I apologize if that seems blunt. It is an incredibly fun movie, really, as you’ll inevitably see and judge for yourself. It is the culmination of Marvel’s comic book movie universe you’ve heard so much about. Yes, the Internet has been talking about it for years — four, to be exact — but so have Marvel’s own characters, every time Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) makes an entrance after the credits or drops in mid-movie to chat about S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top secret initiative.

But five sequential blockbusters and their compounding hype have elevated this ensemble pic beyond reasonable expectations. You would be doing yourself a disservice by walking into a theater believing this will be “the greatest comic book movie of all-time,” or some equally hyperbolic geekgasm. Despite being a hell of a lot of fun, Marvel’s flawed Avengers simply does not rank in the pantheon of truly great comic book films. Which is fine, of course, film making is not a competition. Nor should the very best be reduced to a Family Feud-style leader board. “Show me The Avengers!” Not so fast. Again, set reasonable expectations for this.

It should come as no surprise that the merging of Marvel’s moves is also an origin story. Only, this time we witness the origins of the team. Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the horned villain in Thor, warps into S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in the opening minutes and steals the Tesseract (the Cosmic Cube to comic readers) and a handful of mind-controlled good guys. Fury recognizes the apocalyptic threat and puts out the word to the various “Avengers.” One by one.

The beginning, for nearly an hour, goes through the motions of putting together a team and establishing Loki as a pawn in an interstellar scheme to invade Earth. The heavy lifting has been done on establishing the core members of the group, but each is introduced in their own vignette. Robert Downey Jr. continues to prove why casting him as Tony Stark/Iron Man was one of the smartest moves in Marvel Studios’ short history. Stark’s natural swagger injects a sense of playfulness to an otherwise scowling group. Captain America (Chris Evans) is ever the Boy Scout, just one without much to say. Bruce Banner tentatively signs up, except he looks remarkably like Mark Ruffalo now. And Thor (Chris Hemsworth) just abruptly arrives, waving off his ascension to Asgard at the end of his stand-alone movie. In short, the Avengers assemble.

This is where Joss Whedon comes in. Those acquainted with the “Whedonverse” will recognize the writer/director’s signature wit, including some well-timed combos between Iron Man and Thor. The “Buffy” creator certainly puts his ass-kicking-female stamp on Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), who steps up with more to do this time around and a minor subplot shared with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Black Widow’s expanded role and the introduction of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders from “How I Met Your Mother”) balance out this boys club, though naturally they are outfitted with skin-tight catsuits. Whedon deftly handles the team dynamic, too, as the egos jockey for position aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying aircraft carrier.

With the team fully formed, the second half surges with energy. The movie feels like a moving comic for the first time, or the realization of so many childhood make-believe sessions in which action figures would soar and crash. In this case, the superheroes scramble around the helicarrier. (This will undoubtedly be a hot toy this summer, but can anyone explain why there’s so much glass on a helicarrier?) Later, as seen in all the ads, the Avengers stand back-to-back in the oft-embattled streets of New York City when Loki and his Chitauri invaders strike.

In action, each of the Avengers is allotted equal screen time to basically do what they do best. Iron Man flies and swerves between buildings. Captain America leads and deflects projectiles. Thor attacks with devastating hammer blows. Hawkeye dispatches enemies with precision and impossible accuracy. Black Widow is deadly in close combat. And Hulk? Hulk %#&^@ smashes.

The third time is most definitely the charm for the green monster on the big screen and, despite looming in the background behind the pack, Hulk steals the show. Whedon understands both sides of Banner and the potential of Hulk’s size, but it helps that the character is no longer a fugitive learning to cope with his mutation. Ruffalo’s calm, collected Banner warns of the “other guy” multiple times, until his temper flares and the Hulk returns with a vengeance. Incredible.

