Watch out paranormal romance. Dystopian science fiction is coming for you. Last night, I saw The Hunger Games, starring the exquisite Jenifer Lawrence, whom I first saw in Winter’s Bone (That’s right, not X-Men). I am a huge fan of the best-selling, award-winning Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, and I was not disappointed in this adaptation.

The Hunger Games paints a bleak picture of the future: a post-war North America, called Panem, divided into 13 districts whose citizens are compelled by their Capitol to send a young male and female “tribute” to fight to the death every year in the televised, eponymous Hunger Games. It’s not your typical teen date movie, I suppose. Of course, the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is not your typical teen girl protagonist. Without giving too much away, I will say that Katniss finds herself competing in the games to survive and on her own terms.

Any film adaptation of a book that I love makes me worry. The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross, was pretty faithful to the book without being bogged down in details. Something has to be left out, and I think the screenwriters mostly used good judgment. I was concerned that the audience would be unable to relate to Katniss without her inner monologue provided to the reader in the book (just thank God they didn’t use narration, ick), though the way the film was put together, we could see her justification for her actions and words without it being too painfully obvious. I was also worried that to achieve a PG-13 rating, they would tone down the bloodshed too much. For a book for young teenagers, The Hunger Games is spectacularly violent. The filmmakers were able to tone down a little without diluting the horror of children forced to kill each other by their government. The acting was good for the main characters but less great for the supporting characters. Jennifer Lawrence was wonderful. Also, can I just say how much I love, love, love Woody Harrelson?

My problems with this movie are few. My only technical complaint is the camera work. They overused handheld shoots which made it difficult to follow the action sequences. There was not enough character development for a couple of the characters I think deserved it, and a few plot developments were difficult to follow for viewers who haven’t read the books. I am not someone who needs to be spoonfed everything, but I would have liked more exploration of the power of the Capitol and the Panem Universe. They also downplayed the biting critique on mass media and PR manipulation that made the books so brilliant, but hey, it IS media, so… Also, as my boyfriend informed me, some plot developments were predictable. I understand where he’s coming from, but I do not think the author meant anything to be surprising. The story is about the transformative power of violence and marketing, and the film almost captured it. Let’s hope the rest of the trilogy gets its due, so we can see it fully developed. Rating 3 out of 5 stars.

Its time to “Open the pod bay doors” and get episode two of our Top 10 Hardcore SCI-FI Movies underway! How did our favorites stack up against  yours? Leave a comment or head over to facebook and post your list, maybe we missed one? We’ll never know without your input!

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The Hunger Games won at the box office but did it win over our movie critics Craig and Tom? You’ll have to listen to find out! Help us out and leave your review on our facebook page. It only takes a second and we really want to hear from you!!

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Up this week, more movies from across the pond. Flesh eating ghouls, people being hunted through the wilderness and foul-mouthed slackers graced the screen.

THE PACK (2010 – France) “La Meute” is another entry in the wave of French horror. We are first introduced to Charlotte (Émilie Dequenne), a very rough around the edges type of girl, who picks up a hitchhiker named Max (Benjamin Biolay). He’s a seedy sort of character and he leads Charlotte to an even seedier truck-stop. They meet the owner La Spack (Yolande Moreau) who has plans for Charlotte. She’s always in need for a fresh supply of flesh and blood for “the pack”, a group of ghouls who rise from the ground to feast. Turns out Max is her son and he helps do the “grocery shopping” by luring people to their trap. Throw in a wacked out cop played by Philippe Nahon (High Tension, I Stand Alone), and a lunatic motorcycle gang and you have a dark twisted flick. I really enjoyed this movie. The characters were all people you’d never want to meet but it worked well for the movie’s dark and eccentric tone. La Spack was an evil, cackling brute of a woman and very menacing. I loved Franck Richard’s direction. The camera glided around the dank and dirty sets. There’s no jarring, “found footage” camera work. The color pallette was dark and filled with shadows.
Once the ghouls rise from the ground you are in for a treat. It was like a page taken from a Tales from the Crypt magazine. The ghouls are awesome looking and in some scenes they shamble towards their victims with the full moon as a backdrop. Awesome visuals! “The Pack” is a great movie to throw in your player at the stroke of midnight. Available from Bloody-Disgusting Selects.

