absnow54

Finally watched Nine Lives of Christmas. I agree with everyone else, it's such a refreshing romance for a Christmas movie! Especially since they get rid of the big bad OTT romantic rival in the first 30 minutes.

I found that Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska followed the same formula. Manic pixie dream girl corrupts shy awkward kid, MPDG disappears under mysterious circumstances, shy akward guy obsesses over finding her, sidekick that should be played by Josh Hutcherson gets the best lines (side note, I've never so vividly fancasted an actor while reading a book as I did Josh Hutcherson as the Colonel in Looking for Alaska, I'm actually fearing casting announcements when they come out, because I know my dreams will be dashed.) I loved Paper Towns, but I'm surprised that they're not doing Looking for Alaska first, because I think that's the much tighter story, albeit far more depressing. I felt like Paper Towns was a lot more about Q trying to solve a mystery mostly on his own, while Looking for Alaska was more of an ensemble piece. Nat Wolff is crazy talented though, so I'm sure he can carry the movie just fine.

The movie is terrible! But Katie McGrath is so charming, I can't help it. I can't believe that the Prince in that movie and Jamie Fraser are the same person. It's amazing what 30 pounds of muscle and red hair dye can do to a guy. My favorite Christmas movie is 12 Dates of Christmas, and while I'll be a Mark Paul fan girl for life, it's actually Amy Smart that makes me love the movie so much. She's so likeable in that movie.

Wow the television comedy category is insane! The only broadcast network to get their foot in the door is the CW!

I think the current cast lacks chemistry on all fronts, which makes it difficult to produce anything memorable. The cast is constantly going through transitions and some are bigger than others. There have been peaks in the late 80's, the mid-90's, the early -00's and the late-00's where the cast has really clicked, but with the exception of Bobby, Taran, Kate, and maybe Aidy and Beck, they've yet to really add any strong performers who can carry the show, and even then, they don't seem to collaborate. The girlfriends talk show is the only recurring sketch I can think of that seems to utilize more than one cast member. I know the 90's got saddled down with too many recurring characters, and then there was the era of Wiig, but I wish there were more sketches where every character didn't seem to be interchangeable. Nobody seems to have a personality and that's hard to connect with. Leslie Jones has been a star this year because she is beaming with personality, unfortunately her sketch comedy skills could use a lot of work.

I thought it was in bad taste because it mostly seemed to be mocking the celebrity phone hacking scandal, and James Franco blaming hackers on him hitting on minors on instagram seemed to completely undermine those who were actually hacked. James Franco made super sleazy and illegal decisions. Those women who were hacked did not. I thought the first hour was terrible, but the last 30 minutes of sketches were hilarious. My only complaint is, who wouldn't consider the lyrics of The Fresh Prince of Bell Air to be vital information? I was hoping when Jay showed up as Will that James Franco would turn him around and say that he was too important to leave.

The teaser had me pumped, and I hadn't done it in a few years, so I rewatched the full saga, and damn, I don't care how many times I've seen it, every time the Bespin rescue starts up in Empire from Leia spotting Luke in the hallway and telling him "It's a trap!" to Leia and crew reaching the platform just as Boba Fett is flying away with Han I am on the edge of my seat thinking "this is the time it all works out and they get away safely." I also love that each of the main characters fail to pull their own weight at times and need to be rescued. The heroes rescuing the princess in the first one is the most common of all tropes, but then in Empire Luke needs to be rescued by Han at the beginning and then by Leia in the end, and then Han needed to be rescued from Jaba. I just loved the original trios dynamic, because even though the trilogy is mostly about Luke's hero journey, both Han and Leia played equally as important roles. I had also forgotten how much fun the start of Revenge of the Sith was. Hayden Christensen was much less terrible and Ewan McGregor had flat out stopped caring in an entertaining way (Ewan and Samuel L Jackson are pretty much the saving grace of that entire trilogy for me) and they were actually on an adventure rather than sitting in an overly computer generated room having a conversation, and they actually generated chemistry, which was nearly non existent in those movies. I think a lot of the plot falls apart in that movie, and Padme is essentially just an incubator when she should have been planting the seeds for the rebel alliance, but the one thing I thought they did do right, was make me care about Obi Wan and Anakin's friendship falling apart. I still get feels when Obi Wan shouts "You were the chosen one!" Attack of the Clones though has only gotten more terrible with time. In fact, I'd probably rank it last. The asteroid chase between Obi Wan and the Fetts is fun, and there's Yoda's big light saber debut, but Anakin is soooooooooooooooooooo terrible in this movie, and the love story that's supposed to propel the entire saga is so dull, and the dialogue! *face palm*

