Sci-Fi, Drama, Comedy or Cartoon…we’ve got it this week on the Movie Madness Podcast. Join us as we checkout some of the latest fare and tell you what we think. The Movie Maniac, Mr. Jeremy and Doug throw down as they take on the movie makers. Check out the podcast and then let us know what you think at: # 260-573-0015, for voice mail, and we’ll play your list on the show or email us at: moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com you can also post them to Twitter, Facebook or the Ultimate Movie Geeks community on Google+

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Join Craig and Doug for a quick look at Delivery Man, Vince Vaughn’s newest, and Catching Fire, the latest in the Hunger Games Epic! Find out what we think of Vaughn’s attempt to turn a movie about a lovable loser with 533 children into a classic and whether Jennifer Lawrence will catch fire once again. Listen in while we do a brief but brilliant look at both, or better yet, send us your reviews first at moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call the voice mail number, 260-573-0015, and then tune in. You can also post them on our  Facebook page.

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From one of the most fun movies we’ve reviewed all year to one of the if not the worst movies we’ve seen in 2013! Can you guess which is which? Doug and Craig give you the scoop on Now You See Me starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo and Isla Fisher. Throw in Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine gives you a star studded magical cast! Next up Doug and Craig review the Sci Fi action adventure After Earth directed by M. Night Shyamalan starring Jaden Smith and Will Smith. Which of these movies is the surprise hit so far this year? Listen in and find out! We want your movie reviews, movie tweets, movie recommendations, anything movie related!So follow us on twitter and send your reviews to moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or call the voice mail number 260-573-0015

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The Movie Maniac Craig and Tom have once again emerged from the theater and bring to you their reviews of the sci-fi drama, love story, Cloud Atlas starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and Hugo Weaving and many more. Also Tom reviews the comedy Seven Psychopaths starring Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken . Let us know your thoughts on Cloud Atlas and Seven Psychopaths.  Send your movie reviews and feedback or show suggestions to moviemadnesspodcast@gmail.com or even better call the voice mail # 260-573-0015 

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Destined to be number one at the box office, the movie version of Suzanne Collins’ popular novel, Hunger Games, opened with a bang! Sold out theaters, great internet buzz and a film that, presumably, follows the book quite well is going to make Games the first mega blockbuster of the year. I managed to squeeze myself into the theater opening weekend along with a couple of friends and here’s the review.

Imagine a world torn by some unknown apocalyptic event where the only area left is a series of 12 districts surrounding the “Capitol” in what was once the United States of America. The Capitol, the governing area, managed to survive a particularly harsh rebellion and have been punishing the rebels severely for 74 years. The punishment includes withholding food and supplies, demanding tribute in the form of children and forcing those children to fight in a futuristic electronic arena. The arena is like a giant holographic suite, per Star Trek. Seemingly the game masters can create whatever environment and creatures they want.

This is where the plot gets a little dicey. The “hunger games” are meant to be entertaining, engaging and exciting. Each of the 12 individual districts is forced to enter their 12 to 18 year old children in a lottery, the winners entered into the arena. Unfortunately there is something dynamically different between 12 to 15 year old children and 16-18 year olds. Watching the older children slaughter the younger, in the first few seconds of the games, would hardly be much entertainment, and it certainly wasn’t in the film.

The children picked to fight in the arena are given some training after their choosing, but once again there is a snag: some districts have trained their children to fight from an early age, while others throw their children in nearly helpless. That makes Hunger Games seem completely ludicrous. In any sane world each district would be training their children from birth. For anyone that claims that there are no resources for training in the poorer districts, how many resources does it take to teach hand to hand combat and knife or bow fighting, virtually none.

The hero of Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen, using what is apparently a homemade bow to illegally hunt game to sell and feed her family, is the favorite to win. With just a little training, she, and all of the children, might at least not be fodder for the bigger stronger youth. You would think that, in 74 years, there would be more than one or two districts that would provide training. Furthermore, Katniss is the first in her district to volunteer in the same 74 years. It’s the only way to replace her 12 year old sister in the games. It would seem in that long there would have at least have been some.

This is not a new plot but usually there are plenty of people, knowing the immense benefits of winning, willing to volunteer. In 74 years you’d think there would also have been parents training their kids (Hollywood moms and dads for violence, yay!). The Hunger Games was written as a young people’s series but still I expect some reasonable logic. Even more so when it’s turned into a film. There was none! And unfortunately much of the background for The Hunger Games was left out of the film so I’m not sure if the book explains about the understory.

