Can I Buy My Ticket For Catching Fire Yet?

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I find it hard to look back in time and remember that I once was of the opinion that Jennifer Lawrence was wrong for Katniss Everdeen, our heroine in The Hunger Games. If I were going to defend my tomfoolery now I'd say it was just after she'd glammed herself to high heights for Winter's Bone awards and the freshest vision I had of her was the super blond and ultra buxom version of her on the red carpets. This was not the Katniss I was looking for.

But now that I've seen the movie I kind of want to reach back through time and smack my stupid face good and hard. What was I thinking? Lawrence is terrific - she sells Katniss' steeliness and her vulnerability with equal aplomb. She sells everything - it's been awhile since I have read the books and the film reminded what a first-person experience the story is. This is Katniss' story, and I thought Gary Ross did a great job of getting us inside her head all the while not relying on narration at all, which would've been the easy (cluttered) way to get away with it. The camerawork gets a little bit wobbly for its own good at times but I thought as a way of plunking us down there with Katniss it worked more than it didn't.

Generally I thought Ross made a lot of really smart choices in turning Collins' book into a movie. We probably could have used more time with Katniss in District 12 at the start to set up just how despairing their lives are supposed to be, but I understand that it was already an hour before we even got to the Games, so keeping things moving was an issue. Lawrence sold me on the little notes where this echoed - the way she caressed the fabrics in her room in the Capitol managed to express both awe and disgust, or that half-starved look on her face in the flashback where Peeta tosses her the bread, for instance. I think it got across the notes it needed to, mostly. 

Josh Hutcherson was great - while he never looked like the Peeta I'd imagined as much as Lawrence came to look like Katniss, he was able to overcome that anyway and make Peeta, for me, even more interesting than he was in the book. I think he complicated Peeta's actions just as much as Lawrence did, so there were times where I was wondering just how much he was playing for the cameras too, which doesn't always get across in the books since they're entirely from Katniss' perspective.

Woody Harrelson gave good Haymitch but I really don't know what they were thinking with that distracting Owen Wilson look they gave him. But the weight that Haymitch feels sending off these kids to their deaths year in year out was there. As for Stanley Tucci... Stanley Tucci's teeth. Teeth! So much teeth.

I wasn't crazy about Lenny Kravtiz as Cinna - he kind of sucked all the air out of the room every time he showed up. It felt as if he showed up with two days to film all his scenes and everything stopped in its tracks for him. But he and Lawrence did have a believable, sweet rapport (I think she might be incapable of not having a natural rapport with anything though.) Elizabeth Banks was a wondrous preening vision of grotesquerie and made every single right choice for Effie - the "reaping" at the start was always going to be nightmarish, but Banks really dug into the awkwardness of it and made it entirely unique and disquieting.

Speaking of disquieting, Donald Sutherland y'all. His viper's smile is going to haunt my nightmares. I long to see him have more to do. That last shot gave me chills. And finally, never do I remember wanting to have Seneca-Crane-from-the-book's babies, but Wes Bentley has gone and changed all of that. Flame-tipped beard crests never found their way into my fetish-pile before, but here we are.

The violence was dealt with especially well, I thought - it felt brutal but it got across what happened without wallowing in gore, which just isn't necessary here. From what I remember Collins never got too detailed with it either. I love Battle Royale too y'all, but this isn't going to be Battle Royale. (An aside: God I'm so tired of the endless exhausting "I'm so smart for knowing other stories that told this sort of story!" catcalls, from The Running Man to The Most Dangerous Game and on and on. We get it. You're so clever, congratulations! But THG actually tells its own story. Move on.)

Anyway the death that really needed to work did, judging from the trembling lip and tear-streaked face I was trying to disguise from the people around me. Indeed I found that moment (I'm purposefully being vague just in case, but y'all know who I mean) with its spill over into revolution incredibly powerful, perhaps the most powerful in the film (it reminded me of the part is Ross' Pleasantville where the "coloreds" start getting attacked, actually) and knowing what it means for what's to come...

Mostly what struck me about having this first book retold to me was how small it seems after everything that comes about in the second and third books - how broad the world gets from here on out, I mean. Here in The Hunger Games it's all relatively straightforward and centered entirely on Katniss' experience... which is probably why the first book is the most successful, story-wise. And the film succeeds on that level - I felt there with this girl on fire. Indeed it succeeded well enough that once the end credits started I thought wouldn't it be wonderful if at the end of the credits the second film just started right then and there! Kind of as a surprise gift to us fans. So I am writing this from inside the theater still. And I will stay here until Catching Fire starts. I will live off of popcorn kernels and the kindness of strangers until then. Wish me luck! 

