The Kari AnnAlysis

Archive for the ‘Movie Review’ Category

I did not initially jump on the Hunger Games bandwagon. I thought it was probably overrated and I’d already read Harry Potter and Twilight. Did I really need another series? I finally caved, but all three books in a hardback set and it was over. I was in love. I gave the books to several people to read and couldn’t wait for the movie.

I watched every preview I could get my hands on.

I listened to the Taylor Swift song from the movie.

I went to the beauty shop to find the Hunger Games nail polish, which I got two of by the way. Down below, you will read my love for District 12 and understand why I just had to get the black one.

I had set up a movie date with my cousin for this weekend. She lives out of town and we are celebrating her birthday and new house and will do so by watching the movie. She was one of two cousins who I let borrow the books. The other one also contacted me about watching the movie, so I ended up with two dates, but I wasn’t complaining. After reading reviews, I knew that I would be able to sit through it multiple times.

I had thought about taking off work last week when it came out so I could go to a midnight movie, but I waited until Sunday and although I could barely stand myself because I was so excited, it was worth the wait.

I absolutely loved the adaptation from the book to the movie. The characters were what I expected. The settings were what I expected and I loved how they jazzed it up a little for the theater.

I have read a lot of reviews on the movie and can’t believe the things that people are complaining about. Like they didn’t know Rue was black. It says in the book that she was dark skinned, but even if it didn’t, what did it matter? Just because it’s not set in present day and because there was an uprising, did people think an entire race would be wiped out? Same with Cinna. People complained because Lenny Kravitz played that role. I thought he fit the role perfectly. Wasn’t as over the top as I expected, but I loved his character.

The 8th graders at my mom’s school went to see the movie. My mom said that several complained about how the movie was nothing like the book. I think that is just bad, no horrible, reading comprehension. Maybe 8th grade is too young to be able to do that. But I thought it followed the story line pretty tight.

Yes, there were additions, like the behind the scenes of the Hunger Games scenes where they did all the technology, but I loved that. I loved that they showed how it all worked. Also the uprising in District 11. No, it wasn’t in the book, but if you have read the other books, you would know that it is a little teaser for what is expected to happen. They just started it a little earlier than in the books.

I watched the previews, but didn’t do a lot of research into the characters. Both Katniss and Peeta are from Kentucky. They’re not from the area that I am near, but still, it’s Appalachia! They know what District 12 represents. That made me love them even more. I was a bit surprised by all the faces I recognized in the movie. Like that Peeta was played by Josh Hutcherson. He was actually in the movie Little Manhattan, which a coworker just bought for me recently. What a small world! And that Stanley Tucci, Liam Hemsworth and Elizabeth Banks were all in the movie. I had no idea such big names were involved.

I really don’t think that I have any complaints about the movie. I heard a lot of people moaning and groaning throughout the movie when chunks were taken out that they wanted to see. It’s been quite a while since I read the books, so since they weren’t fresh in my mind, there really wasn’t anything in particular that I noticed that was left out. The main story line stuck in my head and that’s what I got. My cousin noticed a couple of things, but I wasn’t offended by anything left out.

I have now seen the movie twice and loved it just as much the second time as I did the first.

But seeing the movie twice isn’t the end to my Hunger Games obsession. After the first viewing, my cousin and I sat until the lights came on just to make sure there wasn’t a scene at the end of the credits that we missed. To those of you who haven’t seen it, you don’t have to stay, unless you want to listen to some good music. And that was at least one great thing I got out of the credits. I fell in love with the songs that ran during them. One was a Taylor Swift song that I had heard before, the other was Miranda Lambert and the Pistol Annies, which I’m surprised I didn’t know was on the soundtrack. So…. when I got in my car, I downloaded the cd from iTunes and have been listening to it for the past week. I absolutely love it. It’s so folky and twangy. It definitely has a very District 12 feel.

Speaking of District 12, when I read the books, I understood that District 12 was my district. They are the coal mining District and that is the part of the country I live in. I knew that they may not possibly be in West Virginia, but being from coal country, I relate. I don’t have family who work in the mines, but everyone knows someone who does. We know the dangers, we have seen them first hand with the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, which devastated our entire state a few years back. And although I knew this, I can’t say though that I really felt the connection with District 12 until I watched the movie. Seeing the destruction, the poverty, the filth, not having running water, knowing that that is how I would live, it really hit home. It’s funny because for the first 20 years I lived in Ohio, and for the past five, in West Virginia. And I have more pride in WV in that short time than I ever did for the Buckeye State. No disrespect to it, and I really think that my husband’s pride for our state and country really rub off on me. And when I saw how they lived in District 12, as horrible of conditions as they lived in, I felt a pride to know that that is where I would live and as much as it would be a life change for me, and would probably dream of living in a place with money, and running water, I know District 12 is my district.

