Theatrical Review: Mockingjay- Part 2

Date: Saturday November 21, 2014
Time: 12pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 2 (my mom and I)

Director: Francis Lawrence
Type: young adult, drama, book-to-movie adaptation, action, sci-fi

Cast:
Katniss Everdeen- Jennifer Lawrence
Peeta Mellark- Josh Hutcherson
Gale- Liam Hemsworth
Plutarach- Philip Seymour HoffmanFinnick Odair (District 4)- Sam Claflin
Beetee (aka "Volts") (District 3)- Jeffrey Wright
Haymitch- Woody Harrelson
Effie Trinket- Elizabeth Banks
Prim Everdeen- Willow Shields
Caesar Flickerman- Stanley Tucci
President Snow- Donald SutherlandJohanna Mason (District 7)- Jena Malone
District 13 President Coin- Julianne Moore
Katniss's bodyguard Boggs- Mahershala Ali
Propaganda director Cressida- Natalie Dormer
Propaganda crew member Messalla-Evan Ross
Propaganda crew member Castor- Wes Chatham
Propaganda crew member Pollux- Elden Henson

Duration: 137 minutes (+ trailers)

Opening Remarks and Trailers:

We were the only ones in the theater when we arrived. 2-3 people came in after the trailers, but they slipped in through the back so we only heard them come in.

I'm not sure if I've asked this yet, but are we going to have to suffer through that Superman/Batman trailer EVERY SINGLE TIME we go to the movies? The god-awful excessive promotion of this is actually talking me OUT of seeing this movie.
That was my last thought before the movie itself started.

Before that, we had some pretty awesome looking trailers for "Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass" (although I have to ask if there was any conceivable reason to make the Mad Hatter a lead character if he wasn't being played by Johnny Depp), "Allegiant" (why the hell are they making this into two movies, again? It looks fairly complete to me...), "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (we got to see Leia this time! I'm also theorizing whether the female lead and Oscar Isaac's characters are Han & Leia's twins... I'm pretty sure she's one of them, with him, it's just wishful thinking, lol).

Then there was a brand new movie called "God of Egypt" which looked SUPER AMAZING. The effects especially. Gerard Butler appears to be playing the villain God, Set. And Robert Sheehan (who played Simon in "City of Bones") might be one of the main characters. I just hope it really is as amazing as it looks and it doesn't wind up being that waste-of-time "Clash of the Titans" remake.

Write-up:

The End of Another Franchise

For my previous "Hunger Games" reviews, follow the links below... if that kind of thing strikes your fancy:http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/07/71-hunger-games-2012.html
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/11/theatrical-review-hunger-games-catching.html
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2014/11/theatrical-review-mockingjay-part-1.html
Now onto business...

I was just thinking the other day how, once this movie is done, the only YA franchise we have left is Veronica Roth's series... and that's going to be agonizingly carried out over the next couple years. Those who've read "Allegiant" know why- I'm not going to dispense with any spoilers until that time comes (in 2018).
Beyond that, we'll have a bunch of "Star Wars" movies, the rest of "50 shades" (2017 cannot come fast enough... assuming "50 Shades Darker" follows in the same footsteps of the first movie, which I enjoyed far more than the book. Although the 2nd book is my favorite in the series by far), and a bunch of John Green adaptations ("Paper Towns" got horrible reviews, but I loved the book so I still want to see it).

What'll we do without any serieses of book-to-adaptations? Who knows?
But what's for sure is that the ending of every franchise is a celebration with some bittersweet aspects. Most of them are in the realm of "crying cuz it's over, but happy that it happened"... Harry Potter and Twilight were that for me, easily.

With "Mockingjay" and the Hunger Games, even before going into the movie, I know for a fact it will be bittersweet because the impending victory (this is not a SPOILER, by the way. Find me one franchise where the rebels/good guys don't win, then we'll talk) comes after some very drastic and heartwrenching sacrifices.
Far worse than losing Fred Weasley, Tonks and Lupin in "Harry Potter"- but to be fair, those deaths were shown so quickly that we barely had time to grieve. Of all people, Snape was probably the one person we were allowed time to mourn. [And I proceeded through the series all over again, books & movies, so I could truly appreciate him and his actions].