Ultimately, the pay off is worth the wait, but palpable studio calculations and a sluggish start prevent The Avengers from being great and worthy of such high expectations.

source from: newsinfilm

Cast:
Liam Neeson as Admiral Shane
Taylor Kitsch as Alex Hopper
Tadanobu Asano as Nagata
Alexander Skarsgård as Stone Hopper
Brooklyn Decker as Samantha
Rihanna as Cora Raikes
Jesse Plemons as Ordy
U.S. Army Colonel Gregory D. Gatson as Mick
John Bell as Angus
Peter MacNicol as Secretary of Defense
Josh Pence as Chief Moore
Hamish Linklater as Cal
Adam Godley as Dr. Nogrady
Billy Slaughter as William
Reila Aphrodite as Sam
Stephen Bishop as OOD Taylor
Luing Andrews as Admiral Jack
Kevin P. Kearns as Jimmy
Brian Hirono as Myoko OOD Lt. Yokoe

Directed by Peter Berg

Story:
As naval ships from around the world gather off of the coast of Hawaii for annual exercises, a beacon sent into space has reached its destination, a planet with a similar atmosphere as Earth that’s sent five spaceships filled with hostile aliens as envoys. Creating a domed force field around a portion of the fleet, it’s up to the crew of the destroyer USS John Paul Jones and one hot-headed lieutenant Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) to put up a stop to the aliens’ plans to bring more ships to Earth and take it over.

Analysis:
There tends to be a collective groan whenever there’s news of a board game or toy optioned as a movie, and “Battleship” is going to give naysayers more ammo by showing exactly why some things really need to stay in their original medium. Those of you bummed there wasn’t a new Michael Bay movie released this summer are in luck, because director Peter Berg has come up with the next best thing by channeling the master of the big-budget summer blockbuster in bringing the classic Hasbro board game to the big screen.

As “Battlefield” opens, we’re introduced to the Beacon Project, which is trying to communicate with a planet found in another galaxy that matches Earth’s own conditions. We don’t spend too long on that premise before we’re moved to a bar on Oahu where two brothers, Alex and Stone Hopper (Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard) are arguing over the former’s slacker mentality that keeps getting him into trouble. Being in the Navy, Stone of course thinks that’s his younger brother’s only viable option. Oh, boy, is he going to get his wish. But first, along comes Brooklyn Decker, who looks way too hot to be found in a dive bar in Hawaii, but offering Alex the motivation to break into a closed nearby grocery store to steal her a chicken burrito.

As we spend twenty minutes watching Alex sometime after his arrest, now in the Navy and taking part in the annual RIMCAP naval exercises, you may start wondering if they’ve forgotten that the movie is supposed to be about an alien invasion, but once the spaceships land, Alex is sent out on a raft to greet the large unknown object jutting out of the water with some of his crew, setting off a chain of events where the alien crafts start firing large explosive “pins” at the fleet, quickly destroying two of the three ships caught inside the force field.

This begins the type of FX-laden action that most will be expecting, and for many, Navy ships and alien starships (and their respective officers) battling it out for nearly 90 minutes may be enough, but the lack of originality in terms of creating characters that aren’t overused stereotypes and a story that lacks any sort of depth makes it hard to fully enjoy it, even in the context of being a popcorn movie.

Much of these problems can be blamed on the choice in actors, starting with Taylor Kitsch as Alex, the slacker screw-up who in a matter of weeks seems to have joined the Navy then next thing you know, he’s the senior officer on a Navy destroyer and in charge of making all the decisions. Hard as it may be to believe, that’s not the most ridiculous aspect of the movie either, and neither is the incomprehensible thought that supermodel Brooklyn Decker could pull off a convincing military physical therapist. As soon as she urges a bull-headed amputee, played by real-life military man Colonel Gregory D. Gatson, to take a walk with her in the Hawaiian hills, you should be able to figure out where it’s heading and the part he’ll play. (The only clue we’ll give you is Cuba Gooding Jr. in “Pearl Harbor.”)

Liam Neeson, presumably one of the primary draws for the movie, is barely in it ten minutes at the beginning and then quickly disappears once the force field goes up, only to return at the end to take credit and give a big rousing speech. For that matter, Alexander Skarsgard also leaves the picture once the action starts, leaving things to Taylor Kitsch and his skeleton crew, none of whom really have the charisma to keep one invested in the story. These include pop singer Rihanna playing the sort of tough bad-ass female role one normally expects from Michelle Rodriguez, her primary purpose to shoot big guns and say catchy lines like “Boom” and “Mahalo MotherBLEEPer” after doing so. The other three main crew members are mostly forgettable military stereotypes.

The design of the alien crafts makes them imposing enough as they have a way of leaping across the water in a menacing fashion, and those “pegs” aren’t their only weapon as they also shoot out giant spinning gear-bots (for lack of a better term) that raze anything in their path. These cause a few problems with scale as the initial construct and the spacecrafts seem enormous, but they seem to shift in size as needed when shown with humans. At one point, one of the gear-bots threatens a young boy and it doesn’t look to be that much bigger than him.

