Sunday, September 2, 2012

DVD Movie Review - Safe & The Hunger Games


There’s one word that sums this movie up: awesome.  If you’re like me, and found The Transporter to be a very entertaining movie, then you’re in good hands with Safe.  Statham is at the top of his game here.  The difference between the two movies is: The Transporter’s martial arts and choreography are very Jackie Chan-esque, Safe on the other hand has brutal and down-right nasty blows that are more straight and to the point.  The action sequences are shot great too.  The camera is in your face and there isn’t too much shakiness to give you a headache.

Statham plays a down-on-his-luck kind of guy, that’s about to throw it all away.  But when he sees Mei (played by Catherine Chan) all that is about to change.  He realizes everyone and the kitchen sink is after this girl, so Statham goes into Statham-Mode and delivers action scene, upon action scene. 

Yes, there is a story too.  Not too complicated, but it’s not a throw-away either.  The good thing is: it was written with an intelligent audience in mind, so you’re not walked through back story or plot.  You get little hints here and there and build your own conclusions. 

Safe comes out on DVD this Tuesday, and should be a definite rental.  If you really like Statham movies, than a DVD purchase is in order.

4 stars out of 5


Disclaimer: this movie is being reviewed not by a teen girl, maddening for love, but by a thirty-something male, who would rather watch an action movie with Jason Statham.

Read our review of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Welcome to the 74th annual Hunger Games.  Here are your…blah blah blah blah…whatever.  I’m sorry, but I don’t understand all the coverage this movie received.  I remember picking up the book in a store and reading the summary on the inside flap, and putting it right back on the shelf.  The premise of this movie is just ridiculous to me.

They have districts fenced off, which doesn’t keep Katniss (seriously, Katniss?), from going through the fence anyway in the beginning of the movie.  There was this big civil war, and after it was all over, to keep the peace, we let our children be taken by the gov’t and served up on some reality show to be killed.  This keeps the people in all districts, complacent.  But wait there’s more: they allow one winner, so that there’s a feeling of hope.  Say what? 

Now all that right there keeps the peace.  And if that isn’t the dumbest idea you’ve ever heard of, I don’t know what is.  Oh, wait that’s right, there’s that other ridiculous movie that involves shimmering vamps.

If someone took my child and sent them off to be killed, I would rather die than see them taken from me.  So in my eyes, the gov’t coming to collect children should start another war in my book. 

But let’s get passed all that, and actually watch this mess.  There are some neat (action sequences?) If that’s what you call them.  And going into this, you already know Katniss is going to live, so there’s no worry there.  Why? You ask: Because there are 2 more movies coming.

The leads in this film: Jennifer Lawrence (who hasn’t been in a decent movie yet) and Josh Hutcherson (who just came off of the Oscar winning Journey: 2, in which the Rock sings) are like watching two cement blocks delivering lines. 

But not just them, I wasn’t emotionally invested in any of the kids, family or whomever else graced the screen.  I could have cared less if everyone died in a giant fire at the end.  Sorry to all those fans out there. 

And the supposed love-story between the two…I’ve seen stronger love scenes coming from two dogs in my neighborhood. 

There are two types of people: one’s that loved the Hunger Games and one’s that forgot it as soon as it was over.  I’ll let you ponder which one I am.

1 1/2 stars out of 5 (it’s gets one star for how much money the movie made and a half star for how popular the book is)

No comments: