Loved it. As others already said, superior in every way to the first film. Actually felt like the epic movie it needed to be.

The uncut rotating shot of Katniss going up the tube before the games start is amazing.

A- / A

As others already said, superior in every way to the first film.

If I see this film, it will solely be because of Stanely Tucci. He was fantastic in the first.

A+

Lol.

That grade is for the absolute pinnacle in film-making. Even if you enjoyed it a lot, I don't believe you are brainwashed that much to the degree that you act like a little girl grading Twilight. Do you honestly believe that everything in the movie is perfect?

Go suck David's dick.

Jennifer Lawrence is flat out incredible. The adorable Josh Hutcherson is solid once again

Why should “The Hunger Games” films be so mediocre? In “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” faces the size of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade balloons bob on screen, intoning pathetic dialogue to an earsplitting score.

It’s more like “Eyelash Games,” with Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks, in Alexander McQueenesque clown suits) batting two sets of black caterpillars. It’s distracting, but it keeps us from listening to her witless banter. Future gladiatrix Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is back, and evil President Snow (a devilish Donald Sutherland) remains eager to quell any rebellious stirrings.

The trouble is “defiant” Katniss has become a populist heroine and her success has given the downtrodden people of the districts “hope.” Snow sends Katniss and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) on a reunion tour to distract the starving wretches and keep them from rebelling. It doesn’t work. Snow invokes a 25-year rule, making the past winners of the Hunger Games play all over again. This is called re­making the first movie.

Unleash the PG-13 slaughter! In addition to Katniss and Peeta, this game’s players feature tech whiz Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) and Wiress (Amanda Plummer), who repeats the words “tick-tock” so many times I wanted to clock her. Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hems­worth) pops up a few times with little to do, except play kissy-face with Katniss and get flogged. Among the film’s few pleasures are Jena Ma­lone as sassy, ax-wielding Johanna Mason, and the charismatic Sam Clafin as warrior Finnick Odair.

New to this sequel are director Francis Lawrence (“Constantine”) and game-maker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman, slumming). The game this time involves a spinning island, lightning strikes, blood rain, poison fog and baboons.

The filmmakers have leading lady Lawrence to thank for any credibility these films have

http://bostonherald.com/entertainment/m ... mes_sequel

Excessive, over-produced, obscenely over-budgeted and utterly pointless, this second installment in the overrated trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins is nothing more than recycled ideas and stale CGI effects that seemed fresh and exciting the first time around the track but now hobble through the paces with the energy of a plow horse. I was glad to watch the first Hunger Games without the discomfort of one pair of glasses worn over a second, and I didn’t miss a thing. I can live without another flying spear. This time, I saw part two in IMAX, a format that is a great advancement over 3-D but did nothing to improve this movie.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed the original idea—a lethal combat in some distant world called Panem that was once America before the capitol was defeated in some unexplained, apocalyptic war. The wreckage was divided into 12 districts. Every year, each district sent one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, chosen by lottery, to compete in a nationally televised event called The Hunger Games. The purpose: a mass killing spree with only one survivor. The survivor was Jennifer Lawrence, who became a star. O.K., we got the message. Now we get the sequel, in which everything happens all over again. The 74th games are over, and the 16-year-old lovers from District 12—a pretty girl named Katniss (Ms. Lawrence) and an even prettier boy named Peeta (Josh Hutcherson)—are home but not for long. Dispatched on a “victory tour” to launch the 75th Hunger Games, they have no idea they are marked for death by the evil President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and his bloodthirsty game planner Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman). For reasons that are never satisfactorily explained, it’s every man for himself, with no winners. The rest of this interminable yawn drags everyone marching through hell, most of all the audience.

Here come the special effects. It rains blood. A poisonous fog rolls in, eating the flesh of anyone it touches. Man-eating monkeys chase the gladiators through the jungles. There are holograms and people bursting into flames. Of course, the indestructible Katniss survives it all and is guaranteed the rest of her life in peace. But the rules are broken every 10 minutes, and nobody knows what will happen next. (There’s a third installment on the way.) If you didn’t see the first movie, you won’t understand anything that’s going on. I saw it, and I still didn’t understand it—except the violence and torture, which were better the first time. This movie is so boring even the villains are no fun. The actors are uniformly awful, but who can blame them with everyone saying lines like “What does it mean?” and “It’s not possible!” that inadvertently describe the film itself. Woody Harrelson is back in a long, blond hippie wig, and the TV master of ceremonies is once again Stanley Tucci in mascara and lipstick, a campy cross between Liberace and one of the trashy Kardashians.

Enough is enough. One good thing: The jungle scenes were shot in Hawaii, so at least they all got a paid vacation.

http://observer.com/2013/11/up-in-smoke ... ed-rehash/