Ajtlawyer Reviews

Carrier (2008– )

Great military documentary

[10/10 · 16 March 2023]

This is one of the best documentaries you'll ever see. Aircraft carriers are incredible war machines and it takes a crew of about 5,000 to run it. "Carrier" follows the USS NIMITZ on a 2005 cruise to the Persian Gulf in the midst of the Iraq War. The filmmakers focus on about 12 or 15 of the crew, most of them enlisted but a couple of officers.

Their stories are very compelling. Young people, many of whom join the Navy or Marines because they don't have any other realistic options. Military service transforms their lives, transitioning them from directionless teenagers to people living with a purpose.

There are several things that stand out in this series. First, is the tremendous melting pot that the military is. You lose count of the variety of backgrounds represented by the crew---black, white, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, gay, straight, male, female, Texan, California surfer, small town Americans, farm kids, you name it. All of them put together ono one team with a mission to wage war against the countries enemies.

Some of the stories are very poignant. The pilot who's wife finds out she's pregnant while he's on the cruise but who miscarries before he comes home. The young crewman who has gotten his casual girlfriend pregnant before he leaves and is wringing his hands the entire cruise wondering what's going to happen when he gets back (clue: nothing good for him). The Marine gunnery sergeant who was abandoned by his parents when he was 3 but who finds a family in Corps. And, as hard as nails as he is, he weeps when he sees the first photos of his newborn son. The young woman from a dead-end town who decides that the Navy is a better shot at life than staying home and becoming an addict or unwed mother like nearly all of the friends she had growing up.

This detailed a documentary probably couldn't be made about a smaller ship and crew although if one is ever made about a cruiser or submarine crew that is as good as "Carrier" I'll be first in line to watch it.

Thirteen Lives (2022)

Way too long, wooden acting

[2/10 · 10 August 2022]

The acting in this movie is so wooden by everyone involved, Thai, British, American, Australian, et al, you'd think that the boys could've just floated out of the cave. Much of the action of the movie takes place in extremely cramped cave passages and underwater and it's almost impossible to figure out who is who and after you've seen one "swim through the tunnel" scene you've seen them all. The Thai actors are given relatively little to do. I don't know much about the real story other than what I saw on the news but I would've thought there's be a big "woke" protest about the movie, depicting the Asian Thai characters in too deep and needing the clever, much more talented white guys to come rescue them. The movie was too long by a half hour.

I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967)

utter, incomprehensible drivel

[1/10 · 20 January 2022]

This was shown on TCM this week. I taped it, remembering that it was something of a big deal when I was a kid. I tried watching some of it and I don't know what the controversy was---the movie is so bad, so poorly filmed, so disjointed that even trying to fast-forward through some of it to get to the supposedly salacious parts, was an utter waste of time.

Yentl (1983)

too much and too little

[3/10 · 29 June 2021]

"Yentl" is a handsome movie to look at---the sets, the cities, the costuming. Mandy Patinkin does a fine job but he's the only one of the leads who does. "Yentl" would've been much better if 1) there was no singing; 2) someone other than Barbra Streisand played the lead. Yes, she's an Oscar winner, but she only plays herself in movie after movie. That worked for her first role, "Funny Girl" for which she won an Oscar, but not over and over. She doesn't for a second "pass" as a man in this movie, not even as a boy.

Murder in Mississippi (1990 TV Movie)

Powerful

[10/10 · 7 May 2021]

Watched this on YouTube last night; had seen it when it first came out. It's a powerful movie and almost as good as the big-screen "Mississippi Burning" which fictionalizes the FBI investigation.

"Murder in Mississippi" I think takes some liberties with the relationship between Mickey Schwerner and James Chaney; I suspect that they weren't that antagonistic towards each other.

Tom Hulce is outstanding as Schwerner, a few years after his Oscar-nominated work in "Amadeus". Jennifer Grey is also very good as Jill Schwerner, his idealistic wife who is overwhelmed by the situation they're in.

The actors playing the racist Klansmen are uniformly convincing. The language in this movie is absolutely brutal, like a hammer hitting the viewer constantly over the head. Josh Charles plays Andrew Goodman, who comes into the story very late (Goodman had only been in Mississippi a couple of days before the murders). Charles makes the most of his late entry into the story.

All-around, it's an outstanding movie and really it should've been released on the big screen instead of TV.

