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The Hunger Games
Set in a future North America known as 'Panem', the Capitol selects a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each of the twelve outlying districts to compete in the annual 'Hunger Games', a televised fight-to-the-death. Katniss Everdeen takes her sisters place when she is called to be the tribute of the 74th annual Hunger Games. Together with Peeta Mellark, they head by train to the Capital to be prepared for the brutal game.
11 June 1989, Saint Charles, Missouri, USA
June 18, 1943 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
27 September 1974, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA
June 23, 2013
The movie is oddly blithe about its central premise. How can this movie set up this monstrous society and this brutal game of genocide and expect us to not only cheer for someone to "win," but also hope she finds someone to kiss in the end?March 22, 2012
Watching The Hunger Games, I was struck both by how slickly Ross hit his marks and how many opportunities he was missing to take the film to the next level -- to make it more shocking, lyrical, crazy, daring.March 22, 2012
Like the select participants of its savage sport, The Hunger Games stands triumphant, if scarred and a bit wobbly from the contest.June 30, 2013
Director Gary Ross does a great job in bringing the thrilling novel to life in this uncompromising drama.September 11, 2014
Has all the technical ingredients of a great (and even important) film, but sideswipes them in order to leave the audience feeling like that they have been abandoned in the wilderness of extreme cruelty.June 24, 2015
A refreshingly gritty and adventurous affair that packs plenty of thematic depth, it doesn't let the ambitious source material down.March 26, 2012
Even when two people are just talking calmly, Ross jerks the camera around. Why? As the sense of danger increases, he has nothing to build toward.November 25, 2013
Though not at all innovative or original, is at least a worthwhile action fantasy.March 23, 2012
Ross manages to keep the pacing remarkably swift, given that the games themselves don't start until halfway through the 144-minute running time.March 22, 2012
It features a functioning creative imagination and lots of honest-to-goodness acting by its star, Jennifer Lawrence, who brings her usual toughness and emotional transparency to the archer-heroine Katniss.June 17, 2013
The film shows precious little hunger and no sense of game.November 16, 2015
It adds up to an intelligent, reasonably well-made first installment that leaves us primed for Katniss' future adventures.