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A&E

Men in Black series continues to impress

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By Megan Hardin

Agent J and Agent K have put their black suits on once more and returned to save our world.
It has been ten years since the Men in Black have graced our movie screens but they have made
their triumphant come back in their latest movie, Men in Black 3 which is now playing at the Great
Escape Theatres’ and Corydon Cinemas.

In 1997, the world was captivated by a movie all about the possibility of other life forms
among us. That movie was Men in Black, where we were introduced to Agent J (Will Smith) and
Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), and ever since then the world has been wanting more alien slaying
action from the men of the MIB agency. In 2002, Smith and Jones reprised their roles as the
infamous Agent J and Agent K and prevented another alien takeover of Earth. After a long time
coming the agents are back and willing to do whatever it takes to save each other as well as the
world.

In this third installment of the Men in Black series the plot is thicker than ever. The
friendship of Agent J (Smith) and Agent K (Jones) gets tested when Agent J wakes up one morning
to find that Agent K has been dead for over 40 years. Knowing that this cannot be true because
he just saw Agent K last night, Agent J tries to figure out what is going on with his partner of 15
years. When he arrives at the MIB headquarters Agent O (Emma Thompson) tells him that Boris the
Animal (Jemaine Clement) has gone back in time and killed Agent K so that he could not arrest him
again and now Agent J must go back in time and prevent it from happening.

As Agent J travels back in time to 1969 where he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh
Brolin) and is helped by the young Agent O (Alice Eve) and even Andy Warhol (Bill Hader) and an
alien with a special talent named Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg) in efforts to stop Boris the Animal and
save the world from being taken over by the Bogladites. Along the way secrets of the world that
Agent J did not know about will be revealed. This movie has a combination of comedy and suspense
that will keep watchers guessing what will really happen all the way up to the very end.

It is very scarce that a sequel is better than the first movie but this sequel knocked the first
one out of the park. Out of all of the Men in Black movies, Men in Black 3 is the best one. The plot
is very original and there are little surprises along the way. The actors did a great job with hooking
the watcher in and making you believe that everything happening in the movie is real. The ending of
this movie ties everything together and helps to explain Agent J and Agent K behavior and beliefs.
It is rated PG-13 due to it having some brief adult language, but it is a great film to go out and see
with friends of family of the appropriate age.

Photo by Megan Hardin
Columns, Forum

Popular book fails to transition to big screen

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By Meghan Poff

*long pause and sigh*

Yet another well written novel ruined by Hollywood and marketing hype.

I hate to have to be the Debbie Downer since everyone else I know loved the movie, but then again most of those people didn’t even read the book and if they did, they read on such a surface level that they didn’t even comprehend the theme of it.

Let me start by pointing out that we know we have seen a truly disappointing movie when we leave the theater with the only plus side being the attractiveness of the actors. On that note, I feel an excellent job was done casting Liam Hemsworth as Gale.  But as I said, this is not the point.

I feel the greatest fault of The Hunger Games was Hollywood’s need to make money from it, which is not surprising but a setback nonetheless. I know violence was not a major theme of the film, but it was important to show because that is the reality of the story. The movie could have easily obtained an R-rating, but that wouldn’t have drawn as many target audience viewers to theaters so therefore, we get a watered-down, 10-year-old appropriate version of the story. Which, excuse my adjective use, was incredibly lame.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I certainly didn’t pay nine dollars for a movie ticket to see 20 minutes of Katniss sleeping in various trees.

Another fault of the filmmakers was using the tired camera style of shaking the camera around and switching back and forth between different cameras quickly to make the scene look action packed. The reality is the only thing I got from the spectacle was a headache, and had completely missed the scene because I had to avert my eyes.  Shout out to director Gary Ross for making that call.

Despite everything else, I must give credit where credit is due. An excellent job was done with the scenery and costuming. Whenever I read a book, I always get an image in my head of what I think the setting and characters should look like, and the movie literally took the pictures out of my mind and put them on the screen. So at least that was adequate.

But probably the main reason I stayed in the theater the full two and a half hours, a ridiculous amount of time even for a good movie, was the fact that I had already paid for the ticket. And only because I’m cheap.

In all my hypocrisy though, I probably will go see the other two movies when they come out in theaters just because I am already committed to the series.  Nothing else.

So really, what I’m trying to say is that you will love The Hunger Games if you also love the Twilight series and/or the Justin Bieber movie.

What more needs to be said?

A&E, Chase Palmer

‘J. Edgar’ flawed but enjoyable to history buffs

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By Chase Palmer

In this new movie, Leonardo DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover, who was the head of the FBI from its inception to his death in 1972. J. Edgar chronicles this man’s life during this time period and also dabbles in some rumors over his supposed cross-dressing habit and sexuality; however, the film rarely exploits these themes. They focus more on his role in the Palmer Raids, Gangster Wars, and such. This makes the film have plenty of historical elements to it. If you are a history buff then I would recommend “J. Edgar” to you. However, if you usually fall asleep in AP European History, then you might as well skip this film.

This film is not perfect, nevertheless. The 37-year-old DiCaprio plays Hoover even as an old man, meaning that this movie contains a heavy use of facial prosthetics and CGI, required to make DiCaprio and other main actors in the film appear older. The makeup guy’s approach to this technique makes the characters look like unrealistic wax figures. At first it seemed funny, but after a while it took away from the film’s believability aspect. Although the makeup makes DiCaprio’s and other actor’s parts in the movie look like caricatures rather than characters, I thought that the film’s cast was pretty strong, not anything Oscar worthy, but still pretty strong.

The reason why I said J. Edgar ‘rarely’ explores the rumors aimed at Hoover is because I felt that the writer was trying to persuade to us that J Edgar Hoover was gay, a rumor that surfaced after his death. One scene in the film shows Hoover making out with Associate FBI Director Clyde Tolson, played by Armie Hammer. I later learned that his film was written by Dustin Lance Black. I noticed that all of Black’s movies leading up to this one were about homosexuality, the most well-known of these being “Milk“, another biographical film about gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Think what you want about these scenes in “J. Edgar” and Black’s intentions behind them. I personally think that the gay rumors over Hoover served as Black’s original intentions to write the screenplay to “J. Edgar”.

The worst quality of the film is the color. The color is poorly lit and gives the whole movie a bland effect throughout. I believe that “J. Edgar“ is worth seeing, but if you are interested in J. Edgar Hoover’s life and the times in which he lived, I recommend this film only as an entry point.