In Insurgent there's almost a love triangle with Peter. I mean if you already have Miles Teller, and he already has built in chemistry with Shailene, and the other dude she made a romance movie with is currently playing her brother... I always thought it was implied that Peter liked Tris through Insurgent, but that gets dropped in the third book when he's just sort of there. Also, I may have been rooting for them to get together because I'm a sucker for that trope.

I've read some interesting arguments that even if Katniss were white, in her time, someone with olive skin, black hair and gray eyes was equivalent to a person of color, so casting a woman of color would have been a more appropriate representation, even though she was described as racially ambiguous. There's a distinct class system in District 12 with blond hair/blue eyed merchants who cater to political officials, and the black hair/gray eyed seam class who live in poverty and work dangerous jobs in the mines. The lottery they use for the reaping system is skewed in the merchant class's favor because the country's version of welfare is to put your kid's name in the bowl more times in exchange for food. Therefore it's highly more likely that a kid from the seam is going to get reaped every year and according to the book, that's usually the case. Peeta and Prim getting reaped is an anomaly. They chose to ignore the racial divide in the movie, which is unfortunate, because with all the debates going on about White Privilege, I think it's very relevant.

I think the biggest issue with Episodes 1-3 was that Lucas was more interested in the visual effects than he was in telling a story. Yes, actors can do fine in front of a green screen, but when you hand them a script that has stilted dialogue and the only direction notes you can give is "faster" and "louder", you're not going to get the best performance. Yes, actors have to pretend, but to make a movie work, they all have to be on the same page, and in my opinion, Lucas failed to give them that page. That's not to say that his directing was the entirety of the problem. Hayden Christensen was pretty terrible at everything but walking menacingly. As for the CGI, I think there's a balance. It's a space movie, so there's going to be special effects, and George Lucas set the bar with his imaginative effects and has been raising it ever since. It wouldn't be Star Wars without those sorts of effects. Too much CGI territory, to me, is when 90% of the sets and characters have to be CGI. The original trilogy felt more grounded because the actors were in the snow or the trees or the desert. They were effected by the elements, they gave visceral reactions because they were witnessing things. You could pay attention to what they were doing because there weren't 400 other critters taking up the frame. I think some of the tweaks Lucas made to the visual effects in the earlier trilogy worked. He added life to some scenes that were originally barren, so I do think that it has a place in the films, but again, he was building on scenes that were filmed in natural environments, and not worlds created entirely through a computer.

This teaser played before Mockingjay, and I found it to be such an interesting contrast, because critic's biggest complaints with Mockingjay was that Katniss was too mopey and not badass enough, and there wasn't enough action. The Insurgent teaser seemed to be the definition of what they were looking for.

I'm on the fence about the split. I do agree that this movie was longer than it needed to be and found that every scene could probably have been trimmed by about 2 minutes, but at the same time, I found the first two movies to be too rushed and a bit incoherent story telling wise. The first film does a great job setting up the universe, but then barrels through the second half of the Game, which is the catalyst for the entire series, and has made so much of the story feel undeserved (the berry scene was a joke.) I thought the second movie rushed through establishing the growing revolution too. I don't think it necessarily called for having 2 films per each relatively short book, but I did appreciate the breathing room that Mockingjay Pt 1 allowed. I found it easier to connect and sympathize with Katniss than I had previously, and I understood the relationships she shared with all the supporting characters much better as well, especially her relationship with Peeta, which had been previously lacking. Maybe they could have done a LotR extended cut, but obviously, with this type of franchise, they're going to milk the box office for all its worth with 2 films (side eyes The Hobbit's 3 - 3 hour movies off a 300 page book) I don't get it. I thought he was decent in some of his scenes, but often when he was in the background, he'd be making this face, and I would erupt with laughter. I've seen Liam be funny in a handful of interviews, but I've yet to see him be charismatic. So strange.

