Monday, March 31, 2014

Movie reviews: Winter of our discontent edition

Okay, so I've had a few disappointments lately at the movie theater. And the only thing for me to do is to air my grievances.

* * 1/2 Ender's Game : Less than the sum of its parts. The happiest surprise was a delightfully competent Harrison Ford. Should have been based on the short story, not the novel. But OSC had final say over everything, so what do I know?

* * * 1/2 Hunger Games: Catching Fire : An Empire Strikes Back ending would have been better than the jarring cliffhanger that we get, but that's the way the book does it. But a fun ride to get to that drop. The best part: Avery Jessup's crazy outfits and hairdos.

* * * * * Gravity: The saddest, scariest, most beautiful movie I have seen in a long, long while. A sparkling jewel in the heap of putrescence that is contemporary cinema. I loved every minute of it.

* * Hobbit 2: Good grief. Made me wish for the in-depth attention to character of the first over-inflated CGI extravaganza. If the last one is as dumb as this one, Peter Jackson will have used up all the good will he banked with the first trilogy.

Hollywood, please make better movies.

--GILBERTO "TURK" BENITEZ

[UPDATE: Just saw The Lego Movie. Thank you, Hollywood!]

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