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."

The Morning After the Oscars and Two New Reviews

So, I apparently didn't find the 84th Academy Awards to be nearly as tiresome as some others, who complained of how "boring" it was.

I enjoyed it. Billy Crystal may have not given his best performance as the show's host, but he was funny enough. I particularly enjoyed the segment in which he attempted to read the minds of audience members.

A few of the presenters flubbed it. I won't name names. But the show was, overall, enjoyable enough. That being said, I didn't feel particularly enthralled by the winners in any given category, although I was very glad to see "A Separation" take Best Foreign Film.

Otherwise, I'm pleased that Jean Dujardin won and I thought Meryl Streep was the best in that category (which, sadly, excluded Kirsten Dunst and Keira Knightley). Similarly, I believe Christopher Plummer was the best in his category (which excluded Albert Brooks and Brad Pitt for his extraordinary work in "The Tree of Life"). I thought Octavia Spencer gave a very good performance and her speech was moving. Personally, I'd long been gunning for Jessica Chastain to pick up an award this season - but more for "The Tree of Life" or "Take Shelter."

This week, I've got two new reviews for Patch - "Wanderlust," a minor, but often funny comedy that I mostly enjoyed, and "Gone," a forgettable teen thriller. Here are my notices.

I also snuck in two Oscar movies at the last minute - "Albert Nobbs," which featured some solid acting and was better than I'd been led to believe, and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," which was decent enough. I'd read the book and enjoyed it, but I found Oskar's character in the movie to be a little less sympathetic, especially during the numerous, frantic sequences involving his shouting. Not a bad movie, but Stephen Daldry has done better. Max von Sydow was excellent.

This coming week, I'm definitely seeing Jafar Panahi's much-talked-about "This Is Not a Film" as well as "Project X." I'd love to see "The Snowtown Murders," but am having some difficulty tracking down where the film is playing.

This Week at the Movies: 'This Means War,' 'Ghost Rider' and 'Michael'

I try to make the headlines these posts a little more inspiring than the one you see above. This one must be a reflection of the films I saw this past weekend - a little uninspiring.

"This Means War" is a mediocre action-injected romantic comedy that wastes a perfectly good cast, while "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" is a complete debacle. It does, however, have a few amazingly insane line readings from the ever entertaining Nicolas Cage.

I found Markus Schleinzer's "Michael" to be unsettling and well-performed, if not completely justified to exist. It's far from a bad film and it will certainly leave you with something to talk about, but I wasn't exactly blown away.

Here are my reviews for Patch.

This coming weekend, I'm going to see "Gone" and "Wanderlust" as well as finally catch up with "Albert Nobbs." And, of course, there's the Academy Awards.

A Mighty Wind's a Blowin': Bela Tarr's 'The Turin Horse'

"The Turin Horse," which is rumored to be the great Bela Tarr's last film, is among the bleakest in the Hungarian director's career. And that's saying something.

I was definitely entranced by the film - at least, for the most part. It's filled with stunning imagery and makes great use of sound. But, to be honest, I didn't quite love it as I did "Satantango" or "Werckmeister Harmonies." And yet, it's still better than most of the other pictures playing at a theater near you.

I also caught "Safe House," a perfectly average CIA thriller featuring Denzel Washington as a rogue agent. The picture has some solid action sequences, little character development and virtually nothing going on beyond what's on screen. Not a bad film, but one that I feel I've seen many times before.

Check out my reviews for Patch.

This coming weekend, I'll be seeing "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," "This Means War" and the controversial "Michael."