REVIEW: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (2012): Dir. Gary Ross. Written by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray. Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins. Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland and Wes Bentley. Rated PG-13 (Surprisingly gruesome violence). Running time: 142 minutes.

3 stars (out of four)
 

“May the odds be ever in your favor.” This sentence gets tossed around a lot (probably a few too many times) in The Hunger Games, an adaptation of the immensely popular young adult novel written by Suzanne Collins that is smarter than your average teen craze. The irony of this eloquent bit of well-wishing is that the odds are illusory. Very little is left to chance in the battle-to-the-death blood sport that gives the movie its title. The shadowy figures who host the gruesome Hunger Games, a hybrid of Battle Royale and American Idol, carefully tweak their tournament to appease the masses that watch it on live TV.

Katniss Everdeen (played with unflinching stoicism by Jennifer Lawrence) is a teenage resident of the dystopian world, Panem, which is made up of a dozen districts and controlled by aristocrats in the wealthy capital. Some years earlier, an uprising was quelled by the government and as part of the rebels’ punishment an annual tournament began. Every year, two children from each district between the ages of twelve and eighteen – a boy and a girl – are selected at random to participate in a televised fight to the death. What the winner receives for coming out alive is never entirely clear, though there are vague promises of riches and luxury and (presumably) food to bring back to their famished home district.

When Katniss’s young sister (Willow Shields) is chosen for this year’s Games, Katniss volunteers to go in her place, an unprecedented move. She departs on the next high-speed train to the capital, leaving behind a handsome, platonic pal, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), whose clean-shaven face and impeccable hair suggest a Herculean devotion to personal grooming in the coal-mining town of District 12.

Accompanying her is Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), a less dashing but no less sensitive young man and District 12’s male entry. On their way to the capital, Katniss and Peeta meet Effie (a wonderful Elizabeth Banks), an enthusiast of the Games who is apparently oblivious to their lethal consequences, and Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), a whisky drinking former winner of the Games who mentors the kids on survival tactics.

Filling out an overcrowded supporting cast is Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane, the sinister producer of the Games; Donald Sutherland, the President of this Orwellian world to whom Crane answers; and a lively, blue-haired Stanley Tucci who provides commentary for the Games’ telecast. Lenny Kravitz also shows up in an extraneous role as the kids’ fashion designer.

There are a lot of characters in The Hunger Games and quite a few things to look at (including some beautiful photography from cinematographer Tom Stern), but it is Jennifer Lawrence who commands our attention. Ms. Lawrence, who has hop-skipped her way from obscurity to super stardom in less than two years, is a forceful actress who imbues Katniss with quiet intensity and dogged perseverance. She takes this character every bit as serious as her role in the 2010 indie noir Winter’s Bone, which earned her an Oscar nomination.

That is not to say The Hunger Games is a trivial tween fad. The fact that the violence (which we see in quick, suggestive cuts) is broadcast via hidden cameras for all of Panem to watch adds a fascinating, self-referential element to the film. Not only will Katniss need to be skilled with a knife and a bow, and be able to build a shelter and secure clean water; she will also have to win the affection of the viewers at home, some of whom are “sponsors” with the ability to send their favorite contestant valuable care packages of medicine and food.

So winning the tournament is less a testament to one’s strength and endurance than one’s ability to ham it up for the camera. Haymitch encourages Katniss and Peeta to play up a star-crossed romance between them in the hopes that this backstory may score a few sponsors.

The Hunger Games cherry-picks successful elements from other recent young adult fantasy novel adaptations – the tournament from the fourth Harry Potter, the love triangle from Twilight – but the live TV twist makes the movie more than another studio cash-grab vying for teen girl fandom.

In Twilight, a girl is torn between two young men and her decision takes four books (and five movies). In The Hunger Games, a girl who already has a thing for one guy falls for a second because her survival, both in context of the story and as a character in the franchise, depends on it. Author Suzanne Collins knows just as well as Haymitch the assured marketing power of a good teenage romance. The odds were in this movie’s favor the whole time.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/29/12

REVIEW: 21 Jump Street

21 Jump Street (2012): Directed by: Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Written by: Michael Bacall. Story by: Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall. Based on the TV show created by: Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell. Rated R (Non-stop vulgarities and some graphic, comic violence). Running time: 109 minutes.

2 ½ stars (out of four)

21 Jump Street has nothing to do with the late-1980s TV show, 21 Jump Street, except, of course, such trivial commonalities as their title and premise. Such is the state of Hollywood today. Stories are bought like brand names and sold anew to audiences. Sometimes these recycled ideas are marketed under the guise of an “update” or a “reimagining” and sometimes, as is the case here, they actually come clean about their motives.

