The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Which came first, Lady Gaga's fashion sense or the styling of Panem's residents in The Hunger Games?

Picking up shortly after their win in the Hunger Games, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) are about to take their victory tour of the districts.  However, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) warns Katniss that her actions have been seen as an act of defiance against the Capitol and have inspired many to rebel.  She better convince everyone that her relationship with Peeta is real, or else.  As the tour continues, civil unrest continues to escalate, and eventually Snow and new Head Gamemaker (Philip Seymour Hoffman) decide that Katniss needs to go.  They throw a wrinkle in the next Hunger Games that the tributes will be picked from the existing pool of past winners.  None of the past winners are wild about this and don't hide their unhappiness with the situation.  As many of the past winners are older or have been out of the game for a while, alliances form as their best chance to survive in the games.  If you've ever watched a season of Survivor, it's pretty much just like that, except with better hygiene.

When we do eventually get to the action, there's thankfully no shaky cam this time.  One of the things that bugged me, and many of my friends, about the first was that many of the action sequences were ruined by shaky cam to the point where it was a little nauseating.  I watched The Hunger Games again just a few hours before seeing Catching Fire to see if I was remembering it correctly, and it's definitely there.  I have to give credit to director Francis Lawrence for this improvement over the first.  The effects were a definite step up, too.  With almost double the budget, you can tell a lot of it went towards improving the visuals.  One scene that stood out was where the tributes face off against a pack of baboons that looked much more convincing than those rubber dogs from the first.  Those things looked like the bad, mutated dogs from Ang Lee's Hulk.

It's a not a flawless affair though. The first hour's pacing is a little too slow.  I liked the politics and story that was being set up, but more than a few times I felt like they needed to hurry up and get on with it.  Also at 2 hours and 26 minutes, it's still way too long. This could have easily been edited down a good 10-15 minutes and not lost much of anything.  It's not like I was bored, or was desperate for a bathroom break by the end, but these issues are really apparent considering that the structure is pretty much identical to the first film.  In fact, if hadn't enjoyed Catching Fire as much as I did, I would have walked out of the theater saying, "I enjoyed Catching Fire much more the first time I saw it, when it was called The Hunger Games."  It makes me a little nervous when I see that the final book is being split into two films.  I know that's the cash grab these days, but I hope it's being done because there's actually enough material there, rather than stretching out the running time.  Overall, I liked Francis Lawrence's direction and think the series is in good hands for the upcoming films.  Anyone want the over/under at 5 hours for the total runtime?

The performances were a big improvement across the board as well.  Josh Hutcherson seems to have matured a bit since the first film, and Jennifer Lawrence keeps getting better and better.  I'm a little biased though, as Lawrence is one of my favorite female actors, period.  An observation I had after the film is that while Hutcherson appears roughly his age, Lawrence feels much more mature than her age or appearance would indicate.

Woody Harrelson's Haymitch was much funnier and overall Harrelson felt more invested in the role.  I thought that Elizabeth Banks showed a little more range with Effie, as you saw how she'd grown to care for Katniss and Peeta.  I was a little bummed that Lenny Kravitz didn't get more screen time as he was one of the surprises of the first film for me.  The PSH is always great, but we didn't get to see one of his trademarked outbursts.  I also enjoyed Sam Claflin as Finnick, as based on his poster I wasn't sure what to make of his character going in.

Two of the biggest scene stealers were Stanely Tucci with his campy and a little creepy return as Caesar Flickerman, and Jena Malone's sarcastic and sexy turn as Johanna, a former winner who never passes up the opportunity to tell you, or show you, exactly what she's thinking.  Malone and Tucci seemed like the two actors that were enjoying themselves the most.

Poor Liam Hemsworth.  He's still suck in third wheel mode while his brother gets to swing around Mjolnir.
If there's any issue I had with the cast it was that Thad Castle (Alan Ritchson) didn't have more screen time, and at no point did he mention the need to bone some sloots.  Such a waste...

On a side note, I know I complained about this in my Hunger Games review, but I still have a little bit of a hard time taking this seriously as I should with all the goofy, made up names given to these characters. There are guys named Gale and Peeta.  Other characters with names like Haymich, Cinna, Katniss, Beetee, and Mags.  Are these call signs from Top Gun?  Where are all the Johns, Daves or Jennifers?  I guess in the future, the winners were the people that name their kids stuff like Gunnar, Apple and Rumor.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is one of the rare examples of a sequel that's better than its predecessor.  It's an obvious comparison, especially coming from me, but this felt like the Empire Strikes Back of The Hunger Games series. With the exception of its length and some pacing issues, it's a definite improvement over the first.  Fans of the first film should be very pleased with what they see this time around.