The Queen's Gambit (2020)

Bored stiff

[1/10 · 12 November 2020]

Gave this a shot last night. . . about 15 min into it my companion asked me if I was watching. Uh, no, it was about as boring a show as I've seen lately. She would never ask me that if she was really interested in the show herself. I'm not going to dedicate hours of my life hoping that it'll improve.

Conspiracy Theorists Lie (2015)

Skip it

[3/10 · 3 April 2020]

It's almost unwatchable. I made it through the first 30 min and then saw that it had another two hours to go. I firmly believe that the conspiracy nuts need to be debunked but this show is not way to do it. There are plenty of very solid, hour-long shows which completely debunk the conspiracy buffs, the Grassy Knoll fans, et al. Every scrap of credible evidence and all scientific evidence points right at Lee Harvey Oswald.

Frank Serpico (2017)

More could've been done

[7/10 · 28 January 2020]

I'm a huge fan of "Serpico" and so I was really looking forward to seeing this documentary. Frank Serpico is in his 80s now so it's beneficial that he's been given such a chance to make a final record. That said, I wish the show had more about Serpico talking about his career and not so much padding. Much time is spent with Serpico checking out old places from his life, the location of his father's shoe repair shop (now an eatery), his childhood home (which seemed to have occupants and at the same time looked like it had fallen apart). The most interesting place he re-visits is of course the building in Brooklyn where he was shot in the face.

One thing that becomes evident is that even in his 80s, Serpico suffers from some degree of PTSD, not just from his shooting, but from the ordeal he had to go through as a pariah in the NYPD. The man's a born storyteller but the documentary doesn't seem to take full advantage of that. He's also an extremely private man who went into a self-imposed exile to Switzerland and Holland for over a decade after he left the NYPD. Very little of the story touches on that.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)

If I could give zero stars, I would

[1/10 · 3 August 2019]

First, the upside of this movie---the costuming, the sets, the look of 1969 Hollywood is excellent. The actors are obviously having fun with the movie and show that good actors can make even crap material look good.

The downside of this movie---it's boring. It's nearly 3 hours of meandering camera shots, extremely drawn out, irrelevant scenes. There isn't really any plot to the movie. It's not a spoiler to say that the premise of the story is that some actors' lives intersect with the Manson Family. That's in all the movie trailers. I mean, Sharon Tate is one of the main features of the movie so you know that the Manson gang is going to be in the story.

But, once again we go back to the fact that there really isn't any story here. It's just the director moving the camera around, watching people do uninteresting things, linking together scenes that really don't interrelate, almost none of them advancing anything that resembles a plot that would draw the viewer in. I actually fell asleep during the movie at one point and I'm certain that plenty of other people in the theater I was at were also catching up on their rest.

The end of the movie is clever but by then the viewer has blown nearly 3 hours of his lifespan that he'll never get back. It's not worth it.

Flash of Genius (2008)

If its a Hollywood movie, you never get the whole story

[6/10 · 29 March 2019]

"Flash of Genius" tells the story of the travails of Robert Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent window wiper and his battle against Ford Motor Co. which swiped his invention without compensating him.

The story's told in a workmanlike way and Greg Kinnear does a good job as Kearns although much of the time it's hard to root for Kearns. He comes across as obsessive, he's abrasive, thinks that reading some law books makes him a lawyer, etc. He is justifiably upset that Ford has taken his invention and used it without compensating him but the man lets his obsession with justice ruin his life.

As usual, a movie takes liberty with the real story. Kearns represents himself in the Ford lawsuit although in real life he had lawyers represent him. He represented himself in his later suit with Chrysler and in many other suits (many of which he lost because he wouldn't/couldn't comply with court procedures).

What does he win though at the end of this movie? He gets about $10 million, but you don't know that he was actually suing for nearly $400 million. The audience doesn't realize that the jury's verdict didn't say that Ford had deliberately stolen his patents but that they had more or less accidentally infringed on his patent. He still won, but not the apology that he always wanted from Ford. Also, before the final arguments and verdict, the Ford representative goes to him and offers him $30 million to drop the whole thing. Nope, Kearns and his children are going for broke---and instead of getting $30 million as a settlement he gets $10 million, no apology from Ford and even the jury doesn't say that Ford stole his ideas. In truth? Kearns comes across as an arrogant chump who gets in way, way, way over his head and thinks he's won something when in fact he really hasn't.