And much to my continued annoyance while reading the book, one of those casualties/deaths DID NOT INCLUDE PEETA.
I can be pretty rabid about wanting someone killed off in a series (film, TV, book, etc.). Especially villains. But also when something appears to be a dead end with no hope of redemption. This was not assisted by the fact I shipped Katniss and Gale for the series and something happens that blows up (figuratively AND literally) any possibility of that. After Bella married Edward and become a vampire, I didn't think there was a more final way to put an end to a YA novel coupling. Any member of Team Jacob reading this would probably laugh and point "NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE FEEL."

More on Shipping YA book/movie couples

Excluding "Twilight" (Team Edward for life!), it really does suck when the girl always ends up with the guy she just met opposed to the one she knew her whole life. Clary & Simon had that same issue in the "Mortal Instruments" series, but then again, that whole cockblock [not a typo!] that was Clary & Jace being fooled into believing they were brother and sister... I'm sorry, that was incredibly stupid. I enjoyed the series, but it had so many annoying roadblocks keeping Clary & Jace apart that I almost gave up on a number of times.
The only example of friends winding up together was "Some Kind of Wonderful"- it STILL does not make up for Andy & Ducky not happening in "Pretty in Pink."

Anyway, the movies made me like Peeta more than I did in the books- where I think I was more indifferent towards him. The credit, without a doubt, goes to Josh Hutcherson for just being so good at being likeable. So going in, I could only hope that his performance would save me again. That I wouldn't spend most of the movie wishing him dead because the grip that tracker-jacker torture had on him could not be broken.

Onto The Movie itself...

After all that build up, I hope that I at least have enough to talk about to fill up the rest of the post.
We re-enter the movie maybe a couple weeks after the previous part ended. Katniss is just getting her voice back after Peeta nearly choked her to death. And I spend a great deal of the movie white-knuckled, shell-shocked and in that old "Mockingjay-death-to-Peeta" state of mind.
Being with him in those scenes was so difficult. I don't have a lot of memory of the book at this point, but I didn't remember Katniss actually taking my side and really wanting nothing to do with him. Heck, there's a scene where President Coin, Plutarch and Haymitch make her talk to him when she really doesn't to. The madness comes out when they first send Prim to talk to him, which I don't remember from the book, but if it was made for the movie, it made sense. First because he knows and trusts her and second because we need more Prim screen time to make up for later on.
Spoilers from this point forward...
And just prepare for me to go into length about the characters... it's always best to read the books first.
In previous book-to-movie adaptations (although most of this was "Twilight"), I loathed when they spent time away from the protagonists and spent time with the villains or side characters. But in this case, I enjoyed President Snow's additional screen time to see more of what was going on.
There was an intriguing "dinner party" scene where he offs somebody in a way much more subtle than Darth Vadar choking out the creator of the Death Star. Snow being the ruthless ruler he is, it's not surprising that he's dealt with a fair number of assassination attempts. But I enjoyed the fact (not sadistically, but for storytelling purposes) that this was starting to take a toll on him. And he could very well die soon of his own fruition.

I don't know if I would have found as much comfort in Plutarch's presence in the story had Philip Seymour Hoffman not died. But whatever presence he had was grounding and comforting, especially when a lot of it was bleak and tense. The CGI renderings of him to fill in the blanks he left behind after his death were so live-like, I'm welling to bet they were bittersweet for greater fans of his .
And his absence also gave Woody Harrelson a chance at having a great additional scene that made me grateful for both their characters. Haymitch had the least screen time in this film than any other before it, but he made each one really count for something.

Jena Malone appears a small number of times as Johanna, being somewhat of the antithesis/voice of reason within District 13's rebel stronghold. Although her most memorable moments were stealing Katniss's morphine (anyone who knows Johanna from "Catching Fire" or reading the books, this was one of those "well-of-course") moments and slowly forming a Joker grin while listening to Katniss's plan at the wedding.

To me, having Finnick and Annie's wedding in the middle of this movie felt a little contrived and pointless. I didn't know whether or not he was going to die in an upcoming scene and if he had, what was the point of all this? Just to take us away from the bleak nature of this movie? To give Katniss and Prim one final nice scene together?
It wasn't nearly as gratifying, heartwarming or exciting as Bill and Fleur's wedding in part 1 of the "Deathly Hallows."

