The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What can I possibly say about the Hunger Games which hasn’t already been said?  The Hunger Games, top box office for at least the last 4 weeks, grossing hundreds of millions of dollars in the last month, record sales for Lionsgate, and the number 3 opening box office of all time, is an entertaining film.  Given Team Katniss vs. Team Bella, Katniss could break Bella’s balls any time of day or night, obviously.

As a reader of the trilogy prior to this Hunger Games box office madness, I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the film.  The pace was good, the film, entertaining as a whole, but there was so much glossed over.  I mean, what can you do when you try to condense a few hundred pages of 1 person narrative into a omniscient film?  It’s a difficult feat to accomplish and the end result was not as good as the book (or the audiobook, check it out!), but at least the filmmakers made it somewhat enjoyable with lots of special effects….$8

If you heart The Hunger Games…

Recommendations from …:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Battle Royale (Japanese version)
Mission Impossible

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

gives a whole new meaning to the word bad-ass. This movie is a long movie, two and a half hours, and at midnight, that seems even longer. This movie drew me in and then drew me in some more, when I was debating on dozing off, a well-told, scripted, and acted tale of a mysterious disappearance, forty years in the past, involving sketchy family members and nazis! in sweden.

Now, Evelyn Salt, you could learn a thing or two from the girl with a dragon tattoo. Now that is some serious ass-kicking, even without any martial arts or special CIA training. Apparently you just need a photographic memory, a lethal sense of righteousness and a penchant for destruction (also some practice with hefty golf clubs could be handy). Noomi Rapace did a superb job as Lisbeth, the girl with the dragon tattoo, and she is another person I would gladly invite to my dinner table. I think she would be an absolutely fascinating dinner guest.

Though the acting and general script was engaging and believable, the divergent and seemingly incongruent storylines did have me confused and thinking a bit “WTF is going on here…is this story going somewhere?!”  during the first part of the movie. Then at the end, it seemed to drag on for about 30 minutes longer than it had to. But altogether, a thoroughly enjoyable movie, filled with a subtle sense of suspense and intrigue that seems to be missing from a lot of current Hollywood movies….$6

If you heart The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:

Recommendations from …:

The DaVinci Code
Taken
Blood: The Last Vampire