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In order to gain influence over their North Carolina district, two CEOs seize an opportunity to oust long-term congressman Cam Brady by putting up a rival candidate. Their man: naive Marty Huggins, director of the local Tourism Center.

A Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis toilet humor slap fest. Entertainment Weekly gave this movie an A-, which further confirms their critics don’t know anything and their subscription is overpriced.

Don’t waste your money.

Rating: 0 out of 5

During the Prohibition era, the Bondurant brothers — Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) — run a successful liquor bootlegging business in Franklin County, Virginia, with the help of their friend, Cricket Pate (Dane DeHaan), using their bar as a front for their illegal activities.

One day, Jack witnesses mobster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman) eliminating a competitor and they exchange looks before Jack returns to the bar, where Forrest hires Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain), a dancer from Chicago, to be their new waitress. Shortly afterwards, the bar is visited by brutal Special Agent Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce), on behalf of District Attorney Mason Wardell. Rakes informs Forrest that he wants a cut of all profit made by Franklin’s bootleggers, but Forrest refuses and threatens to kill Rakes if he returns. Forrest later meets with the other bootleggers and convinces them to stand up to Rakes as well, though they eventually give in to Rakes’ violent intimidation tactics.

Meanwhile, Jack meets Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), daughter of the local preacher. He attends the church drunk and makes a fool of himself, causing Bertha’s father to forbid her from seeing him, which only makes her more interested in Jack, with whom she flirts. Jack later finds Rakes raiding Cricket’s house in search of his distilation equipment. When they don’t find it, Rakes brutally beats Jack when he tries to intervene. Forrest hears of this and tells Jack that he needs to learn how to fight for himself.

Forrest and Howard arrange to meet with potential clients from Chicago, but Howard misses his appointment to get drunk with a friend, and Forrest ends up beating the two men with Cricket’s help when they harrass Maggie. Later, after Cricket leaves, the men return, slash Forrest’s throat, and rape Maggie.
Howard and Jack meet a surviving Forrest at the hospital, and Jack decides to travel to Chicago with Cricket to sell the liquor. Arriving there, they are doublecrossed by their clients, but are rescued by Banner, who recognizes Jack. Banner already knows of the attack on Forrest, as well as the identities of the two assailants, and he provides Jack with their address, and also advises Jack that they are working for Rakes. Forrest and Howard later find, torture, and kill the men to send a message to Rakes.

Banner becomes a regular client of the brothers, who move their distilation equipment to the woods and have great profit. The money allows Jack to continue courting Bertha, while Forrest begins a relationship with Maggie after she moves into the bar for her safety, though she doesn’t tell him she was raped.
Jack eventually decides to show Bertha the distilation center, but they are ambushed by Rakes and his men, who had followed her. Howard incapacitates Rakes and Jack nearly kills him before they are forced to flee from Rakes’s men with Bertha and Cricket, who is later recaptured and murdered by Rakes, who snaps his neck. Wanting revenge for Cricket’s death, Jack goes to confront Rakes and his men at a roadblock in the local bridge. Howard follows after him, rallying the bootleggers to come to their aid. Forrest decides to join them, though Maggie tries to dissuade him, telling him that it was she who had found him with his throat slashed and took him to the hospital. Forrest realizes then that she was also attacked that night, but Maggie continues to deny having been raped.

The bootleggers engage Rakes’ men in a violent firefight, during which Rakes shoots Forrest multiple times before being shot in the leg and attempting to escape. A wounded Jack follows him to the bridge and shoots Rakes in the chest, wounding him. Howard later stabs Rakes with a large knife and leaves him to bleed to death. With Rakes and his men dead, the Bondurant Brothers decide to save their money and retire after Prohibition ends. Jack marries Bertha, Forrest marries Maggie, and Howard marries a local woman, all having children. During a reunion at Jack’s house, Forrest drunkly dances on a frozen lake and falls into the freezing water, dying of pneumonia a few weeks later.

Great movie. Based on a real story. Having grown up in the deep South in the age of bootlegging, it seemed all too familiar.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5.

Note: the events in this movie take place at the same time during the events in the previous movie “The Bourne Ultimatum”, thus making this movie a spin-off to the Bourne trilogy.

Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is a member of Operation Outcome, one of the Department of Defense’s black ops programs, which provides its agents with green pills that enhance physical abilities and blue pills that enhance mental abilities. He is given the moniker of “Number Five” and is deployed to Alaska for a training assignment, where he meets another Outcome operative, Number Three (Oscar Isaac). Their exchange is initially intense, as Number Three questions Cross as to why he is two days ahead of schedule for their rendezvous. Cross explains to him that he had to take a shortcut through a mountain ridge after having lost his kit of program essentials during his travels, including his requisite bloodwork he draws on schedule to send back to Outcome for analysis. This confounds Number Three, as the mountain ridge is generally acknowledged as being extremely difficult for agents to essay even when assisted with a program kit, yet Cross has done so in record time without one, a fact that ostensibly irritates Number Three, since it is implied that Cross has bested Number Three’s unofficial “record”. After a further exchange in which Number Three agrees to re-package send some of his bloodwork and label it Cross’s, both men call an uneasy, implied truce to their tension. A fast-moving blizzard is on the horizon, and Number Three says Cross can stay an extra day, since he won’t be able to get ahead of it, despite his early arrival. While lying in bed that evening, Cross happens to notice a number of carvings done in the woodwork above his head, including one of the name “Jason Bourne”.

Meanwhile, Jason Bourne is in New York City exposing Operation Blackbriar and the Treadstone Project, leading to CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) and Operation Blackbriar supervisor Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) being investigated by the FBI. Upon learning of this, CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn), also under investigation, calls Eric Byer (Edward Norton), a retired USAF Colonel responsible for overseeing the CIA’s clandestine operations, for help.

