Women Who Kick Ass And Chew Bubblegum. And They're All Out Of Gum

Well, now that the old blogs have been uploaded to my new blog, let's get into the new stuff. If you're new, welcome! If not, still welcome!

Now, I have a few films I've been wanting to review but due to the amount I have, and the lack of time I've had to make new stuff, what I'm going to do is combine a few of them into one blog and give shorter reviews. I don't really like doing this, since it seems unfair to give some movies a short overview while others get a whole blog but then, Green Lantern got a two-parter and I'm eventually planning to turn this into a vlog series so I can't be fair to everything. Plus, with The Avengers drawing ever closer, plus a few movies on hand to help me reach my goal of fifty, I really have to get a move on.

So, without further adieu, let's get into the movies I've seen recently (well, going back to March anyway, the first movie reviewed today I saw right after The Descendants): One For The Money, The Hunger Games, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Hostel Part 3 (the latter two will be covered in my next blog).

-One For The Money

Stephanie Plum (Katherine Heigl) is out of work and nearly plum out of luck. She decides to try her hand at being a bounty hunter, after seeing her cousin Vinnie (Patrick Fishler), a bail bondsman, about work. She decides to pursue the highest pay-off, Joe Morelli (Jason O'Mara), who also happens to be a man from her past.

Despite only having read six books in the series, I really like the Stephanie Plum novels. At this point, Janet Evanovich has written about 18 of them, along with four side novels and a spin-off series. I read the first book (sharing the same title as the movie) several years ago, and was waiting for someone to make a movie out of it, so I was very excited to finally see the finished product. And... it's a good movie. Not fantastic, but considering all the hatred, I'm definitely going to defend this film.

I'm not a huge Katherine Heigl fan (actually, this and Knocked Up are the only two movies I can stand her in) but this was actually a nice change of pace. While not my ideal choice for Stephanie, we could have had worse (if Blake Lively had been involved, I'd have written this whole thing off). Maybe it was just dying her hair that made me not dislike her as much, as I usually find Katherine smug, arrogant and hypocritical (you can't say Knocked Up is sexist when you go on to star in The Ugly Truth, you just can't). At any rate, she turns in a good performance, though my favourite of the movie goes to Daniel Sunjata as Ranger, who is both cool and snarky. He serves as a quasi-mentor to Stephanie and their scenes together are the best.

The film is largely faithful to the original book, though I honestly can't think of any major changes between the two. Despite that, and being as funny as the book in the same places, there's just something lacking. I can't put my finger on it but it just doesn't inspire greatness, despite how great the book is. I mean, it is a good film, no question, I enjoyed it and laughed at all the right places, and there's nothing particularly “bad” per se, but there's just something it's missing and I honestly can't figure out what.

Still, I say you should give it a chance, even though with the abysmal reviews and apparent flopping at the box office, it'll most likely need a reboot since there's no chance of a sequel now. A pity, really. Maybe if it became a TV series, with three episodes covering one book, and they could be done as 12-episode seasons. Or done like Sherlock, though filmed back-to-back.

At any rate, it's 3/5 from me.

-The Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) lives in District 12, the poorest of the districts in Panem, a nation born out of a post-apocalyptic North America. Every year, each district must send a boy and girl to the Capitol to participate in the Hunger Games, in which the children must kill each other until one remains. To prevent her sister, Prim (Willow Shields) from being in the games after her name was pulled from the “reaping”, Katniss volunteers herself. Along with male tribute, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), she must find a way of surviving the games and showing the Capitol they can't control everybody.

To be honest, I'm not sure I even needed to explain the plot. The books and film are a worldwide phenomenon, possibly (and hopefully) outdoing Twilight in sales and acclaim. If anyone hasn't read it, my guess is they have friends bugging them to do so (for the record, at the time of seeing the movie, I had only read the first book. As of writing this blog, I've just started the third). There will be no stopping this juggernaut, not with sequel talk already in gear.

I haven't come across a single person who has seen it and given it a negative review or rating. And I won't be doing that either. Compared to the book, much like One For The Money, it remains faithful with slight tweaking (one change could potentially be a bad thing, though, we'll have to see how Catching Fire handles it). Heck, one thing I need to praise the movie for, it DOWNPLAYS the romantic angle! How often does a big movie do that? Usually you have some Hollywood weasel saying “I gotta have more romance! Chicks dig that crap!” and that's why Twilight got the greenlight, because that's all it is. But that's neither here or there.

The two leads have great chemistry with each other, and prove to be more than capable in their roles. Jennifer plays Katniss with the right combination of both strength and vulnerability. She's a capable warrior, but rather than close herself off from her emotions like a poorly written action character would, she keeps them in check (mostly) and rarely, if ever, lets her emotions overtake her head. That said, she does show warmth and compassion (without trying to spoil too much, there's her relationship with Rue) all without sacrificing any other qualities that would make her a less credible character.

Likewise, Josh plays Peeta as confident without being smug, and stoic throughout most of the movie, which is true to the book. I'm probably a bigger fan of the film version than I am the book version, mostly based on how Josh portrays him, even though I don't think negatively of the book version.

Speaking of characters, perhaps what I like best of the film is that my favourite characters are portrayed wonderfully. While Cinna doesn't get much screen time, Lenny Kravitz did great for someone who hasn't done a lot of acting before. He doesn't waste his very few scenes and he makes the character memorable.

But the crown for best performance, in my humble opinion, must go to Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. The drunk and snarky mentor to the two leads, he's just a hoot. Even when he's not being funny, he's just amazing. But then, with most of the characters Woody has played being somewhat lighthearted and comedic (Friends With Benefits, Cheers), it's nice to see him play someone darkly comedic but mostly serious. While it doesn't seem feasible, I'd support a Haymitch spin-off.

Some have complained about the use of shaky-cam and while it's a little off-putting, it's not in wide use, so I can live with it. The action scenes themselves are fast paced and kind of brutal. I mean, we are dealing with children here, so it's effective.

My favourite scene (same with the book) is when Katniss unleashes a nest of “trackerjackers” (genetically modified wasps, in essence) onto her opponents, by cutting the branch. Even though I already knew the outcome, the scene and the musical score along with it just gave it an intensity.

If I have one complaint (and I do), it is one change I disapprove of. The character of Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi) is sympathetic in the book, for what little time we focus on him for, but in the movie, he seems a little harsh, even though there's been no real change in dialogue. He pays respect to Katniss for something I won't spoil, but in the movie, he's almost bitter about it. I mean, yes, I can understand the circumstances but why not leave him be based on the book's version?

I could go on, but this blog is large enough already. But other things to note: the Capitol is much more colourful than I ever imagined, Toby Jones and Wes Bentley make good use of their limited screen time, Stanley Tucci and Elizabeth Banks are damn near unrecognizable (but that's a plus, because it allows them to have fun and try something new) and Donald Sutherland.... well, he's Donald Sutherland. And he needs leading man roles again. Make it so!

This gets a 3.5/5 from me, much like the book.

Well, two down... several more to go. Next time, the last two films I mentioned will be discussed.