The Hunger Games

It's like The Truman Show meets Surviving the Game and they have a baby, and those babies must eliminate each other in front of a live audience a la The Running Man. This film has everything and I do mean everything. Action, romance, Intense moments, kids killing kids for sport, and engineered elements. I hope to not SPOILER anything, but I am assuming everyone has read the book or at least paid 10% of their attention to one percent of all the TV and Magazine ads that have littered our line of sight for the past 9 months. If so, you know the  basic premise behind The Hunger Games.  I did not read the books. Many of you know it is due to the fact that I can't won't read. I also feel that makes me the largest hypocrite known to man. I Love Love Love to write and expect people to read my words and enjoy them for the entertainment they are here to supply, however, if you were to ask me read anything longer than a magazine article I may very well de-friend you. The world Suzanne Collins created is very similar to the many world's of Tim Burton. The colors, the outfits, the strangeness. It is all so beautifully creepy, and Director Gary Ross should be extremely proud of himself. He gave us a movie with such a content that it is quite appalling, yet he did it in such a classy way. I commend him. His direction overall is superb. The story and the acting on the other hand is indescribable. Let me take a minute to describe it. Imagine the raw emotion when faced with the task of kill or be killed, but you are only 12-18 years old. That's tough, but The Hunger Games stand for so much to the world. Each district must choose one male and one female to represent the district. 12 in all = 24 participants and the last one standing will be wealthy the rest of their life with The Fame and Glory that accompany the title of Hunger Games Champion. My biggest issue of the rules is, if the other person from your district, who you probably know, are the last ones left, you would have to kill that person. That's a bit rough. At 2 hours 22 minutes, it seemed short to me. It flowed very well, and you may think that 23 deaths on that short amount of time would be hard to pull off, just wait till the opening "mad dash" if you will. Our hero is Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and she is the next Bella Swan if you catch my drift. The Hunger Games is a trilogy and it made 155 million this weekend alone. Lucky for us, she can display a range of emotion, and be very warm one minute, and very jaded the next. I expect she portrayed 19 emotions in this film which is a full 18 more than Kristen Stewart can at any given moment. Katniss has a very unique skill set, but she doesn't know how to play the game. Haymitch is there to help her learn the rules and strategies and he is played brilliantly by the always appreciated Woody Harrelson. Essentially that is all it is. A Game. Much like TV's Survivor, the audience will have favorites and least favorites, and this can play heavily in one's favor. It is an intense ride that I didn't want to end. I wanted it to go right into books 2 and 3. This is one of the best films I have ever seen, and I have seen a great many. I think it rightly deserves every last iota of praise it receives and am giddily anticipating the next film which is due November 2013. Anyone who can handle 12 year olds playing real life Gladiator, then don't miss this film.
**On a side note, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the 65 year old woman leaving the theater explaining the entire film to her husband as if he wasn't beside her the whole time which he was. I didn't feel it was hard to follow, but I may just be a CINE-SAVANT.
NBM rates The Hunger Games - A Work of Cinematic Art, and that was not even a question when it got over.

Source Code

Fantastic film. Source Code is extremely original, while being very generic. Time travel meets 8 minutes of repitition. When the film begins we see Colter (Gyllenhaal) on a train. He has no idea how he got there and he also does not know the woman he is talking to, though she knows him. By the time he sees himself in a mirror and realizes it's not him at all, the train blows up. Game Over, Man. Don't worry, I haven't ruined the film for you, and I won't. When the train blows up, Colter is thrust back into a chamber where this illusion all takes place. The Source Code can send a subject into the body of the deceased for an 8 minute period before the life ceased. Sounds confusing, but so well thought out and explained, it was actually easy to follow. Colter now has some inclination of what he is to do. He can keep going back and repeating the same 8 minutes for some time. He must gather clues to foil the bomber's next target. A movie that repeates the same 8 minutes for it's entirety seems like it would suck, but the way it's done is brilliant. Always different camera angles, and the conversations always change. The movie revolves around Colter's mission, but turns into so much more. It works because it is short, yet detailed. Not confusing, and very entertaining. Source Code deserves your attention, and I hope you do watch it. It is by far one of the most fun 90 minute movies of all time, and the last couple scenes will get you.

NBM rates Source Code - Phenomenal

Splice

Let's start by saying that I may be one of the few people that will watch anything with Adrien Brody attached. His performance in "Angels in the Outfield" eclipsed even that of Matthew McConaughey. Splice did a really good job of making it's trailers desirable. It made me want to see it, but not enough to go out and see it. I have 62 movie channels and I knew eventually it would show up. Last night it did, and I enjoyed the first hour of it anyway. I watched the first half then joined a "Anchorman" party complete with Scotch and all. I was absolutely anxious to watch the last hour and today I did. The first hour does a great job of building up this story and leading us down a path that gets us wondering. The second hour kind of tails off for a bit with more of the same, but it still very interesting. Then what we were all waiting for finally happens. Alien half breed grown in a lab specimen nudity in all it's creepy yet glorious fashion. These two scientist who dabble in the "I wanna play God" mentality create an organism that has an insane growth rate, but is a bit unstable. Clive (Brody), and Elsa (Sarah Polley) are actually involved and they mutually decide to create this thing without telling the higher ups. They use the facilities resources to do it, so the punishment would be beyond a slap on the wrist. Clive is the voice of reason once the organism hatches, but Elsa has a strange attachment to this thing. Well, Dren as Elsa names her, begins to learn. Elsa spends countless days trying to teach her anything to see if she could associate. Clive wanted to destroy her before she developed because it just felt wrong to him, yet Elsa won't allow it. Before they know it Dren is a mature (physically anyway) woman of sorts. She is strangely sexy for a bald chick with a tail that can't speak. The entire middle of the film is her learning and it is very intriguing as she develops her own attitude and way about things. She is getting to big to keep in the basement of the lab, so they move her to Elsa old family farm, and from there she is off. She wants to explore and be outside, because at this point I'd say she looks 20 years old but she is probably only 6 months old. Elsa sees Dren as her child and Clive is having trouble with their relationship, but everything quickly changes when Clive notices something that really upsets him. That last 20  minutes are awesome, and the final scene is a little creepy, but really kinda perfect. I suggest that you watch this film if you watch the 2 minute trailer and think "That looks decent". It is better than decent.

NBM rates Splice - Awesome

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