The Hunger Games
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- Category: Cinemabuzz
- Created on Saturday, 24 March 2012 08:51
- Written by slangards
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I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about Suzanne Collins’ book series called The Hunger Games. Though I love reading books, I’m not what you’d call an early bird when it comes to finding the next big thing. I usually only get around to hearing about an author when they start getting enough attention that studios are buying the movie rights to their properties. It happened with Harry Potter, happened with Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, happened with George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire: all books that I had no idea existed until Hollywood got its clutches on them.
I was determined to read The Hunger Games before I watched the movie, though. I had already heard good things about it and had seen the excitement that the announcement of the movie had stirred online. Thanks to my natural skeptic nature though, I wanted to see for myself what the fuss was about and decide on my own if this was really worth it.
It was.
The Lorax
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- Category: Cinemabuzz
- Created on Wednesday, 21 March 2012 06:44
- Written by slangards
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I didn’t read a lot of Dr. Seuss as a kid. Most of my time was spent reading Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic, children’s horror books like In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories (“And Jenny’s head fell off.” Fuuu…), or The Dinosuar Dictionary. Due to that gap in my popular culture education, I never even knew about The Lorax until Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures began marketing their CGI animated version of Dr. Seuss’ environmentalist fable last year.
I kind of wish it had never strayed into my circle of awareness.
If you don’t know the book either, it’s the story of a boy who lives in Thneedville. His town is a surreal wonder of Astroturf, asphalt, and plastic, and its people need to buy air because smog has poisoned the environment.
At least we’re told that much in the opening song.
John Carter
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- Category: Cinemabuzz
- Created on Wednesday, 14 March 2012 06:48
- Written by slangards
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Oh, man.
You know that thing where the trailer gives away everything about a movie, to the extent that when you go see it, there’s nothing left to be surprised by?
This is not that movie.
From the beginning, Disney’s marketing for the film was low key. You can tell from the posters that there are monsters in it, and that it seems to be set in a vaguely primitive, possibly barbaric, time and place, but that’s really about it. Sure, if you’re familiar with Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the original Tarzan novels, you might actually know that John Carter is the protagonist in his Barsoom series of pulp fiction stories that was first published in 1917.
Yes, you read that right. 1917.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
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- Category: Cinemabuzz
- Created on Saturday, 18 February 2012 07:38
- Written by slangards
- Hits: 1713
Words cannot express how much I loathe Ghost Rider: Spirits of Vengeance.
I hate it with every fiber of my being.
I despise it with all my heart.
Usually, it takes at least a few minutes before I form an opinion of a film, but this thing had me knowing that it would be a rough 95 minutes right from the get go. The first sequence starts in some generic Eastern European monastery with some high-tech monk spies led by Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Giles is arguing with Heimdal from Thor about what to do with some boy the audience doesn’t know from Adam.
Now let’s stop and analyze this for a second.
Haywire
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- Category: Cinemabuzz
- Created on Thursday, 26 January 2012 01:08
- Written by slangards
- Hits: 923
It’s feels like forever since I’ve seen a smart action suspense flick. You just don’t get a lot of movies like Sneakers or Heat, especially in today’s market where the big draws are the beefcake like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or Vin Diesel.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy testosterone-y movies as much as the next nerdy dork with no measurable upper body strength (sometimes even more than most as in the case of DOOM), but the films that I watch over and over again are ones like Ronin that require you to pay attention.
Get fed!