gretsch-89824 Reviews

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

The Albatross In The Room ...

[20 April 2015]

My summary above is what I feel should have been the proper title of the film. The Albatross being the character of Peeta, and the ridiculous focus on such a weakly written part which dragged this entire episode down, wasting a ton of surrounding talent in the process.

It's difficult to complain about the actor when the part of Peeta (and especially invoking that character for anything more than a fleeting love interest of a momentarily distracted teenage girl while being caught up in something of much larger concern), the most weakly scripted and seriously undercast element of the whole series to begin with, was actually made the focus of this film. I can't even tell if Peeta was supposed to be the "focus" of the film or not, but there's no question that anything to do with this character was a major distraction throughout. By any good sense of scripting, he was (or certainly should have been) conveniently gone before this latest episode. But, no ....

So we have at hand; Donald Sutherland, Jeffry Wright, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and, oh yeah, Jennifer Lawrence in there too. But this whole episode had to play like a broken record around; Peeta. The fact that the producer/writer/director "club of cluelessness" had to rub it in our noses in the final scene didn't help at all.

Is anybody else's forehead as sore as mine as result of banging into the table or desk at such a complete waste? If you're going to write such a weak part, then get try to get someone who has at least a slight chance of being a future Colin Farrel or Ewan McGregor or somebody like that to play the part, if you are involving all this other talent. It's not like any other characters or scenarios in this movie involved anything like 'great script writing.' It's just for entertainment, we know that to start with. But you just can't have a guy made for soap operas or teen movies trying to keep up with the others in this movie in this scenario, in this inappropriate role.

Aside from the mis-casting, I just don't understand the author or script writers imposing this "teen love" aspect into the series beyond the first two episodes at all. There was nothing in the Catching Fire episode that convinced any audience there was any genuine 'love' from Katniss towards Peeta that was anything other than showing appreciation and taking pity. But now she's ready to drag down the entire revolution and its cause for sake of ... I don't know, you tell me.

A guy who would do OK in soap operas and secondary roles in standard sitcoms.

This "teen love" thing is just hard to explain, innit?

American Hustle (2013)

Better than most movies at representing the time

[7/10 · 18 April 2015]

I'm not quite understanding some of the downside reviews regarding this film play. It almost makes me ask if some of these people have seen more than two or three movies before, or have only now just noticed that movie script writing is far and away the lowest "art form" ever endured by any culture, before we start.

Neither The Godfather nor Goodfellas broke new ground in any sense. Indeed, they both relied upon deeply instilled pre-existing notions and stereotypes, including just a sprinkling of reality when convenient to the story. Pandering, patronizing, catering to the basest of 'instincts,' all wrapped up in a neat package (excellent directing and cinematography on a completely banal story, the Hollywood way). And I'm not sure if any movies were more 'self indulgent' than those two.

I'm not saying that this movie matches those two or other likewise ventures in grandeur, but it does have at least some semblance of an "Indie" treatment of the matter. Of course the movie is not "perfect" in telling the very non-simplified story at hand; there's no way that it -could- be. I don't see how one could tell a story as messy as this one with out the presentation itself being a bit 'messy' in some respects. (If you want grossly over simplified with fantastic production and classic actors, see reference in second paragraph above).

I have no complaints as to the acting (at least not much). Christian Bale seems to always be put in an acting role about half a notch 'above his level,' but by the end of the movie we (or some of us, at least) think it turned out just about right. Same here. Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were pretty darned good, indeed fantastic sometimes, so much as the script and story allowed. Both were a great strength to the movie, stole scenes as opportunity presented, etc., no question.

I have some gripes about the script writing, as always, but given the subject matter and the era being presented, I (and I hope that others) cannot overlook the fact that the women in this movie were far better represented and given a lot more credit in having more than two brain cells than in the much more popular 'Mafia standard' movies. The instance of Rosenfeld's wife (J Lawrence) explaining to him that she had started reading Wayne Dyer's books, so now they had to get a divorce, made me keel over, actually. But what mattered is that she took a notion to improve herself, and had gained a notion of an independent self at all, not a popular notion in that milieu.

It used to be so simple; "you marry my money, I marry your body," and now (in this movie) both parties come to the late conclusion that there's more to it than that, by both meeting new acquaintances and (in the case of the wife) actually reading books. Yes, by a (at the time) "new age Guru." But if she started reading books at all, she would have eventually moved beyond that. The salient point is that she ventured out beyond her "I'm so afraid of change" world at all.

Sorry for all the disappointment to others who started out with the intent of "trying to be generous" in inappropriately assigning the task of this film as being a follow up of any sort to the mafia classics, but there's a lot in this movie you missed out on in pursuit of that folly.

Wild Camp (2005)

"A Likely Story"

[1/10 · 3 April 2015]

Let's see; a 17 year old girl falling for a guy 2 1/2 times her age, 10x ugly to her 10x gorgeous, stupid beyond comprehension, a mentally disturbed teenage mind inside a 50 yr. old man's body ... what's not to like? With all that, the poor girl obviously just couldn't help herself. Wow.

The age difference is the least of the problems (not really a problem at all, by itself). But the characterizations of both protagonists were just so overdrawn, and in a very sloppy way. It was great that the directors let us see the lovely Isild Le Besco running like a gazelle on several occasions, but they made the viewers pay dearly for that privilege with their awful screen writing (the two were the same, if you look at the credits).

Definitely the worst French film I've ever seen, and in the bottom five of movies I've seen from anywhere.

Loving Annabelle (2006)

self-imploding story line

[4/10 · 1 April 2015]

Why is it that too many Indie films and gay/les films shoot themselves in the foot when given any opportunity? If this film (and others of its ilk) are supposed to be an "answer" to 'Hollywood,' then the first place to start might be to avoid the hyper-simplistic characterizations so blatant throughout this film.

The movie was pretty much well acted and well directed and produced, but the utter slackness in the script writing just blew all that away. Please, anyone could have come up with that "bad girl" character on the first try, likewise the Mother Superior, except that I don't think that anyone could have come up with such an inferior representation of the latter even in the first effort. At one point in the movie the M Superior physically indicates that she has carnal knowledge of the professor from some time ago. But she calls the police upon discovery of a likewise episode from that same person. Just leave out the scene of M Superior's affection towards the teacher by way of reminiscing and avoid the confusion. Or explore/expiate it, either way.

The summary describes a girl "wise-beyond-her-years" connecting with a teacher who taught a class for high level students. So then, even having availability of the teacher's beach resort at their disposal (and alleged super smarts to begin with), these two protagonists chose that the disposition of their love affair occur right there in the dorm, where anyone could walk in at anytime. As was well pointed out throughout the entire movie.

Right.

Aside from the fact that this scenario should have taken place at a college or university so as to avoid advocating statutory rape, (to some of the other reviewers; paedophilia involves prepubescents, not the case here at all) I am just greatly annoyed at the typical Hollywood slackness of script writing in having the 'drama' in their movie based upon incredibly stupid and utterly inane actions of the protagonists. Even if this from a supposedly "different" movie.

Because of the good production and decent acting (occasionally pretty good) and a decent story line otherwise, I might recommend a watch, and if you watch TV all the time, you might not notice the crash at the end as a crash.