The Hunger Games

There was a futuristic sci-fi film back in 1975 entitled "Rollerball", and its selling slogan or tagline to the film was, "In the future there will be no more wars, but there will be... Rollerball." It was an interesting concept in that instead of battling in some country where innocent people can be hurt or killed, society will have there 'wars' in a controlled arena or rink type of environment whereas no one will be hurt or killed that are innocent. Instead, these players play or fight to the death with an international audience and producers/sponsors duking it out for the bottom line... money. Well, this is kind of what we get with "The Hunger Games", except these are kids who are the players and this film had multiple layers within the plot a lot more than "Rollerball" could muster up. And I liked "Rollerball".

In a not-too-distant future, North America has collapsed, weakened by fire, drought, famine and war to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year two young representatives, ages 12-18, from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, quite literally, with all citizens required to watch.
When 16-year-old Katniss' young sister, Primrose (Willow Shields), is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to take her place which no one has ever done. She and her male counterpart, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, such as Kato (Alexander Ludwig) and Glimmer (Leven Rambin), who have trained for this their whole lives. Katniss and Peeta do get training through the likes of Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz). With President Snow (Donald Sutherland), whose after his own interests and MC of The Hunger Games, Caesar (Stanley Tucci), whose all about the show and ratings, do any of these representatives have a chance?

Others to round out the cast are Liam Hemsworth as Gabe, Katniss' friend in district 12, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, a publicist, Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane, head of The Hunger Games, Toby Jones as Claudius Templesmith, Isabelle Fuhrman as Clove, friend of Kato, Amandla Stenberg as Rue, whom Katniss takes 'under her wing', Kimiko Gelman as Venia, Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh, and Jack Quaid as Marvel.

This was cleverly directed by Gary Ross ("Pleasantville" '98, "Seabiscuit" '03) in that in an entertaining way, this guy can really slickly convey a strong message. This film was so multi-layered with elements of 'big brother', greed, deception, fear, survival of the fittest, connection, comraderie. This made this film more than 'kids killing kids'. It was equally well written by Ross ("Big" '88, "Mr. Baseball" '92, "Dave" '93, "Lassie" '94, "Pleasantville" '98, "Seabiscuit" '03, "The Tale of Despereaux" '08), Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray based on Collins' novel.

We've seen post-apocalytic, grim futuristic films before, but not quite with the punch that this film will give you and keep you thinking well after the end credits roll.

Out of 4 stars: 4                     Rated: PG-13                    142min.