The Hunger Games (2012)

This book had me up into the early morning, trying not to wake my sleeping husband with my sobs. But this movie?  No.  Just no.

The only thing they didn't mess up was the casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss.

C-

Like Crazy (2011)

There’s a tremendously sad story here -- what should be a time of deepening love is, instead, thwarted by visa problems. It’s so frustrating to watch these kids who both love each other but also need a present lover “make do” while separated. It wreaks havoc on the lives of the surrogates and on their own relationship.

The last scene (below and, duh, spoiler) is a beauty.



B+

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

I was alone when I started watching this and I got freaked out at about the 40 minute mark...so I waited for someone to get home so I could finish it -- I just felt I needed someone else in the house, not necessarily experiencing it with me -- but I needn’t have bothered. There are a few jump scenes (a couple were actually “haha -- gotcha!” annoyances), but nothing I hadn’t seen before. I was also disappointed by the fact that several quite scary moments from the advertisements were left out of the movie.

This is merely OK.  Nowhere near as good as the first two. I mean, witches? Really? Bored, now.

C

Immortals (2011)

There were some beautiful visuals lurking beneath the omnipresent murkiness and I was really impressed by some of the fight scenes, but most went on far too long -- there’re only so many times I can be shocked at a dude being cleaved in two. Also, I was often confused about what the hell was going on; I think I was supposed to already be familiar with mythology (but I’m so not).

C

Hugo (2011)

Ugh -- until we got to the story of Georges Meiles, the real-life prolific film pioneer, it was boring, boring boring. I can't imagine it would’ve been helped much by seeing it in 3-D as that couldn't have made the story any better (though it may have been marginally more fun to watch).

C-