One review I remember mentioned something about Stanley Tucci having one last scene as Caesar Flickman that was memorable... when I saw it, I figured I misread it as being something more than it was. But somehow I missed the line "he manages to end his brief appearance with the single most insincere smile his toady of a character has ever smiled." Actually, until that moment, I always liked his character. Then I freaking HATED him or wished he was joking about Katniss being horrible.

After the wedding, a few scenes of Katniss fighting to storm the Capitol, and Peeta continuing to deteriorate my opinion of him, we have Katniss going with Boggs, Gale, Finnick and her propaganda team to infiltrate the Capitol.
Which obviously is tricky business because there are booby traps everywhere, even those not marked on their portable electronic map.
Plus the fact Peeta was shipped to them. I don't remember that in the book either, him joining their squad in this way, but either way, it felt like foul play was at work. That coupled with Boggs telling Katniss that Coin wanted to save Peeta from the arena instead of her because she wants to be in control of everything. Losing him was a little bit of a game-changer, but I also hated it because I had started to like him at this point.

Peeta lashes out only one other time, killing one person whose name escapes me, which made me feel a bit better. After a while, I started to ignore the ticking bomb in the room and focus on the other dangers ahead. I screamed once and it was at something that wasn't even deadly. The only way for them to go day to day was to keep asking/answering whether something was real or not. Apparently, the tracker-jacker torture involved using images that were real and some that weren't. And that same Peeta I liked in the first couple movies was back.
I still don't regret feeling any of that negativity, though.

Gale and Peeta actually got to have a scene together, which was interesting, but much shorter than the whole Edward/Jacob conversation in the tent in "Eclipse." They ultimately agree that Katniss will choose whomever when the war is all over.
But being on Team Gale, I still feel letdown about how he and Katniss parted ways. The scene was barely a blimp in the radar of the movie. He didn't know whether the final assault on the Capitol was his issue (in the book, I think he knew he was behind it) and she simply said goodbye to him. They never saw each other after that. At least Jacob, however annoying he was at times, contributed to the plot and was around after the main story ended.

All the boobytrap scene had really great CGI and special effects. But they were also terrifying, more than anything in either arena from the first two movies. In the sewers, there were all these monsters looked like the demons in the cave from the "Half-Blood Prince." The action happened so fast you almost didn't know who was who. But the fact Peeta got involved and actually attacked them (rather than his fellow humans) was great to see from his character. It let me know things would be okay from that point forward.
But losing one character here was particularly difficult. It almost felt unnecessary, but considering how they were surrounded, there really was no way out.
Besides the Peeta-turn-around, the one good thing that came out of going underground was giving Pollux a time to shine. I fouind him very endearing in Part 1 and having him lead the squad through the tunnels he knew like the back of his hand- that was great, and he did it without saying a word. (He's an Avox- had his tongue cut out by the Capitol as punishment).

There's a scene where everyone left ducks into a fashion boutique where they hid for the night. I believe this was supposed to the one scene Effie had in the entire "Mockingjay" novel. Instead, this went to Tigress, a former "Hunger Games" beautifier that Snow had tired because she wasn't pretty anymore. The only thing left at this point is for the squad to split up with Katniss and Gale going undercover.

Snow makes an announcement that all the Capitol denizens need to hide in his mansion. So I'm rolling my eyes thinking this is a human-shield tactic. Then at the front, they're ordered to hand all their children over. More eye rolling. Parachutes (like those with sponsor gifts in the Hunger Games) come down and I figure out very quickly that they are not a good thing.  Everything turns around very quickly. So much that you almost have no time to react. Barely even have time to notice Prim and scream when she's killed in one of the bombings.

In this part of the book, Katniss is rendered mute from the shock of it all. She figures out very quickly what happened and who was responsible. But I suppose they needed one final scene with her and President Snow to really establish her future mindset and explain why she takes the actions she does.
I remember reading the end of a chapter where she has an arrow notched for Snow. But turn the page and she kills President Coin and he dies choking on his own tongue and blood from laughing so hard at the sheer madness of it all. I honestly don't remember my reaction: whether it was a surprise or I had expected it.
It was frustrating that she never got to explain herself to anyone when everyone in the crowd was in a frenzy over what she did. But I like the scene with Haymitch, reading Plutarch's letter about sneaking her out of the city and also understanding her actions.