In order to cover up the existence of the Blackbriar program, Byer decides to eliminate all Outcome assets and, upon discovering that both Numbers Three and Five are at the same location, deploys a U-CAV to terminate both agents. Cross’s enhanced hearing picks up a faint echo in the distance, and Cross asks Number Three to confirm what he’s just heard. He cannot, but he and Cross decide to split up and survey the area separately. Cross exits the cabin moments before the U-CAV missile deployed by Byer’s people finds its target location and explodes, instantly killing Number Three. Cross uses a sniper rifle to destroy the U-CAV and, realizing that his superiors have ordered his assassination, goes about removing a tracking device that has been sewn into his abdomen, which he then forces a wolf that attacks him to swallow. Based on the active signal Cross’s tracking device still emits, Byer realizes that Cross is still alive and orders a second U-CAV to be deployed to eliminate Cross once and for all. However, the missile keys on the tracking signal inside the wolf and destroys its target, allowing Byer to mistakenly assume that Cross has finally been terminated. He then sets his sights on terminating the remaining Outcome agents across the globe.

Byer issues a mandate to have agent handlers replace the other Outcome assets’ green and blue pills with triangular yellow ones that will kill them in a matter of hours, and then goes about capturing one of Outcome’s foremost scientists, Dr. Donald Foite (Zeljko Ivanek), chemically brainwashing him to shoot and kill his other colleagues, one-by-one in the Outcome research lab. The only survivor of the massacre is Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), who escapes after Foite commits suicide in order to avoid being questioned by security. Shearing is later attacked in her house by CIA agents ordered to kill her, but is rescued by Cross, who convinces her to help him after explaining who he is. Shearing reveals that Cross was genetically modified to retain the benefits of the green pills without need of continuous consumption, a process they call “viraling off”. Because he hasn’t taken a blue pill in several days, Cross realizes that he will soon lose his mental enhancement. He then coerces Shearing to travel to Manila with him, as the pills are manufactured there, in the hopes of being able to viral off the blue pills in the same manner he did the green.

On the way to Manila, Cross reveals to Shearing that he is actually Kenneth J. Kitsom, a U.S. Army soldier who was “killed” by a roadside bomb in the Iraq War and then offered an opportunity to serve his country via the Outcome program. Meanwhile, Byer continues to hunt down Shearing and discovers that she has been aided by Cross. From security intelligence gathered at major transportation hubs across the country, Byer deduces that Cross and Shearing have departed the US and are travelling to Manila, where the pills are manufactured, ostensibly to help Cross attempt to viral off the blue pills. Byers decides to activate Larx-03 (Louis Ozawa Changchien), the ultimate Outcome super soldier, who has had the viralling off process done for both the blue and green pills and has been programmed to become a completely lethal and emotionless killer. Larx-03 is deployed to Manila to eliminate Cross & Shearing while Cross is still presumably weak from the viraling off process. Byer also learns that Landy is expected to face charges for assisting Bourne, while Vosen is expected to be declared innocent and returned to duty.

In Manila, Cross and Shearing arrive at the factory where the pills are produced and Shearing administers to Cross the blue-pill viralling off procedure. Byer contacts the factory’s supervisor and orders a lockdown, but Cross and Shearing are able to escape before Larx arrives and take shelter in a local apartment, where Shearing helps Cross through his recovery from the process, during which he hallucinates on his recruitment to Outcome, ironically achieved under Byer’s direction. While partly delirious, he tells Shearing that he has money in his jacket and that if anything happens she should take it and get out of there. Cross also says that Shearing should go home, that she’s done enough for him.

The following day, Larx-03 informs the local police of Cross’ location while Shearing is away buying medicine. She is able to warn Cross, who has now fully recovered from the process, and he escapes from the police and rescues Shearing before they steal a motorcycle and escape, pursued by Larx. After a chase through the streets and marketplaces of Manila during which Cross is shot, Shearing kicks Larx-03 off from his motorcycle and into a pillar, killing him upon impact, while Cross’ damaged motorcycle crashes alongside them as they come to rest. Cross and Shearing are then rescued by a boatman and bribe him with a stolen golden watch into taking them to a ferry, which they board, departing to places unknown.

Great action packed movie. Jeremy Renner is primed to be the next phase of the Bourne franchise. He will have trouble balancing this with his takeover of the Mission Impossible franchise as well. I would have preferred a few more things being blown up and a lot more gratuitous killing, but still worth seeing on the big screen.

Rating: 4.3 our of 5

S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) arrives at one of his agency’s facilities during an evacuation. The Tesseract, an energy source of unknown potential, has activated. It opens a portal through space and the exiled Norse god Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steps through. Loki takes the Tesseract and also takes control of the minds of several SHIELD personnel, including Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and Agent Clint “Hawkeye” Barton (Jeremy Renner), to aid him in his getaway. As SHIELD personnel pull out of their base, some pursuing Loki and others merely fleeing, the ground beneath the base collapses and it’s destroyed.

In response to the attack, Fury re-activates the Avengers Initiative. First he pulls Agent Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), a.k.a. the Black Widow, out of an interrogation (tied to a chair, she seems to be the victim rather than the interrogator, but appearances are deceiving). Fury sends her to India to find and recruit Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), a.k.a. the Hulk. At the same time Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) approaches “Iron Man” Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and requests that he review Dr. Selvig’s research. Fury himself approaches Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a.k.a. Captain America, with an assignment to retrieve the Tesseract from Loki. During his exile, Loki encountered the Chitauri, an alien race seeking to conquer the galaxy. In exchange for the Tesseract, the Chitauri agree to help Loki subjugate Earth.

