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The Hunger Games [2-Disc DVD + Ultra-Violet Digital Copy] (2012)

Jennifer Lawrence , Josh Hutcherson , Gary Ross  |  PG-13 |  DVD
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4,928 customer reviews)

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Product Details

  • Actors: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks
  • Directors: Gary Ross
  • Writers: Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, Billy Ray
  • Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
  • Language: English
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
  • Studio: Lionsgate
  • DVD Release Date: August 18, 2012
  • Run Time: 142 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4,928 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0084IG8TM
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Learn more about "The Hunger Games [2-Disc DVD + Ultra-Violet Digital Copy]" on IMDb

Special Features

Disc 1
• Feature Film

Disc 2
Game Maker: Suzanne Collins and the Hunger Games Phenomenon
The World is Watching: Making the Hunger Games
• Letters from the Rose Garden
• Controlling the Games
• A Conversation with Gary Ross and Elvis Mitchell
• Propaganda Film
• Marketing Archive

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Building on her performance as a take-no-prisoners teenager in Winter's Bone, Jennifer Lawrence portrays heroine Katniss Everdeen in Gary Ross's action-oriented adaptation of author-screenwriter Suzanne Collins's young adult bestseller. Set in a dystopian future in which the income gap is greater than ever, 24 underprivileged youth fight to the death every year in a televised spectacle designed to entertain the rich and give the poor enough hope to quell any further unrest--but not too much, warns Panem president Snow (Donald Sutherland), because that would be "dangerous." Hailing from the same mining town, 16-year-olds Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson, The Kids Are All Right) represent District 12 with the help of escort Effie (an unrecognizable Elizabeth Banks) and mentor Haymitch (a scene-stealing Woody Harrelson). At first they're adversaries, but a wary partnership eventually develops, though the rules stipulate that only one contestant can win. For those who haven't read the book, the conclusion is likely to come as a surprise. Before it arrives, Ross (Pleasantville) depicts a society in which the Haves appear to have stepped out of a Dr. Seuss book and the Have-Nots look like refugees from the WPA photographs of Walker Evans. It's an odd mix, made odder still by frenetic fight scenes where it's hard to tell who's doing what to whom. Fortunately, Lawrence and Hutcherson prove a sympathetic match in this crazy, mixed-up combination of Survivor, Lost, and the collected works of George Orwell. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Screenshots - Click to Enlarge

Synopsis

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her younger sister’s place to enter the games, and is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy when she’s pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives. 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.

About the Author

SUZANNE COLLINS first made her mark in children’s literature with the New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles for middle grade readers. Her debut for readers aged 12 and up, The Hunger Games was an instant bestseller, appealing to both teen readers and adults. It has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 180 consecutive weeks/more than three consecutive years since publication. Suzanne Collins also had a successful and prolific career writing for children’s television. In 2010 Collins was named to the TIME 100 list as well as the Entertainment Weekly Entertainers of the Year list. In 2011 Fast Company named her to their 100 Most Creative People in Business.


Meet the Characters


Katniss Everdeen

The Tribute who becomes a heroine when she volunteers to take her sister’s place in the Hunger Games.

Peeta Mellark

The male Tribute from District 12, who has long harbored secret feelings for Katniss.

Gale Hawthorne

Katniss’s fellow hunter, rebel and best friend, who is heartbroken when she volunteers and departs for the Games.



Haymitch Abernathy

Victor of the 50th Hunger Games, now the rarely sober mentor for Katniss and Peeta.

Effie Trinket

Katniss’s elaborately-coiffed escort and PR handler for the Games.

Cinna

Katniss’s personal Stylist for the Games who becomes her unexpected confidante and supporter.


 

Product Description

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers in her younger sister's place and must rely upon her sharp instincts when she's pitted against highly trained Tributes who have prepared their entire lives. 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
740 of 965 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"Hunger Games" is certainly the best film I have seen since many many months, and it is a very successful adaptation of an excellent book.

In my personal opinion, both the book and the film are much deeper and much more ambitious, than what most critics and reviewers would make us believe. After reading the reviews in "New York Times", "Le Monde" and on "Msn.com" (to cite only few) I was surprised that they mostly missed everything that is important in this film. With a kind of amused superiority, which people from Capitol in this movie would immediately recognize, the "professional" reviewers pointed at the obvious allusions to gladiator fights, the reality shows, the importance of trashy entertainment in today's TV, the search for a new franchise able to replace "Twilight", etc., etc.

