Skip to main content

The Hunger Games (2012)

 The Hunger Games (2012)

RELEASED March 23, 2012 RUNTIME 142 mins DIRECTOR Gary Ross 

WRITERS Suzanne Collins (novel), Billy Ray (screenplay), Gary Ross (screenplay) 

STARS Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth

COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English 

STUDIOS Lionsgate, Color Force 

GENRES Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Streaming on: imdbTV, TubiTV, Freeform, Fubo, Sling





The plot: Jennifer Lawrence takes her little sister's place in a Battle Royale, a circus if you will, dictated by a place in Panem, Latin for "bread". Roman names are bastardized to underline the fact that humans always have been and always will be raging dickbags.


Random observations: 

  • It's super easy to sing "I want my MTV" to the underlying score and I highly recommend you do so. Emphasis on "high"ly.
  • We've got a Wilhelm Scream when Katniss cuts off the tree branch with the tracker-jackers.
  • Danny Elfman was the original composer for The Hunger Games, but due to a scheduling conflict he left the production and was replaced with James Howard Newton. I like picturing what a Danny Elfman Hunger Games would look like.

I didn't read The Hunger Games books until well after the films came out because I was doing research on "Bread and circuses" for my Roman history class. 

The films hide the connections slightly less blatantly, except every character's name is pretty transparent. 




0.5/1 Directing
0.4/1 Cinematography
0.6/1 Visual design
0.5/1 Editing
0.7/1 Plot 
0.5/1 Dialogue
0.4/1 Acting
0.5/1 Soundtrack/Score/Sound
0.6/1 Originality
0.5/1 Rewatchability
Total: 5.2/10 Binge Bones



The verdict: Shaky cam meets pacing issues, but decent overall.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Amityville Horror (2005)

  Amityville Horror (2005) RELEASED April 15, 2005 RUNTIME 90 mins  DIRECTOR Andrew Douglas  WRITERS Sandor Stern (author), George Lutz (author), Kathy Lutz (author), Scott Kosar (author), Jay Anson (author), Jonathan Gesinski (storyboard)  STARS Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English  STUDIOS Platinum Dunes, Dimension Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Radar Pictures  GENRES Horror Streaming on: Amazon Prime, AMC, Sling, fuboTV, Philo The plot: Ryan Reynolds pretends this wasn't already done a million times better in the '70s.  Random observations: The moving in montage music makes me want to set the alarm for 3:15am.  Baby Chloë Grace Moretz is cute. I think this is the first movie I saw where I finally allowed myself to realize that dads could be hot. The original Amityville Horror is one of my favorite movies. I saw it at a young and impressionable age and I was still very open about paranormal a...

The Mad Monster (1942)

  The Mad Monster (1942) RELEASED May 15, 1942 RUNTIME 77 mins  DIRECTOR Sam Newfield  WRITER Fred Myton (screenplay)  STARS Johnny Downs, George Zucco, Anne Nagel  COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English  STUDIO Sigmund Neufeld Productions GENRES Horror Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Epix, FlixFling, TubiTV, Sling TV, DIRECTV The plot: A simple-minded handyman (who can only be described as "the obvious inspiration for Torgo") gets turned into a revenge exacting werewolf by a mad scientist. Random observations: After watching 1921's Destiny directed by Fritz Lang this morning, it's quite noticeable that the film quality of this movie has degraded greatly since the '40s and could do with a facelift. However, part of the charm of the early 40's b-movies of this budget lies in the imperfections themselves.  If you watch this film on Amazon, please note that there are no closed captions available. The soundscape of this film is akin to an arctic wolf sanc...