Suiting up, Captain America and Iron Man travel to Germany to apprehend Loki, who is recovering iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract’s power, and demanding that the civilians kneel before him. Loki quickly surrenders when the two heroes arrive, and he is escorted to a SHIELD helicarrier, a high-tech, flying aircraft carrier. However, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki’s half-brother and the Norse God of thunder, arrives and attempts to free Loki so he can reason with him on his own, but he gets into a fight with Iron Man and Captain America. Eventually, Loki is taken to the helicarrier and placed in a glass cell designed to hold the Hulk. Fury explains that if Loki attempts to escape, even by merely cracking the glass, a shaft will open below him and he’ll plummet to Earth and possibly be killed.

The Avengers, now brought together, argue and deliberate over how to approach Loki and the revelation that SHIELD plans to harness the Tesseract’s power to develop weapons, a discovery made by Rogers. Fury admits that the events in New Mexico a year before (recounted in Thor) made SHIELD aware of other races on other worlds, some of whom may see Earth as an easy target. The decision was made to produce weapons with the Tesseract as a means of deterrence. As the group argues, Clint Barton and Loki’s possessed agents attack the helicarrier, disabling one of its engines in flight. While Stark and Rogers attempt to restart the damaged engine, Romanoff tries to prevent Dr. Banner from turning into the Hulk and destroying the ship from inside. Her plan fails and she’s chased through the ship until Thor takes up the battle to pacify the beast and manages to fell him briefly with a hit from his hammer, Mjolnir. While fighting Barton, Romanoff slams him into a guard rail, and the blow to the head breaks Loki’s mind control. After the Hulk falls from the ship, Thor is tricked into Loki’s holding cell by Loki himself, who has recovered his scepter and releases the cell and allows Thor to plummet. Loki is held at bay briefly by Agent Coulson who is also tricked by one of Loki’s holographic projections – Coulson is stabbed in the back by the real Loki. Coulson later shoots Loki with a blast from an unidentified weapon, one that harnesses the power of the Destroyer. Coulson dies while Fury tries to save his life. Thor escapes from the cell a split second before it hits the ground. Banner wakes up in his normal form after crashing into an abandoned factory.
Fury uses Coulson’s death to motivate the Avengers to work as a team. Stark and Rogers realize that simply defeating them will not be enough for Loki. He needs to overpower them in a very public way so as to validate himself as ruler of Earth. Using a device built by Dr. Selvig, Loki opens a portal to the Chitauri home world over Manhattan, summoning a Chitauri invasion.

The Avengers rally in defense of New York, but quickly come to the conclusion that they will be overwhelmed as wave after wave of Chitauri descend upon Earth. With help from the reformed Barton, Captain America and Thor evacuate civilians while Dr. Banner transforms into the Hulk and goes after Loki, beating him into submission in Tony Stark’s penthouse. Romanoff makes her way, with a little help from the Chitauri, to the device that holds the portal open (conveniently located on the roof of the Stark Building) and hits Dr. Selvig over the head, freeing him of Loki’s control. Dr. Selvig reveals that Loki’s staff can be used to close the portal.

Meanwhile, the council overrides Fury and scrambles a jet that fires a nuclear missile at Manhattan to end the invasion. Iron Man intercepts the missile and directs it at the portal and the Chitauri base before running out of oxygen and plummeting back to Earth, but the Hulk catches him as he falls. A dazed Stark, awakened by the Hulk’s roar, offers to take the team out for shawarma, but they decide to get Loki first. Thor escorts Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard, while Fury notes that the Avengers will go their separate ways until a new world-threatening menace emerges.

Action packed, entertaining piece bringing together our old friends Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man.

Rating:  3.4 out of 5.

Who would have guessed this movie was based on a book by Edward Rice Burroughs? I had never heard of “The Pricess from Mars,’ much less read it. My guess is that the movie did not make production is due to the unfamiliarity with the content. Just because Disney puts a stamp on it doesn’t mean it will make billions. Nonetheless, a watchable movie, reminiscent of some of the Starwars episodes.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), is a 16 year old girl living in District 12, the poorest district of Panem, a futuristic country lying in the remains of the United States. Long ago there were 13 districts, but the districts grew angry in their poverty at the wealth that the capitol of Panem had. They waged war, but the Capitol responded with a brutal nuclear attack, destroying District 13 and rendering the other districts helpless. The capitol established an annual event in remembrance of the war called the Hunger Games, a brutal series of events that reminds the districts that they are at the capitols every whim.

The Hunger games consist of a boy and girl between the ages of 12 and 18 being selected from each district and shipped off to the capitol in a process called the reaping, where they are then beautified, fattened up and interviewed before being dropped into an arena with each other. They are told that the last person alive is the “winner” and leave them there. The kids fight it out to the death while all of Panem watches on national TV. This year will be the 74th Hunger Games. We are taken to a house.

A young girl is comforted by an older sister.  She has reached the age to be selected in the reaping.  The older sister, Katniss goes out, slips by a fence and enters a bush.  She recovers a hidden bow and hunts a deer.  A young man interrupts, they are friends and talk about the reaping and the games.  They wish they can live outside the fence. We learn that this is Gale, and while Katniss seems to have plans to make a life with him, she doesn’t want children, because she is afraid they will end up in the games.

Katniss takes her kill to the Hob, the underground market where she can sell the meat she sells illegally. Here, she finds a little trinket; a mockingjay pin. Mockingjays are a hybrid of a mocking bird and a jabberjay; a muttation used by the Capitol in the war on the districts, able to record people’s whole conversations inconspicuously, before sending them back to the Capitol. The plan to use the jabberjays backfired, however, when the rebel forces learned to use them too, and ever since the mockingjay has been a symbol of rebellion to the capitol.

