THE HUNGER GAMES
PG-13
144 Minutes
Director: Gary Ross
Writers: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, Billy Ray
Jennifer Lawerence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci
The best movie featuring Ice-T and Gary Busey.
CAST
Jennifer Lawrence--Katniss Everdeen
Willow Shields--Primrose Everdeen
Josh Hutcherson--Peeta Mellark
Liam Hemsworth--Gale Hawthorne
Stanley Tucci--Caesar Flickerman
Wes Bentley--Seneca Crane
Elizabeth Banks--Effie Trinket
Woody Harrelson--Haymitch Abernathy
'With these hungry eyes. One look at you and I can't disguise. I've got hungry eyes. I feel the magic between you and I.' -HUNGRY EYES, by Eric Carmen
'In penance for there uprising, each district shall offer up a male and a female between the ages of 12 and 18 at a public reaping.'
There are 12 districts, and only one individual lives. A negative raffle of sorts; reminiscent of THE LOTTERY, by Shirley Jackson. Her younger sister, Primrose (Shields) got selected, but Lawrence volunteered instead.
In the country of 'Panem', which includes all North America. The largest, wealthiest, most powerful city in the entire world is named: 'The Capitol'. Yes, that is the official city name. The writers must have pulled an 'all-nighter' coming up with that one.
I'm not sure what year this is supposed to be; for all I know it could be from the past. Perhaps it's the lost civilization of Atlantis.
The inhabitants of 'The Capitol' look like extras from a Katie Perry video. Except, no one shooting with whipped cream out of their tits.
Haymitch Abernathy (Harrelson) won the games may years ago, he serves as Primrose's mentor. Woody Harrelson is always playing a burnout. It's like Jeremy Piven, he's always playing a dick...with bad hair plugs.
There's a bee hive.
So?
Stand back.
Are you crazy? You'll get stung!
-MY GIRL (1991)
That scene from MY GIRL, whereMacaulay Culkin dies (spoiler alert). They take that scene and make it much deadlier. Except in this movie, it's used as weapon to kill people on purpose.
When the games are going on, the movie is entertaining. Which is about 35% of the film. Jennifer Lawrence's carries most of that 35 percent.
This movie raises many 'Why' questions.
Namely:
- What planet do they live on?
- Are they in a separate, parallel universe?
- Is this parallel universe based on junk science?
- Would people really tolerate this sort of thing?
- How does their economy function?
- What was the point of all this?
THE TRUMAN SHOW, SURVIVOR, RAMBO, and JERSEY SHORE. THE HUNGER GAMES combines all of these things. Which sounds much cooler than it actually is. Stream this on Netflix, when you're hungover...and you don't have anything better to watch.
Final Verdict: 70 out of 100
