The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland. Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) takes another giant step toward becoming the leader of a revolution. In this film, the evil President Snow (Sutherland) contrives to have past winners of the Hunger Games come together as Tributes to battle each other -- thus, he believes, snuffing out any revolutionary sentiments among the people of Panem. But his plan backfires as the past Victors unite behind the saying, "Remember who the real enemy is." This was a very entertaining, if far-fetched, movie. Hoffman makes one of his final film appearances as a Gamemaker who is secretly a revolutionary. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A-

The Alamo

The Alamo (2004) starring Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Quaid, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson, Emilio Echeverria. In 1836, a small band of Texas patriots (about 200 defenders) fights an army of thousands of Mexicans in one of the pivotal battles of the war for Texan independence. Thornton is a standout as Davy Crockett, who finds he must live up to his legend even though he is only a man. The movie is well mounted, with convincing period detail. It also follows the general Sam Houston (Quaid) after the Alamo, as he uses the Alamo as a rallying cry to his army in a decisive battle with Mexican General Santa Anna and his army. It's a pretty good action flick, although I found it lacked immediacy and I found it hard to care about this battle fought in 1836. I can hardly imagine what the audience for this film would be. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

Air Force One

Air Force One (1997) starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Wendy Crewson, Glenn Close, Dean Stockwell. Air Force One is, of course the jet that the president of the U.S. travels in. In this case, the president is played by Ford. Air Force One is taken over by a group of terrorists, led by Oldman, who has his own agenda. It's a post-Cold War thriller, with the president of Russia cooperating to help the U.S. get out of the mess they've gotten into. The movie requires a strong dose of suspension of disbelief, and even then it's a pretty standard Harrison Ford thriller. I have to admit, Oldman makes a pretty good bad guy. I found the appeal to patriotism to be moving, even as I felt myself being manipulated. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B-  

Yojimbo

Yojimbo (1961) starring Toshiro Mifune. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. An itinerant samurai (Mifune) wanders into a town where there are two warring gangs. He is instantly the best fighter in town, and he offers his services to both sides, playing them off against one another. This film was the inspiration for the spaghetti Western, A Fistful of Dollars. If you like Japanese films at all, this one's a gem. The photography is excellent, and Kurosawa's direction is nearly flawless. The movie is in Japanese, with English subtitles. Grade: B+  

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Dogged CIA agent Maya (Chastain) spends ten years hunting down the location of Osama Bin Laden, and a Navy Seal team goes in to take him out. The first half of the movie kind of drags, but in the second half it picks up momentum and the actual take-down of Bin Laden is pretty darn exciting. This movie would have been better viewed in a theater on a big screen, especially the night scenes when the Seal team is going into Bin Laden's compound. But it plays OK on TV. At over two and a half hours, it's a bit long, but you could argue that you get your  money's worth. (Subtitles in English for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc, and are very legible. Closed captions are not included.) Grade: B+ 

Torrid Zone

Torrid Zone (1940) starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien, Andy Devine. Light-hearted, lightweight movie takes place in the tropics, where Cagney plays a banana plantation manager who desperately wants to go back to the states, while Sheridan stars as a nightclub singer who wants to continue traveling south to try her luck in South America. Naturally, they fall in love. While Cagney tries to move bananas, an outlaw named Rosario tries to push the plantation off the land and reclaim it for the original inhabitants. The film doesn't take much of anything seriously, and gives the impression of having been tossed off in a couple of weeks in 1940 to fulfill the need for movies to play in the theaters. It's not bad. (Subtitles in English are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B

The Spy Who Loved Me

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) starring Roger Moore, Barbara Bach. Agent 007 (Moore) must team up with a Russian spy (Bach) after two nuclear submarines -- one British, one Russian -- go missing. It's a typical James Bond movie, with lots of action in picturesque locales, and a scary villain named Jaws, plus plenty of gadgets provided by Q. There's plenty of guns and explosions, if that's what you like, but not much in the way of clever dialogue or script. English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions. Grade: B-

Hanna

Hanna (2011) starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett. Hanna (Ronan) is a teenaged assassin, trained by her father (Bana) alone in the forest. When she is sent on a deadly mission in Europe, she finds herself confused by civilized society and by the English family she randomly latches on to. Eventually, she discovers the secret of her genesis -- but is it too late? The movie is essentially one long chase scene, with Blanchett as the baddie who wants to do in Hanna and her father. What it lacks is heart. Ronan really gets to show her stuff in this film. The subtitles are OK, closed captions are not offered. Grade: B

Inglourious Basterds (DVD)