On her return home Katniss cleans up and puts on a dress. She bends to her little sister, who we learn is Prim, and hands her the pin. Prim is afraid she’ll be chosen as the tribute as this is her first year being entered. Katniss tells her that as long as she has the pin, nothing will happen to her. Soon all the teens in District 12, a humble mining area, are assembled in the town square.  A gaudily dressed woman, Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) reaches into a bowl and reads out the slipfor the female tribute, it is Primrose Everdeen.  As the guards take Prim to the stage, Katniss jumps out and volunteers, taking her sister’s place in the Games.  Everyone is stunned but Katniss walks stoically to the stage, ignoring her sisters screams.

When Effie asks for a round of applause for the volunteer, the district stays silent, and instead touches their pinky finger to their thumbs on their left hands, then kiss the hand and hold it out to her. it is an old symbol of unity and rebellion against the Capitol. Katniss Returns the symbolic gesture honoring her sacrifice. A male is also chosen, Peeta Mellark. When he enters the stage, Katniss has a flashback of a terrible storm and sitting in the rain, starving, when Peeta is sent out of his father’s bakery for burning bread. In the rain, he is supposed to throw the burnt loaves to the pigs, but instead he throws them to Katniss. Together, Katniss and Peeta are this year’s  District 12 tributes.

The tributes are whisked away on a high speed bullet train.  On board they have rich food and treats. Katniss and Peeta are in utter disgust at the luxury given to a simple train in the Capitol while they starved for every meal. Peeta is anxious to meet their mentor, Haymitch.  Haymitch is a pessimistic drunk, having won his hunger games by pure luck. He continues to drink and flatter Peeta while pissing Katniss off, if only to get the gist of her. Arriving in a gleaming modern city by the Rockies, the train is greeted by cheering residents.  Peeta waves back as Haymitch has told them they need to make friends. Katniss pouts and refuses to go to the window, sickened by the fact that they will soon see her die. As District 12, they get the penthouse in the Tribute  building.  

Katniss mets her stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz)  who promises to come up with a great costume for the gala entry parade. Katniss likes him because he is realistic and down to earth, something that most Capitol people are not. At the gala the tributes enter a stadium riding chariots, dressed in costumes reflecting the trade of their district.  Katnis and Peeta enter last dressed in black with artificial fire streaming behind, symbolising coal burning (coal mining being the trade of District 12). As Cinna promised, they definitely make an impression on the Capitol.

The tributes undergo some basic weapons and combat training with knives, swords and bows.  Another tribute, Cato, is imposing, hot headed and clearly a threat. Peeta is being bullied by the other tributes, so at Katniss’ suggestion he throws a large weight across the room, to get some respect around the place. Later, each tribute has to show off before the game makers.  Katniss misses with her first arrow and loses the small amount of the game makers attention she had, and despite her next shot being perfect, does not regain .  She bullseyes next , but has already lost their attention.  Sickened by the Capitols attitude towards the tributes, she shoots an arrow directly into their little cove and pin the apple out of their pigs mouth, sarcastically thanking them for their attention.

President Snow (Donald Sutherland)  hears of the incident and warns the Head Game Maker Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley) to keep control.  When the scores for the training come on TV, Peeta scores a 7 out of 12, and Katniss scores an 11. This is unheard of, and her formerly mad escorts applaud her for her attitude. Later each tribute is introduced on TV,  the unctuous host Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) making small talk. Katniss amanges to scrape by with being a martyr and a sweet little girl, but Peeta just eats the audience up, getting them to laugh and go crazy when he announces his love for Katniss. Katniss is unbelievably pissed, thinking of it as a ploy for sponsors in the Arena or a way to make her feel guilty for taking his bread when she was younger.

Haymitch starts to give Katniss his full attention, realizing she has a chance to win it on skill, not on personality.  He warns her to avoid the bloodbath at the beginning and find water instead. Finally the day arrives, the tributes are raised into a meadow surrounding the cornucopia of weapons and packs.  After the horn sounds the tributes rush in,  Katniss grabs a pack and makes an escape, barely escaping Clove, the district four tribute, who embeds a throwing knife in her backpack.  Thirteen tributes are killed in the bloodbath.

Katniss rope in her pack and an empty canteen. She finds a stream and drinks.That night she climbs a tree and ties herself in.  While exploring the next day the limits of the game area the controllers start a fire to drive her back, Katniss manages to escape the fire but receives a bad gash on her thigh.  Then she is spotted by Cato and 4 other tributes who have made the “Career” team. We learn that Careers are the kids who start illegally training for the hunger games when the are younger, then volunteering at the age of 18 and cleaning up the game.Districts 1, 2 and 4 always have Careers to go for them. They chase her but she again climbs a tree to escape.  Peeta has joined the Career group. The five decide to wait her out.  Haymitch sends Katniss a parachute with a tin of burncream for her wound.  During the night Katniss notices Rue, a twelve year old tribute in the tree nearby, pointing at a large trackerjacker nest. Trackerjackers, we are told, are another type of muttation made by the Capitol; a type of wasp, but with venom ten times stringer, which can be fatal in most circumstances. Katniss climbs farther up the tree and starts sawing the branch with the wasps nest on it. She is stung but the nest falls onto the Careers sleeping below. They scatter in pain but Glimmer, the tribute from district 1, is bitten too often and dies.  The stings daze Katniss, but she is able to grab the bow and make a run for it, after Peeta gives her a loud and very obvious warning.