Operation Finale (2018)

Not enough Kingsley

[5/10 · 3 September 2018]

When Ben Kingsley is on screen the movie is interesting. When he's not, it's a snoozer

Decoration Day (1990 TV Movie)

Mr. Hallmark Hall of Fame

[8/10 · 5 December 2017]

James Garner made a bit of a cottage industry out of appearing in Hallmark Hall of Fame TV-movies. Hallmark productions were always noted for their high quality and portrayal of solid community values.

In "Decoration Day" Garner plays a retired Southern judge who is somewhat of a recluse. He is pulled back into the community when a young man gets into trouble, Garner finds a new chance to connect with an interesting woman, and he has to persuade a childhood friend to reconsider his refusal to accept a belated Medal of Honor.

Bill Cobbs plays Gee, Garner's childhood friend and a tenant farmer who has had to deal with racial injustice all of his life while his educated white friend Garner has had a much easier and successful path. Both men served in WWII, Gee in a segregated Negro unit. When the Army determines that Gee should receive the Medal of Honor the community is disrupted and people have to re-examine racial attitudes when Gee refuses to accept this most prestigious honor.

As you'd expect in a Hallmark production, the topics are dealt with in a quiet, responsible, non-histrionic way. Garner and the cast all deliver.

Thank You for Your Service (I) (2017)

difficult movie to watch

[30 October 2017]

This was a very difficult movie to watch. Rather than a war movie, it's an after-the-war movie with the returning soldiers all struggling to cope with different degrees of physical and mental disability. Betrayed by loved ones they left at home, struggling with brain injuries due to road-side bomb attacks, plagued with survivor guilt and all of them let down by the Army and Veterans Administration that's supposed to be helping them.

The movie it is most like is the outstanding "The Best Years of Our Lives" which was a multi-Oscar winner in its day, following how three war veterans try, with varying degrees of success, to reclaim their civilian lives. "Thank You for Your Service" is a much more brutal version of that story in terms of language and emotional angst of the survivors. Both are well worth watching.

House of Manson (2014)

tepid (spoilers alert)

[5/10 · 10 October 2016]

I know a lot about the Manson case and also know one of his former associates so I'd been looking forward to seeing this movie. If you're not familiar with the Manson case then you might be okay with this movie. If you know anything about it though, you'll be disappointed.

I suppose the biggest complaint is with how the murders were depicted. Having Sadie brandishing the gun was a bit jarring since she never touched the gun in the real murders. There were other very distorted depictions and while I realize that some artistic license has to be allowed, too much and the movie is spoiled, especially with a story as well-known as this one is.

The acting in the movie was hit or miss. I didn't find the Manson character to be very convincing and other than the actress paying Susan Atkins, it was hard to tell which girl was which.

Godzilla (2014)

unwatchable

[1/10 · 22 May 2014]

Certainly one of the worst movies I've seen in years. Hammy, over the top acting (Bryan Cranston being the worst offender), silly story with so many plot holes that you feel like you've fallen into an illogical abyss. Godzilla only on screen for about 10 minutes and most of the time the monster looked like it was some guy in a suit. Just total, absolute drivel and not even very interesting drivel--I kept falling asleep even with all the explosions and Godzilla occasionally roaring. At least four Oscar-nominated actors in this movie---Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn and Juliette Binoche. They must've really needed a paycheck to stoop to this. Bryan Cranston's performance I thought was so amateurish I had to wonder, is this the guy everyone's talked about for being such a great actor in "Breaking Bad"?

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Solid science fiction

[7/10 · 12 March 2014]

The fourth of the series, "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" is the 2nd best of the entire run, after the original entry. It is also the basis for the recent re-boot "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". I saw this movie in the theater when I was a kid and the ending scared the wits out of me.

The movie had a very small budget but more than made up for it with the very solid writing and some excellent acting by the principal cast, Roddy McDowell, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalban, Severn Darden and Hari Rhodes.

Montalban sets up the story very well as Armando, the kindly circus master who has hidden the intelligent ape, Caesar, for a couple of decades. But when Caesar blurts out his anger at the humans who are mistreating an ape, he has to go into hiding while Montalban tries to cover for him, at the cost of his life. The "speciest" gov't is now determined to find the intelligent ape that they feel certain now exists. Caesar goes "native" by becoming a mute simian servant of the humans but fomenting revolution all the while behind the scenes.