But I started to wonder/worry that they were going to gloss over Prim's death... until Katniss returns home (in the Victor's part of District 12) and sees Prim's cat. Her reaction still came off better in the book, but J-Law makes this hard to watch for good reasons. We all feel the way she does (at least I should hope so at this point).

I liked the ending where she, Peeta and Haymitch are living together. And she also comes to his room and falls asleep in Peeta's arms.
But then we went into the re-written epilogue section... which I felt was a little overkill with the sticky-sweet factor. I knew she and Peeta would end up together, but did we really have to see them have a couple kids? And she tells one of them about having nightmares and playing "games"... I'm sorry, guys, but give me a freaking break here.
I realize that there would be no Hunger Games (President Coin's push for them with the Capitol's children ended with her death) and there's no reason left to not want kids. But it felt a little too cliché to me.
[Just re-read the last couple pages- the only differences are which of the two child is older and the narrative was converted to dialogue... either way, I rolled my eyes when I read it because I honestly didn't care to know any of that. But that's just me...]

Final Comment:

I really enjoyed the first two movies. The second even more than the first one. But splitting this movie in two might have done it less favors. There were moments with certain character I really enjoyed, but after a while, I just wanted to it all to be over. It wasn't thoroughly enjoyable, but then again, war rarely is.
My mom was saying afterwards that she felt numb after all that's happened through the series. And I tend to agree.

Grade: B+

Theatrical Review: Burnt

Date: Saturday November 7 2015
Time: 12pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: me, myself & I

Director: John Wells (directed "August: Osage County")
Writers: Steven Knight (screenplay) & Michael Kalesniko (story)

Cast:
Adam Jones- Bradley Cooper
Helene- Sienna Miller
Tony- Daniel Bruhl
Michel- Omar Sy
David- Sam Keeley
Reece- Matthew Rhys
Dr. Rosshilde- Emma Thompson

Duration: 101 minutes (+ 2 trailers)

Write-up:

Previews and Opening Remarks

I'm just seeing now that this movie got bad reviews... and those people are freaking idiots.
Considering that they were behind the film adaptation of "The Giver," I can't say with complete confidence that the Weinstein Company can do no wrong. It seems like they only think they succeed in doing is getting Meryl Streep Oscar nominations...
But before I lose this tangent, I felt like this movie was really well done. Not quite at Oscar level, but certainly closer than most movies I've seen this year.

I went by myself (my mom and sister went to the Peanuts movie, which my sister had wanted to see for her birthday- which is today). I found it interesting that they asked for my ID. I forgot momentarily that this was rated R for language. Totally bogus, by the way. The f-bomb usage was nowhere near the Scorsese level and a few violent outbursts in the kitchen... I'm sorry, I just don't buy into it.
Not to mention I don't remember if I even got ID'd when I saw "Due Date," which had plenty more cause for an R-rating.

I walked in just as they were getting into "The Night Before"- that Christmas Eve movie with Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Considering it's Seth Rogen being his usual idiot self... yeah, it's going to be pretty stupid. They had a scene where he's in church and awkwardly finds his way out upon realizing he was wearing a sweater with the Star of David on it after seeing Jesus on the cross.
I also didn't realize that "Ride Along" got a sequel, but it actually looks pretty hilarious. Plus it has Ken Jeong in it. He's probably not going to be as crazy as his character from the "Hangover" franchise, but him being in the mix is sure to be interesting. Again, it looks like a stupid movie, but the trailer really did make it look good. All that's left is that I wonder if Kevin Hart thinks twice about going near ceiling fans after a stunt he pulled in this movie :P

Bradley Cooper, the cast and characters
This feels like my first review of a Bradley Cooper movie. But upon checking my records (tags REALLY come in handy with blogging), I'd done two of his movies in the past. Granted, one was a voiceover role ("Guardians of the Galaxy" and the other was the original freaking "Hangover" movie (at this point, can we all just pretend the sequels never happened?).
But this is the first time I'm discussing a movie where he's playing the starring role.