Katniss awakes two days  later, Rue has looked after her.  The two girls team up and decide to go on the offensive.  While Rue creates a diversion with fire and smoke, Katniss nears the Career’s stockpile of food and weapons. She notices the pile is surrounded by mines, using a well placed arrow she releases some apples, which roll onto the mines and blow up the lot. Cato comes back and breaks the boys neck who created the system in one swift motion, his anger making him murderous. Going back to find Rue, Katniss hears her call for help, and finds her ensnared in a net. Just as Katniss cuts her free, a teen with a spear attacks. Katnis kills him but the spear gets Rue in the chest. Katniss sings Rue to sleep, where she dies peacefully, then gathers several flowers and lay them about her, making Rue a part of the earth before she is taken back to her district.

We are taken to District 11, Rue’s home, where her father stands in the crowd watching his baby die. At only 12, she experienced the hell reserved for the very worst. Her father rampages, throwing cartons of grain everywhere, and soon his district rebels with him. Who is the Capitol to say whether his baby can live or die? And now she’s dead, just a pawn in their games, teir sick, twisted hunger games. As Katniss makes her gesture of peace and rebellion to the camera, the Peace Keepers in District 11 round up the rebels, shooting Rue’s father dead.

President Snow is enraged at the rebellion in District 11 and wants to arrange the circumstances of the game to kill Katniss. Haymitch pleads with Seneca and manages to convince him to save her, convincing him that instead, the Capitol would love some teen romance. He goes onto the speaker into the arena and makes an announcement: If the game comes down to two tributes, and they are from the same district, then they will both be crowned winners, and will both return home as victors.

Katniss sets out in search for Peeta, overhearing the Careers saying they left him for dead by the river. She finds a trail of blood and follows it to the last drop, fearing for Peeta’s death. Katniss finds a badly wounded Peeta, who has managed to camoflauge himself into a rock, and helps him to a cave. Katniss tries to treat Peeta, but realizes that he has blood poisoning, and that all will be lost unless she gets a special medicine, which would be way too expensive for Haymitch to send her at this point in the game. As if by magic, an announcement is made stating that there will be a feast at the cornucopia, but instead of food, each tribute will be given something that they desperately need.

Katniss waits until Peeta is asleep, then sets out for the cornucopia, hoping to get the life-saving medicine. When she gets there, Foxface, the girl from district 5, has already sprinted out and grabbed hers, catching the remaining tributes by surprise with her speed. Katniss decides un utilizing the same strategy, sprinting out and grabbing her pack quickly. She is stunned and thrown to the ground by a throwing knife, which is quickly followed by Clove, Catos’s district partner. They fight, but Clove gains the upper hand, holding a knife to Katniss’s throat and teasing her with bloodlust about allying with Rrue, the pathetic lilttle monster from District 11. As she is about to slit Katniss’s throat, she is lifted off of her. katniss looks up in surprise to see Thresh, the remaining district 11 tribute holding Clove to the metal of the cornucopia. He tells Katniss that she gets this one chance, because she helped Rue, but after that it’s fair game. He smashes Clove to death on the cornucopia wall.

Katnis returns to the cave, the pack has the medicine, which also doubles as a general cut healer.In a romantic moment, the two spread it on their wounds and fall asleep in each others arms. The next day they split up to forage for food, Peeta to collect berries and Katniss to hunt. Katniss hears a cannon go off, the signal for a death, and panics, sprinting back to the site they split up at. Peeta is there, looking at a pile of berries in bewilderedness. Katniss sees the corpse of foxface lying a few meters away and slaps Peeta while crying, telling him that the berries were nightlock, a very poisonous variant on blueberries. She collects some and says that maybe Cato will fall for the same trap Foxface did. They start hiking through the woods, but notice in fright that the mid-day sun is dissappearing, turning the arena into night.

They freeze in panic at a sound in the woods, tensed and ready for attack. In the distance, they hear Thresh scream, and his cannon goes off, signaling his death. They stand in shock for a moment before a huge muttation of a dog leaps out at them, the size of a polar bear and with much more speed and agility. They are chased to the cornucopia, Peeta helps and Katniss up on top and barely makes it up himself, gaining some huge gashes on his legs. They both sit back in relief, thinking that the mutts will kill Cato and hey will be crowned the victors.

Cato, however, is also on the cornucopia, hiding and waiting for them. He attacks Katniss, trying to throw her off to the mutts, but Peeta throws himself at him. Cato grabs Peeta, putting him in a choke hold near the edge. Katniss now has an arrow pointed him, and it is a stand-off. Cato is dripping blood from bad wounds inflicted on him by the beasts. He laughes a sadistic laugh as he tells Katniss he now knows what the games are for, that they are merely a weapon to make death, unneccesary, painful death. He is still choking Peeta, who seems to be telling Katniss something, despite his choking.

Cato continues on, telling Katniss that if she shoots, lover-boy will go down with her. Finally, Katniss gets Peeta’s message, and shoots an arrow directly into Cato’s hand. He screams in pain and Peeta throws him off, down to the mutts below. Katniss ends him with an arrow, and the mutts disperse. Peeta and Katniss hug, excited that the games are over. They wait for the hovercraft to retrieve them , but none comes.

A voice comes on telling the ‘victors’ that the earlier rule about two winners being allowed has been revoked. We see Katniss think about shooting Peeta for a moment, but throw her bow down instead. Peeta raises his arms, begging her to shoot him, saying he wants to die for her. Instead, she removes the berries from her bag and pours some into his hands, telling him that the Capitol would rather have 2 victors than none. As they are about to swallow the berries, the voice comes on again, pleading with them to stop. They are both the victors.

Haymitch tells them how foolish they were to show up the Capitol like that, and tells them to play up the lovesick teenagers angle in their closing interview. They oblige, but Haymitch tells them it will never be enough.

