Skip to main content

The Hunger Games



Like the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games has reached beyond it's genre - young adult fiction. And the movie seems to have especially gone beyond.

I went to see it on Friday night. I don't usually like movies that have been made from books that I've read and loved. Exceptions are the Harry Potter series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and now Hunger Games. The common thread seems to be the action that is alive on the page is so much better on the screen where you can see it played out. I truly cannot wait to see the next two movies.

What is missing in a movie is the thoughts - it's hard to portray what someone is thinking unless you have a narrator. I felt it missing in the Hunger Games - Katniss' thoughts are a large portion of the book and while they did an admirable job with some of the relationships the movie could not really convey all that the heroine was thinking.

I still prefer a good book - but the popcorn at movie is better!! If you haven't read the books, you should - they are easy and quick reads.




Comments

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Blubbering Idiot

While doing crunches this morning, I turned on the TV to keep my mind off the exercise I was about to do and the movie "Gran Torino" was playing. It was nearly 3/4 of the way done. Perfect, I thought, I can watch the end of one of my newest favorite movies. Fifteen minutes later, I'm a puddle of tears on the floor. The end of that movie dissolves me to tears every time - and I think I've seen it now about six or seven times. When Clint Eastwood's character goes about his last day - including a lame confession with the priest - locking 'Toad' in the basement, I begin to get weepy. SCENE SPOILER ALERT ! But when he is shot down and is splayed as though crucified on the cross, I become a blubbering idiot. So much softness and sacrifice in one so tough and gruff - it highlights the intensity of his sacrifice for his new family next door. I only need watch the last few minutes of "Gran Torino" to get the full emotional effect. The same can be said...

Hair today gone tomorrow

Before you all begin to think I’m breezing completely through chemo, let me remind you of this:   For the most part I am bald. Or if not completely bald, fuzzy headed, and not in the way I think or am thinking, but in the appearance. A little like a hedgehog or a porcupine with bald patches. On Super Bowl Sunday while most of you were overeating or filling out those little squares to wager on the upcoming game, John and I were having a unique pre-game party. In front of our bathroom mirror with clippers and scissors. Preparing for the certainty of hair loss from my chemo, I decided to buzz my locks to lessen the shock and mess of of losing large chunks of my silver, shoulder-length hair. It was in all honesty one of the most poignant moments in our 30+  year marriage. I had originally asked my friend and former stylist if she could do it . But when I shared my plan with John, he said that he wanted to do it. Certainly that was not expected. So instead of watching th...

Laying Down on the Job

I was once accused of laying down on the job. The accusation should have cut me to the quick instead I snickered. I was once accused (this time erroneously) of having had more than my fair share of Shiraz. Instead of laughing, I argued vehemently that it was not alcohol that felled me. I was once accused of being a healthy young woman. That accusation brought silent tears of rage at the inaccuracy. I have Multiple Sclerosis until about six years ago, it was a disease that most people could not even tell I had. Now, as I walk with a shuffle and spend far more time resting, the secret is out. MS is a disease that affects nearly 500,000 people in the United States. More women than men get the disease and it is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40. MS is a disease of the nervous system and affects each person differently. While researchers contend there is no genetic component (many assert there may be a genetic predisposition), my two sisters have the disease ...