The Hunger Games

I went to see The Hunger Games, not because I read the books and loved them (I haven't read the books), but instead because everyone is going to see the film this weekend and it has been advertized everywhere.
The plot of the whole thing is pretty grim, with teenagers fighting to the death just because the entire world is at peace now, after a dreadful war. And the games are televised, so everyone can watch them, so the contestants not only have to watch out for their competitors, but also are followed around by cameras, so their own districts can watch everything occurring. The whole thing is very similar to 1984, the book (which I read) and film.
The main character in the film is Katniss Everdeen, played quite well by Jennifer Lawrence. She is only a teenager, but has the support of her whole family on her thin, young shoulders. Her father died, probably in some kind of coal mining accident. Her mother (Paula Malcomson) doesn't seem to be much help, leaving it up to Katniss to support the family, and she does so by hunting with her trusty bow and arrow. Helping her is her good friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth). The district that they live in, District 12 is horribly poor, mostly coal miners. That is shown perfectly by Katniss delighting in a white roll, given to her by Gale.
Then come the hunger games, where all the children between ages of twelve and eighteen names' are thrown into a bowl and one boy and one girl are selected at random, though, we learn later, if more food is given to one person, the number of times that name is entered increases. Though Katniss's name is not picked, instead, her younger sister's name (Primrose) is, and she is rightly terrified at the prospect that awaits her. Katniss volunteers to fight in her sister's place. The boy chosen is the baker's son, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), who as the viewer later learns has harbored feelings for Katniss.
They begin their journey to train for the hunger games, accompanying them are Haymitch, a previous winner but now a lousy alcoholic, though he is still capable of kindness and full of plenty of good advice for the young competitors. Effie Trinket (an unrecognizable Elizabeth Banks), in charge of escorting Peeta and Katniss wherever they are needed. Both disappear into their roles, though they have played the roles before.
After some training, the games begin, and it is everyman (or woman) for themselves. They have already survived interviews on national television (where Peeta revealed his feelings about Katniss) and nasty training.
The games are brutal, as twenty-four enter, but only one can survive. Alliances are formed, but are also broken. Peeta betrays Katniss by forming an alliance with the savage members from Districts 1 and 2, which are the richest districts and have training schools for their children, making into little savages and bloodthirsty.
Katniss faces many challenges, including burning forests and genetically altered wasps, so now they are especially dangerous, and can even cause death. This is how one of the other contestants dies. Some Katniss forms her own alliance, with the young Rue from District 11, who is the same age as her younger sister. When Rue dies by another's arrow, Katniss has her best scene, devastated over the death of her new friend.
Then the rules change, there can be two champions if they come from the same district. Upon hearing this, Katniss sets out to find Peeta, which she does, only to find him injured. She helps him, and lays him down in a cave. After nearly dying by leaving Peeta to obtain some much needed medicine for Peeta, they share a kiss, a real one this time, not just a peck which happened before Katniss began her terrifying journey to save Peeta. Then, after eating some poisonous berries, there are only three contestants left, and a huge beast comes up to destroy the final three, Katniss, Peeta and the nasty Cato.
The final battle is a  nasty one, but also gritty and realistic. In the end, Cato dies, though he nearly kills Peeta in the process, and you even feel for him before his death, because this is the only thing he has ever known. But then the rules change again, once again there can only be one victor. Peeta tells Katniss to shoot him, but she cannot, so they both decide to eat the poisonous berries at the same time so there will no winner. Fortunately, the rules change again, allowing both of them to win, which happens. They are victorious, and are greeted like heroes upon returning to their home district.
The film is terribly grim, death is commonplace for these young people, and though they love, they also have no sympathy for their enemies, as Katniss demonstrates wonderfully. However, the performances are great, though really only Katniss has a big role, but everyone else does great in their smaller ones, including a good conflicted one from Hutcherson.
My only problem with the film, though other critics have mentioned others, is that is whole hunger games are rigged. The higher ups, including Seneca and President Snow (Wes Bentley and Donald Sutherland) pull the strings, creating the fire that nearly kills Katniss and bringing the beast up from the ground to end the games as quickly as possible, and to me, that just seemed like cheating, as though the entire world was against the young competitors. 
The film is also wonderful to look at. District 12 is poor and run-down while the hotel where Katniss and Peeta enjoy some luxury before fighting to the death. The forest is wonderful, and every little detail is taken care of, down to the bruises and cuts on the actors' bodies. I would imagine that both art direction at the very least will be Oscar-nominated. All-in-all, it was a well-done film, though I can't say it was all that enjoyable, but that fault lies in the subject matter. Still, I will gladly watch the film again, especially since it is powerful. Grade: A-