But they almost entirely failed to see, that this film is first and above all about much more important things: how to keep hope, not lose the courage and preserve humanity and dignity under a totalitarian oppressive regime.

I believe that almost everybody now knows that when writing "Hunger Games" Susan Collins attempted basically a modern (even futurist) retelling of the old Greek myth of Theseus and Minotaur. According to this ancient tale, after losing a war, every year the city of Athens had to send a tribute of seven young men and seven maidens to the king of Crete. Once there the young people were locked in the Labyrinth, to be devoured by the monster Minotaur. This yearly punishment and humiliation lasted until Theseus, crown prince of Athens, volunteered to be one of the tributes and once locked in the Labyrinth he defeated and killed the Minotaur.

In "Hunger Games" what was once United States (and I think also Canada) is now called the Panem. It is a country divided in twelve Districts remaining under the control of the Capitol central metropolis. There was once thirteen Districts, but when they rebelled against the central power, the Capitol destroyed completely the District 13 with all its population and then defeated and submitted again the twelve others. In order to remind to its subjects how absolute is its power, the Capitol claims a yearly tribute - one girl and one boy of ages from 12 to 18 from every District. The tributes are then send to an arena and forced to fight, until only one remain alive. This yearly event is called the Hunger Games and it is shown live on TV to all the population of Panem. This film tells the story of what happened at the 74th edition of Hunger Games...

For Capitol the purpose of Hunger Games is to remind yearly how powerful is the central metropolis and how dire can be the consequences of its wrath, but also - and even more importantly in my opinion - to humiliate and degrade the people of the Districts by forcing them to become accomplices (even if under duress) of a barbarian custom in which some of their own children are send to the slaughterhouse. And as all bullies and abusers know, it is much easier to oppress, abuse and brutalize victims who lack self-esteem...

Well, in this film we can see how one of the tributes from District 12, an exceptionnal young girl named Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), manages to turn the tables on the Capitol and by allowing people of Panem to regain some of their dignity she will be the pebble which starts the avalanche. The exact way in which she does that will not be revealed here, but both in the book as in the film it is described in a very intelligent and very moving way...

This may seem a rather improbable thing that a 16 years old child can do something that will ultimately bring down a seemingly invincible and all-powerful tyranny, but let's not forget that in the real world, the great wave of revolutions of Arab Spring began on 18 December 2010 with a desperate gesture of a dirt-poor 27-years old Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire after having been robbed and beaten by the corrupt local police one time too much... Less than two years after, the opressive regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya already collapsed, the seemingly invulnerable dictator of Yemen had to resign and the Syrian brutal regime is facing a massive armed rebellion..

Bottom line, this film is first and before all a story about how even a seemingly powerless person can horribly hurt a tyrannic regime with a magic potion made of lots of courage, an ice-cold determination, a great personal dignity, a little compassion, a handful of flowers, a couple of tears and one defiant and powerful gesture...

The powerful message and excellent scenario are not the only reasons why I consider "Hunger Games" as a masterpiece. Actors were selected very carefully and they perform well. Jennifer Lawrence is simply perfect - there is no other word to describe her performance! However, after seeing her in "Winter's Bone" and "X-Men: First class" I didn't expect anything less.

But the real surprise in this film comes from Josh Hutcherson who plays Peeta Mellark, the boy tribute from District 12. His character is more difficult to play, because Peeta is in the same time more limited but also more complicated than Katniss. Josh Hutcherson could have very easily fall in one of the many traps which are build in Peeta's character. By overacting or underacting he could have make him a wimp or a passive follower or an immature kid, but he avoided those snares with grace and his Peeta comes out of this film as a surprisingly complexe and also a very likeable character. He is certainly not a hero and a fighter like Katniss - but until the very end he preserves his honor, in a deadly place where he shouldn't ever be send...

A special mention goes to little Amandla Stenberg, who plays 12-years old Rue, the youngest of all the tributes. Her character is both secondary and in the same time incredibly important - and this little cute pixie played it perfectly!

Other, more known actors contribute to the success of this film. Woody Harrelson is excellent as Haymitch, the only person from District 12 who ever won in the Hunger Games and is now an advisor to Katniss and Peeta. Lenny Kravitz portrayed a perfect Cinna, the man in charge of image of tributes from District 12 in public appearances before the games begin. And finally there is the giant figure of Donald Sutherland, who plays the supreme ruler of Panem, President Coriolanus Snow. He is purely incredible. There is a moment in this film when he says to somebody "I like you" - and I believe that I have never heard such a terrible and deadly threat in one short sentence since the archifamous Schwarzenegger's "I will be back"...