Then there are the aliens themselves, looking like something out of “Halo” until their helmets are removed and they look like old hippies with grey goatees, offering some of the movie’s only problems in terms of the CG FX. These aliens have a simplistic system of determining whether something they encounter is an enemy by how they appear on their helmet screens: Green= good; red = bad. It’s that simple and there’s no real logic to it, which essentially reduces their menace. At one point in the battle, they find a way to replicate the Battleship game by having our heroes tracking the aliens crafts on a radar and calling out coordinates to attack, which just makes it that much clearer how silly the whole thing is.

As much as “Battleship” may have been director Peter Berg’s tribute to our fighting forces, the screenplay by the Hoeber Brothers gets so ridiculous at times it may come across like a slap in the face to that audience with lines and moments that will have you howling with laughter. That is, until someone actually makes a joke that’s meant to be funny.

Going into the third act, it pulls out easily one of the most ridiculous plot devices you’re likely to see all year, and it’s likely to lose anyone who has been on board up until that point. For reasons left unexplained, Alex and a Japanese officer named Nagata end up working on the same boat even though they clearly hate each other, and it doesn’t take a film school degree to figure out they’ll end the movie as friends.

That’s not to say that all the problems fall on Peter Berg or his direction. He does the best he can to make an overly glossy commercial-looking movie out of a script that never really works. It seems once someone realized this, they just kept throwing money at the movie, hoping the spectacle and FX would make people ignore the fact the script sucks. Special kudos should be given to Berg’s visual FX team, a list so long it takes up a third of the extensive credits, which you may or may not want to stick through for a final tag that’s relatively funny, though not necessarily anyone would hope for it to be a set up for a sequel, which invariably will never happen.

The Bottom Line:
“Battleship” isn’t a complete disaster and it’s doubtful it’s going to make or break any careers – maybe just the executive who greenlit it. It’s just not very good and another clear-cut example of a movie that had absolutely no reason to be made.

Essentially, it’s Hasbro’s classic game clumsily shoehorned into a movie that literally takes every single Michael Bay movie and squooshes them into a formulaic action blockbuster. It mostly falters whenever it actually references the source material on which it’s based.

source from: comingsoon

(Though, to be fair, the police’s SWAT team fodder only storm up fifteen floors “of Hell,” not the advertised thirty. Perhaps the tagline was dreamed up in the same Sony Pictures meeting that randomly tacked “Redemption” onto the title, despite the fact that it means and adds nothing.)

Regardless, each floor of carnage resembles a different level of video game violence and Evans deliberately escalates the bloodshed along that brutal progression. From the double taps and emptied assault rifles of Call of Duty to the relentless floors of bare-knuckle fisticuffs of old-school Double Dragon to battle-tested survivors squaring off in live-action Street Fighter. All topped by a nefarious mobster and an extended “boss fight” with a ferocious fighter aptly named Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian) that sets a high score for sustained physical punishment.

Fight choreographers Ruhian and Iko Uwais, who plays our heroic protagonist Rama, pummel their opponents — then ultimately, inevitably, each other — using a traditional Indonesian martial art called silat. Their stylishly choreographed combat, often set to rhythmic beats in its indigenous region, looks like a devastating dance of fluid movement and powerful precision.

Evans, who wrote, directed, and edited this ballet of blood and violence, chops the action in a way that gives it a clear cadence. In the U.S. version, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Joe Trapanese inject an adrenaline-pumping score that swells each time cops and criminals collide.

Rama’s quest to reach his brother and thwart the ruthless crime boss are simple, clearly cliched plot points, though they play like flimsy excuses to break stuff for 100 minutes. The characters are often even indistinguishable, literally numbered in the credits later, which matches the body count and bloodlust of B-movie action favorites like Predator or Rambo. Don’t over think it. Simply settle in, marvel at the physical achievements, and flinch at every gory finish. Of course, your enjoyment depends on personal preference. Would you prefer wall-to-wall action or a genre flick with story, motivation, and substance? There’s certainly a place for both, the way different moods strike the same person to enjoy Bloodsport and The Karate Kid. Though, narratively, The Raid is more akin to Die Hard, since they both feature a cop and a high-rise full of murderous henchman. Except Iko Uwais makes Bruce Willis look like a pussy.

source from: newsinfilm

Nor do I think it’s insulting to the legacies of Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Curly Howard to have other actors play the icons they created, any more than it was disrespectful to find a new voice for Kermit after Jim Henson died. You have to do it right, of course, and the degree of difficulty in doing it right is immense, but there’s nothing inherently distasteful about the idea.

