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.

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.

Love (II)

Murphy is an American living in Paris who enters a highly sexually and emotionally charged relationship with the unstable Electra. Unaware of the effect it will have on their relationship, they invite their pretty neighbor into their bed.

Director: Gaspar Noé

Writer:Gaspar Noé 

Stars: Aomi Muyock, Karl Glusman, Klara Kristin | See full cast and crew » 

 

 

StoryLine

Murphy is an American living in Paris who enters a highly sexually and emotionally charged relationship with the unstable Electra. Unaware of the effect it will have on their relationship, they invite their pretty neighbor into their bed.



 I guess I fell for the marketing, and I have to admit the idea behind the film still seems OK. The 3D effects were good & not overdone. On the other side: I found the script / plot to be thin, and the acting and voice overs were terrible. I got the idea this was a movie made by an American director who was trying to make a 'european' style movie but didn't succeed. Afterwards I read the director is French (born in south America).

The movie lasts more than 2 hours, but there is no suspense, no buildup, etc. Karl Glusman (the lead actor) is not credible in this role, the emotions don't seem real and his voice-overs are even worse. His character begin a 'movie director' or something of the kind seems almost irrelevant and implausible.

After an hour, the movie started getting tedious as it was obvious this 'wasn't going anywhere'. I don't recommend seeing it, unless you're only interested in the raw sex in 3D (but remember... it's more than 2 hours you have to sit through)