Topic: Rate the last movie you've seen

[Ceric]

I'm glad to hear that people liked Hunger  Games.  I'll probably rent it.  I hear it being compared to Battle Royale concept wise and while I have a morbid curiousity about that movie I haven't brought myself to watch that movie either  I'm just not big into kids fighting to the death.

[Oblivion]

Even though I've read the books, I was surprised how much violence they kept in the movie. Yes, they made it hard to see clearly because of the shaky camera at some points but i was still jarring to see a young boy get his neck snapped and the knife-chick getting broken by the scary black name whose name I can't remember.

[UncleBob]

Spoilers, my good man.  Spoilers.

[Oblivion]

Sorry.

[UncleBob]

Yeah, but you don't know how they die.  I mean, obviously, the main character isn't likely to be killed, but when she's getting attacked by psycho knife lady and the District 11 guy comes up behind her and saves Katniss, that kind of comes out of nowhere and is a good moment.  No need to risk spoiling it.

[Adrock]

Oh ****, that was a close one. Thanks for the spoiler tags. The Hunger Games is on my list of books to read. I have them after Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess) which comes out next month.

Anyway, I hear the movie is jawesome. My Facebook newsfeed blew up with good reviews this morning. I'm going hold off until I read the books. Then again, that's what I said when Memoirs of a Geisha came out. /fail

[UncleBob]

Actually, you know, I don't think it'd be too bad to watch the movie before reading the book.

[Kairon]

I personally have no problem with watching movies before I read the book. Frankly, that's how I discover a ton of books I've really enjoyed reading.

[Halbred]

Just watched "Game Change." It was really great, although Ed Harris used his left arm too much and didn't look like a corpse, but he gave an excellent performance. And the movie made me feel genuine sympathy for Sarah Palin, something I didn't think was possible.

[Morari]

And the movie made me feel genuine sympathy for Sarah Palin, something I didn't think was possible.

It's kind of like when you feel sorry that handicapped person at the store...

[nickmitch]

I saw The Hunger Games last night. I thought the story and characters were great. I had a few problems with the film though. For one, I can't stand shakey cam. It drives me nuts. I really didn't like Public Enemies (an otherwise great movie) because of it. That being said, it wasn't as bad as the camera constantly shifting, especially during the first half of the movie. I found the ADD camera angles to be incredibly distracting while the story was being set up.
Other than that, it was exciting; there was LOTS of tension; and the movie sets itself up for a sequel while wrapping up the current story very well. Only two "plot points" bothered me. The whole thing with the sponsors seemed absolutely pointless. I was wondering what the point of it all was for the first part of the actual games until the main character actually got some burn cream or whatever it was. The other thing was towards the end with the berries. It took me a while to figure out the the berries were poisonous and that the dude was about to eat 'em.
I didn't read the book, so I can't speak on it as an adaptation. But by itself, it was great.

[Oblivion]

Dude, they needed the shakey camera to maintain a PG-13 rating. No one wants to see 13 year old children getting their necks slit open by a huge knife with no sort of discretion shot. The best way to do this was through shakey camera.


You answered your own question with the sponsors. And it was established that the berries were poisonous when that one girl (Foxface) had accidently eaten them.


You should probably just pay more attention.

[UncleBob]

Yeah - to be honest, I'm rather surprised at the PG-13 rating with the violence that was in the film.  The footage of the past game where the one kid is bashing the other kid's skull in with a brick seemed especially graphic.

As per the two plot points, the book made much, much better use of the sponsors bit.  I think they would have glossed over it completely for this movie except (mega-spoilers) the second book - and thus movie - uses it as kind of a pivotal plot device, so it was necessary to set it up.

As for the second - I thought they did a pretty good job explaining that entire thing.  They didn't do much to set up that Katness was fairly knowledgeable regarding native plants and such, but it was a minor thing.

[Stogi]

I saw it tonight and while a good to great movie, I didn't think it was amazing. I'm not even sure I'd watch it again. I will say this however, the acting was superb. I was really shocked by how well 'Katness' performed. Some scenes you could tell the director wanted to say cut because of time but decided to just keep rolling. She deserves some kind of award.

Also, the scene where Rue dies...I couldn't help but think what her father was doing at that very moment, and the movie answered it for me, with genuine emotion and passion. I thought when Katness gave the symbol of the oppressed (that's at least what I called it) after she covered Rue with flowers and then the riot scene that started immediately afterward were the greatest 5 minutes of the film. Everything else seemed like a ploy to stay alive or let someone else live, but that moment -- where the father didn't give a **** -- was easily the most genuine emotion in the film. It stuck with me.

And yeah, shaky cam sucks ass. There are ways to show people dying without shaking up the camera. Just ask James Cameron.

EDIT: Oh and BTW, it's pretty unrealistic. We all know if it really came down to it, the black guy would win. Good luck finding a black dude at night in a jungle. Just sayin'.

[UncleBob]

And yeah, shaky cam sucks ass. There are ways to show people dying without shaking up the camera. Just ask James Cameron.

True... but there's something to be said about kids killing kids.  And the way some of them are killed - just brutal (like the aforementioned kid bashing the other kid's skull in with a brick as blood splattered everywhere, then he stood above him, clutching the bloodied brick).  My boss asked me if the movie was "kid friendly".  I said I wouldn't think so (his kids are like 5 and 7) and told him some of the scenes.  He was surprised, he hadn't heard any of that... and to be honest, I'm surprised I haven't seen anything about parental groups being in uprisings over the violence in the movie...

[Oblivion]

He died from the Mutts, dude. It wasn't unrealistic.

[Stogi]

He died from the Mutts, dude. It wasn't unrealistic.

First of all, it was a joke (not really). Second of all, mutts are possibly the stupidest animal they could have sicked on the kids other than penguins. They are surrounded by trees. Dogs can't climb. Do the math.

And yeah, shaky cam sucks ass. There are ways to show people dying without shaking up the camera. Just ask James Cameron.

True... but there's something to be said about kids killing kids.

True, I guess. But again, that has nothing to do with shaking up the camera. We all know those kids died, despite the shakiness.

[UncleBob]

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/hunger-games

Interesting - they seem to take a bit of issue with the violence, tend to be forgiving expressly because of the camera work, but then praise the film for the lack of sex, consumerism, and the fact that the lead is a pretty strong "role model".

I wonder if the movie had been more graphic with each death if they would have given it as much of a pass.

[Oblivion]

He died from the Mutts, dude. It wasn't unrealistic.

First of all, it was a joke (not really). Second of all, mutts are possibly the stupidest animal they could have sicked on the kids other than penguins. They are surrounded by trees. Dogs can't climb. Do the math.

I just have to say that they were worse in the books. Sorry.

[UncleBob]

If we're taking the books into consideration, then Thresh wasn't killed by the mutts..

[Oblivion]

I know. I think he was killed by Cato in the books.

[UncleBob]

There's some debate on that.  I agree that's what we're lead to believe though, but the author wasn't 100% clear on that.  And since the movie switched his and Foxface's death scenes, I'm reluctant to consider the movie death scene the authority.

[Kairon]

This is great. I don't expect to watch the movie for a good long while, so all this Hunger Games talk is one long conversation of black bars for me.

[Oblivion]

Well, there's a lot of spoilers.

[UncleBob]

Well, now we all know how we can talk about Kairon behind his back.  He'll never suspect a thing..