Josh Hutcherson

Mockingjay Part 2

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
  • IMDb: link

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 concludes the adventures of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a dead-eyed girl from District 12 whose only heroic action over the course of the series took place near the beginning of the first film. I don’t know if the original books on which the movies were based are any good, but the films themselves are one (small) step above torture porn with the least-interesting love triangle ever conceived thrown in for good measure. Do we care who Katniss ends up with? Not really. And because the movies have shown her to be largely unimportant as anything more than a symbol it’s hard to invest any emotion in her journey or its outcome.

Picking up immediately following the events of the last film, Katniss licks her wounds and plans her revenge against President Snow (Donald Sutherland) for turning one of the men she kinda, sorta, loves (i.e. leads on) into a brainwashed killing machine. The fact that Snow is the head of a corrupt government with the blood of thousands on his hands isn’t much of a concern for our heroine who has decided murdering an old man with her own hands is the only form of justice she is willing to accept.

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Jumanji Reloaded

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Zathura: A Space Adventure
  • IMDb: link

Zathura: A Space AdventureDanny (Jonah Bobo) and Walter (Josh Hutcherson) are brothers left alone by their father (Tim Robbins) one afternoon, with their older sister Lisa (Kristen Stewart) ignoring them upstairs.  Walter is the the bullying older brother who has outgrown Danny and thinks of himself as more mature than his little brother.  Danny finds an old board game in the basement.  Zathura is a game about space travel and to win you must be the first to the end.  After Danny pushes the button the boys are trapped in the game as all sorts of things start to go wrong:  meteor showers, spaceships full of Zorgons, the cryogenic freezing of their sister, a malfunctioning robot, and a stranded astronaut.

One of the best decisions in this movie is to center the movie on the boys and their reactions to what is happening.  The director gets the bickering of brothers so good that in parts I wanted to pull out my hair to stop the whining.  Kudos, but I wish you had turned it down just slightly.

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Journey Double Feature

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Journey to the Center of the Earth / Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
  • IMDB: link / link

Journey Double FeatureRe-released together as a two-disc set on both DVD and Blu-ray, 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island star Josh Hutcherson as a young protagonist who discovers truth behind the writings of Jules Verne while looking for missing members of his family.

Of the two films, the first (co-starring Brendan Fraser and Anita Briem) featuring the group’s discovery of a secret world in the center of the Earth holds up better than its sequel (co-starring Dwayne “It’s Okay to Call Me The Rock Again” Johnson, Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzmán, and Michael Caine) and the discovery of a secret island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Family friendly, the effects of the two films and the magical settings of each might provide enjoyment for younger viewers and even interest them in Verne’s original works (not a bad thing), but adults aren’t likely to come back to either film too often.

[New Line Home Video, Blu-ray $19.98 / DVD $12.97]

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Catching Fire

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
  • IMDB: link

Catching FireThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire is very much a typical sequel with the same inherent strengths and weaknesses of the first film. Those who enjoyed The Hunger Games (based on a series of teen fiction) are likely to enjoy this one as well. And those, like me, who found the first film wanting will have a similar reaction to the sequel.

Picking up a year after the events of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) leave their separate lives to reconnect for a celebratory tour on the anniversary of their win. Despite little contact over the past year, the pair play up the lovers angle at the command of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) who hopes it may help quell the glimmer of insurrection Katniss’ victory began.

When Katniss proves unable to give Snow what he wants, and he realizes killing her would only create a martyr, the president reaches out to new game master Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to design a scenario to end both her popularity and her life.

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Not So Epic

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Epic
  • IMDB: link

EpicWith a nice pro-environmental message and a story cobbled together from a variety of sources, Epic is an inoffensive, if mostly forgettable, animated feature. Our protagonist is M.K. (Amanda Seyfried), a young teen struggling with the recent death of her mother and being forced to move out into the middle of nowhere with her absent-minded father (Jason Sudeikis) obsessed with finding proof of a colony of tiny 2in. people in the nearby forest.

Through a series of events M.K. accidentally gets shrunk down and becomes involved in the struggle of the Leafmen (an army of good guys protecting all life in the forest) trying to save the forest from the forces of Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) and the Boggans (evil creatures who are trying to bring forth the rot and destroy the forest). The death of the Leafman’s queen (Beyoncé Knowles) has given the villains a window which to strike where no power in the forest can stop them.

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