No, any reasonable objections to the Farrellys’ Three Stooges will not be on the grounds that it desecrates a revered comedy franchise, but on the grounds that it’s not very funny. The screenplay (which the Farrellys wrote with longtime pal Mike Cerrone) has a workable premise — Larry, Moe, and Curly must raise money to save the orphanage they grew up in — but it’s hindered by something that might be an unavoidable truth when it comes to Stooge humor: a little of it goes a long way. The original trio made 20-minute shorts that were concentrated doses of physical shtick, unburdened by matters of character development or continuity. Stretching that into 90 minutes means adding supporting characters and subplots, rising action and interpersonal conflicts. If there’s a way to do that so it blends seamlessly with the simple Stooge aesthetic, the Farrellys didn’t find it.

Larry (Sean Hayes), Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos), and Curly (Will Sasso), in their efforts to raise money, are tricked into working with a gorgeous rich woman (Sofia Vergara) who’s looking to get rid of her husband (Kirby Heyborne) so she can run off with his best friend (Craig Bierko). The fellas squabble over how to proceed, and while squabbling is an integral part of Stoogedom, it’s supposed to manifest itself in punching and smacking, not in Moe separating from the other two and going off on his own. (Tender moments? In The Three Stooges? The only thing that should be tender is Curly’s forehead, after Moe drags a cheese grater across it.) That bad idea is compounded by another one, as Moe stumbles into a career as the newest cast member of MTV’s Jersey Shore. If you’re skeptical about Stooge humor being performed by a new Larry, Moe, and Curly, wait till you see it done by Snooki and The Situation.

Meanwhile, back at the orphanage — well, you don’t care about what’s happening at the orphanage, do you? Any scene that doesn’t have at least two Stooges in it is a waste of time, and feels like one. But for the record, the nuns are played by Jane Lynch, Jennifer Hudson, Kate Upton, and, amusingly, Larry David as Sister Mary-Mengele, the meanest, manliest nun who ever crossed paths with three hammer-swinging boys. There’s a sick kid, too, but whatever.

Scattered throughout the film and appearing at unpredictable intervals are a handful of solid laughs. When they’re not bogged down with non-Stooge matters, the Farrellys are quite faithful in re-creating the tone and flavor of Stooge humor, and every now and then a gag works exactly as it was meant to. The mayhem never builds into anything gut-busting, but it’s watchable. Hayes, Sasso, and Diamantopoulos do exceptionally good impersonations of Larry, Curly, and Moe’s voices and mannerisms, and they execute the slapstick choreography with satisfying skill. The actors obviously learned the routines the way a great dancer learns a ballet — through careful study and painstaking rehearsal, and probably a lot of ice packs — and the Farrellys give them plenty of wide shots and unbroken takes to show it off.

What’s strange is that even when what they’re doing is exactly like something you’d see in an old Three Stooges short, it doesn’t register a lot of laughs. Yanking your friend’s tongue or hitting him in the face with a plank of wood isn’t automatically funny; you have to work for it, and these guys know it. They have worked for it. But it’s still not quite there. Maybe it’s just that the original Stooges perfected their craft over the course of decades while these guys have had to take a crash course, but it also feels like there’s some intangible magic that can’t be forced no matter how closely you re-create the circumstances. (Remember that shot-for-shot remake ofPsycho?) There are individual moments of Stooge bliss to be found here, but everything surrounding them is a dud.

source from: film

Think Like a Man

Inspired by comedian Steve Harvey’s relationship-advice book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man and turned into an overlong screenplay by Friends with Benefits duo Keith Merryman and David A. Newman, the film is based on the principle that men will never do what women want them to do — which is, by definition, what they should do — unless women trick them into doing it. The women in the movie, who all live in Los Angeles and have jobs that do not permit them to have money problems, treat Harvey’s book like a bible. No matter what kind of gal you are or what kind of fella you’re dealing with, the current host of Family Feud has a list of tips for you!

