The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

As the war of Panem escalates to the destruction of other districts by the Capitol, Katniss Everdeen, the reluctant leader of the rebellion, must bring together an army against President Snow, while all she holds dear hangs in the balance.

Director: Francis Lawrence

Writers: Peter Craig (screenplay), Danny Strong (screenplay), 2 more credits »

Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth | See full cast and crew » 

 

 

 

Storyline

As the war of Panem escalates to the destruction of other districts by the Capitol, Katniss Everdeen, the reluctant leader of the rebellion, must bring together an army against President Snow, while all she holds dear hangs in the balance.

User Reviews

 The Hunger Games Mockingjay part 2 is the lackluster finale to the Hunger Games franchise. Because it's the new awful trend in Hollywood now to split the last book of a series in two parts, Hunger Games did the same to Mockingjay. This is the film where everything finally comes to a head. The districts band together, everyone hates the Capitol, and the uprising of the Capitol finally commences. Katniss is in the middle of it all trying to rally everyone together and stop the evil President Snow. To me Part 1 was a very unnecessary movie and I really thought it was a big waste of my time. This book did not need to be two films. The biggest issue with Part 1 was how slow moving. There was so much filler to make a two hour movie that on some points it was dreadfully slow and went no where. The same happened here. There was so much filler that half of this movie was a waste of time. The pacing in this movie is so awful that at some points it's really hard to watch. Sometimes that slowness works but only for a few scenes. Every other time it's to fill in the gaps of the hour of the movie that actually mattered. You just sit in your seat and beg that something will happen. Unlike in part 1 things do happen. The action scenes in this film are fantastic. (Frankly there was one scene that made me feel like I was watching Aliens but I digress.) They unfortunately don't last long. The action scenes are great but there just isn't enough of them to make up for the painfully slow movie that is the rest of the movie. A serious tone can be good in some aspects but it goes from a very realistic film to summer blockbuster action sequences, to sometimes taking itself way to seriously that I got sucked out of the film in a lot of areas and had o re-immerse just to get sucked out again. Honestly the only real positive that I can give where it was like it the entire series was the acting. The acting in the entire series is great. Especially Jennifer Lawrence. She is great as always. She is really the only redeeming quality of these films. If you are a Hunger Games fan it is definitely the conclusion you wanted and you will probably enjoy it a lot. Overall, Mockingjay part 2 is pretty mediocre. It is super dark with not a lot of hope or happy attached to it. The acting is great and a few action scenes are terrific. However between all of the filler areas and the horrible pacing and the things that really do not matter at all it really kills the movie. It is however better than part 1 so at least there's that. What did you think about Mockingjay Part 2? Message me your thoughts and comments on the movie.

WALL·E

In the distant future, a small waste collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

Director: Andrew Stanton

Writers: Andrew Stanton (original story by), Pete Docter (original story by), 2 more credits »

Stars: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin | See full cast and crew » 

 

 

 

 

 

Storyline

In a distant, but not so unrealistic, future where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E, a garbage collecting robot has been left to clean up the mess. Mesmerized with trinkets of Earth's history and show tunes, WALL-E is alone on Earth except for a sprightly pet cockroach. One day, EVE, a sleek (and dangerous) reconnaissance robot, is sent to Earth to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with EVE. WALL-E rescues EVE from a dust storm and shows her a living plant he found amongst the rubble. Consistent with her "directive", EVE takes the plant and automatically enters a deactivated state except for a blinking green beacon. WALL-E, doesn't understand what has happened to his new friend, but, true to his love, he protects her from wind, rain, and lightning, even as she is unresponsive. One day a massive ship comes to reclaim EVE, but WALL-E

User Reviews

Not only it's Pixar's best film of all-time but it's the best movie of this year and one of the greatest imaginative, visually, moving & excellent animated films in years and surprisingly, one of the best sci-fi movies since E.T.!! Coming with high expectations, it definitely succeeded mines. It's so beautiful, moving, hilarious & sad at the same time. And for those who has been anticipating Thomas Newman's score for WALL-E, it's certainly one of his best right behind Finding Nemo in which I thought was his best score to date! Like I said it's Pixar best film so far, WALL-E knocked off Ratatouille of the top spot in which I thought it was their best film to date and officially, WALL-E is the best Pixar film i've ever seen with Ratatouille right behind and Finding Nemo, third. Pixar fan or non-Pixar fan, you'll definitely enjoy this one. WALL-E will forever be remembered as one of the most lovable characters ever created on film!!!

Paper Towns

After an all night adventure, Quentin's life-long crush, Margo, disappears, leaving behind clues that Quentin and his friends follow on the journey of a lifetime.

