Movie review - "No Hard Feelings" (2023) ***1/2

 An old fashioned star vehicle with a modern twist - Jennifer Lawrence goes balls to the wall as a hot mess who takes money to seduce a gawky 19 year old courtesy of his rich parents. I'm not sure it would work with any other star with her combination of vulnerability, craziness, sexiness, and whole hearted commitment. Andrew Bath Feldman is an excellent co star and the support is very good but really this is the Lawrence show and that's just the way it should be.

More might've been made of class issues - I mean, the guy is an only child of rich parents he's never going to worry about money, and he might've been more grateful that Lawrence was going to spend time with him. Also the final stunt at the end was a little silly. But in general I liked this.

Movie review - Xmen#5 - "X Men First Class" (2011) ****

 Matthew Vaughan doesn't have the reputation of a Chris Nolan but he sure can make a solid comic book movie. This for me was the best of the franchise so far, a very smart, stylish, well made piece of entertainment.

It had the benefit of a decent origin story - Xavier and Magneto have such a fascinating conflict, and Mystique also is compelling. Vaughan has cast it perfectly - Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy seem like friends, Jennifer Lawrence brings X factor, and others like Rose Byrne, Nicholas Hoult, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, etc are all very good. I guess some of the minor X men aren't that memorable. I loved seeing Michael Ironside in a big budget movie.

It is a little pervy - Zoe Kravitz, Jones and Byrne all strut around in lingere like, well, Claudia Schiffer and Lawrence discovers the joy of going nude and blue and tries to seduce Fassbender.

It dragged around the two third mark due to bloat but recovered, in part because the central conflict is so strong, you can't go wrong with Nazis, and Magneto such a justified protagonist.

Very entertaining.

Movie review - "Dark Phoenix" (2019) ** (warning: spoilers)

A big flop despite a strong cast and very good story. The treatment isn't good though - it's got some very mediocre dialogue, so much of it is on the nose and repetitive. More crucially it misses big moments - I'm mean they're all there in theory but you don't feel anything when Jennifer Lawrence dies, or the relationship between Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan (in his defence he can't act with his eyes) or the bond between Turner and James McAvoy, or between Nic Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence, Turner and Jessica Chastain, or the death of Turner. McAvoy and Michael Fassbender have some moments.

Some good bits  - the final fight on the train is well done, Fassbender s in good form. But the resst is all curiously flat - it's weird the story s so solid, it should work, but it doesn't. It just feels silly, no camraderie amongst the X Men. Everyone talks about how they care about each other but you never believe it. It feels like a flat episode of a TV series with a decent budget - but the visuals are okay rather than amazing.

You wonder why they made it. Logan I get there was a point - it was the last act of a popular charcter. Is Phoenix popular? If that's the case make it all about her - she disappears from too much of the action and spends a lot of the final battle asleep. Logan was also a gritty version - that wouldn't have worked here but it could have been say a girl's fairytale.

Movie review - "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" (2014) *** (warning: spoilers)

Final installment in the series. They really should've made one third film - I get why they did what they did but it doesn't change how I feel. This has more weight - it involves the deaths of several characters, a clear goal (to take the capital), some very good actors, a complex political scenario. The military strategy stuff feels bodgy and they struggle to find stuff for Jennifer Lawrence to do - media stars aren't that important in war? Why not just send her on a mission to kill the president? Why miss out on a final battle? Why not have Woody Harrelson describe the contents of Philip Seymour Hoffman's wishes instead of reading a letter? (Would PSH really put it on paper).

Anyway the resolution of the love triangle was well done, the production values are good. It takes itself terribly seriously but that's part of it's charm.

Movie review - "Joy" (2015) **

I really like Jennifer Lawrence and tend to enjoy David O. Russell movies once I get in the cinema, but this was a slog. It sounds like it's going to be interesting - an unconventional biopic about the inventor of the Miracle Mop - and there are good bits, like her initial sale, and trying to sell the mop, and working for shopping networks.

But I couldn't get into it. There are all these characters - Robert de Niro as dad, Bradley Cooper as a selling executive, Edgar Ramirez as her ex, Diane Ladd as mum, Dascha Polanco as her best friend, Virginia Madsen as mum, Isabella Rossellini as dad's girlfriend, PLUS two kids - but none of them make an impact. I think it's meant to have something to do with family, and also soap operas (they cut away to some) and women's role in society. But... it doesn't hit home. It didn't work for me. Lawrence was watchable, though.

Movie review - "The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 1" (2014) *1/2

Terrible movie - only the quality of the cast and production design stopped me giving this one star. Not only is it ruthlessly overlong, a thin story padded out to justify another movie, it's a stupid story. You think the revolution against the ruling class would throw up some interesting conflict and dilemmas but they make the whole movie about Jennifer Lawrence becoming a poster girl for the movement - apparently this is super vital, more so than say logistics or troop strength or weaponry or strategy and even, you know, battles. Has there ever been a military campaign in the history of the world that hinged on someone's media appearances? Sorry, Hollywood, I don't think so.