Seneca Crane is led into a finely polished marble room. the door is locked behind him. We see, on the only table in the very center of the room, a fine goblet filled with night lock, indicating his self-execution.

And so ends the movie (2 hrs 22 min) as well as book 1. The Hunger Games makes you hungry for the next two installments. With all the movies being based on book trilogies, etc., (e.g., Twilight series, The Lord of the Rings, The Bourne series, etc.) it is an absolute shame that the Anne Rice vampire films were such “B” movies even though they had higly rated stars. Maybe they should be re-screen-played and filmed with the newer technologies. Even her Mayfair witches would make good movie fodder in today’s world of vampires, werewolves, and other assorted creatues. And so I digress.

The Hunger Games was totally enjoyable. It perhaps could have been shortened a little, but we are well set for the forthcoming episodes. Very well done without a heroine always glaring with a doe-eyed, Stepford wife, look (e.g., Bella from Twilight – we can only hope her new hunger for blood will make her a less docile and mindless character).

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Nathan (Taylor Lautner) is a high schooler in Pennslyvania, who likes parties and boxing with his dad. He has rage and self-identity issues, and sees a shink (Sigourney Weaver). He’s apparently a good wrestler as well as a kickboxer. He’s assigned to work on a school project with his neighbor, Karen (Lily Collins), who he’s sweet on, but too shy to talk to. They find a website for missing children, and, aging one online, see a likeness of Nathan. He contacts the site, and it triggers an alert in New York. The tech on duty (Nickola Shreli) in New York activates a trace and Nathan’s webcam and send a photo of Nathan to a Mr Kozlow (Michael Nyqvist).
He takes some old pictures to his friend Gilly (Allen Williamson), who thinks they are suspicious. He confronts his mother (Maria Bello), who fortunately gets killed by operatives before she can explain. His father (Jason Isaacs) fights off one operative, but is killed as well, and Nathan runs away. He comes back to save Karen and defeats the armed operative, who tells him there’s a bomb in the kitchen. Naturally, Nathan goes to look, and there’s 7 seconds left! He and Karen run outside and leap into the pool as the house and operative are destroyed.
Karen is hurt, so Nathan takes her to the hospital. We see Mr. Kozlow arrive in country, and he gets undressed in a car. Nathan winds up talking to Frank Burton (Alfred Molina), who tells him to stay put, and Kozlow’s goons apparently have the pay phone tapped! His shrink, Dr. Bennett, uses balloons to hide Nathan from the hospital cameras, which everyone has tapped into as well. In a car escaping, Dr. Bennett explains that she’s with the CIA, and Burton can’t be trusted. She tells him it’s ok to trust Martin Price or Paul Rasmus, but doesn’t explain why. She also gives him keys to a safe house in Virginia. They leap from the car and Dr. Bennett’s car is destroyed. By this time, if you’re not completely dazed, you realize Nathan is some kind of important kid, with secret skills.
Nathan and Karen wake up in the woods, completely refreshed and clean. Burton briefs a bunch of constipated agents about Martin Price, who is Nathan’s real father, and has stolen data from Kozlow. Burton’s boss tells him to get things under control. Nathan and Karen hitchhike to the safe house, where he finds a gun, a phone with encrypted text and some photos, who he recognizes as his mother. Karen makes a phone call, and apparently all of her relatives’ phone lines are tapped too.
Nathan’s father left a BMW, and Nathan/Karen go looking for his mother, finding her grave. They find fresh flowers on the grave, and the cemetary operator tells them the flowers came from Paul Rasmus. The bad guys and the CIA intercept the cemetary computer query, even though it’s not on the internet, and magically conjure an image of the BMW, apparently from the cemetary’s high-resolution cameras. Nathan and Karen meet Gilly, who gets them fake IDs. They buy train tickets, but the bad guys have spotted the BMW and followed them to the train station.
On the train, Karen asks if they are going to die, and Nathan says no. They kiss and start to grope, but stop because they’re hungry? Karen goes to get food without him, and guess what happens next – the bad guys get her! Nathan, who has gone looking for Karen, meets the bad guy and they fight. Nathan manages to beat a grown, trained operative and Karen escapes her bondage with a piece of broken glass. Nathan shatters the train window and throws the bad guy out. The train stops, perhaps to investigate, and they exit the train. At this point, you’re hoping the movie is over, but there’s still 30 minutes left!
Natah and Karen stroll through the woods, and the CIA chases them. Burton convinces them to trust him and buys them burgers, while about 100 agents protect them. Burton explains things, and Kozlow’s bad guys start killing the CIA guys. Nathan realizes the phone has the text his father stole, and that Burton’s name is on in the text. The bad guys attack the diner. During the attack, Nathan and Karen escape, and since Nathan doesn’t trust Burton he tells Karen about the list. Of course, Kozlow can hear them and track them, so he calls the phone in the car and threatens all of Nathan’s friends and arranges a meet. Meanwhile, the CIA raids Kozlow’s hideout and kills his goons. They also find a recording of the conversation between Nathan and Kozlow, detailing the meet at PNC park in Pittsburgh.
At the park, Martin calls Nathan and tells him not to go through with the meet. Nathan hangs up on him. Karen gets a photo of Kozlow and sends it to Nathan. They sit beside each other, and apparently, Gilly has taped a gun under Nathan’s seat! Kozlow tells Nathan that his parents were awful people, and Nathan chooses to believe him. We relive Nathan’s mother’s death at the hands of Kozlow, and even at age 2, Nathan was a super-spy! Kozlow gets Nathan’s gun, then chases him through the park. Nathan demonstrates his parkour abilities, and Martin calls him to tell him to lead Kozlow into a trap. Kozlow has time to see Martin hidden as a sniper about 500 yards away, and has time to yell before getting shot. Burton’s boss arrives and take the phone, telling Burton he has lots to answer for. The CIA lets Nathan go, and Martin calls one last time to say goodbye. Karen and Nathan reunite, and Dr. Bennett arrives as well. She tells Nathan he can live with her, and Nathan/Karen stroll off, promising to go to Dr. Bennett’s house (even though she never gave an address – apparently, Nathan can figure that out, too).
Nathan and Karen sit in the now-empty stadium and make out.

