The Hunger Games

Tonight's showing at the Milton Picture House was The Hunger Games and it was a cracking good movie ... when it finally got started and, blimey, it take a while to do so. But the penultimate act, in the arena, is really quite something.

I've not read the books but I know they're aimed at a teen audience which means they wanted a 12A certificate for this movie which must have been challenging given that during the arena section the vast majority of the two dozen children placed there are going to die, violently¹. But they get away with it without compromising it too badly and the level of suspense in some sequences was suitably heart stopping.

Jennifer Lawrence is amazing in it. I first saw her in Winter's Bone and if you've not seen that yet you really should, it's a powerful movie with her in the central role and she got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in that, and rightly so.

I can't wait to see her in Silver Linings Playbook now (for which she's again been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the youngest woman to be nominated twice). Judging by the trailer it's a life affirming movie and it will be nice to see her in something less dark for a change. It's out on DVD in a couple of months so that'll be on my birthday present list.

1. Reading about this later on the BBFC site there are actually two versions of this movie out there, the original 15 certificate "international" version, and a 12A version and similarly for DVD it's available in 15 and 12 (the version we watched). The difference between the versions resulted in seven seconds of the original being either cut or digitally altered:

   The company chose to make cuts in order to achieve a '12A' classification. A number of cuts were made in one scene to reduce an emphasis on blood and injury. These cuts, which were implemented by digitally removing sight of blood splashes and sight of blood on wounds and weapons, were made in accordance with BBFC Guidelines and policy.