The Hunger Games

4.33
    The Hunger Games
    2012

    Synopsis

    Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. The world will be watching.

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    Cast

    • Jennifer LawrenceKatniss Everdeen
    • Josh HutchersonPeeta Mellark
    • Liam HemsworthGale Hawthorne
    • Woody HarrelsonHaymitch Abernathy
    • Elizabeth BanksEffie Trinket
    • Lenny KravitzCinna
    • Stanley TucciCaesar Flickerman
    • Donald SutherlandPresident Coriolanus Snow
    • Wes BentleySeneca Crane
    • Toby JonesClaudius Templesmith

    Recommendations

    • 91

      Entertainment Weekly

      A muscular, honorable, unflinching translation of Collins' vision. It's brutal where it needs to be, particularly when children fight and bleed.
    • 90

      Boxoffice Magazine

      As action, as allegory, as cinema, The Hunger Games is the best American science-fiction film since "The Matrix," and if Ross and his crew stay with the series for the next two books, we may get that rarest of things: a blockbuster franchise that earns our money through craft, emotion and execution, not merely marketing and effects.
    • 80

      Empire

      As thrilling and smart as it is terrifying. There have been a number of big-gun literary series brought to screen over the past decade. This slays them all.
    • 80

      The Guardian

      The Hunger Games is that rarest of beasts: a Hollywood action blockbuster that is smart, taut and knotty. Ably filleted from the Suzanne Collins bestseller, it's a compelling, lightly satirical tale.
    • 80

      Total Film

      What's remarkable is the lack of cheese. Tacky effects, corny dialogue and creaky performances are all shown the door. We repeat: not the new "Twilight".
    • 80

      Time Out

      If the movie had a lead actress more delicate or malleable than the strong-cheeked Lawrence-a Natalie Portman, say-it would tip over into sexy-girl-killer celebration; the same goes for Harrelson's salty mentor, who is never too supportive or paternal. Both performers lean into the economies of survival, certain of the savagery that lies ahead, and come up with sharp work.
    • 75

      Slant Magazine

      The Hunger Games is more notable for the holes it doesn't fall into than the great heights it reaches.
    • 70

      The Hollywood Reporter

      As she did in her breakthrough film Winter's Bone, Jennifer Lawrence anchors this futuristic and politicized elaboration of The Most Dangerous Game with impressive gravity and presence, while director Gary Ross gets enough of what matters in the book up on the screen to satisfy its legions of fans worldwide.

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