The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, 2012
Directed by Gary Ross

By now I'm sure you're all familiar with what 'The Hunger Games' is all about. I'll break it down briefly for those who don't know. In the ruins of North America, now named Panem, there are 12 districts, each living in poverty and oppressed by the Capitol, a spoiled city. And to reaffirm their control, they hold, annually, something called the Hunger Games, where a one boy and one girl from each district, between the ages of 12 and 18 must fight to the death in an arena, until only one stands. The winner is awarded fame, wealth, and safety. Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12. When her little sister is plucked from the bowl of names to be a tribute, Katniss volunteers in her place. A boy her age named Peeta is also selected, in which she has ties to. And the Hunger Games begin.

I know, this review is a couple weeks late. I had originally planned to see it the Saturday after it opened, with a bunch of friends. We'd pre-ordered tickets and everything, but I got the stomach flu the morning of, and just haven't had time to see it since. Finally, 2 weeks later, I've seen in! I picked up the first book after the urging of my friend around a year ago, during the very early stages of casting. The books weren't a huge deal yet, but it was picking up steam. I read them all pretty quick, and while I wasn't awestruck with the books, they were good reads with a strong message, and knew they would translate to screen a lot better than most things.

 First, let me just say all the performances, I thought, were pretty spot on. A lot of people had reservations about Jennifer Lawrence being too sexy, and Josh Hutcherson being too young, or just not what they'd imagined at all. But getting Jennifer Lawrence on as Katniss was a really great move. She's an Oscar nominated actress, and this role is quite similar in nature to Ree, the character she played in Winter's Bone, in which she was nominated. She really embodied Katniss in every way and gave such a real and gritty performance. She had Katniss's strength, but was also able to embody her vulnerability in a real way, and was able to find the balance between that and her strength and stubbornness, which, I'd imagine, is quite tricky. Jenn is a really diverse actress. She had a small but cute role in last year's Like Crazy, she played the sexy and mysterious Raven/Mystique in X-Men: First Class, and debuted in Winter's Bone. Jenn has such promise to be a really great actress, and she doesn't take it easy in this role. She pours a lot of emotion into her character, and draws back enough when needed to draw back. She gives Katniss strength and a ruthlessness. But you can still remember she's just a teenage girl, who has a family to look after. She's not the tough person she appears to be, and Jenn really captures this all.

The supporting cast was great too. Josh Hutcherson was great as Peeta. What I really appreciated about his performance was the subtleties he brought to Peeta. The smiles, and the stolen glances, that you knew he bought every word Katniss said, and that he's really in love with her, and it's not a game to him. He was able to make me feel for his character in a way I hadn't in the book. He made me realize what a tragic character Peeta is, constantly getting the rotten end of the stick. Having an undying and loyal love for Katniss, and not realizing until he's head over heels that it was just a game for her. While he didn't give a heart-stopping performance, he did give a nuanced one, and was quite good if you were really paying attention.

Such as this moment here. Just the way he looks at her, and he just loves her, you can tell. Just the one little glance (and tons more in this scene and throughout the film) sold me. And his reaction to being picked to the Games was great too. Just mouth half-open, hardly believing, and in shock, and even crying. I feel like this is an unpopular opinion since I keep reading people thought his performance was mediocre, but I felt like he really understood his character. It wasn't perfect, nor was it the best in the movie, but he really captured who Peeta is and what he's about. For that I applaud him.


 There are plenty of fun performances by various well known actors. Woody Harrelson and Stanley Tucci gave my favourite supporting performances in the film. Harrelson as the drunken, harsh mentor of the 2 District 12 tributes gave a great performance. He was funny, he was a jerk, and then you saw the side of him where he really cared. And Stanley Tucci, you could tell he was really having fun with his part. The faces he made, his laughter, just the way he carried himself, it was such a fun performance to watch. Other fun supporting actors included Elizabeth Banks as the cooky and colourful Effie, Donald Sutherland as President Snow, Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane and Toby Jones as Claudius Templesmith.

The pacing of the movie, I found, to be balanced quite well. I had wondered how long they would spend on the preparations before the Games. The training and all that. I felt they kept in a good amount. It was long enough that you got the picture, and got enough information about the tributes, and about Haymitch and Peeta, that you needed to know before the Games. It was a good chunk, but it never overstayed its welcome. It was a large chunk in the book, and was a large chunk in the film. It showed off just how much of an event this was to the Capitol, and showed how grotesque it really is, when you think about it, showing the balance between the showing off of the tributes and the dressing up, and the training. The Games were also well paced, though Katniss's time with Rue was very short and could've been extended for a fuller effect. The violence was definitely there, and we got touches of it, but, to keep it to a PG-13 rating, it was scarce and was shown in generalities only, though there is a lot of blood shown.

Additionally, the costuming and make-up were quite fun. They were outrageous and crazy, and were just so fun and playful. I wouldn't be surprised to see this film get either a make-up or a costume nod. Both were well done and were great.

One frequent complaint that I've read is the excessive use of "shaky cam". For the most part, I felt it was well-used. During fight scenes, understandable. Running through the woods, understandable. However, it was used way too much during the first half hour or so, I felt like I was watching the Hurt Locker. But it felt extremely misplaced when in the Capitol and on the train. I felt like I never got a very good look at anyone for the first little bit since it was zoomed awkwardly in some places, and was all very close shots, and hardly any wider shots for the first little while. Use of shaky cam should've been reserved for the Games, and it didn't have much business in the first half of the film, as it took away from the film more than it added to it. Additionally, some of the Visual Effects weren't that great. When Katniss and Peeta was on fire at the tribute parade, I actually chuckled out loud upon seeing. It looked incredibly fake, and phony. I realize they didn't have an enormous budget and it was saved for other things, but this looked pretty bad. Though I forgive them because most of the other things looked quite good.