I think a 20 year time jump is really difficult to adapt to television. Jamie goes from a baby faced kid to the father of a 20 year old in one season. It's one thing to read it, but it's another to expect casual viewers to go along with such extreme time lapses. I've watched many a Soap Opera, and extreme aging of some characters while others look the same can be difficult to follow. I'm not saying that it won't work, I have faith in this production team, but I think that plot point is a huge detriment to the adaptation.

I agree that splitting Mockingjay is one that doesn't necessarily make sense, but is a split that will definitely earn the studio money. The series is a world wide phenomena and Jennifer Lawrence's star power has shot the franchise into the stratosphere. They could probably film her reading the phone book and still make a profit. I think Shailene Woodley has talent and draw as well, but Divergent is a much weaker story, and as mentioned Allegiant is a very polarizing book (and in my experience, a deal breaker for a lot of readers who were on the fence about the story.) There were a lot of YA films being launched last year, The Mortal Instruments, Vampire Academy, Beautiful Creatures... but none seemed to stick. Divergent was the first in the genre to make some money back, and with The Hunger Games ending in 2015, I think they wanted to capitalize on the remaining franchise. Honestly, I'd be surprised if Insurgent made all its money back let alone any of the Allegiant films. Divergent had some momentum, but it was never Twilight or Hunger Games worthy.

Plutarch will still be in Part 2. They filmed both parts at the same time, and PSH only had two major scenes left to film, one of which we saw in the first movie. It was the scene where Katniss receives Cinna's sketches. Originally Plutarch was supposed to be there as well, but they gave all his lines to Effie.

They play the line "Where the dead man told his lover to flee" right before Peeta told her that the Capitol was coming and they'd be dead by morning, which I think was very deliberate. You could see Finnick's schedule tattoo in most scenes, but they never explained what it was for. I think it was more of a shout out to book fans than anything. That was a huge cat too! I couldn't believe that Gale didn't carry it! Prim was really struggling. And if I were Katniss I would have been shouting at her to "drop the fucking cat!" as the countdown rang out. It was a bit ridiculous how calm the cat was, because there's nothing cats love more than loud noises and water!

That actually makes sense, because in that scene, Effie has this odd line where she compares "old is new" to democracy, which seemed really out of character for her. I also noticed there was some weird editing in Plutarch's scenes where there would be coverage of Coin or Katniss while he was speaking because I assume they didn't have the footage they wanted featuring him. It's so tragic, and I'm glad they didn't try to CG his performance instead. He really was the highlight of this film.

I hated the song in the book because they wouldn't shut up about it being a metaphor and every character was trying to make it about themselves, but my God, in the movie? It was incredible. The song is so haunting, and the way they used it in the film was stunning. They somehow managed to take everything I disliked about the book and made me love it.

I got to see Mockingjay Part 1 last night at an advance screening, and while the book -- the first half specifically -- is probably my least favorite in the series, the movie was really well done. I remember getting frustrated with Katniss through Mockingjay, but Jennifer Lawrence's performance really embodies her struggle and gives her sympathy I couldn't originally connect with. The performances all around were a step up from the last one. I found in Catching Fire that a lot of people seemed to be delivering flat lines and more or less phoning it in, I hate to say it, but PSH especially. I found in Catching Fire that he played Plutarch with too much menace, but in Mockingjay he finds Plutarch's panache for theatrics and his ignorance as a Capitol citizen is finally on display, and I think that's thanks to Julianne Moore, whose subtle and understated performance as Coin really elevates the film. I was worried about Liam Hemsworth's acting chops, since this is the first film that depends on him to carry more than one or two scenes, but I was pleasantly surprised (he even had a comedic line that had the whole theater laughing!) he was still weak in a few scenes, but he delivered when needed. Josh Hutcherson had far less to do in this movie, and while his early scenes were fine, the preview of what's yet to come from him in Part 2 made me really excited. I also found that while they barely shared any scenes, the chemistry between Josh and Jen was much stronger in this movie than the past two. They played star crossed very well. The dialogue in Mockingjay is also very smart. It was funny in all the right places (Elizabeth Banks again steals the movie) and the political/war strategy was concise without being too blunt or too pretentious, which is a hard balance to find. I found some of the action sequences to drag a little longer than necessary for suspense, but this movie wasn't just made for book readers, so I can see how it could be a nail biter for those who don't know what comes next. The only thing I was disappointed in was