4 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Expendables 2 (2012) - Movie Review

Do you like big guns?  Do you like 'splosions?  What about really big guns?  Wait, I said that already.  How about bad guys that can't shoot for shit?  Do you like testosterone fueled madness?  If you answered 'yes', then The Expendables 2 is the movie for you.  The Expendables 2 delivers on the promise that The Expendables didn't.  It's a blast from the past, combing all the actors and elements you used to love about 80's action films.  Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and the gang are back, and they're here to blow you up!

The story is typical action fare.  Ross is contacted by Church (Bruce Willis) to do 'one last job' and then they're finally even.  However, things go wrong, there's weapons of mass destruction involved, and now it's up them to fix it.  To add motivation, the youngest and newest member of the team dies in the process (sorry Liam Hemsworth), and of course, this was going to be his last job, too.  So, now they want revenge.  Typical stuff, right?

Stallone wrote and directed The Expendables, but this time around, Simon West was brought in to direct.  I guess you need the director of Con Air to handle the large cast and over-the-top action. The script by Stallone and Richard Wenk isn't what you'd call good, and it's not surprising that where the movie bogs down is basically any scene where there's no action.  There's some really awful, and in some cases unintelligible, dialog. But to be fair, you aren't watching The Expendables 2 for great, witty dialog. You just want to see how many bad one-liners they can throw into the film. Plus, it's really hard to hate a movie that goes out of it's way to make fun of itself.

Besides the dialog, there's a lot of poor editing.  They are constantly cutting between different characters and it sometimes is tough to keep track of what is going on during some of the busier action scenes.  There are seemingly endless waves of bad guys coming from all directions.  You'll see a guy get shot on a balcony only to see another guy pop up seconds later.  Where'd that guy come from?  Didn't they just get killed a second ago?  Is there a bad guy dispenser hidden somewhere?  It's like playing the video game 'Gauntlet' where if you don't kill the monster generator, they keep spawning.

There's not much of a point talking about the 'performances'.  These guys aren't really playing roles as much as they just being life-sized action figures.  You pull the string on their back and they say one of their trademark catch phrases.  They try to develop a few of these guys a little bit, but it was awkward for the most part and not necessary to the plot.  However, I did really enjoy Jean-Claude Van Damme as the villain.  I think he missed his calling not playing more bad guys in his career.  He seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself, and continues the rule that it's more fun to play a bad guy.

While not as bad as the first film, there were still a few guys that were underused.  Randy Couture felt like he was barely in it.  Jet Li checks out after the opening scene.  Dolph Lundgren and Jason Statham appered to have the most to do, but Lundgren seemed like he was sleepwalking at times. Maybe that's just his demeanor these days.  We also get a lot more Terry Crews and finally the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Yes, he's back.  Chuck Norris also appears as a teleporter, who had the ability to be in any place at any time.  This is Chuck Norris we are talking about though. Lastly, you have Nan Yu as the techie/sorta-love interest, but I felt her character was totally flat and unnecessary.  If they needed to have that character, I think it would have been better to cast that role with more of a smart ass, sarcastic type that wasn't capable of taking part of the action.

I know it might sound like I'm being hard on the film, but now we're finally at the good part.  The Expendables 2 brings it in the action department.  The opening scene is such a frenzy of awesomeness that I could barely contain myself.  Everyone was having a good time, cheering, high-fiving each other.  It slows down for a bit, but then picks up and has several scenes, including the climax that should satisfy anyone looking to have fun watching crazy action.  It's über-violent and bloody, but the use of CG-blood at times kind of bugged me.  It's a minor complaint though. The movie has so much testosterone in it that you probably shouldn't take a drug test for a few weeks after.  Remember when you used to watch a martial arts flick as a kid and you'd leave charged up wanting to take karate?  That's how I felt after The Expendables 2.  I wanted to go lift heavy shit, work the heavy bag, and then drink some beer.

The Expendables 2 is dumb, loud, but most importantly, it's a lot of fun.  If you're a fan of old school action films, there's a lot to like about it, and it's great to see all these guys back on the big screen together doing what they do best.  It's a nice way to end your summer with a movie you can just shut your brain off and enjoy.  Normally, that's a quality that I don't like to boast about, but this time I didn't mind.  Get the guys together, catch a matinee, and then go do some Strongman training.

Somewhere, Steven Seagal is sitting by his phone patiently awaiting a call...

3.5 (out of 5) Death Stars