A LONELY PLACE TO DIE (2011 – UK) The Scottish Highlands are the breathtaking backdrop for this fast paced thriller. Five mountaineers are hiking and climbing through the wilderness. Their peaceful excursion is shattered when they hear cries drifting on the wind. The cries of a child. It leads them to a breathing pipe sticking up out of the ground. They brush dirt and leaves aside to reveal a door. They discover a little girl is trapped underground in a wooden room. With nothing but the breathing pipe and water, the little girl is weak and afraid. She is Serbian and they cannot understand her words. Alison (Melissa George) and the rest of her companions begin their trek back to civilization to take the girl to the police. That begins their nightmare as they are hunted down by mysterious assailants that aren’t too happy about them helping the little girl. To tell you anymore would spoil the intense adventure that unfolds for the remaining running time. Along the way there are several punches to the gut and by the end of the movie you will be exhausted. Beautiful cinematography, exciting mountain climbing action, startling violence and great performances are all wrapped up into one thrilling movie experience. Highly recommended. Available from IFC Midnight.

NEW KIDS TURBO (2010 – Netherlands) We’ll file this under “wild and weird”. Five yahoos get fired from their jobs and so they decide they are going to quit paying for things. They steal food and enormous quantities of beer. They are wreckless and idiotic, causing the police to send for the Ministry of Defense to put a stop to them. It all leads to a massive shoot out in the normally quiet village of Maaskantje. Well, I kinda liked this movie. Maybe because it was foreign and I didn’t know who the actors were. New Kids is a Dutch comedy sketch show featuring a group of rowdy foul-mouthed youths. Think a group of real life Beavis and Buttheads revved up on turbo juice. Hearing them shout obsentities in another language is funny. Their outfits and hairdos are fun; they look like retro gangsta rappers with mullets. I loved the hyper techno songs that were used as the soundtrack. Also, shock is the name of the game here. The humor was vulgar and very “un-PC”. There’s some gore thrown around during some of the film’s violence but it’s played for laughs. Maybe I’m getting old but the movie really went out of it’s way to be offensive and I didn’t care for some of it. I wanted to watch this because I’m anticipating the sequel “New Kids Nitro” in which this group of morons battle zombies. The trailer for that one looks cool. Kut!

In this episode “We aim to misbehave” as we discuss our favorite Hardcore SCI-FI movies. We tried to sneak a few not so Hardcore SCI-Fi  by the Movie Maniac! But as usual he was there to show us the error of our ways. Listen in and see if you agree. Leave a comment or join us on our Facebook page

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There were so many posters to choose from!

I don’t get out much these days, so I will begin my reviewing with some old, horror favorites. I will start with a film directed by Godfather of Gore, Lucio Fulci, The Beyond, aka, The Seven Doors of Death.

The Beyond is the second and greatest entry in Fulci’s Gates of Hell Trilogy. The plot follows Liza as she seeks to reopen an old Louisiana hotel she inherited, not knowing that it sits on a gate to hell. Evidently, there is no “Gates of Hell” clause in Louisiana’s disclosures in real property laws. Shoot. There is some confusion in this film, as the plot is not entirely linear, and there is a lot of surreal imagery.

The imagery is one of the crowning achievements of The Beyond. Fulci is known for his buckets o’ gore, and he does not fail to disappoint here, with the signature eye-gouging scene, but I really feel the horrifically gross special effects take a backseat to the cinematography. This film is beautifully shot. And for the people who don’t like deliberate pacing and atmosphere, there’s also a blind ghost, killer tarantulas, face melting, and a zombie attack. So there.

21 Jump Street is my favorite movie of the year so far! The dialogue is witty, the characters real (if exaggerated) and the action refreshing. The chemistry between Tatum Channing and Jonah Hill is remarkable. They seem like extremely unlikely best friends.

The film is based on an 80s TV show by the same name about young looking cops that infiltrate high schools and colleges to solve crime. Tatum Channing is Jenko, a classically good looking athlete whose only goal in life had been popularity till he tried to become a cop. Jonah Hill is Schmidt, a brilliant if socially stunted individual that doesn’t come into his own till he meets Jenko. The two find themselves at the police, Jenko unable to compete academically and Schmidt physically. Jenko and Schmidt combine forces to make a pretty good team, Jenko scraping by in the classroom and Schmidt managing to avoid stumbling over himself long enough to graduate.

Unfortunately the team is very much a screw up but they do have one thing going for them, they look young. After a particularly harsh berating by their captain Jenko and Schmidt are assigned to the one place their unique talents, and seeming youth, fit, 21 Jump Street. Jump Street is a team of young looking police officers that, like the original TV team, attempt to solve young adult crime. Their methods are unorthodox, their captain (played by Ice Cube) a classic TV/film archetype and their assignment an unusual one, find the supplier of a unique new hallucinogenic drug.

What makes 21 Jump Street so good, and original, is the complete role reversal of character. When Jenko and Schmidt arrive at the school they forget their respective characters and they get switched. Jenko gets assigned to AP Chemistry and Schmidt to the fluff classes including Drama. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the role reversal, it’s truly classic, but expect a fun change in the social structure.