The first theater trip I took for one of his movies was "The Words"... which I feel got overshadowed BIG TIME by "Silver Linings Playbook." But I felt a camerarderie with "The Words" just as a writer struggling to get a manuscript published. At that time, I had sent a manuscript to a dozen agents in my genre and didn't get any good results. Few returned my emails and when they did, they were very vague. None telling me what I'm doing wrong or what I could do better.
As that movie was ending, though, I remember crying. I hated for it to end and it was also bittersweet how it all worked out.

I remember seeing Bradley Cooper, Matthew Quick (the author) and some cast members of "Silver Linings Playbook" [great book and movie] on Katie Couric talking about mental illness and such.. I started really respecting him after that.
He IS a good looking guy. I am quite aware of that, but I don't go to movies to see him because of that. I wanted to see "The Words" and I wanted to see "Burnt" because they just looked really well done. And with both, I was very happy with my choice to go.

First things first, Adam Jones (the character Coop is playing in this) is a very flawed protagonist, but when he's in his element, he is REALLY good at what he does. He was a great young chef who won 2 Michelin stars and he is on a quest for his 3rd. But when our movie begins, he'd just finished repenting for mistakes that ruined his life and that of other people. He got too much success too fast in his young life. He felt a void he needed to fill, so he overindulged in sex and drugs and made enemies.
Adam Jones made his way in Paris, but thanks to his former exploits, he decides to make his comeback and venture towards that last Michelin star in London.

I'd been wanting to see Daniel Bruhl since he played  Frederick Zoller in "Inglorious Basterds" and he was really good in this as well.
We first see his character, Tony, in charge of a restaurant that seems to be running smoothly, but he feels an impending doom upon getting the news that a notorious critic is dining there. And Adam just happens to show up so he may offer his services as head chef to make sure the restaurant isn't closed by a bad review. Despite how it may appear on the surface- Adam orchestrating the critic situation to punch his ticket back into the culinary world- he does this to give Tony a chance to be a maître d' at a successful restaurant that would make his father proud.
He rebuffs Adam at first, but they rekindle their old friendship in no time.

But given his checkered history, Tony and his father don't invest in Adam's restaurant for nothing. He still has to visit a doctor once a week to run blood tests- they'll support him as long as he sticks to his sobriety. Emma Thompson plays this doctor in a small, but very pleasant role. I've seen her several times and I almost feel like I'd taken her for granted until now.

At some point, I need to see "American Sniper." Not just because of the good reviews (from critics, friends and my dad), but because Sienna Miller was in it with Bradley Cooper.
In the early part of the movie where Adam is scouting his 7 samurai (i.e. the line cooks that'll be working for him... his words, not mine), he goes to several restaurants and food stands. He first meets Helene while she's at work. He was impressed with something she cooked and his dining partner (I believe it's Tony's father) brings him behind the scenes to meet her. There's also an interesting scene where he tries to woo her into working for him where they meet at a Burger King and he goes on a spiel asking why she doesn't like fast food.

Tony, of course, thinks it's a bad idea to enlist her because she's a woman. And with his history, it's likely to blossom into romance that breaks apart quickly, leading her to quit.
It does appear that they get together, but romance isn't the main focus of the movie. The scene where they kiss the first time is a little cliché and kinda lame. But it doesn't mean he isn't hard on her as much as his other chefs. Nor do this relationship get in the way of their working relationship.
Reece is the head chef/owner of the other big restaurant in London. The two of them have a checkered past together and naturally, Reece feels threatened by Adam as competition. Despite the fact Reece is like this movie's Marcel Vigernon (see "Top Chef" and any appearance he's had on Food Network... he's very into new modern culinary techniques, including immersion circulators... the only thing missing in his kitchen is liquid nitrogen), Adam eventually tops him and he doesn't take it well.
The fierce rivalry is a small part of the movie, but they didn't go as far with it as they could have. In a way, it's almost refreshing. Much like the fact Adam and Helene's romance doesn't take up too much screen time. It keeps the movie from falling into old hat traps of convention.

Ultimately, though, all the drama happens in the kitchens during dinner service and Adam dealing with his inner demons.