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Can I Buy My Ticket For Catching Fire Yet?

.

I find it hard to look back in time and remember that I once was of the opinion that Jennifer Lawrence was wrong for Katniss Everdeen, our heroine in The Hunger Games. If I were going to defend my tomfoolery now I'd say it was just after she'd glammed herself to high heights for Winter's Bone awards and the freshest vision I had of her was the super blond and ultra buxom version of her on the red carpets. This was not the Katniss I was looking for.

But now that I've seen the movie I kind of want to reach back through time and smack my stupid face good and hard. What was I thinking? Lawrence is terrific - she sells Katniss' steeliness and her vulnerability with equal aplomb. She sells everything - it's been awhile since I have read the books and the film reminded what a first-person experience the story is. This is Katniss' story, and I thought Gary Ross did a great job of getting us inside her head all the while not relying on narration at all, which would've been the easy (cluttered) way to get away with it. The camerawork gets a little bit wobbly for its own good at times but I thought as a way of plunking us down there with Katniss it worked more than it didn't.

Generally I thought Ross made a lot of really smart choices in turning Collins' book into a movie. We probably could have used more time with Katniss in District 12 at the start to set up just how despairing their lives are supposed to be, but I understand that it was already an hour before we even got to the Games, so keeping things moving was an issue. Lawrence sold me on the little notes where this echoed - the way she caressed the fabrics in her room in the Capitol managed to express both awe and disgust, or that half-starved look on her face in the flashback where Peeta tosses her the bread, for instance. I think it got across the notes it needed to, mostly. 

Josh Hutcherson was great - while he never looked like the Peeta I'd imagined as much as Lawrence came to look like Katniss, he was able to overcome that anyway and make Peeta, for me, even more interesting than he was in the book. I think he complicated Peeta's actions just as much as Lawrence did, so there were times where I was wondering just how much he was playing for the cameras too, which doesn't always get across in the books since they're entirely from Katniss' perspective.

Woody Harrelson gave good Haymitch but I really don't know what they were thinking with that distracting Owen Wilson look they gave him. But the weight that Haymitch feels sending off these kids to their deaths year in year out was there. As for Stanley Tucci... Stanley Tucci's teeth. Teeth! So much teeth.

I wasn't crazy about Lenny Kravtiz as Cinna - he kind of sucked all the air out of the room every time he showed up. It felt as if he showed up with two days to film all his scenes and everything stopped in its tracks for him. But he and Lawrence did have a believable, sweet rapport (I think she might be incapable of not having a natural rapport with anything though.) Elizabeth Banks was a wondrous preening vision of grotesquerie and made every single right choice for Effie - the "reaping" at the start was always going to be nightmarish, but Banks really dug into the awkwardness of it and made it entirely unique and disquieting.

Speaking of disquieting, Donald Sutherland y'all. His viper's smile is going to haunt my nightmares. I long to see him have more to do. That last shot gave me chills. And finally, never do I remember wanting to have Seneca-Crane-from-the-book's babies, but Wes Bentley has gone and changed all of that. Flame-tipped beard crests never found their way into my fetish-pile before, but here we are.

The violence was dealt with especially well, I thought - it felt brutal but it got across what happened without wallowing in gore, which just isn't necessary here. From what I remember Collins never got too detailed with it either. I love Battle Royale too y'all, but this isn't going to be Battle Royale. (An aside: God I'm so tired of the endless exhausting "I'm so smart for knowing other stories that told this sort of story!" catcalls, from The Running Man to The Most Dangerous Game and on and on. We get it. You're so clever, congratulations! But THG actually tells its own story. Move on.)

Anyway the death that really needed to work did, judging from the trembling lip and tear-streaked face I was trying to disguise from the people around me. Indeed I found that moment (I'm purposefully being vague just in case, but y'all know who I mean) with its spill over into revolution incredibly powerful, perhaps the most powerful in the film (it reminded me of the part is Ross' Pleasantville where the "coloreds" start getting attacked, actually) and knowing what it means for what's to come...

Mostly what struck me about having this first book retold to me was how small it seems after everything that comes about in the second and third books - how broad the world gets from here on out, I mean. Here in The Hunger Games it's all relatively straightforward and centered entirely on Katniss' experience... which is probably why the first book is the most successful, story-wise. And the film succeeds on that level - I felt there with this girl on fire. Indeed it succeeded well enough that once the end credits started I thought wouldn't it be wonderful if at the end of the credits the second film just started right then and there! Kind of as a surprise gift to us fans. So I am writing this from inside the theater still. And I will stay here until Catching Fire starts. I will live off of popcorn kernels and the kindness of strangers until then. Wish me luck! 