Hari Rhodes' character is particularly interesting. An aide to the bigoted governor played by Don Murray, as a black man and descendant of slaves his heart is more with the apes than it is with his own people. He provides Caesar some crucial support at key moments in the show and then has to make an appeal to the ape's "humanity" at the end when the apes are about to massacre their human prisoners. But as Caesar points out, he's not a human and simian ideas of justice may not jibe with human concepts.

The "Ape" movies were well-known for their downbeat endings. Now nearly every story you see, no matter how grim, has to have some sort of hopeful ending but not the "Ape" series. In episode 1 Taylor discovers that he's on Earth all along in one of the most stunning endings in movie history; in part 2 the world is utterly destroyed in a final war between the humans and apes; part 3 has Caesar's parents being murdered; part 4 the apes have overthrown the human race. Only in part 5 do we finally have a "happy" ending of centuries in the future when men and apes have finally learned to live in peace.

Secret Honor (1984)

movies don't get any better than this

[10/10 · 12 March 2014]

An adaptation of a stage play, "Secret Honor" is the tour de force performance of actor Philip Baker Hall. At the time he made it he'd had a distinguished stage career in New York but was barely known in movies and television. While he doesn't look or sound very much like Nixon he totally inhabits the character and rages around the set swilling Scotch and experiencing nearly every emotion you can think of.

The story is of course totally fictional but in some respects Hall and the writers may have gotten closer to the core of who Nixon was than any other film ever did. Nixon is without a doubt the most enigmatic man ever to be President and "Secret Honor" is a fascinating study revealing what made the man tick.

Even if you don't care for Nixon or political movies, this movie is worth watching for Hall's performance alone. There's never a moment in the movie, in which he's on screen every second, where he doesn't completely rivet the viewer's attention. The movie didn't make Hall a star but it started getting his name out. A young P.T. Anderson was a huge fan of the movie and later struck up a relationship with Hall which led to Hall appearing in a lot of Anderson's movies such as "Magnolia" and "Boogie Nights".

12 Years a Slave (2013)

2 hours of sadism

[2/10 · 24 November 2013]

I was hoping to really enjoy "12 Years a Slave" but wasn't expecting a 2 hr long movie of very long, ponderous slow camera shots of nature and hardly any compelling dialog or character development. This was then broken up seemingly every 10 minutes by a savage flogging or a vicious rape or some other sadistic cruelty being inflicted on the movie's hero, the hapless Solomon a freeman sold into slavery, and the other slaves. Except for Brad Pitt's Canadian abolitionist and a gentleman from Solomon's home town, virtually every white character in this movie is portrayed as the very embodiment of evil. No nuance, nothing but unremitting sadism.

A lot of people seem to be comparing this movie to "Schindler's List" although I can't understand why. In "List" you had the compelling story of Schindler who, for reasons known only to himself, risks his life to save as many Jews as he can. The Jewish prisoners are depicted as full characters, people you know and care about. Even the Nazi played by Ralph Finnes is given some depth, a man whose cruelty has been unleashed and sanctioned by his Nazi bosses but, you suspect but for the war would be a man who might be interesting to be around---a lover of fine food, good wine and a roving eye for the women. But the slave masters in "12 Years a Slave" don't have the slightest hint of anything human about them, just treating people with cruelty for cruelty's sake.

If filmmakers really wanted to make a powerful movie about slavery, they might consider boldly making a new version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and hew closely to the story that Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote. It's a powerful book and it gets far deeper into the immorality of slavery than anything like "12 Years a Slave" does. The memoirs that "12" was based on came out soon after the huge success of "Uncle Tom's Cabin". The opening scene of the slave-traders benignly discussing their "wares" in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was so chilling to read that I couldn't even bear to read it through in one sitting. "12" had a similar scene with the excellent Paul Giamatti as a slave-trader, but the movie never got any deeper.

Falling Down (1993)

fine movie

[8/10 · 24 October 2013]

I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks this, but my favorite character in the movie is "Not Economically Viable Man." He's another version of the Michael Douglas character and they even dress the same---short-sleeve white shirt & tie. Both of them have been tossed aside by the system and at the end of the movie, D-Fens even adopts the title, calling himself "not economically viable." It's an example though of clever writing and proof that there's no such thing as a small part in a play or movie. The actor who is "Not Economically Viable Man" is unforgettable in this role and he plays a crucial part in advancing and explaining the story. You could have an entire movie just about his character and it would probably be just as interesting as the D-Fens character.

