The Hunger Games (re-release)
In a post-apocalyptic future in a land called Panem – where North America used to be – Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) competes in a game to the death on live TV.
Dying to be famous: Jennifer Lawrence
Image courtesy of Lionsgate.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
The premise is simple: teenagers in the future are forced to kill each other in the name of entertainment. And it’s a theme that is becoming worryingly popular. Still, if one can set aside the story’s inherent bloodlust, Gary Ross’s adaptation of Suzanne Collins' literary saga (translated into 26 languages) is a skilfully managed and gripping affair. Ross, who chooses his films with infinite care (this is only his third feature after Pleasantville and Seabiscuit), has had the good sense to cast the excellent Jennifer Lawrence as his young heroine, film the whole thing in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and keep a tight rein on the nuanced score. The rest, more or less, falls into place. A sequel seems inevitable.
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Toby Jones, Amandla Stenberg, Jack Quaid, Isabelle Fuhrman.
Dir Gary Ross, Pro Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik, Screenplay Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray, from the novel by Suzanne Collins, Ph Tom Stern, Pro Des Philip Messina, Ed Christopher S. Capp, Stephen Mirrione and Juliette Welfling, M James Newton Howard, Costumes Judianna Makovsky, Sound Lon Bender, William R. Dean and Kris Fenske.
Lionsgate/Color Force-Lionsgate.
143 mins. USA. 2012. Original UK Rel: 23 March 2012. UK Re-release: 4 September 2026. Cert. 12A.