If you’ve seen the movie, please share your thoughts on the similarities, the differences and how you feel now about the series that you’ve seen it play out on the big screen. I cannot wait until the next movie comes out.

I don’t know about you, but I squeal with excitement every time I see something new about the Hunger Games.

In case you’ve been under a rock for the past few years, the Hunger Games is a young adult book series by Suzanne Collins. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the country is divided into 12 regions. Every year, a teen boy and girl from each region and chosen, by drawing a name out of a bowl, and are put in an area and must fight to the death against the teens from the other regions. The Hunger Games as it’s called is the annual entertainment and the way for the government to show that they are in charge and there shall not be an uprising of citizens. What a better way to keep you under their thumb, eh? The series follows Katniss and Peeta through their experiences in the Hunger Games and that’s all I’m going to say.

I was a bit hesitant to read these books. I always tend to be behind the times. It happened with the Harry Potter series, the Twilight series…need I go on? But I had a gift card and got a box set of the books, in hard back, and dove in. I. Fell. In. Love! I couldn’t put the books down. I have since been a major Hunger Games  advocate since I finished the books. I gave them to a coworker and two of my cousins.

Here are my reviews for the three books
Hunger Games
Catching Fire
 Mockingjay

The movie for the book is set to come out March 23. Here is the link for the trailer (they’ve all been disabled on YouTube and you can’t embed them.) Every time I watch it, I get goose bumps and just can’t wait any longer.

The latest thing to make me squeal, the new Taylor Swift song, “Safe and Sound” that is on the Hunger Games soundtrack. Today I ran across the video for the song and got pumped up even more for the movie.

Ahh I love it! Are you ready for the big release??

I tried to review movies here on The KariAnnAlysis, but was watching way more movies than I could review. Recently I recorded Magic Beyond Words: The JK Rowling Story.  JK Rowling is one of those authors that I would love to get inside of her head and see what goes on and where her stories come from. This movie gave me a little insight and answered a few questions I had about the amazing author.

The movie follows Joanne from the time she is a little girl until her movie for Harry Potter premieres. It shows her ups, her downs and everything in between and how Harry Potter was born.

If you don’t know all of this and want to be surprised when you watch the movie, quit reading now! I am going ot talk about a few parts and don’t want to be the spoil sport for you!

If you are an inspiring author, you need to watch this movie. That’s it. Plain and simple. Joanne knew from day one that she wanted to be an author. She tried to go to college for writing, but didn’t get in and ended up with odd jobs throughout her life. She got the idea of Harry Potter when she fell asleep on the train one day. And just like that, BAM!, magic was born! Joanne was married, had a baby and then her life changed. She up and left her husband and one day got the nerve to show her sister her writing and finally got serious about it. Oh and did I mention that while she wrote Harry Potter, Rowling was on welfare? She went from being so poor that she needed help raising her baby, to being worth $1B. How about that?

I always like to see how other writers do their work. Joanne had a box full of notes, pages, chapters just strewn about. I couldn’t do that. I am very OCD and a perfectionist. I always think that I can take notes here and there and write down ideas on napkins and random sheets of paper, but I just can’t. I read twitter feeds of authors who do this and kind of admire them for not being so uptight. I do all of my writing on my laptop. I always save it to my desktop and to my little flash drive. I have a little red notebook that I keep track of everything in. It had all of my notes for my books, ideas and the days that I write and how many words I get in. But it is very organized and if it gets out of order, I have to get a new notebook and transfer. I need help, anyone agree? Maybe one day I will have that idea that just comes to me and the different parts come, like they did with Joanne and Harry, and I won’t be able to help it. Fingers crossed!

One of the things that I loved about this movie was that I learned that Joanne didn’t just write Harry Potter overnight and it become  a success. It took her a few years to get it all down and get that box of hers organized. It’s been over a year since I’ve started writing. I have completed a YA novel and am in the Kari-edit stage of the second one in the series. I have also started a love story, but am not sure where it’s going to go. I loved it when I started it, but am now losing steam. I feel like I have a few ideas that are swimming around in my head and here pretty soon, one of them is going to take me by storm. I hope it happens sooner rather than later. I need a great idea for NaNoWriMo.

One of the things I disliked about this story was, and I don’t know if it’s really the case, Joanne only sent Harry Potter to two agents before it was picked up. Granted Harry Potter is a work of genius, and spectacular compared to my little YA murder-mystery, but still, TWO agents? C’mon! It looked so easy. I have sent requests out to nearly two dozen agents and ZILCH! I understand Joanne’s book came at a time where children’s books were still a budding genre and now everyone has a YA book, but STILL!

