American Hustle

3 pipes out of 4

America has been hustled. In every commercial designed to market American Hustle it is projected as a comedy when in fact it is not. There may be a few funny moments but it is much more of a drama. The marketers even hustled the Golden Globes winning Best Picture for a comedy or musical. What if fear is the case is that the main comedy of the film was supposed to come out of the situations and actions of the characters. The problem with this was that while these actions and actions may have been designed to be funny, when compared to the whole film and the desperation of the characters, they are not actually that funny. Had American Hustle been billed as a serious drama I would have come out of the film much more satisfied but being a comedy I was expecting to feel happy and energetic when all I felt was depressed. Don’t get me wrong, Christian Bale pulls of an acting masterpiece along with Amy Adams, with Jennifer Lawrence doing a superb job as bale’s deranged wife. Bradley Cooper on the other hand simply does an adequate job in his role not really stretching his acting from his other roles, most similarly in The Silver Linings Playbook. A theory has floated out there that Cooper can only act well when he is surrounded by good actors and I am beginning to agree with this theory. Cooper did well in A-Team alongside Liam Neeson, Sharlto Copley and Jessica Biel and he did his best work in The Silver Linings Playbook alongside Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Deniro and Jackie Weaver. His lone projects such as The Hangover Part II and III as well as Limitless have been terrible. But I digress, as long as you know what you are going into American Hustle is a must see before the Oscars because it has a good chance to win big.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

3 pipes out of 4

The odds appear ever in the favor of the makers of the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire continues the tradition of remaining faithful to the books while keeping things interesting. Unlike Hunger Games which was faithful to the book but seemed to drag on, Catching Fire is authentic with action all the way. Authenticity is huge to the fan base when it comes to books being made into movies and the folks at Lionsgate have figured out the formula. The cast is back with Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. There are some interesting new additions of Jeffery Wright and academy award winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman’s interactions with Donald Sutherland are surprisingly compelling considering they remove the audience from the action of Games. Having these two Oscar winners play off of each other’s vindictiveness is truly awesome. The romantic relationship of Peeta and Katiniss is expanded as they tour through the districts with Panem on the verge of revolution. While Gale (Liam Hemsworth) is rushed into romantic feelings of Katniss, Peeta is given the slow burn, gaining traction with Katniss as well the audience. Gale is put on the backburner and essentially ignored except for a few brief moments where he tries to guilt Katniss into having feelings or him. Once the games begin twists are thrown left and right keeping you on the edge of your seat with the connection between tributes increased tenfold from the previous film. The ending leaves the audience wanting more although it was vaguely reminiscent of the ending from Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 but definitely worth seeing.