The Hunger Games

Rating: PG-13
Review: 5 stars
Genre: Action-with-a-smidgen-of-romance

I am a huge fan of the Hunger Games books. I mean huge. Maybe this will give you an idea: The Spartanburg Herald Journal Interviews Me About the Hunger Games. I was kind of trepidatious about the movie, but it went beyond my expectations. The directing was amazing and so was the acting, especially by Jennifer Lawrence, who stars as Katniss, and Lenny Kravitz, who plays Cinna. Another surprising favorite of mine is Isabelle Fuhrman who plays Clove. She made me fall in love with a character I am supposed to hate. I would very much like to work with her in the future. She is impressive. Back to the movie. So, they changed some things from the books, but that is to be expected. I loved getting the Capitol's view on the Games while they were happening, and the violence was so spot on. There was no avoiding it. Center of the screen a kid gets his neck snapped. It was awesome. From a die-hard fan's perspective, The Hunger Games is phenomenal.

Notable Quote: "May the odds be ever in your favor."

Romance and Cigarettes

Rated: R
Review: 3 stars
Genre: Comedic-campy-romantic-movie-musical

I was at FYE the other day in Greenville when I stumbled upon this movie while searching for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was 7 dollars and in the musical section so I bought it. I was definitely surprised. It started out very very campy and really very strange. Nick (James Gandolfini) has cheated on his wife Kitty (Susan Sarandon) with the very interesting redhead Tula (Kate Winslet). It opened with bad sex jokes, really ridiculous concepts, and some very funny performances by Mandy Moore, Mary-Louise Parker, and Aida Turturro who play the couple's three adult daughters. At the point when the movie was about to loose me because of severe campiness and the fact that sex jokes annoy me, the movie did a complete about-face to something both romantic and sad. The back of the box didn't do the movie justice when it comes to the touching part of the story. There were some strange cameo performances by Christopher Walken, dancing sanitation workers, and pregnant ladies in the middle of the road, but setting the weirder scenes aside, it was a touching albeit slightly corny movie.

Notable Quote: "Two things a man should no how to do: be romantic and smoke his brains out."