes open near the rocks and it freak Katniss.

Breaking Dawn part 1: Bite the Bride

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Breaking Dawn will become the biggest blockbuster movie since Titanic. It’s an epic love story between a Vampire and Werewolf, Edward and Jacob, who will get Bella Swan. In other words, who will keep her warm? Well, Vampires are dead and cold, while the werewolf is always warm. She can’t decide?

Bella and Edward, plus those they love, must deal with the chain of consequences brought on by a marriage, honeymoon, and the tumultuous birth of a child which brings an unforeseen and shocking development for Jacob Black.

With only four books in Stephenie Meyer’s chart-busting series (as opposed to the seven Harry Potters), the people behind the “Twilight” movies can be forgiven for stretching out the screen experience for as long as possible. The movie is two hours long and is much better than, two hours and 30 minutes. Is there an intermission I must pee?! The movie is approximately two hours.

(“Breaking Dawn” 2 hits next November.) And, after all, so much does happen in this movie, which takes the arc of human experience — birth and death and everything in between — and works it up into a rich, sudsy lather. In the past, Bella (played with increasing confidence by Kristen Stewart) has been almost eclipsed by Edward (Robert Pattinson),  his bloodsucking brood and their battles. Here, though, she returns as the emotional and psychological cornerstone in a series in which the center of gravity has shifted from frenzied action and reaction to love.

When part two comes out next November 2012 can vampire’s age? Something may be different. If you read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga books, it’s like a mini-series franchise movie, maybe in the future deluxe DVD’s set of the movie. Don’t buy it now, just wait until it comes out in a set, buying it individual may be good, it’s up to you.

Did you know they had to re-edit some scenes? It was the love making scenes? It got pretty hot and someone dropped the boom mike on Kristen Steward’s head. Sorry. I got excited.

And I couldn’t find the Ellen DeGeneres in the movie. I know, it was a parody she spoofed on the show. However, there was a bathroom scene with Bella and Edward in it.

Be sure stay after the movie when the credit rolled, there’s a surprised at the end.

Overall it was a must go movie of the week. It was fantastic to watch. The visual and the cinematography of the movie are splendid to watch.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

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I couldn’t believe it, I actually like the new movie “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” despite all the rumors it’s not a reboot of the original movie “The Planet of the Apes” actually it’s a prequel and set in current times. Could it spawn sequels if it does well?  And the new generation of the world becomes the Planet of the Apes in the future. What would our president would look like? Scary I don’t want to know. It all depends on ticket sales.

Can “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” out sold the number of tickets such as “Transformers: The Dark of the Moon” which made millions in the box office despite bad reviews and still people went out and saw it? People don’t care about the reviews. People wanted to see a good action movie and something different.

The CGI of the apes was so believable it came out to me and startle me. My popcorn bucket and my popcorn flew up in the air, and the bucket landed on top of my girlfriend. It had butter too. And it had hot sauce. And it had pickle juice. It tasted great so did my date too.

James Franco graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996 and went on to attend UCLA majored in English, to overcome his shyness. He got into acting while studying there, which much to his parent’s dismay. He left after one year. Fifteen months of intensive study at Robert Carnegie’s Playhouse West, James began actively pursuing his dream of finding work as an actor in Hollywood. In that short time, he landed himself a starring role on “Freaks and Geeks” (1999) and he started to get in movies.  It wasn’t until the TNT made-for-television movie, James Dean (2001) (TV) that James rose to fan-magazine fame and got to show off his talent. Since then, he has been working non-stop. After losing the lead role to Tobey Maguire, James settled for the part of “Harry Osborne,” Spider-Man’s best friend in the summer 2002 major hit Spider-Man (2002). He returned to the Osborne role for the next two films in the trilogy. His best performance was in “127 hours” in which he was nominated for an Oscar.

Andy Serkis 

His father was a doctor in Iraq. His mother taught handicapped children. In 1985, Serkis began his professional acting career at the Duke’s Playhouse in Lancaster, where he was given an Equity card and performed in fourteen plays one after another. In 1989, he appeared in a stage production of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, so beginning his long association with the Royal Exchange Theater, Manchester, where he would return many times to appear in ‘She Stoops to Conquer’. 1990s Serkis began to make his mark on the London stage, appearing at the Royal Court Theatre as the Fool in ‘King Lear’, making his interpretation of the Fool as the woman who Lear, a widower, could relate to – a man, in drag, as a Victorian musician. In 1987, Serkis made his debut on television, and he acted in several major British TV miniseries throughout the 1990s.

In 1999, Andy Serkis landed the prize role of Gollum in Peter Jackson’s epic film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ He spent four years on the part and received awards and nominations for his performance as Gollum. A computer generated character in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) which won 11 Oscars. Gollum was the collaborative team’s effort around Serkis’s work in performance capture – an art form based on CGI-assisted acting.

He then work in King Kong (2005) which won him a Toronto Film Critics Association Award (2005) for his unprecedented work helping to realize the main character in King Kong, and a Visual Effects Society Award (2006) for Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture.

Serkis continued with traditional acting in several leading and supporting roles, such as his appearances as Richard Kneeland opposite Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30 (2004). He was doing the thriller dance with Jennifer Garner and he was a good dancer.

Freida Pinto

Freida’s parents are from Mangalore, a coastal town in southernIndia. Her father is a banker, while her mother is the principal of a High School. Her sister, Sharon, is a producer with the Indian news channel, NDTV.  She was trained in some forms of Indian classical dance as well as Salsa. She auditioned for the part of Bond Girl Camille in Quantum of Solace (2008), but lost out the role to Olga Kurylenko. She was in a relationship with Dev Patel, having met on the set of Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Since her acting was not going that strong, she decided to go with her back-up plan, which was Interior Design. It is always nice to have a back-up plan in Hollywood. Then suddenly she got the lead role in the movie “Rise of the Planet of The Apes” for Freida she was ecstatic her acting career is back in swing. She was considered to replace Emma Stone in Sucker Punch (2011), but lost out to Jamie Chung.

