#25
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Dir. Francis Lawrence
Let's get the top 25 rolling with a bit of a surprise. When The Hunger Games came out last year, it was the cultural phenomenon everyone expected it to be. I saw it and I thought it was just okay. It didn't even crack my top 50 from last year. I've watched it a few more times on cable and I have to say I've grown to appreciate it a bit more. Flash forward a year and we have the second film in the series, Catching Fire. The always great Jennifer Lawrence is back as Katniss Everdeen and, this time, Francis Lawrence (no relation) takes over the directing chair left vacant by Gary Ross. Throw in some solid performances from Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, and franchise-newcomer Philip Seymour Hoffman (one of our greatest actors who will be sorely missed) and what you have is a film that's head-and-shoulders above it's predecessor. I've never read the books, so I'm not sure how the books shape up in terms of quality, but overall I just found Catching Fire to be much smarter than the first. It's themes of revolution and political unrest made for a lot more interesting and enticing film compared to kids killing themselves in a jungle. In a way, this film sort of saved the franchise in my own eyes. Something I used to have almost no interest in, suddenly I'm excited to see where it goes next. The cliffhanger at the end helps too.