Let's be real though, no one is showing up in those movies for anything more than a paycheck. I think Josh has made a lot of great kids movies -- Little Manhattan, Zathura, Bridge to Terrebithea -- and I know the Journey movies make a decent amount of money, but I don't think the sequels are doing anything good for his career. I just saw Mockingjay Part 1, and if early indications are accurate, Part 2 may be a breakout for him.

I went into this movie a few weeks ago after only seeing the trailer and I didn't know at all what to expect. If you explain the premise, the film seems so simple and mundane, but my God, JK Simmons performance is so gentle yet menacing, every single scene left me on edge because I had no idea what he was going to do next. And Miles Teller's quest for his approval was so hard to watch because it was so relateable and even though I was begging for him to get out, I was also rooting so much for him to win. This movie was such a roller coaster. I had more anxiety watching it than any high action thriller I've seen in years. Amazing performances. Amazing overall.

Liam really lacks the charisma that will make him a leading man. I saw him in some interviews with Woody Harrelson last year and he really is quite funny. Maybe he can make a career out of playing the straight man in romantic comedies, or he can just ditch the whole pretty boy thing and go for dark comedies. I don't think Hemsworth or Hutcherson have benefited much from the Hunger Games craze. Liam's made a handful of flops and Josh doesn't seem to have anything lined up beyond Mockingjay. I'm sure he's probably looking for adult roles, but with the new craze on John Green films, I think Josh would fit in really well with the smart talking teen characters that Green writes. Sam Claflin is the biggest wild card from the Hunger Games series right now. He's failed to make a splash in his earlier franchise work, and the marketing hasn't focused on him much for Mockingjay when this film should be huge for him. I guess Me Before You could be his breakout role.

Shouldn't Jamie have been strapped for the whole incident with the deserters then? Jamie and Claire are both making really bad decisions, but Claire is the one that is being punished. Jamie promised Claire that with his name she'd be protected, and after he failed to protect her against an attempted rape, he promptly abandoned her in the forest with the C-team of guards. The circumstances weren't much better in the book (in some cases they were worse since he flat out left her alone) but at least there was time between the attempted rape and Jamie's meeting with Horrocks for Claire and Jamie to both come to terms with the attack and for them to be on the same page again. The way it played out on screen, however, makes Jamie look really shitty for beating her after she ran away without taking responsibility for his own stupid choices. It's not like Claire ran away to Fort William and then realized in hindsight that that was a bad idea. She was actively being targeted by red coats, and the clan -- after promising to protect her -- left her in an area with heavy red coat traffic. It's not like she ventured far from where they left her. She was wondering around in a daze, so unless Willy was having a serious bowel movement, she couldn't have gotten too far to completely shake him. Placing the danger of the Fort William rescue firmly on Claire's shoulders is ridiculous because everyone's got a hand in the "bad decision" pot, and I hate the strapping scene because it makes it seem like it's all Claire's fault when it wasn't.

I found Apples weirdly hilarious. When he tossed the pic and it made a huge splash I couldn't stop laughing. What I didn't need to see was Woody groping up Jennifer Lawrence's leg. I think even she was caught off guard by that. That monologue was out of control, but I love The Hunger Games movies and the cast, so I was glad to see them all drop by. During the goodbyes, focus on Liam Hemsworth and Leslie Jones. Taran's McConaughey was the highlight for me. His WTF tangents are the best.