The final movie for Katniss and crew opens this weekend with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 in which we get to see her fate and the nation of Panem. Teamed with a group of her closest friends including Gale, Finnick and Peeta, Katniss Everdeen goes on a mission to liberate the citizens of Panem and stage an assassination attempt on President Snow.
The ever-impressive cast includes Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland and features the final performance of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. The movie is getting great reviews but would still be a blockbuster even if it didn’t.
And good news for “Tributes” (the nickname for Hunger Games fans)—although this is being called the final instalment of the series, the movie company has hinted there could be more.
In the raunchy comedy The Night Before, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie play childhood buddies who have escaped their ordinary lives by getting together every Christmas Eve in New York City. Knowing that this year may be the last for them to get together for their very un-traditional festivities, they go all-out in a reckless and crazy manner, getting themselves into situations that provide both crude and slapstick laughs.
Director Jonathan Levine, Gordon-Levitt and Rogen previously teamed up four years ago for the comedy-drama 50/50. This is the second Christmas-themed movie in as many weeks for Anthony Mackie (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) as he was featured in Love the Coopers last week.
Opening at Landmark Cinemas Paramount Theatre is Spotlight, a fact-based movie that is getting stupendous critical reviews. It is about The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Spotlight” team and their coverage of the Massachusetts Catholic sex abuse scandal in 2001. Their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal and government establishment, the results of which were felt around the world.
The cast includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Stanely Tucci, Live Schreiber and Billy Crudup. Fans of movies like All the President’s Men, Broadcast News, Network, The Insider and Good Night, and Good Luck or just like to see a story about good old fashioned investigative reporting, Spotlight is a must-see.
Also featuring a powerhouse cast is Secret in Their Eyes, opening at Landmark Cinemas Grand 10. Julia Roberts, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman are a tight-knit team of FBI investigators and their District Attorney supervisor who fall apart after they discover that one of their daughters has been brutally and inexplicably murdered. Thirteen years later, a new lead is discovered which could nail the vicious murderer and bring closure to the team. However, no one is prepared for the shocking secret that reveals the effect revenge has on the human soul. This is a remake of the Argentina’s El secreto de sus ojos, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010.