I also absolutely adored the using of the cameras. In some moments of this film we have the impression of going after the characters with a camera, like a war correspondent following the fighters (this style was also very skillfully used in "The Shield" series). Of course not all the film is turned in this way, but mixing this kind of scenes with more conventional ones gives here an excellent effect.

The games themselves are very skillfully described and are a very dramatic tale, full of surprises and twists. I found them much much better than "Battle Royale", to which this book and film are often compared. The games are deadly and brutal, but there is only limited gore - I think this film is suitable for young teenagers, although not for children younger than 12. There is also absolutely no nudity, sex or strong language and I for one found it a most excellent thing.

There are still many more good things to say about this film, but I believe you should discover them by yourself. One more thing however about the book - it is of course possible to see and greatly enjoy this film without reading the book, but I believe that reading the novel first is a good idea. If reading the whole book is out of question, I would advise to read at least the first hundred pages. It will not reveal much about the games themselves, but it will allow for a better understanding of some of the key elements: the strength of the bond between Katniss and her younger sister, the history that Katniss shares with her hunting partner Gale, the complicated relation between Katniss and her mother and last but not least, the mysterious bond existing between Katniss and Peeta Mellark.

About this last point: if you did not yet read the book I do not want to spoil the pleasure of discovery so I will say just this - Katniss and Peeta lived for 16 years in the same village, but they never spoke one to another (except for an occasional "Hello") and they never touched one another in any way. And still, they share a secret as big as life and death, a secret which both bonded them together and in the same time separated them deeply... If you want to know the solution of this riddle you have either to watch very very carefully every scene of the film or simply read the book...

Conclusion: this film is a masterpiece! I loved it and I am going to buy the DVD as soon as it is available. And I am SOOO going to see the the second part, as soon as it opens!
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175 of 247 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyed this book to flick. April 24, 2012
Format:Blu-ray
I enjoyed this movie. Yes, I've read the books. People will always be upset because things are always missing from the story when you take a book and transfer it to film. I thought it was done well. Other people didn't understand the concept. This is a trilogy, you're not supposed to learn everything in the first book. Everything will come together, and there will be more understanding. Overall, it was a great representation of the book, in my opinion.
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21 of 29 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars A feeble attempt April 3, 2013
Format:Amazon Instant Video
There are some good parts to The Hunger Games movie, for instance, the casting is superb, and the acting is quite good. Ross manages to tell the story more or less, packing quite a bit in the film's 144 minutes. Unfortunately, that's where the good stuff ends.

If you've read the book, you know that The Hunger Games includes a huge amount of detail, and trying to scale that level of story down into a single movie is a daunting task. If I were directing, I would have likely lobbied heavily for two movies: one that gave you the backstory on Panem and Katniss and took you into the capitol as it prepared for the Games, and a second movie beginning in the arena so that there's ample time to give you a sense of closure once the Games come to an end (in addition to showing how the Games develop the characters' relationships). (The story, after all, is more about the before and after of the characters.)

The plot moves much too quickly, leaving the viewer with a sense of incompleteness and a feeling that they're probably missing some things (they are). That's not the biggest flaw in this movie, though I think it's probably one of the main contributing factors. This feeling may also be exacerbated if you just finished reading the books, which I did about 3 weeks ago. Perhaps a second viewing after some time would be more enjoyable.

The biggest issue with The Hunger Games movie is the lack of emotional connection. You don't get to really know the characters. You aren't given much insight into what they feel. There's not enough dialog and human interaction throughout the screenplay to help you make such a connection to the them--especially concerning Katniss.

Part of what makes the books so enrapturing is that you get to experience everything that Katniss does. You know what she's feeling, even though sometimes you don't like it. That's a hard thing to do in a movie where everything switches from first person to third person, and you either have to "experience" a character's emotions by their expressions and actions, or they have to tell you (by telling another character) what they're feeling.

*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***

I think the prime example of this movie's flaws lies around the subplot of Rue. In the book, this is a believable interaction--Katniss teams up with the younger girl, helping her along, developing a connection with her, and finally making a plan to seriously cripple the Careers' ability to survive--a plan that goes smoothly until Rue hits a snare and is killed while Katniss watches. It's devastating.

Contrast that with the movie, which compresses this scene in such a way that Katniss meets Rue, teams up, makes a plan, and Rue dies all within about 5 minutes. Yet, in the aftermath, Katniss is devastated. It's a bit hard to sympathize with her though, because we don't really understand how close the two had become.

