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macho_mz
Reviews
Captain Phillips (2013)
Very compelling!
I wasn't sure if I would like this movie, (frankly, I was afraid of another Castaway), but I was pleasantly surprised! The movie kept a good pace- it kept you engaged without straying from the original story. Some people complained that it was too long, but I think they did well balancing a good tempo while putting you in Capt Phillips' shoes in a situation that lasted for days. The part I liked best was the very end. They did an excellent job of showing the emotional roller coaster an average person would be on, first thinking he was about to die, then seeing a pretty horrific scene, and finally the shock that sets in after the adrenaline starts to wear off. A great performance by Hanks!
Austenland (2013)
Not what I expected
As a happy owner of the book Austenland, I was very excited for this movie to be released. I thought it was cast very well and had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, I left the theater more than a little disappointed. I figured with a book this short, it would be fairly easy to adapt, but they seemed to change whatever they wanted for no particular reason. The main character, Jane, is supposed to be a romantic young lady with an unfortunate (but humorous) history of failed romances who compares every man to Mr. Darcy; this movie made her a freakishly obsessive fan who seems to have difficulty distinguishing fiction from real life. That extreme made her less endearing and more of a joke, which sums up most of the movie. I can only assume they thought the movie wouldn't be taken seriously so they decided to be in on the joke. There were a few moments that I did enjoy, but overall, this book could have been adapted a great deal better.
The Hunger Games (2012)
Don't listen to the haters...
I usually dislike movie adaptations of books I have read, but this was a pleasant surprise! A lot of fan reviews have been way too focused on every itty bitty detail that wasn't exactly like they pictured it- guess what, no movie will be. Yes, some actors don't look much like the characters they portray and some scenes didn't follow the book word for word. Overall, I thought they did a good job of capturing the spirit of the book. They put in as much detail as they could while maintaining a PG-13 rating. It wasn't overly graphic, but you still got the same feel of the original story. My only criticism is that because the book is so full of detail, the movie might feel a bit rushed if you haven't read the book first.
On a side note, for all the haters that say Suzanne Collins poorly plagiarized the Japanese novel, "Battle Royale," you need to read more. The basic plot of citizens in a dystopian society being forced to fight is NOT an original plot. The idea has been used in literature for years, most claiming Roman gladiator games as the inspiration. "Battle Royale" was not widely released in the US, so it isn't far-fetched that Collins said she had never heard of it until the comparisons started. It's like the man who sued Dan Brown over "The Da Vinci Code" because he wrote a book about 20 years earlier discussing the idea of the true nature of the Holy Grail. Those theories have been around for centuries (which Dan Brown noted in the book's preface). Why not claim that "Twilight" was a rip-off because it wasn't the first book about a human falling in love with a vampire? Broaden your horizons people!