The Frozen Ground 2013

    This film is inspired by a true story.  It’s 1993 and an elusive serial killer has been on the loose in Anchorage Alaska for over thirteen years.  Sgt. Jack Halcombe is transferring to another job and moving away.  He gets involved in this case during his last two weeks on duty.  Cindy Paulson claims she escaped from the killer when he tried to fly her out into the wilderness in his small plane.  Cindy wants to help the police capture the killer but she wants to get on with her life too.  Robert Hansen is the suspected killer and he has been arrested before but he’s been able to go free or serve minimal time.  Cindy doesn’t know how dangerous it is becoming for her with Bob trying to track her down.

     Not much new here but the background scenery in the winter adds an element plus the addition of truth behind the story.  I wonder how it was decided who would play the detective and who would play the killer between Cage and Cusack?  3* (This movie is OK)

105 min, Drama directed by Scott Walker with Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens, Radha Mitchell, 50 Cent, Dean Norris, Robert Forgit, Gia Mantegna.

Note:  Blockbuster 2 ½*, imdb 6.2 out of 10, 57% critic 50% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Drinking Buddies 2013

     Luke and Kate work together for a Chicago craft-brewery business.  Luke works on the beer brewing and Kate works in the office.  They get together with their significant others for a weekend.  Luke has been with Jill for six years and Kate has been with  Chris for eight months.  They have a great time but Luke and Kate begin to feel an attraction to each other.  Chris and Jill also feel an attraction.  Shortly after, Chris breaks up with Kate.  He feels after dating this long, they should have more of a connection.  Jill decides to go ahead with a trip to Costa Rica even though she had planned on not going.  Luke and Kate spend a lot of time together working on her move to a smaller apartment.

     The entire time I was watching this film I kept thinking, WHY?  Not much is really happening, you watch people at work and then watch them on their time off?  Good and bad things happen, isn’t that life?  You think you know how this is going to end but there is a slight change-up and this the only thing different?   3* (This movie is OK)

90 min, Drama directed by Joe Swanberg with Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Ron Livingston, Anna Kendrick, Ti West, Jason Sudeikis, Mike Brune, Frank V. Ross.

Note:  Blockbuster 3*, imdb 6.2 out of 10, 82% critic 56% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Croods 2013

     Grug is a caveman and the leader of his family.  His motto is to be afraid of everything and stay in the cave as much as possible.  His daughter Eep, is tired of nothing happening and staying in the cave.  She wants adventure, excitement and anything other than what she has now.  She meets Guy, he has fire and he tells Eep that their world will be destroyed.  In order to survive, they need to follow him on a new path.

     I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep watching this film.  The colors are beautiful, the animals and the family interesting but nothing seems original in the plot or characters.  3* (This movie is OK) 

98 min, Animated directed by Chris Sanders, Kirk De Micco with the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, Cloris Leachman, Ryan Reynolds

Note:  Blockbuster 3*, imdb 7.3 out of 10, 70% critic 79% audience on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Warm Bodies 2013

     This film is based on a novel by Isaac Marion.  Many people on the earth are either zombies or bonies.  Something happened to change them but the remaining humans don’t know what caused this or how to cure them.  All it takes is a bite to change you to a zombie and then when you are really tired of being a zombie, you become a bonie.  Zombies have flesh and bonies are just bones.  Both types feed on humans and they find them by smell but bonies will also eat zombies.

     A different type of zombie movie, except for the eating of humans, the zombies are not so bad?  Of course, the bonies are bad!!  Some of the zombies still have traces of humanity inside.  This film has a smaller budget than the Twilight series but it is much more intelligent!!  3 ½* (I liked this movie)  

98 min, Zombie directed by Jonathan Levine with Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, John Malkovich, Dave Franco, Analeigh Tipton, Cory Hardrict, Vincent Leclerc.