A little Wanted (Jolie and McAvoy) deja vu. Apparently Lautner is breaking out of Twilight now that he is buff and has taken his shirt off. He is an angry young man in this movie just like the angry young werewolf in the Twilight series. Not a bad movie, though, and entirely watchable even if it is predominantly made for the teen female crowd.

Rating: 2.9 out of 5.

The film begins in the city, with Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) leaving his job as a successful editor in the city in order to spend more time with his wife, Libby (Rachel Weisz), and their two daughters and write a book. At first, they appear to be living the American dream in an idyllic home they have just moved into. Early in his time at the house, Will notices tension between his neighbour, Ann Patterson (Naomi Watts), and her ex-husband, Jack, who is picking up their teenage daughter. Despite the seemingly perfect house, it soon becomes apparent to Will that something isn’t right. After asking around, he learns of terrible murders that occurred there five years earlier – a man, Peter Ward, the previous owner of the house, shot and killed his wife and two daughters. What’s more, Will’s young daughters claim to begin seeing a man watching them through the windows at night. Will and his wife begin to uncover more information about the murders, despite the local police refusing to help them. Even his neighbour, Anne, who he has talked to on a few occasions, remains strangely distant and won’t tell him anything. However, after uncovering some old things in a hidden attic space, they find out that Peter Ward had already been released from custody (as there was no concrete evidence that he actually killed his family) and is living in a half-way house — and there is a lot of public controversy about it. When Will’s wife sees the strange man that her daughters had already claimed was watching the house (and the police fail to help), Will, believing it to be Peter Ward, sets off to the half-way house to find him and try and settle things. Will goes to the half-way house and sneaks into what he believes is Ward’s room (the number of which he found by looking at the mail pigeon hole marked with his name) and there he finds a picture of his wife and daughters. A man comes in and, extremely angry, Will threatens him to stay away from his family. However, the man is not Peter Ward, but in fact a man named Boyce (Elias Koteas). Confused, Will returns home. Further research leads him to the psychiatric hospital where Peter Ward was initially hospitalised. There, he is told that he is Peter Ward and that Will Atenton is a false identity he invented to mask the trauma of losing his wife and daughters. Although he doesn’t believe it, the seams begin to show in what he once thought was reality. More and more evidence crops up, showing that the wife and daughters he believed he had are, rather, just projections in his mind of the family that he supposedly murdered. He begins to slip between realities — One being his idyllic, yet completely invented, life with his wife and daughters, and the other, in which his house is in ruins and he is the accused murderer of his family. After his house is deemed by the city as being in an unlivable state, he is evicted – but does not want to leave as whenever he is in this house he returns to his fantasy land with his long dead family. As well as this, he is still unsure which reality is correct. Anne, Peter’s (Will’s) neighbour, takes him in, giving him a bath and washing his clothes. She believes his innocence and even her daughter, who had previously had nightmares about the murders, is comfortable with his presence. However, Anne’s ex-husband, Jack, somehow hears that Peter is with his ex-wife in her home and comes over to collect his daughter, despite him not yet having custody for a few days. Anne refuses but her daughter obliges in order to avoid any conflict — yet she runs away as soon as she is out the door. Jack goes after her, and Anne, before following, gives Peter the business card of the psychiatric hospital in which he was previously treated, which she found while washing his clothes. He goes to see his psychiatrist who urges him to come back to treatment, but she does not know if she believes his innocence or not and Peter storms back to his boarded up house. There, he is once again immersed in his fantasy land, but he realises now that he is Peter Ward, which he tries to convince to his wife. She won’t believe it, putting it down to a fever and Peter’s high temperature. However, when the girls also get this fever and she finds gaping wounds on the girls’ backs she realises he was telling the truth. Peter later asks her to recall the night of the murders and she tells him everything she can remember – that she heard someone coming up the stairs and the girls, thinking it was their dad, went out to greet him. She also came out, only to find a man with a gun. Peter is jerked from his fantasy by Anne, who is coming to tell him to get out of the house, but before they can leave, Jack and Boyce are there ready to kill Anne and blame the murder on Peter. We learn that the original murders, of Peter’s family, were actually carried out by Boyce; he had been hired to kill Anne by Jack after their divorce yet Boyce got the wrong house and killed the Ward family instead. After being shot, Peter’s wife had tried to shoot Boyce with a gun he had left on the ground while he was fighting with Peter. Instead, she hit Peter in the head, which explains the absence of any recollection of the events. Both Peter and Anne are knocked unconscious and taken to the basement where Anne is tied up. Jack shoots Boyce for his failure in the previous mission and goes on to light the house on fire with gasoline. Meanwhile, the projection of Peter’s wife is hovering at the edges of the scene and urges Peter to wake up. When he does, he carries Anne out of the fire where she is reconciled with her daughter. Boyce, not quite dead, traps Jack in the fire by pouring gasoline on him before dying himself. Peter rushes back into the burning house where he sees his wife and daughters for the last time and is finally forced to let them go. The movie ends showing Peter’s book he has written about his experience — he was writing a book at the beginning of the film in his fantasy world, but this time he is using his real name.

Shutter Island and Identity revisited. The movie twists and turns and finally becomes predictable once you realize the true plot line.