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May The Odds, Et Cetera

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May The Odds, Et Cetera

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With Vincent Price As Haymitch

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Have you guys seen EW's gallery of prospective posters for The Hunger Games if it had been directed by other directors in history? They've got the Hitchock and Fincher versions, and so on - the above one is the Roger Corman version and it's definitely my fave. "She-devil Deathmatch in the Blood Arena!" is so so awesome. And JLaw makes for a fine retro-flavored lady.

So this won't surprise any of you but when I wrote up this week's new releases for Celebrity Beehive I wrote a whole bunch about The Hunger Games therein. I mean, it's not exactly out of turn - this is the movie's moment. I know some of you guys have seen it already - feel free to share your opinions in the comments. 

Other movies out this weekend (although they're all in limited release) are The Raid: Redemption, which I almost saw last night but crapped out on because I am so lazy, and The Deep Blue Sea with Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddelston, which I was supposed to see a couple of weeks ago and, uh, crapped out on because I am so lazy. Good grief. I am so lazy!

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With Vincent Price As Haymitch

.

Have you guys seen EW's gallery of prospective posters for The Hunger Games if it had been directed by other directors in history? They've got the Hitchock and Fincher versions, and so on - the above one is the Roger Corman version and it's definitely my fave. "She-devil Deathmatch in the Blood Arena!" is so so awesome. And JLaw makes for a fine retro-flavored lady.

So this won't surprise any of you but when I wrote up this week's new releases for Celebrity Beehive I wrote a whole bunch about The Hunger Games therein. I mean, it's not exactly out of turn - this is the movie's moment. I know some of you guys have seen it already - feel free to share your opinions in the comments. 

Other movies out this weekend (although they're all in limited release) are The Raid: Redemption, which I almost saw last night but crapped out on because I am so lazy, and The Deep Blue Sea with Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddelston, which I was supposed to see a couple of weeks ago and, uh, crapped out on because I am so lazy. Good grief. I am so lazy!

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I Am Link

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--- Always Repays His Debts - A Game of Thrones starts next weekend! A Game of Thrones starts next weekend! I've been distracted by my Hunger Games mania, but this is just as cool. I still won't be seeing the show til the following Monday per my usual day-long delay, so don't expect me to write anything on time. Don't go holding your breath is what I'm telling you! Because you would naturally, otherwise. Anyway my pal Sean has rounded up a whole bunch of cool news bits about the show over here, go forth and gather. You should also be reading his ASOIAF-devoted blog too, but only if you've read all the books since there be spoilers there.

--- Golden Games - I know I always downplay box office, especially when it's something I like that's doing lousy - which is the way it normally happens - but the news that The Hunger Games is expected to be financially massive this weekend is making me very happy. Mostly because they can then throw tons and tons of money at the sequels. And afford Chris Hemsworth for Finnick. Ahh my motives become clear! Come on, Chris Hemsworth in a fishnet leotard? Who doesn't want to see that?

--- Lizards In Lust - I couldn't resist this take on fish-rapist classic Humanoids From the Deep over at AICN - I just wrote up a brief couple of thoughts on that sleazy beast back in August. It is such utter, yet entertaining, trash.

--- Summer Thirteen - DH rounded up a couple of release dates for movies of the future we will want to see - Guillermo Del Toros Pacific Rim, with Charlies Hunnam and Day and Idris Elba (a fuckable from start to finish cast if ever there was one), will be out on July 12th, 2013. That's actually a delay of a couple of months.But I know what I'm doing for my birthday weekend in fifteen months now! And also, the sequel to the leather-diaper fetish-film 300 is coming out on August 2nd, 2013. Next Summer's already full up.

--- Hedwig's Nightmare - This post is just one of the myriad reasons why I adore Glenn - he's been watching the old 80s Krueger spin-off series Freddy's Nightmares, and discovered an episode that starred who else but... John Cameron Mitchell? 

--- Down River - Netflix might be scooping up ABC's The River, which I only made it three episodes into before deciding it was either I threw my TV set out the window or I stopped watching its inanity. I guess I wasn't alone since its rating crumbled week to week, hence it maybe now moving to Netflix, just like its counterpart in inexplicable crapitude Terra Nova. Again i say, why Thomas Krestchmann? Why???

.