And although I felt a tad inadequate about my writing compared to miss JK Rowling, like I’m sure most authors do, this movie inspired me. She wasn’t some little rich girl who had an “in” and took advantage of it. She started with an empty box and filled it with her ideas that formed to be Harry Potter. She worked her way from rock bottom to the top of the literary world.

Have you seen this movie? If so, did you find it as inspirational as I did??

For this year’s Holiday Reading Challenge, I had a big old pile of books with snowy covers and Christmas themes. One of those books was The Best Girl by Emma Harrison.

As soon as I started reading this book, I knew I wanted to pick a movie cast. The main character, Farrah AKA Jane has wild read hair and is trying to figure out who she really is.

Her mom, also a red head is kind of uptight and a little hoity-toity.

I think I have found the perfect ladies!

For Farrah, Rachel Hurd-Wood:

Rachel, 20 years old and from England is probably best known for her 2003 role in Peter Pan.

Now to her mother, this one was easy, thanks to Desperate Housewives, Marcia Cross.

I originally wanted Deborah Messing for this role, but once I saw an episode of Desperate Housewives after reading the book, I changed my mind immediately.

And if you ask me, I think these two could be long-lost family members

Oh, and there is a boy that we also have to cast. I don’t remember in the book what exactly he looked like, but this is how I picture him:

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sure the gentlemen have quit reading by now, but let me introduce you to Matt Lanter, AKA Liam on the new 90210. I wanted someone who was kind of badass for this role. It has to be someone steamy, but someone who you can also imagine on the slopes and working at a resort. Sometimes I have a hard time imagining guys in roles that I haven’t seen them play before. I know they are actors and they are just playing roles, but I couldn’t imagine, say Teddy from 90210 working as an employee at a resort over Christmas vacation.

The hardest role to fill for me was Buffy AKA Biff. I wanted someone young and hip and fun, preferably with already crazy, spiky hair. But, I was having a hard time finding someone, so I just went with one of my favorite young actresses.

This is Lucy Hale. She’s currently on Pretty Little Liars and also had a role in Privileged, which I also loved. I chose Lucy for this role because I think she has the right genes to portray that she is from a very wealthy family, but with some funky shoes and clothes and maybe some blue streaks in her hair (like in flashbacks of PLL she could definitely fit the role).

Does anyone else imagine actors/actresses for the books they are reading? Has anyone read this book and have someone else in mind for these roles? I’m always interested to see who other people see as these characters.

So I recently read my first Debbie Macomber, Call Me Mrs. Miracle. And in case you missed my review, I loved it. It was cute, cheesy and full of Christmas spirit.

Little did I know, until I was scrolling through my DVR movies one day, that I had already recorded the movie to go along with this book. Of course, being a book worm, I always like to read the book before I see the movie. I’ve found in most cases, this is necessary. I cried equally in The Notebook movie and book, I really liked The Lovely Bones book, but if I would’ve seen the movie first, I wouldn’t have wasted my time with the book because it was too sci-fi for me. The only book to movie that I can watch and read over and over again in either order are the Harry Potter movies and books. Those books were so powerful alone, but translated so well to movie that when I watch them, I want to read the books again just to remember how exactly certain scenes were written.

In Call Me Mrs. Miracle, the premise of the movie is the same. Holly is struggling to find a way to connect with her nephew, whose mother has died and father is in Afghanistan. She bumps into a handsome stranger in the coffee shop and the continue to bump into each other as the adoration for each other grows. And Mrs. Miracle is in the background, saying things that no one understands how she knows and working her magic.

There was one major part of the movie that was different from the book. In the book, when it came to the Intellytron, Jake bought way too many and no one was buying them from the store. In the movie, Jake didn’t buy any and they were the hot toy. I hated this setup at first. Just because I know in the book how Jake’s dad expects so much out of him and Jake needs to do something good, just for a little positive reinforcement. Towards the end of the movie, the turn of events, because of the store not having any Intellytrons worked remarkably and I actually ended up liking that ending better. But it’s just one of those things, it’s different from the book and different is scary.

A few relationships were changed from book to movie. Jake’s dad had one with a co worker in the movie that he didn’t have in the book. And Gabe hooked up Holly’s boss with his dad in the book and in the movie, that didn’t happen. But that was a good change. In the book, she was nasty, but in the movie, I can’t say the word I want to to describe her.

I would suggest reading the book first with this duo if you are going to watch the movie as well. But if you do it the other way around, let me know! I want to know how you feel about some of the plot points.

Now I am going to break one of my own rules in the near future. I have the original Debbie Macomber’s Mrs. Miracle on my DVR.  I know there is a book that coincides with it, but it’s getting too close to Christmas for me to keep holding off. And one thing I just noticed in looking for a picture for this blog, Mrs. Miracle is the same in both movies. Verrry interesting. Now, I must sweet talk my husband into watching it with me