The Hunger Games

It's like The Truman Show meets Surviving the Game and they have a baby, and those babies must eliminate each other in front of a live audience a la The Running Man. This film has everything and I do mean everything. Action, romance, Intense moments, kids killing kids for sport, and engineered elements. I hope to not SPOILER anything, but I am assuming everyone has read the book or at least paid 10% of their attention to one percent of all the TV and Magazine ads that have littered our line of sight for the past 9 months. If so, you know the  basic premise behind The Hunger Games.  I did not read the books. Many of you know it is due to the fact that I can't won't read. I also feel that makes me the largest hypocrite known to man. I Love Love Love to write and expect people to read my words and enjoy them for the entertainment they are here to supply, however, if you were to ask me read anything longer than a magazine article I may very well de-friend you. The world Suzanne Collins created is very similar to the many world's of Tim Burton. The colors, the outfits, the strangeness. It is all so beautifully creepy, and Director Gary Ross should be extremely proud of himself. He gave us a movie with such a content that it is quite appalling, yet he did it in such a classy way. I commend him. His direction overall is superb. The story and the acting on the other hand is indescribable. Let me take a minute to describe it. Imagine the raw emotion when faced with the task of kill or be killed, but you are only 12-18 years old. That's tough, but The Hunger Games stand for so much to the world. Each district must choose one male and one female to represent the district. 12 in all = 24 participants and the last one standing will be wealthy the rest of their life with The Fame and Glory that accompany the title of Hunger Games Champion. My biggest issue of the rules is, if the other person from your district, who you probably know, are the last ones left, you would have to kill that person. That's a bit rough. At 2 hours 22 minutes, it seemed short to me. It flowed very well, and you may think that 23 deaths on that short amount of time would be hard to pull off, just wait till the opening "mad dash" if you will. Our hero is Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and she is the next Bella Swan if you catch my drift. The Hunger Games is a trilogy and it made 155 million this weekend alone. Lucky for us, she can display a range of emotion, and be very warm one minute, and very jaded the next. I expect she portrayed 19 emotions in this film which is a full 18 more than Kristen Stewart can at any given moment. Katniss has a very unique skill set, but she doesn't know how to play the game. Haymitch is there to help her learn the rules and strategies and he is played brilliantly by the always appreciated Woody Harrelson. Essentially that is all it is. A Game. Much like TV's Survivor, the audience will have favorites and least favorites, and this can play heavily in one's favor. It is an intense ride that I didn't want to end. I wanted it to go right into books 2 and 3. This is one of the best films I have ever seen, and I have seen a great many. I think it rightly deserves every last iota of praise it receives and am giddily anticipating the next film which is due November 2013. Anyone who can handle 12 year olds playing real life Gladiator, then don't miss this film.
**On a side note, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the 65 year old woman leaving the theater explaining the entire film to her husband as if he wasn't beside her the whole time which he was. I didn't feel it was hard to follow, but I may just be a CINE-SAVANT.
NBM rates The Hunger Games - A Work of Cinematic Art, and that was not even a question when it got over.