The Hunger Games

I was a little bit apprehensive about watching this movie because I don't have anywhere near the mentality or tastes of a teenage girl – but a friend of mine said he read the books and watched the movie, and thought it was pretty decent. I have to agree with him. The movie was interesting and well made. I like the fact that the movie was based on a book and therefore, I believe the development of the characters was very well done. By the time we actually got to the action-packed "hunger games" part of the movie, I believed in the characters and was rooting for the young girl to survive. Some parts were a bit hokey and sophomorish, but all-in-all a good story, decent acting, and some exciting action. I also found it interesting that the story revolved around a futuristic reality show – nice touch! Especially since these days we are inundated with reality shows of all types and flavors. Worth the effort to rent.

Shaolin

Some decent kung fu action, but the story is totally depressing! This 2011, Chinese kung fu film has English subtitles and all the usual exceptional Chinese martial arts action. It is available on Netflix. Unfortunately, the story is so full of evil, greed, blind ambition, betrayal, revenge, and sadness that it is hard to watch. "Spoiler alert" – everyone dies at the end! Jackie Chan has a small part in the movie as the Shaolin monastery's cook. He has one good fight scene where he tells the bad guys, "I don't know kung fu" but then proceeds to whip some ass with his cooking skills and strength. If you are a Jackie fan, then it's probably worth it just to fast forward to this fight scene and watch it a couple of times – skip the rest of the movie. I like a good kung fu movie made in China, but I prefer the more mystical or romantic storyline. Only recommended for hard-core kung fu fans.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Delightful! I usually don't watch romantic movies, unless I'm forced to by my lovely wife. But, this movie intrigued me because of its unique story. A billionaire Sheik from Yemen enlists the help of an ambitious young British woman financial consultant and an introverted British bureaucrat-scientist working for the fisheries department, to make his dream of being able to fish for salmon in the mountains of Yemen a reality. The writing is superb. The dialogue is engaging. The character development is what makes this movie worth watching – of course we know that the two very different British characters will eventually fall in love. But, that doesn't matter. There is some silliness with British politics and terrorism, but that can be overlooked and easily dismissed as I was drawn into the lives of the three main characters and their earnest attempt to make the project a reality. I recommend this movie for a quiet night alone with your "special someone." It's nice to have a light and uncomplicated movie to watch for a change.

Big Miracle

A decent family movie with a strong environmental theme – save the whales! However, due to the poor production quality, acting, and writing, this is probably only enjoyable for children under the age of 14 years. As an adult, I found it quite corny – the bad guys are overly bad, the environmentalists played by Drew Barrymore is poorly characterized, the Native Americans are stereotypical, and the silly/comedy relief is sophomoric. This movie tried to be Disney-like, but failed. This is quite unfortunate, because it is based on a true story. A family of grey whales get stuck in the Arctic ice, and a whole town rallies to save them. It's really a inspirational story, but unfortunately the writing was just too shallow to make it interesting for an adult viewer. I would watch this with my under 14-year-old children though, – by myself, I found it tiresome.

J Edgar

Boring, but well made and interesting from a historical and biographical perspective. Kudos to Clint Eastwood for taking on such a tough project. Good job by Leonardo DiCaprio, though he was not particularly convincing as an aging J Edgar Hoover. I didn't really know that much about Mister Hoover, so watching the movie gave me some historical perspective about his life and the early years of the FBI. I assume a lot of it was based on fact. I wonder if Clint Eastwood deliberately played down the homosexuality and cross-dressing part of Hoover's life. I guess I'd have to read the book, which I don't think I will. All in all Hoover didn't seem like that interesting of a person – hen pecked and overwhelmed by his mother, a perfectionist, analytical to a fault, power-hungry, ambitious, and paranoid. Well, maybe he was interesting? If he was, it didn't come across that much in the movie. I was disappointed.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Good entertainment! I didn't like the first Sherlock Holmes movie very much, it was too dark and didn't make the connection to the real Sherlock Holmes novels very effectively. This sequel, however, was much more believable and more attentive to detail and the character of Sherlock Holmes. The acting was good and the storyline enjoyable. What really impressed me was the action scenes were the director used extensive slow-motion and stop action photography – these scenes were spectacular! Visually they really capture the action and feel of the situation, but also they were used to show the intellectual and deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes. Very effective! Some scenes were a little bit over the top and "Indiana Jones" like, but mostly I felt the action and story was well done. I never liked Robert Downey Junior, he just seems like a smart ass to me. Always plays the same type of character. But, as Sherlock Holmes his acting actually matches what I will imagined Sherlock to be. The musical score was also used effectively and quite enjoyable in the film. If you haven't seen this movie, it's worth the rental.

