My Own Little World

I've taken a little more time in prepping my year-end wrap-up this year, mostly because I was making sure I had seen everything I wanted to in theaters before publishing. Like last year, I've written mini-reviews on all the films that I either saw too far into their theatrical run to do a full review on or after their home video release. Without further ado, I present to you Part 3 of the Rest of 2015... Ant-Man  - Buy it.   What sets Ant-Man apart is its unique tone. From 2014 on Marvel has done a really good job of making each film's tone distinct, and this continues with Ant-Man . It feels less like a superhero film and more like a heist comedy, allowing Paul Rudd to flex his comedic muscles quite a bit. The way Peyton Reed crafts the film's shrunken sequences puts a very unique mark on this Marvel film that will allow it to stand apart from the rest of their body of work.  Grade: 85 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2  - Watch it.  Mockingjay...

My first reaction to Mockingjay Part 1 : wow, this is going to be long. My second: wow, this is good. Those two thoughts pretty much sum up my experience viewing Mockingjay Part 1 . I really didn't care for Mockingjay  the book as much as the first two parts of The Hunger Games trilogy, so when I heard it was being split into two parts, I knew this was a good possibility. Taking the same cast and crew as Catching Fire  plus a few additions was a good idea, but making Mockingjay  into two movies made me think of other young adult series that have suffered the same fate and not turned out as well as they could have if it was one film. That being said, Mockingjay Part 1  gets off to a good start for this two-part epic, mostly because of the script. The pace is a little deliberate, and there's not much action; however, the film turns into a war film shortly after it opens and begins poking fun (in a completely legitimate satire kind of way) at propaganda films. T...

Before watching the third film in the Hunger Games franchise, released last Friday, I thought I would share my thoughts on the first two films in the series: partially to remind myself of the universe, and partially to have an excuse to watch these movies again. This is a review of the second of the two films.  After seeing The Hunger Games , I wanted desperately to see the sequel, Catching Fire . There was so much potential for the franchise after the first film, and as I liked Catching Fire  better than the first novel, I had high hopes. When I heard Lionsgate had replaced Gary Ross with a new director, Francis Lawrence, I was even more excited for this film. In my mind, a new director was just what this franchise needed. I'll start with the script and story, as their quality was largely unaltered from the first film. Even though the series's author Suzanne Collins would not stay on to write the script for Catching Fire , it largely stayed true to the novel. The larges...

Before watching the third film in the Hunger Games franchise, released today, I thought I would share my thoughts on the first two films in the series: partially to remind myself of the universe, and partially to have an excuse to watch these movies again. This is a review of the first of the two films.