The guys throw a party for the kids, complete with alcohol and pot, manage to win them over and begin the task of infiltrating the school. What happens when Schmidt for the first time becomes part of the popular crowd and Jenko the science outcasts is the stuff of classic film and elevates 21Jump Street to one of the best TV to film transitions that’s ever been done.

Surprisingly, the acting is pretty good, the characters well developed and the story elements superb. Everything fits together like a well planned puzzle. There is a sub plot of drug use but it doesn’t undermine the main plot or seem gratuitous. It just fits nicely into the larger puzzle.

You will probably love the film, I did!

Rating 4.5 stars out of 5.

The Movie Maniac Craig has emerged from the theater once again! Listen in to find out if 21 Jump Street is the start of something big or something that should have been left in the past. I think you’ll be surprised! As always leave a comment or your review here or on our facebook page.

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While the rest of the Movie Madness Podcast crew checks out all the theatrical releases, I’ll be doing this weekly column about the movies I’ve been watching on the small screen. I like to stray off the path and check out films in the dark realms of horror, the cheesy world of b-movies and schlock, with action, sci-fi and exploitation sprinkled throughout. I enjoy a lot of foreign releases, movies from the 30’s and 40’s, and stuff that’s sometimes a challenge (and fun) to track down. Maybe you’ll read this and track some of the movies down…or run like hell from them! Enjoy.

SUDOR FRIO aka COLD SWEAT (2010 – Argentina) When a young woman helps her friend Roman search for his girlfriend, they’re led to an old building where two elderly men live. These two old men are the last members of an Argentinian terrorist group that disbanded in the 70’s. These old coots really despise the newer generation, and they get their kicks by luring young women to their labyrinthine hideaway to ghoulishly experiment on them with all sorts of acids and liquid explosives. Once Roman finds his girlfriend, who has been lathered head-to-toe in nitro glycerine, he faces the challenge of getting her out without blowing her to pieces. It’s like the Wages of Fear on crack. In fact, a cool touch in the movie, is Roman is wearing a t-shirt with a logo to the movie “Sorcerer” on it. “Sorcerer” is William Friedkin’s remake of “The Wages of Fear.” I love Friedkin’s movie and to see a nod to it in this movie was very cool. Anyway, “Cold Sweat” is fast-paced and fun. People do explode, acid is flung around, some rowdy neighbors join in and there’s a sinister secret in the cellar. It’s available from Dark Sky Films.

SECTOR 7 (2011 – South Korea) An offshore oil rig is under attack by an undersea monster. This was a fun creature feature. It has the classic setup; we are introduced to a group of workers who are struggling to strike oil. They make a different discovery…a slimy little tadpole-like creature. They take it to the two scientists on staff to study. The creature slowly grows in size. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding this lifeform but we soon learn that maybe some of the team already knows about it’s existense and have their own secret. The action kicks in when the creature escapes and begins taking out the characters one by one. The monster design was very cool and the fact that it’s blood was like a gasoline substance was a sweet idea. The effects were 50/50. For example, a motorcycle chase on the oil rig is plagued by some bad green screen and CGI. Most of the creature rendering was really good. I’d say it’s not as good as “The Host”, another monster movie from Korea, but it fits in nicely as a double feature with something like “Deep Rising”. I saw this in 2-D but it was released in it’s homeland in 3-D. It’s being released here in the U.S. by Shout! Factory.

UNDOCUMENTED (2010) A crew of student filmmakers document a group of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States. With cameras rolling they follow a “coyote” into the night. They reach a hidden tunnel and begin shuffling through the darkness. At the end of the tunnel is a dead body full of stab wounds. The group is horrified but the promise of the U.S. at the end of the tunnel keeps them moving. It should of been a warning to them. They come out on the other side and are herded into the trailer of a truck. Bad move. Unfortunately for them, they have been tricked and are delivered to a gang of radicals who aren’t happy about illegal immigrants. One of the radicals says to them “It’s not what you think it is….it’s much worse”. The nightmare begins. The menacing thugs force the filmmakers to switch their agenda and make a documentary or “recruiting” video for them. They are forced to film twisted and depraved torture inflicted upon the immigrants. My friends, this was a harrowing viewing. I was on the edge of my seat. You will question the situations, the hatred portrayed by some of the characters, and yourself. The ringleader known as “Z” is a chilling character. Just wait until you meet “The Artist”. Freaky stuff! The film is a nice mixture of traditional filmmaking and found-footage style camera work. There are some very eerie scenes with night vision. There are some insane set-pieces that are so twisted I was jumping out of my chair. It’s available from IFC Midnight.

Its time to buckle up and put the pedal to the metal! As the guys discuss their favorite car movies. Which car movies raced too the top? You’ll have to listen in to find out. When you finished let us know your picks. Use our new facebook page!

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