Underworld: Awakening

Don't bother with this movie unless you have seen the other two or three previous movies in this series and enjoyed them. The story continues with vampires and werewolves... I wouldn't have watched it, except it was at the bottom of my queue and somehow blockbuster decided none of the other movies were available. I did see the first couple of movies in this series – they all seem the same! At least Kate B., forget her last name, is the best looking vampire ever. I wonder how they ever got her into that latex bodysuit. Some of the action is pretty good.

We Bought A Zoo

A good family feel to this film. I especially liked that it was based on a true story. Matt Damon did a decent job, and I always like Scarlett Johansson. The characters are well developed and the story is plausible and fun. Although the relationship between the teenage boy and the teenage girl was a little bit weird – perhaps teenagers are weird though – I don't remember. There were a few funny scenes and several tearjerking scenes as well. The writers and director milked the tearjerking parts is much as possible, and yes I cried a couple of times. I hate to admit that. Basically, a nice entertaining harmless film, a good one to watch with your family.

The Grey

I was hopeful that this movie might have some resemblance to the wonderful Jack London novel "White Fang" which I read several times during my youth and again just recently. Unfortunately, there was no resemblance at all – except perhaps a few scenes where the pack of wolves were tracking or attacking the hapless humans. The story is basically an airplane crash somewhere in the northern Alaska regions and a handful of oil pipeline workers survived the crash. They have to try and the hike out of the frozen tundra while a pack of wolves hunt them down one by one. Sounds like an exciting story if we cared at all about the survivors – which I didn't. Only the leader, Liam Nielsen, had any real substance. The rest were just stereotypical jerks or nerds. I think the producers couldn't figure out if they wanted to make a horror movie or a decent survival story. Anyway, they miss the sled on this one. Don't waste your time unless you're a big Nielsen fan.

The Artist

Black and white, no widescreen view, no sound effects, no talking – and yet this movie won the Academy award for best picture last year. At first I was very skeptical, I thought that probably the movie one the Academy award because of its novelty factor. However, the movie immediately drew me in and within a few minutes I found myself not even noticing the lack of conversation and sound effects. The music in the background was not overpowering, just pleasant and flowed well with the story. I did find myself trying to guess what the actors were saying to each other for a few minutes – reading lips – but that grew tiresome so I just relaxed and enjoyed the ride. The actors dramatic expressions and the natural action of the story allowed the movie to move at an acceptable pace. Some parts were a bit corny and overacted, but overall a well-made and enjoyable film. I'm not sure it deserve the Academy award for best picture, but it was a good tribute to Hollywood Land and had some historical value – showing the transition from silent films to Talkies. A thumbs up from me!

The Secret Life of Plants

Now that the Olympics are over, I'm watching movies again. This movie "The Secret Life of Plants" was done in 1979 and is available on Netflix. Once you get past the poor quality of audio and visual – this was long before high-definition! – It is really a quite intriguing and fascinating movie/documentary. The premise is that plants can receive and preceive energy, emotions, thoughts and feelings. Plants are actually conscious and perhaps intelligent. Does this sound a little bit like the movie AVATAR? It's actually quite interesting and some of the scientific experiments that were performed back in the 70s were pretty cool, groovy, far out, and awesome. I promise you if you watch this movie you will never think of plants in the same way again. Added bonus the soundtrack is done by a young Stevie Wonder – and he appears at the end of the movie singing the title song.

A Man on a Ledge

This was literally a halfway decent movie – the first 40 min. were engaging, well-written, and actually produced quite nicely. The plot unfolded at a good pace and there was real potential for a top notch movie. But then something happened? The director, the writers, and actors must've had a breakdown of some sort. Suddenly the once cool thieves became "campy" and almost silly with their off-the-cuff remarks and jokes, the villains became obvious and cartoonish, the main actor who was supposed to have a Brooklyn New York background suddenly could not get rid of his Australian accent. The whole film just fell apart in clichés and been there done that screenwriting. What a disappointment! If you got nothing else to watch, going ahead and watch the first 45 min. Then turn it off and let your imagination finish the film.

Eat Drink Man Woman

I was looking for a lighthearted but interesting film to watch when I found this in my Netflix queue. This is an old Taiwanese movie made back in the late 80s I believe. It is subtitled. It's a story of an aging father who is widowed and has three grown-up daughters that have yet to be married. The father is a master chef – the cooking scenes are spectacular, if you like Chinese food. Who doesn't? The daughters are intriguing and interesting characters. The plot and situations are stereotypical Chinese – the emphasis on marriage, the patriarch father figure, the gossiping neighbors. The story runs along quite slowly, but it is interesting and engaging. It wasn't until the end that I was surprised and delighted. I believe that if you have some affinity for Chinese culture you will probably enjoy this movie.