In a self-referential speech early in 21 Jump Street (the movie, now), a police captain (Nick Offerman) informs two doofy, slacker bike cops that his superiors are talentless, uncreative hacks who have dusted off an old project from the 80s. They will go undercover as high school seniors and befriend student drug dealers in order to learn the identity of the supplier of a new synthetic drug.

A scene later, Ice Cube stomps onscreen playing the sting operation’s chief officer. He announces that, yes, he is an angry black man and that that is a stereotype and so what? He proceeds to point out to more stereotypes from the group of young officers who stand before him: the brawny, handsome dunce, Greg (Channing Tatum), and the short, insecure, brainy Morton (Jonah Hill).

So 21 Jump Street is quite upfront about its intentions, which suits me just fine, having never seen the TV show and feeling no particular reverence toward it. The movie preemptively dismisses criticisms that it is lazy or politically incorrect and sets out to make as many race and gay jokes, and score as many raunchy laughs as possible.

To the film’s credit, it is decently, if only intermittently, funny and I found it hard to hate its Will Do Anything For a Laugh attitude. The movie skips along as a series of just barely linked sketches and achieves its low ambitions.

Jonah Hill, who has convincingly transitioned from husky sidekick to the yammering, neurotic Michael Cera type he once played opposite to, is as good at physical comedy as he is fast-paced banter. But the movie’s secret weapon is Channing Tatum. Mr. Tatum wears his good looks with a shrug and believably embodies that charming high school jock who could get you to laugh at any joke, no matter how mean or dumb the punchline.

But his Greg, a former football captain, runs into trouble when he finds that high school cliques are not what they used to be and that the social hierarchy no longer rewards rowdy intolerance. The current batch of students is an eco-conscious bunch of Tweeters and their definition of “cool” is something more like “hip.”  This neat, little twist benefits the once-nerd Morton, and Greg finds himself on the outskirts of popularity.

The movie, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and written by Michael Bacall (he and Mr. Hill are credited with its story), relishes in subverting what expectations we may have of buddy cop movies, high school comedies or a decades-old TV show. For all its flaunting of the rules though, 21 Jump Street rarely does anything risky. Greg and Morton fall out of friendship so that they may fall back into it and their jobs are put at risk so that they may win them back again.

The movie loses steam as it plods through these weary clichés, though it does get another big laugh from a predictable (but still surprising) cameo late in the game. There are still twenty minutes after this irreverent jab but nothing else tops it, not even one last, disgusting gag that aims for the Gross-Out Hall of Fame but, for me, felt like it was trying too hard. Sometimes even the captain of the football team tells a joke that falls flat.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/20/12

Revisiting Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980): Dir. Irvin Kershner. Written by: Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kadan. Story by: George Lucas. Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams. Rated PG (A severed hand and some questionable father-son bonding). Running time: 124 minutes.

4 stars (out of four)

The Empire Strikes Back takes a good thing and makes it great. A select few sequels are able to pull this trick off. Whereas the first film is typically burdened by necessary but cumbersome tasks like introducing characters and establishing setting, a sequel has the opportunity to use its predecessor as a launching pad, a base with which the audience is already familiar, and take off in bold, new directions.

This particular sequel is fortunate enough to have been given a whole universe to play with and freely invents new worlds for its characters to visit and subsequently blast the heck out of. The planet-hopping begins on an ice world called Hoth where the film’s first act takes place. There, Luke (Mark Hamill), Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han (Harrison Ford) hide from the Empire in a secret base with their Rebel Alliance buddies.

The opening sequence concludes with a spectacularly exciting ground battle in which the Rebels just barely escape extermination. (The Empire’s small army of four-legged, mechanical colossuses is a highlight.) The gang is forced to split up and from here the movie follows two main narrative threads. Luke looks to further his Jedi training by seeking out a wise, old master named Yoda in the remote swamps of Dagobah. Meanwhile, Han and Leia, along with furry first mate Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and C-3PO, the pesky cyborg with a British accent, navigate the dangers of deep space after a close call with Imperial ships.

In a number of scenes, the film adopts a dark, grungy sci-fi style reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s Alien, released in 1979, one year before Empire. The Rebel base on Hoth has the look of a hastily built safe house – stray wires and power generators are all over the place – and maintenance on Han Solo’s prized ship, the Millennium Falcon, involves tinkering behind wall panels with a rusty box of tools.

These sets – along with the perpetually overcast and bat-infested marshes of Dagobah; the cold, metallic interiors of the Imperial Star Destroyers; and the industrial inner workings of Cloud City where the climactic battle between Luke and Darth Vader takes place – flesh out the Star Wars universe and reveal it to be an expansive place that is not necessarily always pretty.