Dominic (Michael Ealy) is a dreamer who flits from job to job with no long-term goals; his new lady friend, Lauren (Taraji P. Henson), is a successful business executive with high standards who must motivate him. Michael (Terrence Jenkins) is too attached to his mother (Jenifer Lewis) to make a girlfriend a priority; it befalls his latest, Candace (Regina Hall), a single mom herself, to show him how. Jeremy (Jerry Ferrara) has been with Kristen (Gabrielle Union) for several years and shows no sign of popping the question; Kristen, obviously, must take matters into her own hands. Zeke (Romany Malco), a smooth ladies’ man and total player, meets Mya (Meagan Good), who has decided she’s not going to have sex with him until they’ve known each other for 90 days.

These four guys have two other friends as well, a newly divorced one (Kevin Hart) and a happily married one (Gary Owen.) The former character is included purely for comic relief, enjoying his new liberation by spending too much time at strip clubs. The latter is here to remind everyone of the ideal relationship they’re all hoping for. I’ll try not to read too much into the fact that the guy is hardly in the movie and we never see his wife.

The four main couples’ ups and downs provide some modest laughs for a while. Directed by Tim Story (Barbershop, the Fantastic Four movies), the film might best be viewed as a glossy showcase for several likable performers who don’t often get leading roles. (I’m pleased to note that while all but one of the major characters is African American, race is mentioned only in passing, and jokingly at that. This isn’t a Tyler Perry movie. In fact, the script takes a couple of well-observed swipes at Perry’s formula.) Facile and shallow though it may be, it’s breezily inoffensive.

But it’s also drastically overlong, burdened by too many stories about too many couples who are too one-dimensional to be relatable. Even when the women’s suggestions are good ones — Jeremy really should stop being complacent about his career; Michael really is too focused on his mother — the men would rather lie to their girlfriends about improving themselves than actually improve themselves. Why? Because men are liars, duh. Meanwhile, the most serious flaw that any female character has is that she’s too good at her job.

And the overarching plot doesn’t make any sense. The women think the Steve Harvey book is a secret, even though it’s a bestseller, and are angry when they find out the men have been reading it, too. Why? Well, because it got to be that point in the movie where the women were supposed to get angry and the men were supposed to feel bad and apologize. You know the routine. You’ve seen sitcoms.

source from: film

Seann William Scott plays the dim-witted Doug Glatt, a bouncer and simpleton who finds his calling as a hired thug on a Canadian minor league hockey team called the Halifax Highlanders. Doug can’t skate, but he can take and deliver a punch better than anyone else, so he watches out for his teammates — usually from the penalty box. (Naturally, Doug wears the number 69, a sexual reference that is still hi-larious in 2012.)

Doug is a surprisingly sweet guy, more Rocky Balboa than Homer Simpson, but he’s so thick-headed that his Neanderthal bits are more pathetic than funny, despite other characters openly laughing in his face when he tells a dopey story. His inability to form sentences makes for some cringe-inducing dialogue as part of his romantic subplot, though Alison Pill’s dramatic line readings aren’t any easier to hear. “You… you make me want to stop sleeping with a bunch of guys,” she blurts from under Zooey Deschanel’s haircut. Of course, Doug responds, “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

It’s difficult to tell what’s supposed to be funny as it thuds out of a half-baked script by co-star Jay Baruchel and screenwriter Evan Goldberg (co-writer of Pineapple Express and The Green Hornet with Seth Rogen). On screen, Baruchel rocks a punk rock Mohawk as Ryan, the host of a hockey fan-cast who describes a gushing wound as a “face period.” Ryan sounds like a Kevin Smith character, immediately ramping into fast-talking fellatio gags and the heavily-accented attitude of early Ben Affleck. (Maybe it’s the proximity to R-rated hockey and Smith’s own upcoming sports comedy, Hit Somebody, which originally had Scott slated to star.) Regardless, Baruchel’s sporadic, askew appearances just feel out of place, even if this too-serious sports movie could use more jolts of comedic energy.

To his credit, director Michael Dowse understands the finesse and bone-crunching brutality of the sport and shoots more on-ice action than most hockey flicks (save Slap Shot). In the minors, the refs still let them fight, and when two goons square off at center ice to the roar of the crowd, it briefly feels like a medieval arena where men spill blood and teeth for their side. Doug is the champion who earns the thumbs up from the cheap seats, and, if he plays well with others, maybe a Happy Meal toy that will entertain him for days.