Inglourious Basterds (2009) starring Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Pitt plays Lt. Aldo Raine, leader of a band of Jews who parachute into occupied France in the early days of World War II on a mission to kill Nazis. As you would expect from a Tarantino movie, there is a lot of violence, blood and guts. There is also a lot of tension, as British and American characters go in undercover and the Nazis try to expose them. The centerpiece of the film is the premier of a German propaganda movie, which the "basterds" hope to infiltrate -- giving them the opportunity to assassinate a lot of high-ranking Nazis. Like Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," there is also a lot of gruesome humor in this film. The final frenzy of violence, in which many Nazis are slaughtered, is very satisfying. ... "Inglourious Basterds" takes place mainly in three languages: German, French and English. For some reason the subtitles during the German portions are hard to read. Otherwise, the subtitles are fine. Grade: A-

The Dark Knight (DVD)

The Dark Knight (2008) starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Anthony Michael Hall, Eric Roberts. Batman (Bale) battles big time crime in Gotham City, and his chief antagonist is the psychotic Joker (Ledger, in his final performance). I suspect that this movie would have been spectacular if I had seen it in a theater, but then I (being hard of hearing) would have missed half the dialogue. The trade-off is that I have to watch it on a small TV screen, which is all I have. That being said, the movie has a constant forward drive and nearly continuous action, and for those who like Batman movies it's a can't-miss. Grade: A

The Dead Pool (DVD)

The Dead Pool (1988) starring Clint Eastwood, Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson. Eastwood reprises his role as "Dirty Harry" Callahan and Clarkson plays a local TV anchor who wants to "do his story." The "dead pool" of the title is a morbid game in which celebrities' names are placed on a list, betting on who will be the first to die. This was the last of the Dirty Harry series of movies, and it's not hard to see why. Eastwood is beginning to look his age, and the script is sorely lacking. Look for an appearance by Jim Carrey as a drug-addled rock star who is the first on the list to die. Grade: B-

The Great Escape (DVD)

The Great Escape (1963) starring Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, James Garner, James Coburn, David McCallum and a host of others. Allied POWs plot escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. At almost three hours, it's a bit overlong, but it keeps the viewer involved the whole way through. Seems a bit dated now, but it was a great movie in its time. Grade: B

L.A. Confidential (DVD)

L.A. Confidential (1997) starring Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger. In 1950s Los Angeles, two wildly different cops form an uneasy alliance to root out corruption in the police department. It's a convoluted story with multiple double-crosses, but it's great fun to watch. The running time of over two hours is a bit of a drawback. Grade: A-

The Enforcer (DVD)

The Enforcer (1976) starring Clint Eastwood, Tyne Daly. Eastwood returns as San Francisco cop Harry Callahan in this third installment in the Dirty Harry series. Daly plays his female partner, who is assigned to him after his regular partner gets killed. Naturally, Callahan gets kicked off the force for insubordination, but that doesn't stop him from going after the bad guys -- a group of hippie terrorists who have taken the mayor hostage. Unfortunately the script is weak and this outing makes little sense -- not that it's hard to follow, but the internal logic is off. Still, more entertaining than a lot of movies I've seen. Grade: B-

Magnum Force (DVD)

Magnum Force (1973) starring Clint Eastwood. The second of five "Dirty Harry" movies has inspector Callahan (Eastwood) pursuing vigilante cops, who are assassinating crooks who have slipped through the fingers of the justice system. Things go too far, however, when the vigilantes start killing innocents and (gasp!) other cops. Like all Dirty Harry films, this one is morally ambiguous. The airplane hijacking scene seems quaint in light of what has happened since. Grade: B

Dirty Harry (DVD)

Dirty Harry (1971) starring Clint Eastwood. Eastwood plays Harry Callahan, a cop who refuses to play by the rules. Scorpio, a vicious serial killer, is terrorizing San Francisco, and it falls to Callahan to track him down and bring him to justice. But the constitution gets in the way, and Dirty Harry has to play dirty to bring down the psychopath. If a real cop operated this way, he'd be drummed out of the force, if not jailed. But it makes for an entertaining movie. Grade: B

Live Free or Die Hard (DVD)

Live Free or Die Hard (2007) starring Bruce Willis, Justin Long. Willis reprises his role as John McClane, kick-ass New York cop, this time up against a group of Internet terrorists. The bad guys are intent on taking over the United States' information infrastructure, though why isn't entirely clear. That doesn't really make a lot of difference, as there is still time for lots of gunfights, smashups and explosions. McClane even succeeds in taking out a helicopter with a car.
This disc, however, rented from Netflix, proved to be unplayable about half way in. So I have to give Neftlix an F.

Goldeneye (DVD)

Goldeneye (1995) starring Pierce Brosnan as Agent 007, James Bond. Brosnan stars in his first Bond film, but the formula is pretty familiar by now. A little romance, a lot of action, some nifty gadgets thrown in, and a Bond girl/villain played by Famke Janssen. Her character's name is Onatopp (heh heh). You also get explosions. Lots and lots of explosions. Brosnan does all right in bringing off Bond's trademark cheeky attitude. At two hours and ten minutes long, though, this action/adventure film seems to go on forever. Grade: B-