All that glitters is good.....

All that glitters is good.....

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

November Moviemania

While holiday season is exciting for a great many number of reasons, one of those is the release of better movies. Theater attendance spikes, with blockbuster releases planned on Thanksgiving and Christmas Days (my family always sees a movie Christmas Eve- one of my favorite relaxing traditions!). Oscar races are right around the corner so all the notable indie releases happen too. While I saw a bunch of movies last month, here's a few I think are worth mentioning:

Last weekend I went to see the second "Hunger Games" installment (I wish I was young enough to catch the midnight release and still be able to function at work the next day). I was a big fan of the first movie and felt it was the best adaptation of a book that's I'd seen in quite a while. I have to say, the second one is even better! Some people are complaining about the length (run time of 2.4 hours) but for the fans it's not an issue, I mean, it's shorter than any "Lord of the Rings" movie. The casting for the other victors was really good (love Jena Malone as vicious Johanna). Philip Seymour Hoffman is a good addition to pretty much any movie and is perfectly shady in the role of Plutarch Heavensbee, who was less memorable as a written character. All of the special affects in the arena were visually stunning and the costumes for the victor's parade should definitely be nominated for it's creative way to translate a book description into fashion. If I don't go see it again in theaters, I will probably buy it when it comes out on video. The third installment, "Mockingjay" will be split into two (mo' money for studios!), with the first one slated to come out November 2014.

Would my work judge me for Hunger Games wallpaper?
A movie likely to be up for a lot of nominations is "Dallas Buyer's Club," starring Matthew McConaughey. The movie takes place in the mid-80's when the HIV/AIDS scare was really starting to ramp up. Cowboy/hustler Woodroof (McConaughey) learns he has HIV and when he goes to the hospital finds out that the drug their testing is actually more harmful than helpful. He heads to Mexico and finds cheaper drugs to bring into the States, starting a drug club of his own. He reluctantly befriends transvestite Rayon, who I thought looked familiar but didn't find out until after that it's Jared Leto. The buzz is that Leto is likely to be up for "best supporting" awards when the season rolls around. McConaughey surprised me with his acting skills again, I thought it was on par with "Mud." I guess he just needed to break away from his rom com cast typing. My only qualm with the movie was Jennifer Garner's performance as an empathetic doctor who supposedly feels passionate about the issue but Garner's flat emotion seems the opposite of passion.

Leto and McConaughey
I have a nerdy weakness for all movies related to "The Avengers" so I went to see "Thor: The Dark World." It was pretty good, very comparable to the first "Thor." The plot line was similar but a good action movie if you need to shut off your brain for a while. Chris Hemsworth seems born to play the role of Thor. Natalie Portman is fine, but I more enjoy Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgard as her quirky scientific sidekicks. Tom Hiddleston brings the character of Loki to the forefront and makes him almost someone you want to root for. Also, the bad guys in this movie being "evil elves" was a bit silly but I'm sure that was taken from the comics so I won't blame the screenwriters for that. The movie's not a must see and will probably be a frequent rotater on cable once it comes out.


Lastly, I also went to see the (over) hyped "Gravity," with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Clooney's character is pretty enjoyable but SPOILER ALERT: he dies off fairly quickly and then it's just Bullock floating around in space, which is pretty boring. It's like Hanks in "Castaway" or Farrell in "Phone Booth." Movies with only one set location tend to give way to overly introspective monologues. Bullock should have probably died about 10 different times but seems to persevere somehow. There also just seems to be a lot of plausibility issues overall, like one second she's floating over China and the next second she's over Europe. There's no way she's just floating around the world that fast. The views of Earth from space are probably the best part of the movie, so I'd rather just watch some NASA special on the Discovery Channel. Could someone who loved this movie please explain to me what I'm missing? 

Sandra- stick to "Speed"!