There were many "added" in things as well, though all were incredibly beneficial to the film. The scenes between Seneca Crane and President Snow, the rebellion in District 11, the television discussion with Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith, etc. Even seeing more of Haymitch, and what kind of role he played in different things added more to the film that the book wasn't able to with a first person perspective.  We get to see the part Haymitch plays behind-the-scenes, and showing him sucking up his anti-socialism, and interacting with the sponsors in order to help Katniss, and just how much he really cares for her, and for Peeta. In a way, I felt the movie portrayed the overall themes and thoughts of the characters better than the book did, because it was less limited to Katniss's view.

Overall, this is one of the better blockbuster films, based on a YA novel no less, that has come out. With an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this film has done well for itself. Not to mention it had the biggest opening weekend, ever, for a non-sequel and has made a ton of money. This film has a wide appeal for both boys and girls, and it's great to see something the guys can get into as well, after having all-girls things like Twilight.
It's a fun movie, with some violence, some romance, and some fun costumes. It's a great movie, and a really well done adaptation.

8.5/10

2012 Anticipated Films

Here are some trailers from upcoming movies I'm looking forward to. Taking a break from the Awardsy movies, and sharing some films I'm looking forward to this year!

The Hunger Games- March 23rd 2012

The Amazing Spiderman- July 3rd 2012

The Dark Knight Rises- July 20th 2012

Brave- June 22nd 2012

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

December 14th 2012

Special mentions: Les Miserables, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The 5 Year Engagement, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, The Great Gatsby, Gangster Squad, Gravity

406. Citizen X

406. (31 Aug) Citizen X (1995, Chris Gerolmo) 38







For a docudrama about a serial killer who murdered more than 50 people, Citizen X is unreasonably dull. The focus is on the years-long investigation, which is unravels tediously. Considering the murderer is shown to us early in the film, only to be captured and then released midway through the film, there's no suspense. It's just a matter of how long it will take to bring him to justice. That's slightly over 100 minutes. Donald Sutherland is fairly good here even if he can't keep a consistent Russian accent.

Eye of the Needle

“Eye of the Needle” (1981) is a crackerjack thriller starring Donald Sutherland as Henry Faber, aka The Needle, a top German spy during World War II who discovers the Allies’ D-Day invasion plans and attempts to transmit the information back to Berlin. On the run from the authorities, he attempts to cross the English Channel by boat during a storm. His boat is wrecked and he washes ashore the isolated Storm Island, where he is taken in by the lonely and vulnerable Lucy (Kate Nelligan), who lives on a sheep farm with her crippled, embittered, often drunk husband David (Christopher Cazenove) and their young son.

Lucy soon falls in love with Henry, but doesn’t know his real identity. The Needle and Lucy begin a love affair, before she realizes he is not who he appears to be and The Needle is willing to do anything, or kill anyone, to achieve his mission of letting his superiors know where and when D-Day will occur. “The war has come down to the two of us,” Faber tells her during the climax.

I remember how excited I was when “Eye of the Needle” came out. Like millions of others I had read, and enjoyed, the best selling novel by Ken Follett, one of those books that was impossible to put down. I’m a sucker for World War II movies, as well as thrillers set in isolated areas, where help cannot be reached by picking up the phone and calling the local police station down the street.

But most important, it boasted a new score by the great Miklos Rozsa, my favorite composer. I was giddy at the idea of hearing a new Rozsa score, as he was in the twilight of his career and new scores were few, though he had scored a triumphant trifecta in 1979 with scores to Billy Wilder’s “Fedora”, Jonathan Demme’s “The Last Embrace” and the time travel romance/thriller “Time After Time” which has one of the greatest end titles of all time. Hearing it makes you glad to be alive.

I remember seeing “Eye of the Needle” during a summer afternoon matinee at the River Oaks Theater in Calumet City. I was taking summer classes at the local community college and after morning classes would often throw my books in the trunk of my car and drive to the River Oaks to catch a flick.

I was not disappointed, as “Eye of the Needle” is a terrific thriller, with a fine sense of time and place. Wartime England is well portrayed as a land of rations, overcrowded trains and military personnel hurrying to and fro. Sutherland superbly portrays The Needle, a man with ice water in his veins who, with his stiletto, dispatches anyone who remotely suspects him of not being who he says he is. It’s a wonderful performance.

The Rozsa score does not disappoint, though it could have been better dubbed. Apparently, large chunks of it were thrown out in post-production, which is a shame because there are large portions of the film that go unscored and the film tends to drag a bit. The end credits, however, do allow Rozsa to develop his rapturous love theme to near operatic heights with a nifty little coda that never feels to bring a smile to my face. I remember a good number of the mostly elderly audience members staying in their seats to hear the music. It did my heart good, but such is the power of Rozsa.

That summer I also saw, at the same theater, “Dragonslayer” with its difficult but ultimately rewarding Alex North score. I remember thinking how fortunate I was to hear the latest works of two master composers. I may not have been able to hear them in their heyday, but considered myself very lucky to hear their later scores in the theaters. Unlike athletes past their prime, at the end of their film careers Rozsa and North were still at the top of their game.

That summer of 1981 was a remarkable one, one of the best I can remember, both for the movies and their scores. There was also Ray Harryhausen’s last film, the Greek mythology fantasy “Clash of the Titans”, a now forgotten film called “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, one of the best 007 movies ever “For Your Eyes Only”, one of the few John Carpenter films I like “Escape from New York”, and “Victory” the rousing World War II soccer movie with Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone and Pele, with a gloriously loud Bill Conti score that more than lives up to the film’s title.

Would that we would have another summer like that one.

Rating for “Eye of the Needle”: Three stars