Don Jon (2013)

self-absorbed drivel

[1/10 · 29 September 2013]

If you want to go to a movie where you are assaulted with 90 minutes of almost non-stop vulgarity, the characters (with the exception apparently of the Catholic priest who's never on camera) saying "f'ck" seemingly every alternate word, if you want to see a movie about a man unrepentantly absorbed with pornography and the relentless objectification of women, then you might want to see "Don Jon." The movie is no doubt a hit on the coasts but in fly-over country where I live (albeit, 250 mi from the coast) there was a grand total of four people who attended the viewing I went to. I was going to walk out after the first 30 minutes but managed to doze off for a bit.

The movie is probably going to be compared to "Auto Focus", the bio-pic about Bob Crane and his sex addiction and murder. "Auto Focus" is far superior and it shows how a man's life falls apart due to his obsession. "Don Jon" takes the attitude that sex addiction is just no big deal. By the end of the movie Jon seems to have found a woman he can connect with but you also know he has absolutely no inclination whatsoever to quit his porn obsession.

The Butler (I) (2013)

Watching White House Paint Dry

[5/10 · 19 August 2013]

Lee Daniels' The Butler" doesn't live up to the hype. First off, there's the ridiculous title, which, I know, wasn't the director's choice, but I doubt anyone else would confuse this movie with some other movie called "The Butler." The intriguing thing about the movie is supposed to be the portrayal of the Presidents and the odd casting. Actually Robin Williams did quite well as Eisenhower and he's the only Republican in the movie who is portrayed with any sympathy. I found the actor playing JFK unconvincing and looking 20 years younger than JFK really was. Liev Schrieber was interesting as LBJ but none of his blatantly bigoted talk was done on camera. When he makes a speech talking about "Negros" one of the butlers is amazed that he used that word since LBJ used the N-word more than he did. John Cusak plays Nixon like some weirdo, Alan Rickman as Reagan wasn't bad but the movie by then morphed dropped any pretense of being objective and portrayed Reagan as perhaps the most racist man ever to be in the office while the sun practically rises with a chorus of angels to greet Obama's election as President.

Knowing that most people won't fact-check, the movie misrepresents Reagan's stance on South African sanctions and then has the butler's radical son just baldly assert that Reagan has undone every program that has ever helped black people. Complete lie of course but by then the show had become propaganda.

Another unnecessary melodramatic touch was to have KKK members in full pointy-head regalia attacking the Freedom Riders' bus. Yes, the bus was in fact attacked but it was at a bus station, not in some highway ambush. Yes whites attacked the bus, set fire to it and pummeled the white and black Riders when they fled the bus. But none of the racists were in KKK garb and they didn't burn crosses. Frankly, they were so bold and so sure they'd get away scot-free that there was never any reason to hide behind the Halloween get-up. Just watch the excellent PBS documentary "The Freedom Riders." The Freedom Riders story would make an outstanding movie in and of itself. Lastly, I did feel that the lunch-counter sit-ins and training for the sit-ins was very well done and the most riveting moments of the movie. Oh, and the death of Cecil's younger son is laid at the feet of the Republican Nixon, not the Democrat LBJ when you see his tombstone saying he died in late 1973, in the last weeks of the Vietnam War and of course on Nixon's watch, not LBJ's.

The acting, generally, was solid. Oprah Winfrey will probably get an Oscar nomination and probably deserves it. I was pleased to see Cuba Gooding, Jr. do so well in a much better project than most of the dreck he's been stuck in since he won an Oscar for "Jerry Maguire". But Forest Whitaker is just a cipher as the butler Cecil. He is required to mask his feelings all the time at his work and is pledged to confidentiality outside of his work. The only time Cecil is allowed to show much emotion at all is in his conflicts with his radical son, who, Forrest Gump-like, is of course at every major Civil Rights Era event---the lunch counter sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, Selma, the MLK assassination, etc.

Cloud Atlas (2012)

ponderous, pretentious and sleep-inducing

[1/10 · 31 October 2012]

"Cloud Atlas" was the longest three hours I've spent in a movie theater in a long, long time. Twice I had to hold myself back from walking out. The theme, if you can finally figure it out, is that love and relationships endure throughout time and the heroes or the spirits of the heroes keep showing up in different times in history. But rather show things in some sort of sequence, the movie cuts back and forth from time and place without any warning. You have to keep track of about a half dozen different stories, multiple characters played by the same actors and finally you just throw up your hands and give up. Even if you could figure out the storyline, there's nothing original about it. Oh, and bring a translation book since about 25% of the dialog is in some sort of pidgin-English invented for the movie.