I Am Link

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--- Always Repays His Debts - A Game of Thrones starts next weekend! A Game of Thrones starts next weekend! I've been distracted by my Hunger Games mania, but this is just as cool. I still won't be seeing the show til the following Monday per my usual day-long delay, so don't expect me to write anything on time. Don't go holding your breath is what I'm telling you! Because you would naturally, otherwise. Anyway my pal Sean has rounded up a whole bunch of cool news bits about the show over here, go forth and gather. You should also be reading his ASOIAF-devoted blog too, but only if you've read all the books since there be spoilers there.

--- Golden Games - I know I always downplay box office, especially when it's something I like that's doing lousy - which is the way it normally happens - but the news that The Hunger Games is expected to be financially massive this weekend is making me very happy. Mostly because they can then throw tons and tons of money at the sequels. And afford Chris Hemsworth for Finnick. Ahh my motives become clear! Come on, Chris Hemsworth in a fishnet leotard? Who doesn't want to see that?

--- Lizards In Lust - I couldn't resist this take on fish-rapist classic Humanoids From the Deep over at AICN - I just wrote up a brief couple of thoughts on that sleazy beast back in August. It is such utter, yet entertaining, trash.

--- Summer Thirteen - DH rounded up a couple of release dates for movies of the future we will want to see - Guillermo Del Toros Pacific Rim, with Charlies Hunnam and Day and Idris Elba (a fuckable from start to finish cast if ever there was one), will be out on July 12th, 2013. That's actually a delay of a couple of months.But I know what I'm doing for my birthday weekend in fifteen months now! And also, the sequel to the leather-diaper fetish-film 300 is coming out on August 2nd, 2013. Next Summer's already full up.

--- Hedwig's Nightmare - This post is just one of the myriad reasons why I adore Glenn - he's been watching the old 80s Krueger spin-off series Freddy's Nightmares, and discovered an episode that starred who else but... John Cameron Mitchell? 

--- Down River - Netflix might be scooping up ABC's The River, which I only made it three episodes into before deciding it was either I threw my TV set out the window or I stopped watching its inanity. I guess I wasn't alone since its rating crumbled week to week, hence it maybe now moving to Netflix, just like its counterpart in inexplicable crapitude Terra Nova. Again i say, why Thomas Krestchmann? Why???

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Which is Hotter?

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poll by twiigs.com

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What with the movie out at Midnight,

this question seemed especially propitious.

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Which is Hotter?

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poll by twiigs.com

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What with the movie out at Midnight,

this question seemed especially propitious.

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Good Morning, World

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I had a dream that I posted on Liam Hemsworth this morning, so here I am, posting on Liam Hemsworth this morning. I guess The Hunger Games looms large (shocker) in my brain these days. Anyway it couldn't even be a dirty dream? All it was was me posting pictures of him. You know you blog too much when. My subconscious is a failure. See more gratuitous pics of Liam here.

Good Morning, World

.

I had a dream that I posted on Liam Hemsworth this morning, so here I am, posting on Liam Hemsworth this morning. I guess The Hunger Games looms large (shocker) in my brain these days. Anyway it couldn't even be a dirty dream? All it was was me posting pictures of him. You know you blog too much when. My subconscious is a failure. See more gratuitous pics of Liam here.

Pocket Josh

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Josh Hutcherson's face says he is so tired of having

to pose next to all of these giants. (via)

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Pocket Josh

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Josh Hutcherson's face says he is so tired of having

to pose next to all of these giants. (via)

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Games In 3, 2, 1...

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Can you guys even believe that The Hunger Games opens in three days? (That is if we fudge us towards Midnight, but whatever.) My heart is going to burst, I tells ya. Burst! We've been waiting for this for... pause while I go see when our first Hunger Games post was... we've been waiting for this for three years as of two weeks ago.

It's weird going back and reading my first post about the series on March 5th, 2009 - I'd already read the first book and was just mentioning the news that it was going to be turned into a movie. This was well before Catching Fire came out that September. I never really properly reviewed any of the books, but the couple of brief thoughts I plunked down there in my first post about the first book are strangely flat - I call it "a pretty decent yarn (although definitely and unmistakably written for young adults)." I don't disagree with any of that, but it would have several dorky exclamation points attached to it now. But just a couple of weeks later (exactly three years ago today, actually) when I was posting news about Catching Fire's Sept. release date my enthusiasms were already rising - "Bring it on, lady!" I hollered.