Note:  Blockbuster 3 ½*, imdb 6.9 out of 10, 81% critic 74% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013

     This is the second film in the Hunger Games series.  One year after winning the 74^th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and her partner Peeta Mellark take a victory tour of the districts while President Snow plots their downfall.   Katness and Peeta want to tell the people what they feel but they are supposed to follow cards written for them by Effie Trinket.  Their first speech did not go very well when they spoke from their hearts.  The districts seem ready for a revolution and especially unhappy about the tributes they lost in the last games.  When they return to District 12, they learn that the Hunger Games for this year will be a 75-year celebration and a Quarter Quell with different rules.  All of the victors of the previous Hunger Games will meet again in a new game.  Katniss is devastated that they will need to fight again.  She makes a deal with Haymitch Abernathy that Peeta will be the one to survive. 

     The director is different on this film, the first Hunger Games was directed by Gary Ross.  I couldn’t help but think of the parallels in this film with other sources, Lost and Survivor from television, Star Wars from film.  The darkness, grime and the dreariness of the inhabitants of the districts are like many other post-apocalyptic films.  I did enjoy everything about this film and I am looking forward to seeing the next films.  4* (I really liked this movie)

146 min, Action directed by Francis Lawrence with Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Jack Quaid, Taylor St. Clair, Sandra Ellis Lafferty, Woody Harrelson, Paula Malcomson, Willow Shields, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks.

Note:  Blockbuster 4*, imdb 8.2 out of 10, 89% critic 93% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Special Note:  There will be two more Hunger Games installments, Mockingjay Part 1 and Part 2.  Part 1 started filming on 12/3/13 and will be released 11/21/14.  Part 2 will be released 11/20/15.

Star Trek Into Darkness 2013

     The USS Enterprise is sent deep into space to rescue an endangered indigenous species on planet Nibiru from an active volcanic eruption.  Spock is trapped in the center of the volcano and the Enterprise ignores orders not to be seen by the local people to rescue Spock.  This tactic almost gets Captain Kirk relieved from command and demoted to a cadet.  Starfleet HQ is attacked and Captain Pike is killed in the strike.  Kirk takes command and the Enterprise goes deep into the forbidden zone and the planet Klingon.  Starfleet and the Klingon army are hostile enough but they are being manipulated into a possible war.

      All the actors seem stiff as boards like they are acting and also trying to be different people based on the original characters at the same time.  The problems and dangers are more ridiculous than sinister.   Almost like a comedy and one that is not funny?  Why would you keep hitting and beating someone not bothered or injured by any of it?  3* (This movie is OK)

131 min, Sci-Fi & Fantasy directed by J.J. Abrams with Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller.

Note:  Blockbuster 4*, imdb 7.9 out of 10, 87% critic 91% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Company You Keep 2012

     Jim Grant is a successful attorney with a young daughter.  He lost his wife in a car accident a year ago.  One thing everyone doesn’t know about Jim is that he is a former member of the Weather Underground.  He has been hiding out for years since the group staged a bank heist that resulted in the death of a guard.  A zealous newspaper reporter gets on Jim’s trail after the FBI picks up Sharon Solarz at a gas station.  She was also an Underground member and the FBI had been monitoring her by wiretap until the right time to take her into custody.  Jim is really Nick Sloan and he goes into action as soon as his cover is blown.  He has his brother pickup his daughter at their hotel room and he leaves the city by train.  His old friend Donal helps him, he gets him a car and gives him information about some of the other Underground members.

     This is complex and intriguing but you don’t feel anything for the characters even with an all-star cast.  They just appear out of nowhere and you only see a small old television clip of the bank robbery.  Not much information is given about their group and their previous activities?  3* (This movie is OK)

122 min, Drama directed by Robert Redford with Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brendan Gleeson, Brit Marling, Sam Elliott.

Note:  Blockbuster 2 ½*, imdb 6.3 out of 10, 55% critic 46% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

Special Note:  The Weather Underground Organization was founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan in 1969.  They were originally called the Weathermen and they were faction of the SDS, Students for a Democratic Society.  SDS was a revolutionary party for the overthrow of the US government.  They were involved with Black Power and opposition to the Vietnam War.  They conducted a campaign of bombings through the mid-1970’s and took part in the jailbreak of Timothy Leary.  The WUO grew out of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) faction of SDS.  Their name came from a Bob Dylan song lyric, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”