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‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1’ and The Cost of Human Lives

This is Part 3 of a 4 part series leading up to the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, each looking at an individual film in the series and it’s legacy. Read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. The Hunger Games series is interested in human costs. This series is devoted to the …

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Ricky D’s 50 Favourite Films of 2012 (Part Two)

  25: The Dark Knight Rises Directed by Christopher Nolan Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan 2012, USA The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have …

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Ricky D’s 50 Favourite Films of 2012 (Part One)

2012 wasn’t a bad year for movies. It was actually a great year. The problem is, the movies we were most anticipating, specifically the Hollywood blockbusters like Prometheus and The Hobbit, didn’t live up to our expectations. With that said I still managed to make a list of 50 films I loved. Maybe I just …

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Best Soundtracks of 2012 (part one)

Django Unchained Traditionally, Quentin Tarantino’s films recycle older pop tunes and soundtrack snippets, helping to build up his image as a sort of “cultural DJ” as opposed to a traditonal filmmaker. Django Unchained might signal a change in approach  Favoring a style-hopping mixtape feel that careens from country to gangsta rap, the Django soundtrack also …

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In Defense of ‘Twilight’

Ever since it became a major pop culture phenomenon, Twilight has earned a heavy dose of criticism. Critic Mark Kermode has defended the series from the cheap dismissal of older, male reviewers too far removed from the series target (though not exclusive) audience but the criticism is perhaps nowhere greater than a feminist community aghast …

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‘The Hunger Games’ Original Motion Picture Score

Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the last several months, you are aware that the highly anticipated film The Hunger Games was recently released in theaters.  The film is based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins.  Ms. Collins probably didn’t realize that she was unleashing onto the world the …

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‘The Hunger Games’ is a fine, gripping dystopian effort that overcomes its influences

The Hunger Games Written for the screen by Suzanne Collins, Gary Ross and Billy Ray Directed by Gary Ross USA, 2012 In the dystopian, totalitarian nation of Panem, a wealthy capital city rules over an impoverished nation of districts. As penance for a previous rebellion, every year sees each district forced to enter two adolescents …

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Essential Viewing For Fans Of ‘The Hunger Games’ (Part 1)

Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series has often been compared with Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels primarily because both centre on a young female protagonist and somehow both became phenomenons for their shared young-adult demo. Personally, I think this is both an insult to the novel and the latest big screen adaptation, since The Hunger Games is …

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‘Battle Royale’ brutal, funny and totally deserving of its legendary status

Battle Royale Directed by Kinji Fukasaku Screenplay by Kinji Fukasaku 2000, Japan A pre-title scroll, set to a classical thundering score, quickly establishes what seems to be a dystopian alternate-universe-Japan. The nation collapsed leaving 15 percent unemployed and 800,000 students boycotting school. The government passed something called the Millennium Educational Reform Act, which apparently provides …

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‘The Hunger Games’ a highly ambitious, grounded, intelligent, emotionally gratifying blockbuster

The Hunger Games Directed by Gary Ross Screenplay by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray 2012, USA In a dystopian future, the Capitol of the nation of Panem randomly selects twenty-four of the country’s youngest inhabitants to fight to the death in a yearly event titled The Hunger Games. The film’s tagline – “The …

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