The rest of the movie is a bloody mess, an amalgam of influences ranging from Rocky to Adam Sandler’s skate-wielding Happy Gilmore to the ho-hum team dynamics of Major League III. A teammate with a porn ‘stache who never speaks again says, “Two rules: stay away from my Percocet, and do you have any Percocet?” It’s all over the place tonally too, featuring intense scenes with the amped-up coach (Kim Coates), a flashy forward (Marc-Andre Grondin), and legendary enforcer Ross Rhea (Liev Schrieber), followed by more dopey shenanigans and graphic violence. Rock-bottom for Goon is a sentimental down note where Doug’s father (Eugene Levy) vehemently disapproves of his life, followed by a spitting match involving the three leads and yet another fight… while the minor league playoffs hang in the balance.

source from: newsinfilm

They’re easy matches, I’ll admit. Big-budget adaptations of a popular young-adult novel series. But each have inspired generations of readers to become interested (or re-engaged) in books, and their movies are gateways into imaginative genres like fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Similarly, for fans, Hunger Games is very faithful to Suzanne Collins’ novel; a by-the-book port of the original source material, for better or worse. And, as the latest uber-hyped franchise, it shares the most with Twilight and Potter: The Hunger Games is “the next big thing.”

The story ominously begins on “Reaping Day,” which you come to learn is the annual selection of two teen tributes, a boy and a girl, to represent the twelve districts of Panem. Then, the twenty-four sacrifices are forced to compete in the televised Games, a last-teen-standing battle royal to the death. This cruel lottery, gladiator-like pageantry and violent Olympics appease The Capitol and its President Snow (a bushy Donald Sutherland), an oppressive “Big Brother” government that maintains strict social order with a rigged game and an army of military police.

Jennifer Lawrence, hot off an Oscar nomination for Winter’s Bone, plays another young adult holding a fatherless, lower-class family together. She’s quite good at it by now, and the opening scenes that introduce her as teen heroine Katniss Everdeen are tough and emotional. In her most heroic act, Katniss volunteers to take her sister’s place in the 74th annual Hunger Games.

Collins shares executive producer and co-writing credits on the film, so it’s no surprise the adapted screenplay follows the same beats as her book. The text’s progression allows the audience to gradually understand the hierarchal world of Panem and the larger themes at play. To the credit of director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville), he preserves the story’s steady pacing and deeper allegories, and the film is better for it. But what feels gradual to some may feel slow to others, especially during a first half that lacks Hollywood’s typical action beats.

The movie runs 142 minutes and takes its time establishing a rich world divided into 12 districts that feed huge Capitol palaces. Katniss and her fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are from a poor coal-mining region. Rue (Amandla Stenberg), an adorable tribute and surrogate sister to Katniss on the inside, hails from the agrarian District 11. Other tributes, pejoratively called “careers,” are specially trained and well-advantaged to compete in the arena. Ross, Collins, and co-writer Billy Ray deftly avoid heavy exposition to set the stakes for the reality show Thunderdome, while building the foundations of deeper character and themes.

There are a lot of elements in play here and Ross manages them beautifully. His attention to detail creates an atmosphere, like a gritty District 12 or the extravagant luxury of The Capitol, and you come to understand the overwhelming odds stacked against Katniss. Ross toys with perspective and sensory tricks to put the audience in her shoes — e.g. an ear-piercing whine after an explosion, sideways vision while she experiences a hallucination — while Lawrence executes Katniss’ multi-faceted role, ranging from a motherly type to a badass survivalist to a teen love interest. She acts some traits better than others, but we root for her regardless.

The experience is supported by an eclectic mix of actors physically transformed into oddball caricatures. Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks buried under pounds of make-up and colorful frills) represents the decadence of the privileged class. Stanley Tucci, nearly unrecognizable in a blue wig and fake chompers, is an exaggeration of the talk-show hype machine. Haymitch Abertnathy, a long-haired burn-out played by Woody Harrelson — hey, some transformations weren’t so drastic — is the sole survivor from District 12 and the encouraging symbol of hope. (Woody Harrelson as a stand-in for the American Dream?) Then there is the arrival of, ladies and gentleman, Lenny Kravitz. Sure, Katniss calls him Cinna, but on screen he is basically Lenny Kravitz with gold guy-liner and a passionate plan to make her look, like, so fabulous.

The actual Games themselves are just the violent, bloody pay-off, a mix of Running Man and the Japanese classic Battle Royale. Meanwhile, as the tributes run, hide and fight within the carefully-constructed context, each impactful moment carries more meaning now that we grasp the pressure, dread, desire, and hope of our underdog heroine, Katniss Everdeen.