Another point: how decadent and disgusting would a society have to be to watch children brutally killing each other on TV? I found no evidence in Hunger Games of some kind of Gladiator style blood lust. There was also no evidence of a lingering anger or bitterness over the earlier rebellion, which would have added some sense. There was just a seemingly silly audience dressed in ludicrous outfits watching the Hunger Games as thought it was a fictional drama. Certainly overdone, in fact everything in the film seemed overdone, except the explanation of why people in the Capitol would allow this idiocy to go on for 74 years.

Check out The Running Man and Rollerball, films with somewhat similar plots, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Both films are based around a violent “game” with an audience caught up in blood lust and violence. The only explanation I can figure out for Hunger Games silliness is that they are all on some weird drugs. Did I miss that? Is there some kind of affective disorder?

Hunger Games does have some decent action scenes. Woody Harrelson is a bright spot in the film as Haymitch Abernathy, a former winner and the trainer of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and the other lottery pick from district 12, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Harrelson actually is the only character that seems human in the film.

Lawrence does an adequate job as Katniss, though I wasn’t always sold on her emotional response to crises, but Hutcherson was miscast. He just didn’t fit the role and I didn’t find him likeable. Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne was at least likeable but in far too little of the film.  Everyone else seems more like cardboard cutouts or cartoons like Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), Compare him to Richard Dawson as Damon Killian in The Running Man. Dawson is incredible in what could also been a cartoon character.

The director seemed to do a credible job, considering that with which he had to work, but I would have liked to see more explanation as to why.

The special effects were good, though once again I was lost as to the need for mutated animals and to what extent the arena was biologically separate from the great world. I would also like to have known where the immense power needed for the Capitol, the arena and technology came from. It would seem unlikely that the minimal population in each territory could provide such immense resources.

The Hunger Games seems like a film written for fans of the books or unquestioning action junkies, not for adult science fiction fanatics begging for logic and common sense. It also seems very much directed at teens. The story just seems limited to what the young people’s experience, not the adults. Which is probably why Haymitch Abernathy is such a rich character. He’s the only “live” adult.

I personally would have also liked some better explanation of why the 12 districts meekly accept the annual murder of children without trying to do something like, hide the children, running them away or training them.

One last point, have you ever tried to tell a teenager to do anything? What in the world makes you think they will listen to “big brother” and kill people they have befriended or love. Um, never going to happen. Thus the scene where two of our combatants decide to commit suicide rather than kill each other.

I’m lukewarm toward the film and give it a hearty:

2 stars out of 5.                 

Watch out paranormal romance. Dystopian science fiction is coming for you. Last night, I saw The Hunger Games, starring the exquisite Jenifer Lawrence, whom I first saw in Winter’s Bone (That’s right, not X-Men). I am a huge fan of the best-selling, award-winning Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, and I was not disappointed in this adaptation.

The Hunger Games paints a bleak picture of the future: a post-war North America, called Panem, divided into 13 districts whose citizens are compelled by their Capitol to send a young male and female “tribute” to fight to the death every year in the televised, eponymous Hunger Games. It’s not your typical teen date movie, I suppose. Of course, the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is not your typical teen girl protagonist. Without giving too much away, I will say that Katniss finds herself competing in the games to survive and on her own terms.

Any film adaptation of a book that I love makes me worry. The Hunger Games, directed by Gary Ross, was pretty faithful to the book without being bogged down in details. Something has to be left out, and I think the screenwriters mostly used good judgment. I was concerned that the audience would be unable to relate to Katniss without her inner monologue provided to the reader in the book (just thank God they didn’t use narration, ick), though the way the film was put together, we could see her justification for her actions and words without it being too painfully obvious. I was also worried that to achieve a PG-13 rating, they would tone down the bloodshed too much. For a book for young teenagers, The Hunger Games is spectacularly violent. The filmmakers were able to tone down a little without diluting the horror of children forced to kill each other by their government. The acting was good for the main characters but less great for the supporting characters. Jennifer Lawrence was wonderful. Also, can I just say how much I love, love, love Woody Harrelson?

My problems with this movie are few. My only technical complaint is the camera work. They overused handheld shoots which made it difficult to follow the action sequences. There was not enough character development for a couple of the characters I think deserved it, and a few plot developments were difficult to follow for viewers who haven’t read the books. I am not someone who needs to be spoonfed everything, but I would have liked more exploration of the power of the Capitol and the Panem Universe. They also downplayed the biting critique on mass media and PR manipulation that made the books so brilliant, but hey, it IS media, so… Also, as my boyfriend informed me, some plot developments were predictable. I understand where he’s coming from, but I do not think the author meant anything to be surprising. The story is about the transformative power of violence and marketing, and the film almost captured it. Let’s hope the rest of the trilogy gets its due, so we can see it fully developed. Rating 3 out of 5 stars.