This Week at the Movies: 'The Hunger Games,' 'The Raid: Redemption' and 'The Deep Blue Sea'

Finally, some good movies this weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Hunger Games," which I found to be one of the better blockbusters of late.

And I also greatly admired Terence Davies' lush, but melancholic, "The Deep Blue Sea." My third selection was "The Raid: Redemption," which had amazing martial arts sequences, but a threadbare storyline. I'd recommend it to action movie fans, but others might want to be advised: it's extremely violent and gory.

Here are this week's reviews. Gotta keep it short. Busy day. But I also enjoyed last night's debut of "Mad Men, Season Five." Would love to hear what everyone else thought of it. Please post comments in the section provided below.

This coming weekend, I'll most likely catch "Wrath of the Titans" and "Mirror, Mirror."

Just the Two of Us: '21 Jump Street,' 'The Kid with a Bike' and 'Jeff, Who Lives at Home'

This week's trio of movies I viewed were all films by duos about duos.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller's re-imagining of the 1980s teen cop show was "21 Jump Street" is sort of a gas - a word, I assure you, that I don't use lightly. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum make a good comedic team with Ice Cube providing some nice backup as the angry police chief. Nothing groundbreaking here, but a good time will likely be had by all - or, at least, most.

I also caught up with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes's "The Kid with a Bike." It may have not been one of my favorite of the Belgian brothers' films, but it's still a moving little picture. And it finds the brothers covering some new ground.

The week's other set of brothers is Mark and Jay Duplass, whose "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" I found charming enough. While the picture is slight in some areas, the performances - especially Jason Segel as the titular character - make up for the at-times too-laid-back tone. It's a charming film.

Here are my reviews for Patch.

This coming weekend, I'll be seeing "The Raid: Redemption," "The Deep Blue Sea" and, of course, "The Hunger Games."

This Week at the Movies: 'John Carter,' 'Silent House' and 'Footnote'

How does one create a witty headline summing up "John Carter," "Silent House" and "Footnote?" I'll take suggestions in the comment section.

So, I wasn't a huge fan of "Carter," which was a mediocre sci-fi epic, at best. It's a shame because the film was directed by Andrew Stanton, who directed "WALL-E," which is my favorite Pixar movie. I was also not blown away by "Silent House," which gets points for originality, but no so much for execution.

"Footnote" was a solid picture. Here are my reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll write about "The Kid with a Bike," "21 Jump Street" and, most likely, either "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" or "Casa de mi Padre."

The Best and Worst of Home Movies: 'This Is Not a Film' and 'Project X'

It's gonna be brief this week. Over the weekend, I caught up with two films that exhibited the best and worst of films that take a home movie format.

Jafar Panahi's moving "This Is Not a Film" is a powerful document of a censored artist, while "Project X" hits the bottom of the barrel for found footage films. Here are my Patch reviews.

I did not get a chance to see the controversial "The Snowtown Murders." But, as it turns out, I recently discovered that I have On-Demand, so I'll try to catch up with that film this week.

For the upcoming weekend, I'm intending to see "John Carter," "Footnote" and "Silent House."