Likewise, we know in the first book that Katniss has more or less fallen in love with Peeta by the end, even though she refuses to admit it to herself and spends the next two books in the trilogy trying to resolve the internal conflict. But again--the movie utterly fails to clearly demonstrate this critical plot line, and the ending is just a total wreck.

Character development around Cinna, Haymitch, and Effie is also quite weak, yet Cinna and Haymitch play critical roles throughout the final two books. There's a lot of catching up to do in this area if the rest of the movie franchise is going to work.

In conclusion, The Hunger Games movie was a promising idea, that with a different director, might have succeeded. (I still don't understand how Suzanne Collins found all of this acceptable--though, after reading Mockingjay, maybe I should.) I'm encouraged to know that Catching Fire has a different director, and I can only hope that he is able to course correct where Ross and company failed.

My final thought after seeing this movie was only that I hope the series gets a reboot and a remake in my lifetime. A book as good as The Hunger Games deserves an equally good film, and 2012's attempt simply does not do the story justice.

Here's hoping for next time...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars exceeded my low expectations
It was much better than I expected it to be after all the hype and the young people seeing it over and over.
Published 10 hours ago by Nancy Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars Unique
It showed a young women step up to save her sister and not change who she was while trying to do what was right,.
Published 11 hours ago by babawawa
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
This is a movie I could watch more than once. I didn't think it would be that good. I would tell everyone to watch
Published 11 hours ago by Love 2 Read
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting flim, but a little long.
It seems to me that the flim had a lot of unnecessary footage to make it longer. The dialogue seem a little choppy at times. Read more
Published 13 hours ago by sarah reese
3.0 out of 5 stars Lacks a real plot
Let's see ---- where should I begin? First, there's a "rub your nose in it" not at all subliminal "haves vs. Read more
Published 13 hours ago by teacherjoe
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting
This movie does a good job of transferring the book to the screen. Wonderful acting. This is definitely a "rewatch" movie.
Published 13 hours ago by Linda A Wagner
4.0 out of 5 stars Followed the book well
They did a good job of not ruining the story. Some little changes to make it work but nothing that changed the story line. very on target
Published 14 hours ago by HML
4.0 out of 5 stars Read the books first
Very engaging movie, but unless you have read the books, there are many scenes that seem disconnected. Read more
Published 14 hours ago by Diane Schnellhammer
5.0 out of 5 stars Still great the 3rd time around
Found this on the Amazon movies in my Prime Membership... Watched it again - a still great ride... Can't wait for the next one.
Published 17 hours ago by Harold P. Gray Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Product!
I'd been excited to buy The Hunger Games, and I'm so glad I chose this product! The shipping was so fast! It reached me within days of placing the order. Read more
Published 22 hours ago by gurlubtripn
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Hunger Games Digital Copy??
The following was in response to the first one-star review concerning UltraViolet:
Don't worry the movie includes iTunes digital copy and Ultra-violet copy in the 2 special editions Blu-Ray and DVD

Based on this, it seems that the code is iTunes Digital Copy & UltraViolet. Not just UltraViolet... Read more
Jul 19, 2012 by R-D |  See all 15 posts
Amazon Instant Video??? Be the first to reply
The Hunger Games ultraviolet download Be the first to reply
Late Delivery of Hunger Games
My daughter was disappointed that she didn't get the pre-ordered DVD until Tuesday which was three days after it came out. In previous times, I've always received pre-order DVDs via mail on the day that they were released. Unfortunately, she is going to have to return this DVD copy since it has... Read more
Aug 25, 2012 by kresin |  See all 4 posts
is there a way to download a ultra violet digital movie into my kindle fire
Download on your desktop to Ultra Violet/VuDu to Go (open accounts in both). Open a Flixster account on your desktop (doesn't work as well on kindle fire for some reason). Log into Ultra Violet through Flixster account. Download Flixster app onto kindle fire and go to My Content tab at the top... Read more
Aug 26, 2012 by Christine O'zee |  See all 2 posts
Ah, Amazon. The place where you can review products that don't even...
Sadly, not very many people care about transfer, inserts, and extras. They want to know if the movie is worth buying on this website focused on buying goods online. For an old movie being converted to Blu-Ray or a re-release I can see about caring about what was done with the transfer or what new... Read more
May 28, 2012 by Evan W. Jenkins |  See all 2 posts
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