If Harry Potter (and the Ensuing Franchise) was an inspiration for future fantasy lovers andTwilight is an introduction to supernatural worlds and gothic horror films, The Hunger Gamesis worthy of being the next big thing. Ross’ thought-provoking film serves as a compelling beginning to a built-in science fiction series ripe with dramatic conflict and allegorical subtext.

source from: newsinfilm

In the winter of 1991 (which is odd, because I remember it being spring/summer), NBC revived Dark Shadows.

Unbeknownst to them, a 9 year old discovered it, as did one of her best pals at school. (Hi, Matt Miller, wherever you are.)  They talked about it endlessly while swinging on the swing set at the back of the school playground. And while she can’t speak for young Mr. Miller, this particular 9 year old liked it because it felt so forbidden.  It was lush, spooky, and sexy. Barnabas Collins was a hunk in knee-breeches, and while she wasn’texactly into boys yet, he was what she wanted, and the stuff of a thousand romantic fantasies.

This 9 year old also got strep throat that year, and the nurse’s assistant who took her throat culture looked a lot like Collins, and that should have made her feel better somehow, but didn’t. It was kind of mortifying.

source from: film

Cast:
Kent Cheng – Di Ren Jie 狄仁傑
Lee Hiong Kam
Bernice Liu – Qing Luan 青鸾
Sunny Chan
Sonija Kwok – Cao Yue 曹月
Leila Tong – Shangguan Wan’er 上官婉儿
Wayne Lai
Rebecca Chan – Empress Wu Ze Tian 武则天
Lam Yi Kei
Raymond Cho
Claire Yiu
Matthew Ko
Lawrence Ng
Mimi Chu
Lai Kai Fong
Stephen Wong Ka Lok – Wu Yan De 武延德
Eric Li Tin Cheung
Stephen Huynh – General in the series
Queenie Chu – Empress Wei
Tracy Ip – royal consort name: Consort Qin 秦妃
Kwong Chor Fa

(credit: sehseh @ http://www.spcnet.tv)

Kent & Sonija = Husband and wife
Lee Hiong Kam = Kent’s mother
Lawrence Ng = Sonija’s son
Bernice Liu & Matthew Ko = Kent’s childrens from previous marriage.
Leila Tong as Shangguan Wan’er
Rebecca Chan as Empress Wu Ze Tian
Stephen Wong as Wu Yan De
Tracy Yip as Empress Wei
Lawrence Ng (child actor)

1. The series theme is case solving, it’ll take 2-3 episode per story
2. Sunny’s character assists Di Ren Jie (Kent) in solving cases and protecting important officials. He is paired up with Bernice, they are a bickering pair and often work together in investigation.
3. Deep in his heart, he is in love with Leila Tong. Leila’s character is famous for her literature talent and intelligence.
4. He read the scripts and cried a few times because it’s a touching story.
5. The series might be released the end of this year.

source from: asianuniverse

A fire broke out after the survey is very important to understand the reasons before they take precautions. Senior Divisional Officer Jiang Weizhong, and a group of colleagues Hongfa industrial fire investigation. But the site has been burned to the success or failure of tile investigation difficult.

On the other hand, the senior captain WANG Xiang-hua firefighters Ming Jie is still troubled Hongfa industrial fire a week ago. The Wang SIR hope to enlighten Ming Jie, Ming Jie has always been reluctant to heart the words of the. Female Principal Fireman Chen Qing, took her first task of the stress counseling group to join the Fire Services Department to provide counseling for the king of SIR and a brother. To talk, Ming-jie constantly recall the day and the SIR of the king and several brother TONY, the messenger and the new bar team eyesight Wang, “flashover” occurs, the fire inside the search and rescue scenarios. Flashover all firefighters are most afraid of experiencing the phenomenon, because the indoor reached very high temperatures, all flammable materials and gases burn. Firefighters exposure to which is in a real “sea of ​​fire”.
Ouyang, Senior Divisional Kwang is the commander of the day. The site is the fierce fire, heavy smoke; he continued to receive the news of fellow soldiers were sent to hospital, but did not recovered the last of a missing piece of good news, but noted that the site there is a risk of explosion. . King the SIR mandate of the drill to evacuate the people, but as much as factory workers do not want to leave, to make the atmosphere more tense

Everyone has a different pressure, a man a real man, if you want to bleed no tears, only the parties most clearly.

source from: asianuniverse