The movie starts out in a strong as we meet genetic researcher James Franco, who is experimenting with a drug that may help victims of Alzheimer’s Disease—like his own father, nicely played by John Lithgow. So if we inject Alzheimer’s hormone into animals it can help the apes become smarter and stronger. So if we inject Alzheimer’s hormone into older people will they make them smarter, stronger and live longer? Ultimately, Franco rescues a baby chimpanzee from the lab and raises it as a member of his family, but veterinarian Freida Pinto warns him that Caesar won’t be a playful young chimp very long. This is an eventuality Franco isn’t willing to face, but moviegoers will immediately recognize as – foreshadowing of dark events to come. In other words, the movie was great to watch.

I give this movie 3 bananas out of 4.

Transformer: Any more sequels

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Transformer 3: The Dark of the Moon had succeeded it’s goal to reach 35 million dollars on sale, on it’s first day. It was good. The battle sequence is massive destruction to the city of Chicago. But why that city? Is it obvious the city has it a bad reputation once before with violence and gangs? I know it has beautiful landmark of buildings. They could have picked a smaller city, and the city can get it’s recognition? I even saw Oprah Winfrey running away from the Transformers.

The story is Sam Witwicky is out of a job, but his car has a job working for the government and his beautiful hot girl friend Carly has a job working at a car museum. He finally get’s a job working for his girlfriend as a mail room clerk.

Before the moon landing in 1969, the story was there was some interference in the galaxy, some inter-galactic massive alien out there that crashed onto the dark side of the moon. Many people believe that the man landing on the moon was a hoax, but it could be a government cover up of the real alien life out there? We still don’t know until this date. Secrete mission on the Space Shuttle, yeah right putting up new satellite for communications, actually trying to look for aliens life forms on other planets besides Mars.

An alien autobot was found on the moon it crashed. It was accidental turned on and came to earth and has the voice of Leonard Nimoy from Star Trek.

Sam Wickity and his girl friend Carly, the hot one and I am grooling on my keyboard as I type this review, knows what is going on and wanted to stop the invasion of other autobots coming to earth. He must save the world again and stop the ending of the world.  It has been predicted so many times.

The visual directions are done perfectly well by movie directorMichaelBayand his team of visual animators. The visual effects were fantastic even in 3D too. This movie will get nominated for an Oscar in the technical field.

The stunt doubles for the action sequence should be nominated as best stunts work in a movie. Please Oscars have a category for best stunt work in a movie.

The battle scenes on the big screen were fantastic to watch, and some autobot took my popcorn.

I can’t even describe the visual aspect of Transformer 3: The dark side of the Moon. It is jam pack with action in every frame. It will keep you on the edge of your seat for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Some patrons may like it or not. Due to extensive of battle scenes that reminds us of war in the Middle East.

Green Lantern off with a flying start

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If you are a sifi and a comic book fan, then Green Lantern is your thing, this movie packs a punch of CGI in this film, it is no comparison to the other sifi fans out there.

Ryan Reynolds, plays Hal and Green Latern, the disguise is obvious, we can tell he is the Green Lantern. His love interest is Blake lively plays Carol Ferris. She plays an army pilot and so does Hal. The plot is a talented yet arrogant test pilot, is the chosen recipient of a mysterious green ring that grants him both superhuman powers and entry into an elite corps of intergalactic warriors. This group is charged with saving the universe from the evil Parallax.

Blake Lively stars in hit CW TV series in “Gossip Girl.” Her big break was the role of Bridget in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005). For the Green Lantern, she was not given the part of Carol Ferris. She had to audition for the part. The other actress who auditions for the role was Jennifer Garner, if she had audition, for Wonder Woman it will be great for her and her career. When would “Wonder Woman” come to the big screen or small screen, we will never know?  We need some female superhero roles. Blake has a half-sister by the name of Robin Lively, who appeared on “Doogie Howser, M.D.” and “Teen Witch.” Blake was the class president at Burbank High.  She sang in her high school choir and born in Tarzana,California.  Blake has been sighted with Leonardo DiCaprio.  She was ranked the most beautiful women in Maxim Magazine in 2008 and 2010.

Ryan Reynolds began is acting in  1991-93, Ryan appeared in “Fifteen” (1990) (aka “Fifteen”). A Nickleodeon series taped inFloridawith many other Canadian actors. After the series ended, he returned toVancouverwhere he played in a series of forgettable TV movies. He did small roles in Glenn Close’s Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story(1995) (TV) and CBS’s update of In Cold Blood (1996) (TV). However, his run of luck had led him to decide to quit acting. In 1997, he landed the role of Berg in “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place” (1998). On an episode of “The Outer Limits” (1995). He played a ghost trapped in a haunted house. Ironically, in The Amityville Horror (2005), he played a living man trapped in a haunted house. He was offered the role of “Xander” in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997).

Since he had to do a lot of flying in The Green Lantern he had a fear of flying since he once went skydiving and parachute failed to open at the first attempt. He landed in the Ocean and got rescued.

The movie is not that bad, since The Green Lantern is playing in a theater near you, it’s worth seeing this movie. If people say it’s a bad movie, they haven’t seen it, or either they walked out in the middle of the movie and expected something else. It is a good movie if you are a sifi and comic book fan, if not, the hotdog wiener wasn’t on the menu. I was hungry.