The Player

The more you know about Hollywood, the more you'll appreciate the many, many references. The less you know, the more fascinated you'll be by this nasty machine from whence our entertainment comes.

Sex, violence and a happy ending - what more could you want from a movie?

How about a healthy dose of wit, satire and irony. This is a very smart Hollywood movie.

The film stars Tim Robbins as a studio executive living and working in Hollywood. Director Robert Altman uses the setting to his advantage - roping in about 60 cameo roles by well known actors, directors and other personalities. They appear briefly in the many shots of lush restaurants, cafes, offices and car parks that these insanely rich people occupy.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is fairly complex for a teen fad series - with solid story, acting, action and characters - I look forward to seeing the next few!

All that build up and finally it's here. This is probably the darkest teen book-made-movie I've ever heard off - it puts all the most interesting elements of The Twilight Saga to shame - in just one film! I'll say right from the start that in light of other popular teenage franchises, the popularity of this series is a positive thing.

Prior to seeing this film, I had just an inkling of what it was about; A bunch of teenagers are forced to fight to the death in a reality tv show in the dystopian future. The hero was a girl. I wasn't that excited for a movie about this - it would probably end up as a dumbed-down, kiddie-friendly Battle Royale, right?

Well, honestly, I can't comment on the Battle Royale comparison, because I haven't seen that movie. Let's be clear though: Battle Royale is not a Japanese Hunger Games; the Hunger Games are are a Western Battle Royale. But dumb and kid-friendly the Hunger Games are not! Take the rating seriously on this one parents, there are some brutal things in this film that your child may not be ready to see. There are also some really smart things in this film.