Cropsey

"What if your Urban Legends were real?"






We all have heard them as kids. The stories you tell about the crazy man down the street. The man who killed the family while camping. The man who took those kids and was never seen again. What if there was a reality behind your tales. Well on Staten Island it was.

Copsey is a documentary about the missing children from Staten Island. In the 80's there were a bunch of handicapped kids who disappeared. The film is made by Barbara Brancaccio and Joshua Zeman. They grew up there and are familiar with the tales. A man named Andre Rand was the main suspect. Rand was a custodian at a large mental hospital called Willowbrook. It was a very large place that was severely understaffed, almost 50 kids to one staff member, and seemed more like Hell than a hospital. We see videos of naked kids running around, balled up in a corners in terrible, unimaginigable conditions. After a expose by Geraldo the state shut it down. Some of the kids were transferred to other places and some were left to fend for themselves. They made their home there and in the tunnels below the hospital. A city of it's own below that very large hospital.

This seems to be where the problems begin. The place became a place where kids would on a dare to scare others kids. The place kids go to on the weekends to graffiti and break stuff or more unmentionable deeds.
The urban legends began to pop up about a man named Cropsey who lived in the abandoned hospital and in it's tunnels below. It was all good fun until the first little girl, Jennifer, disappeared.

A very large manhunt began and it seemed that everyone began to look. Later a body was found in a shallow grave and the hunt for the killer really began. It the film you find out that the main suspect was Andre Rand who was around all the kids shortly before they went missing, but there was never really a lot of evidence to fully convict him.

The documentary is full of videos, interviews of Police officers, lawyers, locals and family members. Some of the videos are pretty amazing and it makes you wonder why they have found so little with so much. After watching this I feel that this film could have easily gone on for another hour or two. The scenes where they go into the tunnels below the hospital and the old photos of the original search party's were great. They gave me the creeps. I was very young when this took place so I was not to familiar with it, but I was glad that I was able to learn about it and will be interested to see if anymore evidence/bodies turn up in the next 20 years before Rand is up for parole in 2036.

6.5 out of 10

The Hunger Games

"I'm not allowed to bet, but if I could, I'd bet on you."




About 4 years ago my wife told my I should read a book called The Hunger Games. I asked her what it was and she said it was a young adult novel about a bunch of kids forced into an arena and they have to kill each other. I gave her a blank stare and she tried to explain it better and not not make it sound so messed up. It was a good book. I don't know how someone has not thrown up a flag since a much more violent version of this same premise has been done. The book Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is about a bunch of school kids who are taken to an island and forced to kill each other in a much more pulp/violent story. It was later made into a Japanese film.

So we now have a much more accessible version of a good story. I was very excited to hear that they were making the book into a film. As always, I'm a bit hesitant to see a film adapted from a book. There are a few things you must expect. There will be less character development and little details will come about differently. A positive is that the annoying parts of a book my be much shorter or left out.

The Hunger games is about a girl named Katniss Everdeen who lives in a place called District 12. The movie is set in the future after a large civil war in which the capitol has divided the country into 13 Districts (12 really, we are told one was destroyed.)Each year as a reminder of the wars each district is required to send two tributes to the capital to participate in the Hunger Games in which they are forced to kill each other. A boy and a girl, ages 12-18, are chosen from a drawing in each district and sent off. They battle to the death and like the Highlander there can be only one survivor.

Katniss is played by Jennifer Lawrence(X-men:First Class, Winters Bone<.)
She is the main character in all three books. She is a rough and tough girl who is a great hunter with a bow. Her sister is selected to be a tribute and Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and another boy, Peeta(Josh Hutcherson), are sent to participate. They are accompanied by their Mentor a drunk man named Haymitch, played by Woddy Harrelson, who was a past games victor.

When they arrive at the Capitol they begin training for the 74th games. They have two weeks to prepare and then the madness begins. The tension in the theater was great. I went to the midnight opening with my wife and some of here friends. Luckily there was my friend, Jon, there to keep me company. It was much like a twilight crowd, but much less annoying. Unfortunately they did show a trailer for the new Twilight film, but anyway... The tension was great as they entered the arena. They place all 24 tributes around the Cornucopia, which is filled with weapons, food and supplies, and they wait for a bell and then they run for it. some go for weapons some go for food and some just start killing whoever is around. I was most curious about this scene than any other. I wanted to know how they were going to get all that violence into a PG-13 movie. they did a good job. Some of it was implied and some was shown (a little.) I would be interested to see a Coen's brothers version of this scene as well.

The rest of the film is about the survival of Katniss and Peeta. Thankfully some of the scenes were much shorter than in the book (I'm talking about you Cave Scene.) Many of the scene were cut short, but that is to be expected when you adapt from a book. I liked the characters and the scenery was just as I pictured it in my head. It was fun to see my friend at his first midnight movie.

I like this film a lot and would be willing to go see it again, if not just for the tension before the cornucopia scene.

"May the odds be ever in your favor."

8 out of 10