Rating: 2.9 out of 5.

Adam Learner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a 27-year-old journalist with an attractive girlfriend, Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), of whom his best friend and co-worker Kyle (Seth Rogen) disapproves.
Adam discovers he has a a rare cancer and must undergo chemotherapy. After Adam reveals his diagnosis, his overbearing mother, Diane (Anjelica Huston), who already cares for a husband suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, is determined to move in with him. He rejects this offer, however, as Rachael has promised to be the one to take care of him.
Adam skeptically begins going to the young and inexperienced therapist, Katie McCay (Anna Kendrick), and although their relationship and sessions begin with a rocky start, he slowly begins to open up to her about his disease and how it is affecting him. The two develop a rapport both in and outside of their sessions, as the lines between doctor-patient and friends begins to blur. During chemo treatments, Adam also befriends Alan (Philip Baker Hall) and Mitch (Matt Frewer), two older cancer patients who give him perspective on life, love, and illness. Meanwhile, Kyle attempts to keep Adam’s spirits high, which includes using his illness as a way to pick up women. He also uses his friend’s illness to his own advantage, to Adam’s annoyance. On a date with a woman he met through these means, Kyle sees Rachael kissing another man and tells Adam, who proceeds to break up with her, despite her excuses and protestations.
Although Adam at first claims to everyone that he is fine and handling his disease well, his composure slowly begins to unravel as the realities and seriousness of his illness become increasingly sharper. When the doctor informs him that his body is not responding to the chemotherapy and his only option is dangerous surgery, he is forced to emotionally confront his situation, and figure out what and who in his life is truly important to him.

Normally I wouldn’t go to a Seth Rogen movie because he is stupidly irritating. I was talked into going to see this one with some friends and it wasn’t bad. A more serious plotline with some poignant moments.

Rating: 2.9 out of 5.

Josh Kovacs is the building manager of The Tower, a high-rise luxury apartment complex on Central Park West in New York City whose employees include concierge Charlie, his brother in law; Enrique, an elevator operator; Lester, the doorman nearing retirement; Odessa, a maid; and Miss Iovenko, who furtively studies for her bar exam at work.
One morning Josh sees what appears to be a kidnapping of Tower tenant and wealthy businessman Arthur Shaw. Josh gives chase and almost catches him when he is clotheslined by FBI agent Claire Denham. Denham explains that Shaw wasn’t being kidnapped, he was attempting to flee arrest, accused of running a Ponzi scheme. Josh tells the Tower staff about Shaw’s arrest and explains that he gave Shaw their pension fund to invest, and their money is gone. Josh, Charlie and Enrique visit Shaw, under house arrest in his penthouse apartment. Josh tells Shaw that Lester attempted suicide after losing everything he had. Shaw expresses condolences but appears insincere. Josh responds by destroying the windows of a Ferrari 250 Shaw has on display in his apartment. The building’s owner is furious at Josh’s action and fires Josh, Charlie and Enrique.
Josh meets Denham at a bar and she invites him to get drunk. As they drink she says Shaw must have had a cash safety net and suggests in jest that he find and steal it. Josh gathers Charlie, Enrique, and former Tower tenant Mr. Fitzhugh to draw up a plan to steal Shaw’s money. Charlie brings up the obvious drawback that they are not thieves. Josh hires his neighbor, a petty criminal named Slide, to help. Slide trains the team but realizes he cannot do the robbery because he doesn’t know how to crack the safe in Shaw’s apartment. They bring in Odessa, whose family ran a locksmith business. Charlie tells Josh he’s been rehired as the Tower’s new manager, and Charlie warns Josh to stay away or he will have him arrested. Denham then tells Josh that a hearing for Shaw has been scheduled for Thanksgiving during the Macy’s Day Parade to avoid publicity, and Shaw will go free. Josh and his team decide to break into Shaw’s apartment during the parade.
The team reaches Shaw’s apartment, breaks down a false wall and finds Shaw’s safe behind it; Odessa opens the safe but finds it empty. Slide and Fitzhugh struggle for Slide’s gun; the gun goes off and a bullet hits the car, revealing gold underneath the Ferrari’s paint. They realize Shaw invested his cash in gold, had the gold melted down and cast into car parts, and then assembled the car in his apartment where the gold would be hidden in plain sight. Josh finds a ledger of Shaw’s illegal finances in the car’s glove box. They lower the car out the window into Fitzhugh’s old apartment six floors below, and then take it down to the lobby on top of an elevator. Just as they reach the lobby Agent Denham and Shaw return and take the same elevator back up. Denham sees Shaw’s safe and informs him that he did not declare the safe on an inventory of items taken when he was arrested, which is a violation of the conditions of his bail. She has him remanded back into custody.
Denham sees Lester using a stolen truck to try to escape from the building. She catches up to him, assuming he is fleeing with the Ferrari, but finds the truck empty. The FBI arrests him and Josh’s other accomplices. She personally handcuffs Josh and privately congratulates him. As Josh is being questioned by the FBI, Miss Iovenko arrives, telling the FBI that she passed her bar exam three days ago and is acting as Josh’s attorney. She shows them Shaw’s ledger and tells them she will turn it over in exchange for everyone’s freedom. The FBI accepts on the condition that Josh, being the primary conspirator, must serve a minimal two-year sentence.
The team retrieves the car from its hiding place in Shaw’s rooftop pool and send various parts of the car to Tower employees to compensate for their lost pensions. As the movie ends Shaw begins his life sentence and Josh is booked into jail, a satisfied smile slowly forming on his face.

Typical Ben Stiller movie with a good cast. Entertaining and predictable. Definitely a good matinee movie.

Rating: 3.9 out of 5.