mike-wright-1

This is a review of the Hunger Games movie. Not a review of how good an adaptation of the book Hunger Games is.

The Hunger Games is clearly a film with a primary target audience. So any criticism should be mindful of that. The fact that it is a targeted film yet remains eminently watchable for people outside that demographic is to its huge credit.

I think most people by now know the basic story so I won't go into that. The strengths of the film lie in its tremendous premise and the back story around it (accusations of plagiarism in relation to Battle Royale are harsh). Also the performance of Jennifer Lawrence is a powerhouse and she has a wonderful career in front of her. The action scenes are filmed very sympathetically, leaving you in no doubt of the horror that is happening without really showing anything to compromise the target audience.

The film does fall down in a couple of areas though. It seems completely unaware of some of the powerful themes it has at its disposal. Not nearly enough was shown of the relationship between the populace of the Capital and the outer districts. Perhaps this is dealt with more in later instalments. The characterisation of the tributes was also thin on the ground, and the idea of the games as a true test of skill, endurance, psychology etc was massively underdeveloped. Perhaps this was deliberate to show that the organisers were obsessed with controlling the action. If it was, then I would say it was a mistake.

Overall I think the film is quite a rarity. It has some wonderful ideas and although enjoyable, it feels like it was reined in to ensure it met its target audience. It's arguable that in movie making, there are few greater crimes.

Silver Linings Playbook is as an enjoyable two hours that you could hope to get from a movie. The four leads are truly marvellous – although I haven't seen too much of Jacki Weaver, it was great to see Bradley Cooper showing how much more he has to offer, Jennifer Lawrence confirming what most of us already knew and Robert De Niro showing there's life in the old dog still.

One of the more ridiculous complaints I've read is that "It's not as good as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Well, no its not. But that movie remains one of only three to scoop the big five Oscars, so not being as good as it is hardly much of a criticism. Yes, the film is predictable. And I was thoroughly pleased at that. It's become fashionable over the last few years – almost clichéd in fact – for Hollywood to throw a curve ball at you, just for the sake of it. SLP gives you exactly what you want; it just does it with a wonderful script and fine performances.

I can honestly only see two reasons for someone not to like this. Either you've seen the acting nominations and vague plot and are expecting something in the league of Cuckoo's Nest. Or you're one of those darling people who link their film tastes directly to their superiority complex, and therefore shun anything popular. If you fall into the first category, then beware – this movie is wonderful but it's not an all-time great. It's a perfect comedy-drama-romance which does not try to extend beyond its reach. If you fall into the second category, then you need to wise up a little because you're only punishing yourself!

I recently purchased ALLO having not seen it in a long time. I had fond memories of a number of scenes and the movie was really cheap in a second hand store.

In the first hour all of the scenes I remembered popped up and I was thoroughly enjoying myself, whilst wondering why the film had a comparatively poor rating both with audiences and critics. The chemistry between the leads is good and there are a lot of funny moments as Ewan Macgregor's character struggles with his inability to be a bad guy and Cameron Diaz tries to manipulate the situation to meet her own ends. Holly Hunters playfully seductive angel is also perfect opposite Delroy Lindo.

Unfortunately the bag swap comes about 40 minutes too early in the film and from here the wheels come off. We are given scene after scene, each one more ridiculous than the last, of the two would be lovers getting mad at each other. Although the fantastical elements of the film can be accepted, there is at least one scene where the inevitable repercussions cannot be ignored but are never addressed. For a film that has such a strong first half, the second half verges on boring. For me that's probably the worst thing that can be said of any movie.

The soundtrack is no doubt great if you're playing the CD in the car. However the placing of the songs seems all wrong, like Boyle was simply trying to replicate what he had achieved in Trainspotting where the songs underlined the scenes perfectly. All in all, for me this was a typical Danny Boyle film (with the exception of Trainspotting). It promised so much yet was let down by some fatal flaws.