And obviously it only grew more and more crazed from there. And now here we are! Three days from the first movie's release. What a time it's been! Remember when we were getting daily casting updates on characters that won't have any lines? That was fun. Anyway EW chatted with Elizabeth Banks, somehow who most definitely has some lines, about her own HG fandom, and she tells how she formed her character Effie Trinket's distinctive look and sound:

“The voice took a long time for me,” says Banks. “Suzanne Collins talks about the Capitol accent the whole time and I just wanted to make sure I honored that without doing something too silly. And I’m really happy with where we ended up. I sent Gary a lot of recorded samples of myself — everything from super British to super Southern to impressions of Christine Baranski. Ultimately I looked at movies from the ’30s and ’40s and theatricality was at its height in the movies of the ’30s and ’40s. I looked to the Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn, and Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame.”

Next came crafting Effie’s thoroughly unique appearance. “There was two days in the trailer of putting the look together,” describes Banks. “The hair’s pink. Is it dark pink, light pink? What’s the shape of it, what’s the texture? What’s the shape of her generally — Is she big, is she small? Super white skin and then not white skin, a lot of color, no color. And the jumping off point was Joel Grey in Cabaret. And what that meant to us partially is that you feel like Effie’s striving for her ideal, her vision of perfection, but she’s missing it.”

So when are you guys going to see the movie? I'm waiting until Sunday afternoon, somehow. I don't know. I will have to chain myself to the floor for those two days in order to resist.
.

Games In 3, 2, 1...

.

Can you guys even believe that The Hunger Games opens in three days? (That is if we fudge us towards Midnight, but whatever.) My heart is going to burst, I tells ya. Burst! We've been waiting for this for... pause while I go see when our first Hunger Games post was... we've been waiting for this for three years as of two weeks ago.

It's weird going back and reading my first post about the series on March 5th, 2009 - I'd already read the first book and was just mentioning the news that it was going to be turned into a movie. This was well before Catching Fire came out that September. I never really properly reviewed any of the books, but the couple of brief thoughts I plunked down there in my first post about the first book are strangely flat - I call it "a pretty decent yarn (although definitely and unmistakably written for young adults)." I don't disagree with any of that, but it would have several dorky exclamation points attached to it now. But just a couple of weeks later (exactly three years ago today, actually) when I was posting news about Catching Fire's Sept. release date my enthusiasms were already rising - "Bring it on, lady!" I hollered.

And obviously it only grew more and more crazed from there. And now here we are! Three days from the first movie's release. What a time it's been! Remember when we were getting daily casting updates on characters that won't have any lines? That was fun. Anyway EW chatted with Elizabeth Banks, somehow who most definitely has some lines, about her own HG fandom, and she tells how she formed her character Effie Trinket's distinctive look and sound:

“The voice took a long time for me,” says Banks. “Suzanne Collins talks about the Capitol accent the whole time and I just wanted to make sure I honored that without doing something too silly. And I’m really happy with where we ended up. I sent Gary a lot of recorded samples of myself — everything from super British to super Southern to impressions of Christine Baranski. Ultimately I looked at movies from the ’30s and ’40s and theatricality was at its height in the movies of the ’30s and ’40s. I looked to the Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn, and Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame.”

Next came crafting Effie’s thoroughly unique appearance. “There was two days in the trailer of putting the look together,” describes Banks. “The hair’s pink. Is it dark pink, light pink? What’s the shape of it, what’s the texture? What’s the shape of her generally — Is she big, is she small? Super white skin and then not white skin, a lot of color, no color. And the jumping off point was Joel Grey in Cabaret. And what that meant to us partially is that you feel like Effie’s striving for her ideal, her vision of perfection, but she’s missing it.”

So when are you guys going to see the movie? I'm waiting until Sunday afternoon, somehow. I don't know. I will have to chain myself to the floor for those two days in order to resist.
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Wes Bentley Five Times

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(via)

Wes Bentley Five Times

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(via)

Feed My Hunger

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I don't mean to keep posting pictures from The Hunger Games every damned day, but they're being really good about pushing just the right buttons at just the right times to keep my spazziness in full effect. I think they must have psychologists working on their PR, expertly analyzing the super-fan's psychosis and how to exploit it best. We have apparently hit the phase of media saturation titled "Pictures of Clove making bitch face, Wes Bentley's exquisitely crafted facial-hair, and Josh Hutcherson in a tight t-shirt." See more at EW.

Feed My Hunger

.

I don't mean to keep posting pictures from The Hunger Games every damned day, but they're being really good about pushing just the right buttons at just the right times to keep my spazziness in full effect. I think they must have psychologists working on their PR, expertly analyzing the super-fan's psychosis and how to exploit it best. We have apparently hit the phase of media saturation titled "Pictures of Clove making bitch face, Wes Bentley's exquisitely crafted facial-hair, and Josh Hutcherson in a tight t-shirt." See more at EW.