Director Irvin Kershner and cinematographer Peter Suschitzky shoot these locations in a way that suggests much more of these worlds exists beyond the frame. A number of the fancier set pieces are filmed with a large depth of field, which allows several layers of background activity to be seen in a single shot. What was likely a limited set becomes bustling with life and action. There is always something interesting to look at in this film.

The movie’s success does not rest solely on its visual style though. The script, written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan from a story by George Lucas, is more sophisticated than the first Star Wars. There are gray areas between good and evil, and independent agents such as Han’s dashing pal Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), who picks neither side in the war and acts in his own best interest. But none of the darkness or complexity of the film dampens its sense of whimsy. Even in the face of the dark and ominous power of the Empire, the adventures of our plucky heroes remain lighthearted.

The romance between Han and Leia adds a new wrinkle of human interest. The flirtatious banter between Mr. Ford and Ms. Fisher could be from an old Hollywood romantic comedy; the wit and rhythm of their dialogue recalls that of Bogart and Bacall:

Han: “Come on, admit it, sometimes you think I’m all right.”

Leia: “Occasionally. Maybe. When you aren’t acting like a scoundrel.”

“Scoundrel? …Scoundrel? …I like the sound of that.”

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop that. My hands are dirty.”

“My hands are dirty too. What are you afraid of?”

“Afraid?”

“You’re trembling.”

“I’m not trembling.”

“You like me because I’m a scoundrel. There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life.”

“I happen to like nice men.”

“I’m a nice man.”

“No you’re not. You’re—”

They kiss.

The Empire Strikes Back is blockbuster filmmaking at its finest, full of explosions and excitement but also crafted with care. Far too many of today’s summer heavy-hitters seem to be going through the multi-million dollar motions only for the box office. What a shame. Here is a movie that does not take its profits for granted (and given the success of Star Wars, it most certainly could have) and instead sets a high water mark for quality in big budget action movies.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/20/12

REVIEW: Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012): Directed by: Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda. Written by: Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul. Featuring the voices of: Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Ed Helms. Rated PG (Corporate greed in a town called Thneed). Running time: 95 minutes.

2 ½ stars (out of four)

The people of Thneed-Ville think they have it pretty good. They live in a bright, cheerful town where everything is plastic and, in all superficial ways, perfect. Plants are artificial and trees double as street lamps. Lawns appear to be impeccably manicured but are in fact as smooth as Tupperware. Skies are blue and neighbors skip along with smiles on their faces as the “O’Hare man” goes door-to-door delivering jugs of fresh, clean, O-Hare brand air to every home.

In Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, a computer-animated environmental parable based on the good doctor’s book, one young resident of Thneed-Ville begins to question the manufactured harmony of his hometown. The film is the second animated feature from Universal’s Illumination Entertainment following the 2010 hit, Despicable Me. Directed by Chris Renaud (who also co-directed Despicable Me) and Kyle Balda, The Lorax is a relentlessly energetic kids’ movie that claims a certain reverence for its source material but perhaps is more focused on other matters.

The young Ted (voiced by Zac Efron) never thought twice about the way things were until an older girl he has a crush on, Audrey (Taylor Swift), opens his eyes to a bygone era when things grew from the ground. More than anything in the world, Audrey, whose tall, slim figure resembles that of a tree, would like to see a real tree, which, in the drawings of Dr. Seuss, are long sticks topped with wispy, colorful cotton balls.

Ted, ever the romantic, sets out to find one and his search begins by paying a visit to the Once-Ler, a mythic recluse who lives in the gray, polluted countryside beyond the walls of Thneed-Ville. The Once-Ler (Ed Helms) tells Ted the story of how he destroyed what was once a beautiful forest in the name of industry and met an orange fuzzball named the Lorax (a well-cast Danny DeVito), who speaks on the trees’ behalf. Though his own past errors cannot be changed, the Once-Ler reminds young Ted that it may not be too late for him.

In a way, Thneedville is a sort of version of the synthetic bliss found on the spaceship that was home to many bloated, complacent humans in Pixar’s Wall-E. But if The Lorax is a thematic cousin to Wall-E’s environmentalism, it is also the absolute antithesis of that film’s patient, thoughtful approach. Illumination Entertainment has perfected the style of their first feature in this one, which is less concerned with storytelling than it is with making sure none of its young audience members get bored.

Their method is admittedly effective. I saw the movie in a packed house of mostly children and their parents, and the kids laughed at all the right times. A lot of grinning animals pop up onscreen (and sometimes at you in 3D), usually accompanied by a funny noise or musical cue and the unexpected excitement always got a big response. The movie pulls this trick a lot, though. There is a sudden or surprising change in tone – a low baritone at the end of a high-pitched chorus of singing fish, a goofy look among a line of straight faces – a very calculated approach to comedy that rarely got anything more than a begrudging smile out of this Grinch.