Director:

 Jake Schreier

Writers:

 John Green (author), Scott Neustadter(screenplay), 1 more credit »

Stars:

 Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Austin Abrams |See full cast and crew »

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

High schooler Greg, who spends most of his time making parodies of classic movies with his co-worker Earl, finds his outlook forever altered after befriending a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer. (105 mins.)

Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Stars: Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman

Storyline

Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia

User Reviews

There are about four films that can overcome the "seen it" cynicism I have, unlock my heart and make me feel genuine feelings. In other films I can appreciate that the film is beautiful and emotional, but there are only four that can really get to me. The first was Crash, the second was The Green Mile and the third was Boyhood. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl just scored the fourth slot on that extremely small list. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's film is a beautiful cocktail of wonderful things. Its quirky and charming and witty and touching and somber and delicate and completely beautiful. Its got elements of about six of my favourite films of all time, and the fact that it slam dunked Sundance doesn't even surprise me a bit. 

Thomas Mann's Greg is a weirdo. Imagine that Napoleon Dynamite went to Cady Heron's school from Mean Girls, hated all the clicks and became a cynic. Mann shades what could've been a completely unlikeable protagonist with wonderful colours and depth, so much so that when his friend Earl explains to Rachel why Greg is so averse to being friends, we realise we've actually known the whole time. That's probably the most beautiful part of Gomez- Rejon's direction - he never comes out and beats you with information, he leads you gently to it and makes you realise it yourself. RJ Cyler takes Earl, a generic Pedro-type sidekick and makes him just the slacker you'd expect, but with incredible qualities underneath. Olivia Cooke makes the audience love her with her quietly devastating portrayal of a girl with leukaemia. All I can say is that she is a worth recipient of my annual Patricia Arquette Award For Character I Most Want to Hug.

Considering this film has maybe one actor I'd ever heard of, there's a huge pool of talent even in the supporting cast. John Bernthal is good in everything. Nick Offerman is amazing as Greg's stay at home intellectual dad, and Molly Shannon steals every scene as Rachel's emotionally destroyed mother. Keep an eye out for Matt Bennett's utterly bizarre but hilarious Scott Mayhew as well.

Jesse Andrews' screenplay strikes an incredible balance between comedy and drama. Its very easy for a film about cancerous teens to become completely depressing and tedious, but the witty dialogue, incredible spikes of humour and quirky characters make the film beautiful. Andrews isn't trying to make a statement, he's just telling a story about a normal boy who strikes up a friendship with a normal girl. The dialogue is as real as any movie I've ever seen, and the use of minimal effects and hand-held camera really created an authenticity that made me walk away feeling like I've just watched a highly personal reflection, and not a work of fiction.

Amour

Georges and Anne are an octogenarian couple. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, also a musician, lives in Britain with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.

Director: Michael Haneke

Writer: Michael Haneke (screenplay)

Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert | See full cast and crew » 

Storyline

Georges and Anne are a couple of retired music teachers enjoying life in their eighties. However, Anne suddenly has a stroke at breakfast and their lives are never the same. That incident begins Anne's harrowingly steep physical and mental decline as Georges attempts to care for her at home as she wishes. Even as the fruits of their lives and career remain bright, the couple's hopes for some dignity prove a dispiriting struggle even as their daughter enters the conflict. In the end, George, with his love fighting against his own weariness and diminished future on top of Anne's, is driven to make some critical decisions for them both

User Reviews

 Just when I thought Michael Haneke could surprise me no more, he comes along with a film like this. A film for which the jury at Cannes gave him his 2nd Palme d'Or in four years. And nothing less than this film deserves.

The story of an elderly French couple, their deteriorating health and devotion to each other is the basis, and allows the Austrian auteur to inject something rarely if ever seen in any of his films to date, heart.

Some of the typical Haneke touches are still there; the suffocating sense that something terrible is going to happen being his signature. His previous film, the 2008 Palme d'Or winning The White Ribbon keeps up this omnipresent dread for almost its entire runtime (also see the deus ex machina in Funny Games, and continuous sense of dread in Hidden). With these films Haneke has proved himself to be the biggest audience manipulator since the greatest of them all, Alfred Hitchcock.

But there's nothing artificially manipulative in Amour. And there's none of the sentimentality less able directors would fall back on given the film's subject matter. The acting and characterisation so good that sentiment is never needed, and is in fact the very last thing you'd come across in a Haneke picture.

The emotion felt towards the two protagonists as they struggle with coming to the end of their lives actually gave me a crushing sensation in my chest by the end of the runtime. This is an extremely tough film to watch at times, and on more than one occasion I had to look away from the screen.

The biggest compliment I can give this film, is that it make me want to call my parents.

5/5 stars. #1 film of the year so far.