While the structure may be similar to the first film, Catching Fire is an improvement on The Hunger Games with the stakes being raised to a new level. A great supporting cast helps aid our hero Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as she not only fights for her life, but the lives and well-being of the people of Panem.
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It’s been a year since Katniss and Peeta’s victory at the 74th Hunger Games and the film is set at the beginning of their victory tour around the districts of Panem. The mood and feel though is on a knife’s edge, with talk spreading of a rebellion from the people. It’s from here the plot thickens, with the Capitol out to stop the looming rebellion and anyone in it’s way. Read more
Movie Review – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Movie Review – Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Thor: The Dark World not only matches it’s 2011 predecessor Thor, it overtakes it, providing a funnier, engaging and overall more well-rounded film. It combines a serious story-line with witty humour impressively, sure to please those just wanting to be entertained for the 112 minute run time.
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Chris Hemsworth is back as title character Thor and he’s really brought the character into his own now. While the usual suspects of Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins and Tom Hiddleston are solid, there’s a couple of new additions to the sequel, with Chris O’Dowd providing some great light relief and notably; a Director change from Kenneth Branagh to Alan Taylor. The influence of this is strong, with this version seeming not only more light hearted, but more realistic (if that’s possible for a film that spans across 9 different worlds of the Universe.)
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Recommend a Film: Installment #4
It’s been a while since I asked for recommendations but I have managed to catch up on some of the films that readers have suggested and there have been some gems!
Feel free to add your favourite films that I haven’t seen (See my A-Z tab for my list of seen films) and check out everyone’s recommendations from the table below.
Movie Review – Rush (2013)
While it may be slow off the line, Rush comes home hard, recreating a fierce 1970′s rivalry between Formula one stars James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Sure to draw comparisons to the documentary Senna, the film is definitely worthy to stand alongside it as yet another great car racing film.
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Director Ron Howard sets the scene with some early character building, as we see both James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) at the early stages of their career. While I found it to be the slowest part of the film, it’s definitely essential to building up the personalities of the two, as we see the charismatic, partying Hunt and the disciplined, hard-working Lauda.
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Movie Review – Runner Runner (2013)
With some stylish scenes and a great lead performance from Justin Timberlake, Runner Runner does just enough to grab your attention and entertain, rather than thrill. Poker enthusiasts in particular should enjoy the concepts and statistical analysis, which do slowly fade out as the more traditional elements of crime/thriller films become more prominent.
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Director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) tells us the story of college student Richie Furst (Timberlake) as he battles to pay through University after previously losing his Wall Street job. Richie seems smart and his opening monologue about life’s gambles shows us that he strongly believes in gambling as a method to generate income, comparing the risks to other investments. After he loses his entire savings in a make-or-break online poker game that he is positive he has been cheated on, the story heats up, as he sets out to find the owner of the Poker site: Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Read more
Weekly Watch: Installment #44
It’s been a busy few weeks and I’ve still managed to catch 20 films over the last 20 days since MIFF concluded. Of the 2013 releases, it was a pretty lacklustre bunch with Now You See Me, Kick-Ass 2 and Pain and Gain all disappointing. Luckily, The Way Way Back was quite pleasing and I really enjoyed Matt Damon’s Elysium.
Otherwise, I’ve been knocking off some classics that I’ve either not seen before or only seen as a child. I recently read Christopher Null’s great book “Five Stars” and from this, compiled together his 300 must see films for an aspiring film critic. You can view the list here. I’ve currently seen 82 of them, would be keen to know how many you have seen or if anyone is close to having seen them all!
Without listing all the films I’ve watched over the last few weeks, some highlights include Planet of the Apes, Schindler’s List, the Mad Max trilogy, Spider-Man trilogy, Swingers, The Birds, Annie Hall and Spirited Away! Catch my full wrap-up below.
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MIFF Round-Up and Rankings
The Melbourne International Film Festival finished up yesterday and it was full of some amazing films yet again. I’ve reviewed many of the films but thought I’d do a quick round up of all the films I saw, when they are released and the one’s I missed out on!
From the 35 I’ve seen, I can truly say I strongly liked the top 20, with the top 5 sure to be close to my favourites at the end of the year as well. You can see the full list over at Letterboxd, or simply scroll down as I run through my thoughts on each!
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Films I didn’t get a chance to see that I will be on the look out for:
Blancanieves, Computer Chess, Blackbird, You’re Next, Mystery Road, Museum Hours, The Patience Stone, Shopping, The Dance of Reality, Illo Illo, Stranger by the Lake, The Broken Circle Breakdown.
Movie Review – These Final Hours (2013)
Director Zak Hilditch creates a dark, intense reality with apocalyptic film These Final Hours, combining fear, emotion and humour perfectly to devastating effect. These Final Hours is not only the best Australian film I’ve seen in years, but quite easily one of the best films of 2013.
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Set in Perth, Australia, we quickly learn that this is the final day on Earth and that the Western Australian city only has 12 hours left before the inevitable downfall that has already taken down Europe, Canada and a large chunk of the rest of the world. We meet the self-absorbed James (played wonderfully by Nathan Phillips) as he is rushing off to his mate’s massive house party to drink his sorrows away and forget about the looming end of life as we know it. It’s quite a dark picture that is painted, with bodies scattered over the road and society in chaos with each citizen coping differently with the news, as we see throughout the film. Read more
The World’s End Interview with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright
Ahead of the Melbourne premiere, I was lucky enough to have a chat to Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright about their upcoming film: The World’s End. Along with fellow interviewers Tom Fortune from Filmtrout and Daniel Lammin from Switch, the guys talked to us about making of the film, the meaning behind it and more!
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The interview was a lot of fun and you can check out the audio below or scroll down for the full transcript! The World’s End hits Australian cinemas on August 1.
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Movie Review – Fruitvale Station (2013)
Fruitvale Station tells us a devastatingly true story with such power and honesty that it’s hard not to get emotional. With fantastic performances, especially from lead Michael B Jordan as Oscar, it’s definitely one of the best films of 2013.
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Set on New Year’s Day in 2009, the story centers on an incident involving Oscar Grant at Fruitvale Station with the film opening with actual cell phone footage of the incident. The footage is scary enough but it’s not until everything is put into context that it becomes so damaging and heartbreaking. The film runs through the 24 hours prior to the event as we see Oscar’s life with his friends, enemies and family, including great performances from his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz) and Mother (Octavia Spencer).