Safe House

This is a super action film, CIA thriller. The plot is rather common – rogue agent out for revenge. But the cinematography, directing and acting are excellent. The action scenes are superb, very similar to "Bourne Identity" style, raw and compelling – no special effects needed. Just good fighting. It is somewhat more violent, thus the R rating. Denzil Washington plays a great role as the tough rogue agent that is out for revenge. A role he has played many times perfectly, and does so once again. This time he does have a heart, but you wouldn't know it from the body count. Some of the CIA stuff is still cliché and we have seen or heard it before. But basically this is a great action movie! Enjoy it.

Rum Diary

Johnny Depp once again reprises his role as the friendly and intelligent drunkard. He really does this role very well... This movie is the story of early 1960s Puerto Rico and the writer Jack Kemp. I was mostly interested in learning more about this writer. The movie showed his adventures in Puerto Rico before he became a well-known journalist. The movie is fun and has an interesting storyline in most places – in others it's over the top and a little bit unbelievable. There are some really interesting characters in the movie. All in all a fair and enjoyable attempt to tell a different kind of story. I'm not sure I would recommend this to everyone, it certainly is not a family movie or an action flick. It's a drama, documentary, a lighthearted look at Puerto Rico in the 1960s.

INCEPTION

Summertime is a great time to dust off those old DVDs that you bought years ago because they were great movies. A lot of times you watch the movie again and think why did I bother spending 20 bucks to buy a copy of this movie – it wasn't that great in the first place! However, some movies on your shelf are truly GREAT! Inception is one of them. I recommend that you watch this one again! I was thoroughly pleased with the plot, story, acting, and action. This is really an exceptional movie. Leonardo DiCaprio does an excellent job, and the other actors are all credible and believable characters. The movie had me engaged from the very beginning and held my attention until the very last scene. Highly recommended!

The Set-up

This movie was absolutely terrible! It seems to me that some friends of the hip-hop artist "50 cent" got together to make a movie for him. Unfortunately, he cannot act and they apparently cannot direct, produce, or write a decent movie. Bruce Willis was even very disappointing in this film – I can't imagine that they paid him enough money to do this. DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!

In Time

A decent futuristic sci-fi thriller if you can get past all of the "time" clichés: "time is money", "just in time", "running out of time", "time well spent", "it's about time"... The writers use them all in this film. Justin Timberlake does a decent job acting. His female counterpart however is rather cartoonish, but pretty. The action is decent. Some parts of the story are a little bit lame however, for example, the so-called "timekeeper" dies in the movie because he runs out of time – sorry, spoiler alert. Anyway this movie is NOT a complete "waste of time." Keep your expectations low and you will probably enjoy it like I did.

Running the Sahara

A documentary about three men who participate in extreme sports, extreme cross-country running. A man from Canada, a man from North Carolina, and a man from Taiwan. They make great team and had participated in many races together. They got the idea to run across the Sahara. After two years of preparation and sponsorship seeking, they began their journey on the West Coast of Africa. They ran every day for 110 days, over 4500 miles until they reached the Red Sea. An amazing documentary and an even more amazing feat of endurance, courage and spirit. Very well filmed to show the actual logistics and difficulty of their journey. No political agenda. No product endorsements. Just three men challenging themselves to do something amazing. I enjoyed this movie even though I've never been a runner.

Puss-n-boots: a waste of time

I often watch animated movies, and I'm usually amazed at the quality of the films from DreamWorks and Pixar. There have been some really great ones in the past. Unfortunately, this one was a total disappointment. The animation itself was pretty good, but the pace of the story and the action sequences were just too fast for anyone to appreciate the artwork. Everything flew by in nanoseconds – making the animators work a total blur. Perhaps a six-year-old's eyes work faster than mine, and they could appreciate the visual aspects of the film. I doubt it. The story was totally unoriginal, when from the trailer last year in looked like it would be a humorous and original film. It was basically a ripoff from "Zorro" "Mother Goose" "Jack and the Beanstalk" "Humpty Dumpty" – you get the picture. In some previous movies like "Shrek" this tactic worked for gags and jokes – but they did not get in the way of the story line. In Puss-N-boots the writers got lazy and the ripped off children's tales became the basis for the entire movie. When I watch an animated movie I don't want to see the retelling and destruction of old children stories that I grew up with – I want to see originality! There was little to be found in this film. Don't bother, watch another movie instead.