Director: Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville)
Screenplay: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, Billy Ray
Novel: Suzanne Collins,
Producers: Nina Jacobson, Jon Kilik
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Wes Bentley, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Donald Sutherland,
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 142 min.
Take the above, two and a half out of five star rating with a grain of salt. When a movie is made for a very specific audience, it is difficult to write-up an objective review when I am one of the folks the film is aiming to cater to. No, not middle aged, white males from the suburbs and not necessarily fifteen year-old girls. The movie is made for folks who have read the book – plain and simple. Young or old, man or woman, if you have read the book, at the very least you will be entertained and feel good about what you have seen. Not in the 24 million pool of folks who have read the trilogy? Sorry, this movie ain’t for you. I am guessing, but in all likelihood the non-readers will feel cheated and confused about what all this hype is about; without the source material in the back of your mind, The Hunger Games might just be one of the most bafflingly uninteresting films of the year.
In an unspecified year of the future, some sort of disastrous event has split the populated world into twelve districts; some rich, some poor. All districts are overseen by a fascist regime and dictator. To keep the people of the various districts repressed, yet at the same time to keep up spirits and giving them something to root for (and against), the government arranges an annual “celebration” know as the hunger games. One boy and one girl from each district is selected by lottery to represent their district in a battle to the death. Throughout the banquets, training and media tours leading up to the actual games, alliances forge, romances blossom and rivalries surge; with a little bit of politics and clever strategy thrown in for good measure. It’s a fight to the death and only one shall walk away as victor. (And, for that matter, alive.)
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