The Hunger Games

Theatrical Release Date: 2012 03 23 (USA - IMAX) / 2012 03 23 (USA)

UPC: 031398155409

Studio: Lionsgate

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Violence, Adult Situations]

Summary: Based on the best-selling young-adult novel by author Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games tells the dark tale of a 16-year-old girl named Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), who volunteers to compete in a vicious televised tournament in which 24 teenagers from a post-apocalyptic society fight to the death for the entertainment of the masses. In the future, North America is no more. In its place has risen Panem, a divided nation split into 12 districts. Every year, each district selects a teen of each gender (called "Tributes") to test their worth in a competition known as the Hunger Games, which are broadcast across the nation as entertainment, and to reinforce the government's total power. When her younger sister is selected as District 12's latest "Tribute," Katniss volunteers to take her place, and trains under hard-drinking former Hunger Games champion Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) to sharpen her killer instincts. Now in order to survive the game and emerge the victor, this young combatant must put all of her skills to the ultimate test. Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Science Fiction

Awards: Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Song – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: cc
Game maker: Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games phenomenon
The world is watching: Making The Hunger Games
Letters from the Rose Garden
Controlling the game
A conversation with Gary Ross and Elvis Mitchell
Propaganda Film
Marketing archive

The Hunger Games

Format: DVD

Release Date: 08/18/2012

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 2.40:1

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 142 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English,Spanish

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- The Hunger Games
1. District 12 [3:29]
2. Happy Hunger Games [6:35]
3. Check In [7:53]
4. Try to Win [2:32]
5. The Image [4:32]
6. Advice [6:06]
7. First Look [5:30]
8. A Winner [6:44]
9. Shoot Straight [7:09]
10. Girl on Fire [6:19]
11. Special Girl [6:10]
12. You Can Do This [3:47]
13. Countdown [3:32]
14. Alliance [2:34]
15. At the Edge [2:53]
16. Very Lethal [6:06]
17. Not Going to Hurt You [6:54]
18. Plan in Action [5:03]
19. Trapped [3:55]
20. Young Love [5:18]
21. Just This Time [10:41]
22. Only Team [3:55]
23. Victors [8:44]
24. Star-Crossed Lovers [2:44]

Tracie Cooper

There was a subtle humming noise that could be heard just after the announcement that Suzanne Collins' wildly successful novel, The Hunger Games, would be adapted for film. It was the sound of everyone on the Internet going "OMG," industry executives planning whatever it is that rich people plan before getting richer, and T-shirts being printed with "Team Peeta" and "Team Gale" where "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" had been before. It was typical white noise, and none of it mattered. Director Gary Ross' take on The Hunger Games works because it's strictly, unabashedly, Team Katniss.

Forced to survive in a postapocalyptic society divided into 12 districts (each one poorer than the last save for the wealthy Capitol, home of the totalitarian government and the very lucky), 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is a fiercely capable young woman. Certainly, she had some help along the way. Her friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) provided her with invaluable hunting tips, and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), a boy from town, gave her bread when starvation seemed inevitable. Even those experiences, however, were lessons in self-reliance. Her family couldn't help her (her father was dead, her mother too depressed, and her sister too young), and receiving government aid meant entering one's name multiple times into a lottery system that determined which children would participate in an annual, government-sponsored, televised death match called the Hunger Games. Despite unlikely odds, it is Katniss' 12-year-old sister Prim (Willow Shields) who is chosen to fight for her life in the arena. Katniss immediately volunteers in her place. Making matters worse, one of her competitors is Peeta, the baker's son responsible for saving her life years before.

Clearly, Katniss is a protagonist who can take care of herself in a crisis. When the novels were adapted for film, the question became whether or not actress Jennifer Lawrence could carry her story. On the plus side, this is Lawrence's movie as much as it is Katniss' tale. Like Katniss, Lawrence is beautiful, but in a way that is secondary to the task at hand. She is able to capture the beaten-down, yet doggedly determined (and, when nobody's looking, kind) aura that a heroine of this nature needs to seem real. Her biggest strength is in her facial expressions, which capture happiness, sadness, and everything in between without ever going over the top. Hutcherson is somewhat bland as Peeta, but this isn't entirely his fault, as his role is much less prominent in the beginning of the series. And the supporting cast is excellent (most notably Stanley Tucci as flamboyant television host Caesar Flickerman, and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss and Peeta's troubled mentor).

Inevitably, The Hunger Games has been compared to Battle Royale, a 2000 Japanese film adapted from Koushun Takami's novel about a twisted government plot which forces a group of classmates to fight to the death on a deserted island. Despite an undeniably similar theme of kids killing kids per the demands of adults, the stories are different enough. Battle Royale, however, never shied away from bloodshed, while The Hunger Games loses something as result of its restraint. Though the combination of sensitive subject matter and a PG-13 rating must be taken into consideration, the fight sequences are at times inexcusably lazy, repeatedly relying on shots of violently rustling foliage and sounds of distress to imply mayhem, rather than show it onscreen. However, this is the only major stylistic mishap. The juxtaposition of the bleakness of Katniss' poverty-stricken mining community with the Capitol's Oz-like metropolis is appropriately jarring, and the absence of both malice and compassion from those watching the Games makes the disconnect between the haves and have-nots palpable.

As the film closes, the audience gets the sense that The Hunger Games never really ended, and not simply because there are two books to go in the series. The people responsible for this movie have allowed the material to stand on its own, and respected the ability of young adults to allow romance to take a backseat to issues of class, mass media, and one truly badass female whose bravery and compassion are a welcome change from the swooning, boy-crazy heroines of days gone by. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Billy Ray  Screenwriter 
James Newton Howard  Composer (Music Score) 
Gary Ross  Director 
Gary Ross  Screenwriter 
Jon Kilik  Producer 
Suzanne Collins  Executive Producer 
Suzanne Collins  Screenwriter 
Robin Bissell  Executive Producer 
Nina Jacobson  Producer 
Louise Rosner-Meyer  Executive Producer 
Jennifer Lawrence  Actor 
Josh Hutcherson  Actor 
Liam Hemsworth  Actor 
Woody Harrelson  Actor 
Elizabeth Banks  Actor 
Lenny Kravitz  Actor 
Stanley Tucci  Actor 
Donald Sutherland  Actor 
Wes Bentley  Actor 
Toby Jones  Actor 
Alexander Ludwig  Actor 
Isabelle Fuhrman  Actor 
Amandla Stenberg  Actor 
Willow Shields  Actor 
Kimiko Gelman  Actor 
Latarsha Rose  Actor 
Brooke Bundy  Actor 
Nelson Ascencio  Actor 
Paula Malcolmson  Actor 
Dayo Okeniyi  Actor 
Jack Quaid  Actor 
Karan Kendrick  Actor 
Amber Chaney  Actor 
Raiko Bowman  Actor 
Troy Linger  Actor 
Sandra Ellis Lafferty  Actor 
Rhoda Griffis  Actor 
Sandino Moya-Smith  Actor 
Dwayne Boyd  Actor 
Anthony Reynolds  Actor 
Judd Derek Lormand  Actor 
Ian Nelson  Actor 
Kalia Prescott  Actor 
Ethan Jamieson  Actor 
Jacqueline Emerson  Actor 
Mackenzie Lintz  Actor 
Annie Thurman  Actor 
Dakota Hood  Actor 
Shane Bissell  Actor 
Katie Kneeland  Actor 
Steve Coulter  Actor 
Sharon Morris  Actor 
Tim Taylor  Actor 
Jack Ross  Actor 
Leven Rambin  Actor 

Country: USA