Hugo

I have finally seen Hugo, and it was great. Perhaps not the best film of the year, but certainly one of the best.
In Hugo, the title character (portrayed by the young but budding talent Asa Butterfield) is an orphan, running the clocks at a train station, and, in his spare time, he also works on an old automaton given to him by his father (Jude Law) before the dad's death. But some parts of the automaton are missing and Hugo is determined to find them, believing, perhaps wrongly, that the automaton will reveal a message from his late father.
However, two men stand in his way. One is the dim station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) while the other is the toy shop owner whose true identity is revealed later in the film to be the famous, revolutionary early fantasy film director, Georges Melies, played brilliantly by Ben Kingsley. Georges has been reduced to nothing of the man that was, and he refuses to even think about the past, not letting his goddaughter and charge, Isabelle (a good Chloe Grace Moretz) go to the cinema at all.
Isabelle is terribly well read and makes several literary references in the film, but longs for her own adventure. Hugo provides one for her, in his quest for finding the missing piece of his automaton. It is found in the form of a heart-shaped key around Isabelle's neck. And the automaton begins to write, and the finished project is really amazing, a picture from the famous movie A Trip to the Moon, and then signed it with Georges Melies's name, causing Isabelle to wonder what her godfather had done in his past.
Eventually, with the help of a local college professor, who adored the film of Georges Melies, Isabelle, Hugo and Mama Jeanne (Helen McCrory) watch the only surviving film of his and then Georges walks in and tells everyone the whole story. Mama Jeanne even used to be an actress in the vast majority of his films. The story is a sad one, after World War I, no one wanted to watch his fantasy films, and thus he had to sell his studio and everything that he loved and held near and dear. Hugo, then, hurries back to fetch the automaton for Georges, and after some near missteps, the precious object arrives back in its master's hands, and Hugo gets a family again. The world discovers the great genius of Melies again, all in right in the world.
There are a few subplots, including the romance of the nasty station inspector and the lovely flower saleswoman, and two other locals.
The film was an absolute delight, with great cinematography (which was awarded a well-deserved Oscar), and special effects. Despite seeing the film in simple 2-D, everything was still fantastic, the opening sequence is marvelous, with its extended camera shots. Everything was simply wonderful. A must see for film fans of all ages, and the film is definitely family friendly, and one that can be watched again and again. Grade: A

Puss in Boots

This is the only animated film from last year that I had seen. A spin-off from the successful Shrek franchise, this one misses the mark, not completely, but far from a good movie.
Here, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) has his own adventures, finding the magic beans that will lead to the golden goose and golden eggs. Joining him are Kitty (Selma Hayek) and his former friend from the orphanage, Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifianankis). Humpty and Puss has a history together and not all of it was nice. Puss and Humpty both betrayed each other, and currently hate each other. But they join forces once again to steal the magic beans from the nasty and dangerous Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sedaris), who are married and huge pig lovers. For some comic relief, Jack announces that he wants to have a baby, but Jill is less than thrilled with the idea. They get the beans and grow the huge beanstalk and steal the baby that lays the golden eggs, but this creates more problems, the mother goose attacks the whole town where Puss and Humpty were raised. And, after another betrayal from Humpty, they once again joined forces, this time for good. Humpty dies so Puss can save the baby goose and thus the town, all is once again right in Puss's world.
All in all, the film has a few laughs and tons of cute animated cats, but it is merely a mindless film, one that, after the first viewing, it can be background noise for surfing the internet. Still, the actors can't be blamed, the fault does not lie in the animation, but in the script. Grade: C+

NCIS: Need to Know

This was, unfortunately, not a good episode. The basic plot, was interesting, at least on the surface. A marine, Leland Wiley, is about to be charged with drug violations, and he wants to trade some important information to reduce his sentence. However, before that can happen, he dies. His pacemaker, for his natural slow heartbeat, was forced to speed up his heart, causing him to die of a heart attack. Thus, an investigation is begun.
It leads Gibbs (a great Mark Harmon) to one nasty arms dealer, and his current girlfriend, the attractive Ava, whom Tony develops a crush on from afar. Needless to say, she must be found and questioned. Tim McGee (Sean Murray) and a new probie, who adds little to the show, go after her, lose her, but get away with it, as everything was all a sting, performed by the DIA, without NCIS even knowing about the whole thing. Everything was a set-up, the murderer is found, but other than that, no one is punished. Wiley was killed by remote control, from someone hired to kill him.
Other than the crappy plot, the show didn't have much else going for it. The new guy, Ned Dorneget, added little to show, other than the fact that he was homosexual, but didn't show that well, unable to keep his eyes off the beautiful Ava. Ziva also had to speak to a bunch of high schoolers about working at NCIS, and was horribly worried about it, because public speaking is not her specialty, but it went well, and she volunteered to do it again next year. Overall, a bad episode and it is not worth a second viewing. Grade: C+

The Oscars

Sorry, guys. I know this seems super late, and it is. But that was out of my control.
First, I thought that Billy Crystal was a much better host than Anne Hathaway and James Franco, but the show still seemed to be lacking something, but I don't really know what. Some of the things in the show were great, though they had little to do with the actual awards, including the great Cirque du Soleil and Billy trying to read the audience's minds. However, having the cast of Best in Show voice their opinions at the end of The Wizard of Oz didn't work so well, it slowed the show down.The show, at least the first two hours, seemed to fly by, but the last hour dragged horribly despite having all the good awards. And why in the world did Angelina Jolie have to have her leg hanging out of her nice dress? It was totally unnecessary and a slutty move, if you ask me.
Now, to the actual awards. I was completely delighted when Jean Dujardin won, and he was likewise, excited as anything, though Natalie Portman was not a great presenter, despite being a good actress, she did not have much, if any, stage presence. Colin Firth, who presented the Best Actress Oscar, was considerably better. And then, Meryl Streep won, shocking many people including myself. She did give a good speech, much better than at the Golden Globes.
All-in-all, it was a good show, and at least it was unpredictable, unlike last year, but as much as I love Meryl, I'm not that happy that she won, mainly because, despite her great performance, the film itself was still dreadful. But I'll try and be happy for her, because she is happy. I guess that's enough.