I don't mind movies occasionally trying to shake up the traditional narrative; "Memento" was an outstandingly original twist on the conventional storytelling. But "Cloud Atlas" is not only confusing, it's ponderous, grindingly slow, gratuitously violent, self-important and dull. It cost $100 million to make and it'll no doubt enter the ranks of one of the most expensive flops in movie history. It's not even forgettable---the story is so unintelligible that you really don't have anything to forget when you leave the theater.

Onionhead (1958)

uneven

[5/10 · 2 June 2012]

I'd heard of this movie but had never seen it before yesterday. Given it was the movie that Andy Griffith made right after his hilarious "No Time for Sergeants" I expected it to be a comedy but after watching it I'm not sure if it was a comedy, a drama or what.

Griffith plays Al Woods, a lower-class guy from Oklahoma who is working his way through college as a waiter at a high-toned sorority at the college---and getting hot and heavy with one of the sorority girls. She ends up rejecting him because of his low-born status. Infuriated, he quits school and since this is early 1941, he decides to join the service and get as far away as he can. A literal coin flip has him ending up in the Coast Guard.

Though he had entered the Coast Guard to forget women, Woods is still a rake and the first chance he has to hook up with a girl he does, going for the luscious Stella played by Felicia Farr. Assigned to a buoy tender as a cook, even though he doesn't know the first thing about being a cook, you think the movie is going to be a comedy like "No Time for Sergeants" but it never gets there. Woods, despite his lack of cooking skills, becomes a pretty good cook in short order and wins over the respect of the top cook played by Walter Matthau. As it turns out, he and Matthau are vying for the same woman. Matthau marries her but when he ships out for sea, Woods learns that Stella is very much on the make.

The movie is uneven. It never makes up its mind about being a comedy, a drama or something else. The "onionhead" reference isn't explained until well into the movie when Woods is convinced by another Coastie to shave his head. The test of wills between Woods and the supercilious executive officer comes and goes. Woods isn't really all that likable a character but Griffith does a pretty good job with the role. Matthau does his usual fine performance. Felicia Farr went on to be married to Jack Lemmon for awhile. The rest of the cast includes Joey Bishop, Tige Andrews and James Gregory. You can probably count all the movies about the Coast Guard on two fingers---"Onionhead" and the very good Kevin Costner movie, "The Guardian".

The Three Stooges (2012)

awful

[1/10 · 13 May 2012]

Fortunately I didn't take my girlfriend to see this mess because I got up and left an hour into it and had she gone with me it would've been twice as much a waste of money. The movie is just a lame reenactment of some of the original Stooges' shtick but adding in a bunch of insults towards Catholicism and "updating" the routines with more scatological references than could've been done by the original Stooges. And Jennifer Hudson, an Oscar winner, consented to be in this mess?

Most of the anti-Catholic bashing is done by Larry David who is Sister Mary-Mengele (ha ha! Let's name a nun after a Nazi war criminal!). The Farrelly Brothers have had a lot of success with past movies like "Shallow Hal" and "Me, Myself & Irene" but they might've run themselves out of the business with this dreck.

The Hunger Games (2012)

derivative and boring

[1/10 · 1 April 2012]

I've never read the books but went to an afternoon screening to see what the fuss was about. "The Hunger Games" I felt was a complete bore. The story unwinds in an excruciatingly slow manner and you really have no emotional connection with the characters. The plot-line itself---people of a dystopian future being made to fight to the death on TV has been done to death (no pun) and done with more wit an imagination in "The Running Man" for instance. The gladiator story is told much better in real gladiator movies like "Gladiator" and "Spartacus" which are both hugely better than "The Hunger Games".

For an action movie it feels like days go by before there is any real action. The "name" actors like Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley and Donald Sutherland seem to be as bored as the viewer is with this material. The unknown actors playing the competitors are wooden. When there is action it is usually with such herky-jerky camera work that you can barely follow what is happening. And there are some gaping plot holes. SPOILER ALERT the heroine is treed by the others who will just wait her out to get hungry and come down. And of course they snooze instead. The "simulated" monster animals that can actually devour people? Most of the competitors are killed off camera? Come on. . .