All these people who could be interesting are not used in interesting ways - Philip Seymour Hoffman's revolutionary officer does nothing; Julieanne Moore's leader looks as though she's about to go demagogue in an interesting way but she never does; Jeffrey Wright fiddles nobs; Woody Harrelson hangs around and watches; Liam Hemsworth just hangs around and gives Jennifer Lawrence the odd shoulder squeeze - how about some romance?

Well it's all Lawrence's concern for Josh Hutcherson - I never thought she liked him that much. She's worried he's been captured so wants revolution put on hold until that's sorted. He's brainwashed to the enemy, but even that situation is treated with simplicity.

Lawrence doesn't even get the chance to kick butt that much - she makes a speech and sings a song. We've got a camera crew following her around.

This film was crap.

Movie review - "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (2013) ***

Sequel to the blockbuster isn't as good as the original, lacking focus and seemingly taking forever to get going, but has some good moments. Jennifer Lawrence remains a strong center for an action film - intelligent, brave, tough, stoic, dealing with all the men who fuss over her (around five in this one, by my count)... although I do admit having only just seen her in American Hustle there were one or two moments where I expected her to go nuts like in that film.

This is overlong, with a very extended first act, and I was impatient to get to the games. Once it did, that wasn't too exciting - they kept stopping the action so people can talk.

But there were effective bits - the death of the old black man, the final bow and arrow bit, the attack of the baboons. And the support cast is of incredible quality (one advantage to comic book movies being the only ones that make money these days is they are full of great actors): Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, and Stanley Tucci return, with Jena Malone, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jeffrey Wright being among the newcomers.

Movie review - "American Hustle" (2013) ***

Apparently the original draft for this script was a lot more historically accurate - it's based on the Abscam scandal of the late 70s/early 80s which I admit I'd never heard about before - but then David O. Russell got his hands on it and he fictionalised things and shook it up.

Was it the right decision? I haven't read the original so I couldn't say. Certainly this could have done with a bit (actually make that a lot) of trimming and sharper focused; a lot of the scenes felt improvised, which may have been creatively satisfying but often makes for repetitive dialogue.

But it's got plenty of colour and character - I was never sure of where it was going or what it was doing, which occasionally irritated but on the whole was a positive. The cast throw themselves into it - every dress Amy Adams wore lacked a bra (whose choice was that, I wonder?), Christian Bale got past his fake gut and hairpiece to find unlikely humanity in a con man, Bradley Cooper had energy and spunk as the FBI agent, Jeremy Remmer was perhaps the most likeable character in the whole story, and Jennifer Lawrence was amazingly good (if, as in Silver Linings Playbook, she felt too young)

Overlong, overpraised but good fun with some excellent actors and costumes.

Movie review - "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012) ***

Sweet rom com with Bradley Cooper and especially Jennifer Lawrence in good form as the two lunatics who find each other. I wish the movie hadn't gone for almost two hours, and it hadn't taken almost 30 minutes to meet Lawrence, and that the climax had been a little less Hollywood, and that Chris Tucker had something more to do... but David O. Russell is always good on families and its handled with freshness.

Movie review - "The Hunger Games" (2012) ****1/2

Hollywood may be on the slide when it comes to making adult entertainment but we are in the Golden Age of comic book movies - something never better demonstrated than in this first rate adaptation of the popular novel. Like Harry Potter, Star Wars and Twilight, it's full of elements which feel familiar but they are re-packaged well: a combination of Steven King, gladiator movies, gritty girl novels, post-apocalyptic dystopia, etc. It's pulpy, junk stuff given intelligent, through treatment and anchored by a fabulous performance from Jennifer Lawrence, who is everything Kirsten Stewart should be but isn't (except for looks): a top actor, full of serious gravitas, sympathy and relatability.

This is gripping, exciting stuff - the sight of teenagers turning on each other, killing young ones, isn't one you're likely to forget soon. The politics of the time is all too believable - I like how it didn't end in revolution but in a strategic victory, and as the heroes learning to use the media for their advantage, manipulating the emotions of the public. Josh Hutcherson is a bit vanilla but the support cast are superb. It took me a while to "get" the look of it, but once I did I was hooked.

Movie review – “The Beaver” (2011) **1/2

Mel Gibson gives a fantastic performance here – but then I guess he’s really playing himself, a burnt out middle aged family man who loathes himself and his life. (At times I couldn’t help thinking maybe the technique his character uses here would work for Mel in real life). 

 

You wonder why, then, half the film is devoted to the escapades of his son, which really don’t have anything to do with Mel. This goes on and on, while more interesting Mel is ignored. 

 

Also some of it doesn’t ring true: a valedictorian having to pay a boy to write her speech? Would the beaver really be a craze that sweeps the nation? Does the beaver have to be cleaned? 

 

Jodie Foster doesn’t have any character to play really and the young boy is just a young boy – there’s opportunities missed there. Instead they devote time to the son, and his girlfriend, and her fear of talking about her brother. Yawn, snore. A real shame. But Mel is really good.