Film: The Hunger Games

GENRE: Action/Drama
RATING: PG-13 for violent images
RUNTIME: 2 hour and 22 minutes
STARRING: Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone, X-Men: First Class)
Josh Hutcherson (The Kids are All Right) Woody Harrelson (Cheers)
DIRECTOR: Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit)
WRITERS: Gary Ross (Big, Dave), Suzanne Collins (newcomer)
Billy Ray (State of Play, Flightplan)
PLOT: A boy and girl from twelve districts have to fight to the death on live television. Action ensues.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 Shaky camera work to minimalize the uncomfortableness of teen on teen violence worked well. I was a little worried when the shaky cam was used in the introduction of District 12 though. Totally unnecessary and didn’t set the right mood. Luckily the camera stabilized.
2 Jennifer Lawrence does a ‘killer’ job as Katniss Everdeen. Great drama, great commitment to the character, great facial expressions. She does the perfect eye roll when she sees someone else stupidly make a fire in the woods. Perfection.
3 I actually read the book before seeing the film this time. I found the film covered almost everything in the book. I guess having the book’s author help write the screenplay helps. A good pace even though the film runs a tad long.
4 While there were small differences between the film and the book, they drastically changed the character of Haymitch. In the book, he’s a complete bastard who only reluctantly helps Katniss when he’s not yelling at her. In the film, he’s pretty much a Katniss fan and somewhat lovable. Don’t know if it’s the script or Woody Harrelson’s take; I was a little disappointed.
5 The film is called The Hunger Games, yet food doesn’t play as big a deal as it should. The book is full of descriptions of the food; the movie barely touches on it. This is unfortunate but not enough to wreck the movie so you should still check it out.

RECOMMENDATION: See it in the theatres
UPCOMING REVIEWS: The Cabin in the Woods

Film: The Lorax

GENRE: Animation/Family
RATING: PG for mild language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 26 minutes
STARRING: Zac Efron (Hairspray, High School Musical)
Danny DeVito (LA Confidential) Ed Helms (The Office)
DIRECTORS: Chris Renaud (Despicable Me)
Kyle Balda (newcomer)
WRITER: Ken Daurio (Horton Hears a Who, Despicable Me)
PLOT: A boy looks for a tree to win over a girl but first he has to hear a story of how they became extinct in the first place.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 The Suess-ified world of Thneedville is very colourful and lively. The art direction is stellar, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from the folks at Despicable Me.
2 Why did they make this movie into a musical? The songs are noisy and unnecessary. Not one of them is memorable. And why did they give The Once-ler an electric guitar? Are they trying to attract the rock crowd? I'm confused and annoyed. Stick with acoustic at least.
3 Minions punching each other is funny, cuddly bears being thrown as footballs, not as funny. The bears were cute. The fish, however were trying to hard. Did not like their high voices.
4 Why did the villain Mr. O’Hare look like Gene Simmons? Was this intentional? I thought he would be providing the voice but instead it was Rob Riggle (The Hangover). Bizarre. Oh, and Taylor Swift is barely in this film. I thought they would justify her presence with a song about trees or something, but she didn't really sing that much. Maybe she was too busy recording music for the upcoming Hunger Games.
5 I haven't seen the original TV cartoon of The Lorax but I have a feeling it's better and shouldn't have been messed with. The makers of this film should have just stuck with their far superior Horton Hears a Who.

RECOMMENDATION: Wait for TBS
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Hunger Games