Took my kids to see it this afternoon. They're on 2 week break.

I hated it and spent a lot of time in the lobby.

A nightmare world where they force children to kill each other ... but nice special effects. Everybody crying, everybody scared shitless, lots of gore, lots of horror, a look into the depths of evil of which the human soul is capable. Another thread torn loose in the unraveling of the fabric of a civilized society.

Hollywood is evil.

Kids liked it, though. I just hope they don't grow up in a world of evil.

Haven't seen it, and don't intend to, but everything I've heard validates all that you said, Foggy. I can't find any "socially redeeming value" in what sounds to me the worst kind of obscenity.

It is dystopian science fiction.

As I said before I saw it: "I liked it the first time, when it was called The Running Man."

I'm a huge fan of dystopian science fiction, enjoyed the book fine (with multiple quibbles), and will watch the movie when it is out on DVD. I get nauseated with funky camera work, which I've heard this has.

Offspring and siblings have seen it and loved it.

Mebbe I'll watch it with you sometime, Fogs. It will be fun, I swear! (As long as I don't get puky.)

Twitter has made itself a bastion of racism, the fans of the book are utterly destroying the cast over their skin colors.

One can hope Hollywood will some day make a version of The Running Man that stays true to what Stephen actually wrote.

The thing about that "story" is that I can see the pieces falling into place where it won't be fiction any more.

My oldest has. He said it was very different from the movie. Of course.



I trust my kids. I went to see scary movies when I was their age. Fall of the House of Usher comes to mind.

They're good kids. And it gave me a chance to give them "The Lecture" about how when we run out of oil or the price becomes unaffordable to the middle class or due to any other possible cause, the chance always exists that society may come fully unglued in the course of their lifetimes, which I hope will last at least until the 2080s at the earliest. And I won't be around to help them through the changes that are coming. I told them that the world I grew up in when I was 10 or 12 is unrecognizable from the world today. I told them they'll see more and bigger changes than I have, and there's always a chance that we'll be a nightmare world, in reality.

I told them I don't see any of our nation's leaders really planning and working toward the future. Obama said he would, but he had too big a mess to clean up, and we've seen, I think, somewhat of a failure of leadership during his first term. He's got a lot of work to do. On the other hand, he's the only one who even thinks about the future, so I'll settle.


I tell my kids, things could get ugly, and that's why they have to be best friends for life and help each other survive, because they'll have a hell of a lot better chance of surviving if they stick together.

That's why the rule is still and always, "If you rat on your brother, YOU'RE the one in trouble. Work it out between the two of you, 'cause you're stuck with each other."


So, umm ... yeah. Good movie. Teachable moment.

I think they are remaking that since they already are remaking Total Recall

<shudder>

Egads

Collin Farrel is Quaid, Bryan Cranston is Cohaagen and it takes place on Earth. Its more true to the book. the trailer is out this sunday and the teaser is already up.

Wait Until Dark. Scariest movie in the world. Terrorizing a blind lady for hours. My Dad jumped when the guy who was supposed to be dead jumped out from the dark kitchen with a God Damned Knife In His Hand. Scared the crap out of me.

That was 1967. I was 14. I loved that movie. So I understand my kids ...

This was more like emotionally wrenching, with a beautiful girl dying in the heroine's lap and the heroine becoming hysterical in her grief. Lots of scenes of people being hysterical in grief. And fear. And evil.

Just good ol' clean fun like Tee Vee in the 1950s.

Wait till you see their faces when they're old enough to watch From Dusk Till Dawn.

reddit headline that points out the obvious:

I don't understand why kids pointlessly killing each other in The Hunger Games is so controversial. No one seemed to mind during the war in Afghanistan.

Oh gosh, Foggy, Wait Until Dark is one of my all-time favorite movies! And that moment was a heart-stopper. I remember screaming in the theater along with almost everyone else there, including the guys. I absolutely loved that movie...until my DH was in Hong Kong and I decided to rent the video...and I watched it late at night, alone except for my little kid asleep in her room...didn't sleep for the rest of the night...it was like I had toothpicks between my eyelids. And I already knew how it ended. indeed.

"Don't Look Now" which I saw on TV some time back in the 70s absolutely terrified me. I slept with the light on for MONTHS. I cannot tell you how much that movie absolutely terrified me.

Second "The Haunting" the moment where the woman was holding out her hand while she was sleeping and thought she was holding her friends hand and it turned out she could not made me keep my hands tucked inside my bed for the rest of my life, even now.

I read all three of the books in the Hunger Games trilogy. Very disturbing, but I quite liked it. The Damage to the soul from being forced to choose between dying and killing someone else has stuck with me for a couple of weeks. No one escaped the damage. The last book, though, was a video game.

The soundtrack from the movie is awesome. Very alt-retro-country.

Haven't seen the actual movie, though.

For me it was Trilogy of Terror. Parts 1 &2 were scary enough, but that last scene when Karen Black went tiki-doll-monster scared the crap out of me.

Yeah. I got the last good one.

In River City and hereabouts, the NJ's are just waking up to the fact that the middle schoolers have been reading this book in class for several years and their heads are sploding.

I read the Hunger Games series on Kindle, cost me all of 99 cents for all 3 books. The first one was quite good, the second ok and the last one was pretty bad. All I kept saying to myself was this is supposed to be fiction for pre-teens and young teenagers??

Our society's values are totally messed up when kids can't read about normal sex or have a sex ed class but society is fine with them reading tales that include so much violence.
To me it read like the tv show Survivor if they hid weapons on the island instead of immunity idols.

I too remember Trilogy of Terror as one of my scariest movies, especially the Karen Black part.

^^^ This.

I read the first two on my Kindle, although I gotta admit that I paid a bit more than $.99. In my case, they served well as entertainment during transcontinental flights -- 5 hour reads with plenty to keep me engaged. I agree that the first one was powerful, but the sequel (#2) didn't have enough new to convince me I should throw down another fin for #3.

I don't think I'll go out of my way to see the movie. When it pops up on cable, well sure.

I'm in the middle of The Hunger Games. I see a lot of depth in the story line and plan to see the movie soon.

I don't think that we are all that far from the kill or die reality of The Hunger Games. We are experiencing social darwinism on a scale that I never expected to see in America. We see people tolerate extreme risk in competition for fame, money and ego.

I think there is value to the book and the story itself. I would much prefer that teens read and think through The Hunger Games then Twilight.

Ah. An optimist. This is my therapist speakin', kids.

Yeah, it did hit me, while I was pondering the possibility that my kids might grow up to a world gone haywire, that the birthers live in a world today where the government is hunger-games-evil already.

The Prison Planet.

Where everyone in power is corrupt to their cores, and rebellion is a fond dream.

I think the thin veneer of civilization, while it drops too easily to let our worser natures escape, is here to stay. I'm thinking a few more tens of thousands years of evolution, we might become peaceful creatures after all.

You probably shouldn't see or read The Road. I'm a fan of apocalypse fiction and that is the most soul-annihilating awfulness I've ever seen in an end of the world scenario.

Agreed. The Road is bleak.

I have always been a big fan of "the end of the world" novel.

Earth Abides is a classic and one of my favorites as well as A Canticle for Leibowitz.

So many great books, so little time....