The Kitchen

In the opening credits, Mario Batali was listed as one of the on-set food experts and Gordon Ramsey is among the executive producers.
I saw a short video where Gordon Ramsey helps promote the movie, says what a good job Bradley Cooper did and how it was the portrayal he'd seen of cooks in a kitchen in film. According to their Food Network special, the actors cooked everything themselves and held themselves to high restaurant standards. That only impressed me and got me even more excited about seeing the movie.

And being in this kitchen felt like being in "Hell's Kitchen." It's a VERY fast paced work environment. There's a standard of perfection that is demanded. Even if there's a timing issue, all the food has to be perfectly done or it's not worth putting out. A number of times he tells his chefs not to talk back to him, but to just say "yes chef" and do as he says. It's absolutely crazy, I know, but in this light, I understand why things have to be a certain way. It keeps the operation running like a well-oiled machine. But it's up to the head chef to expedite and be on top of everything and everybody.

I read one review that said that everything beyond the kitchen scenes is boring... with the adrenaline, I can understand why that might be.
I knew for a fact that I would be fine for the entire movie because Bradley Cooper, even when he's not entirely pleasant to be around, has great stage, or rather, screen presence. I care about what's going to happen to him and to see him succeed because his character is so gifted at what he does.

Other Comments

Without giving anything away, the most interesting thing about this movie... it's the fact that you don't always know what to expect from the characters. Someone who is your friend can turn into an enemy and someone you figured would leave you out to dry comes through for you when you need it.

Of course we can't have a movie without some peaks and valleys. The kitchen runs smoothly most times, but there's always moments where things can go wrong, f bombs are dropped and things get broken.
It isn't giving too much away to say that Adam doesn't stay on the wagon the entire ride. Recovering addicts are prone to revisit old habits-- it's not just Hollywood cliché, it's a real-life struggle. And the way it played out, it was a little hard to watch, but it was written very well and acted well by Bradley Cooper. Like I said, he makes me care about his characters and I was more than happy about tear-jerking response I had to it.

The movie touched on in small detail about the Michelin process. How the people come to the restaurants, what they order, what they do. Things to look for so you know for sure that you're being watched and everything needs to be perfect.

There was no part where I felt like the pacing was slow and boredom never found me. In fact, I did a double-take when the credits rolled. Everything had resolved and it was a happy ending for everybody, but I kinda wanted to see more.
I had that same feeling about "The Intern" as well, but there were moments I felt like they tried a little too hard to get laughs.  "Burnt" is mostly drama, but when they were funny moments, they came naturally. There was also a cute moment where one of his line cooks, David, was explaining to his girlfriend how Michelin stars were comparable different Star Wars characters.
That was the one that stuck out to me, but there were some other moments integrated seamlessly into the script.

Final Word

Why this movie isn't getting rave reviews is beyond me...
The only negative I can derive, I guess, is the way the film is shot early on. It felt like being in "Black Swan" where the camera followed too closely, sometimes shook, and it was sometime before we even got a good look at our star. But once equilibrium was found, it stayed. Or I was enjoying myself too much to even notice.

Every year, there's always a movie I find out about a couple months before it premieres [mainly because it doesn't feature an actor I'm not personally keeping tabs on] and when I start seeing trailers, I know I will see that and that I will enjoy it. I thought this looked really well done and I wasn't disappointed by any means.

Can I say Bradley Cooper once more and still be convincing in saying that I'm into him for acting, not because he's one of the Sexiest Men Alive?
And when he won that honor, I wasn't quite believing it. Now I do. But it's more because he's a really nice guy and he's made really good dramatic movie choices.
Going into this, I just felt like I was sitting in a safety net and I knew everything was going to be okay. There has to be drama somewhere, but it was handed very well and I never lost faith in the acting or storytelling.

If you're a fan of these actors and/or cooking shows like "Hell's Kitchen", this is your movie.
I probably won't look at food the same way for a while ;) also, don't go to this movie hungry.
[They said that about "Chef' too and I STILL haven't seen it yet... get to work, HBO? Showtime? Sundance Channel?]

Grade: A
[I've given a lot of solid A's this year, but of my 9 movies so far this year, I think this is the best]