But overstimulation is not the same as wonder and sensory bombardment is not the same as imagination. If The Lorax preaches a positive message about preserving nature, it also misses another, crucial message: Change does not come quickly and people are not easily swayed from their ways, an idea that does not mesh well with this movie’s hyper-active, low attention span antics.

Maybe subtlety is not the best way to discuss saving the environment, though, especially if that moral is being targeted at children. And what better way to deliver a heavy-handed, didactic message than with a colorful, zippy piece of kids’ entertainment. Of course, there is another, better way to deliver that message: the book. But I must concede that this movie does what it sets out to do very well. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that somewhere in Thneed-Ville is a movie theater showing Despicable Me 3 to a wide-eyed and satisfied crowd of kids.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/7/12

Revisiting Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977): Written and directed by George Lucas. Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness. Rated PG (Mild scum and villainy). Running time: 121 minutes.

3 stars (out of four)

Imagine reading the opening crawl of Star Wars for the first time. A strangely worded, yellow text drifts upward and fades into the stars. It references a war, a princess, an evil empire and a DEATH STAR (inexplicably capitalized) and the whole thing sounds like more than you’ve bargained for. But, really, how can you be expected to focus on flying words when music like this playing underneath them? Trumpets and strings and timpani! All that nonsense about a hidden base and stolen plans was a bit discouraging but it’s hard to resist the triumphant pomp of the score so, okay, for now, you bite.

The movie quickly recovers from a risky opening with a stunning first image and any hesitation you may have felt is rendered irrelevant. The camera pans downward to reveal a single planet floating among the stars. The camera continues to pan and you see a second, larger planet. Then another, the biggest yet, enters the frame and a spaceship soars, apparently from behind you, onto the screen. And just when you’re starting to think, “You know, maybe this movie will be kind of cool after all,” a second one, a real behemoth of a battleship, follows the first in hot pursuit, firing lasers at the little guy.

That the opening shot of Star Wars is still effective testifies to the visual bravura of director George Lucas but it must have been all the more thrilling in 1977 when the idea of a summer blockbuster loaded with special effects was still sort of new.

The first line in the movie is stupendously underwhelming. Inside the ship, as two classes of soldiers shoot laser guns at each other, a gold-plated humanoid robot says to a rolling garbage can, “Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor. We’ll be destroyed for sure. This is madness!” As if you are actually paying attention to dialogue at a time like this.

Okay, let’s take stock of what’s happened so far. There has been an awful lot of excitement but still not much of a sense of what’s at stake here. That robot just mentioned something about “being sent to the spice mines of Kessel,” whatever that means, but that seems a dubious premise for a movie so you decide to wait for the next piece of information.

And it comes quickly! A man in a black mask, black suit and black cape marches onscreen accompanied by more of that great music and he chokes a guy to death after a brief dispute over whether or not the ship has an ambassador. We have found our villain.

As the film continues, it eases us into its universe one step at a time. The robots, which are being called droids, land on a desolate planet with vast deserts and fall into the hands of a local farmer (Phil Brown). The farmer’s nephew is a pretty boy named Luke (Mark Hamill) whose idea of a good time hanging out with friends includes “picking up power converters” (we may assume that Luke and his buddies are intoxicated for such shenanigans and that this is way more fun than it sounds).

While cleaning the droids, Luke discovers a holographic message hidden inside the rolling garbage can. A beautiful girl (Carrie Fisher) begs for help from an “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Perhaps a relative of old Ben Kenobi, a hermit who lives in the nearby caves? That hermit, played by Alec Guinness, who brings some much-needed thespian gravitas to the film, turns out to be the Obi-Wan from the message. He tells Luke all about the boy’s father, a warrior from back in the day slain by Darth Vader (the guy wearing all black from the opening scene). He invites Luke to leave his dull life as a farmer and join him in rescuing the girl, who, as it turns out, is a princess.

Star Wars is a classic adventure story, told with a sturdy, traditional structure that is effective in its simplicity. The film hops from one lavish set piece to another, each new place populated by fascinating creatures and characters from Mr. Lucas’s imagination.

In its quiet moments, Star Wars is not so nimble. The dialogue is often lead-footed and Mr. Lucas is less self-assured in the downtime between action sequences. There are some light-hearted moments in these passages, however, often thanks to the inclusion of Han Solo, a smuggler (played by the irrepressibly charming Harrison Ford) who begrudgingly joins our heroes because the price is right.

In spite of its flaws, Star Wars has a lovable scrappiness about it. In the decades that followed its release, studios have tried again and again to replicate its success. But few of their slam-bang summer action movies have been able to capture the essence of Star Wars. George Lucas made this movie with a simple goal in mind. To entertain audiences and craft a film that would thrill and delight them. He did and it still does.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/5/12