We will be watching The Hunger Games tonight in honor of .........

the 5 year anniversary of the original release.  Popcorn and candy:  Check, check!

Congrats to a few of our favs, MTV movie awards.

Breakthrough performance.

Best fight.

Best hero.

Best kiss.

Best female.

Movie of the year.

Best musical moment.

Best on screen transformation.

Find out more here.

~

Things to do in the ATL.

I just recently did a blog post about Terminus (Atlanta's former name and the Walking Dead location) and I came across an awesome company called Atlanta Movie Tours. 

Turns out you can take a three hour tour to more than  few of the most popular movie/television filming locations.  We found a few that we would love to go on.

Check them at at the links below.

Find out about the Big Zombie Tours.  Find out about the Girl on Fire Tour.  Read what others are saying here.   Have fun!

Image from
Atlanta Movie Tours

Image from
Atlanta Movie Tours

The Mockingjay part 1, better the second time around!

The Mockingjay-Part 1

WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! SPOILER ALERT!

The Mockingjay-Part 1.  Where to beginning?  It is no secret that we are a Hunger Games family.  We have seen The Hunger Games and Catching Fire no less than 100 times in the past few years.  So far, we have only seen The Mockingjay once but we are going back after lunch on Thanksgiving Day.

image from the web

I browsed a few of the critic's reviews just before we left, BIG MISTAKE, I am talking major big!   The critics really did not have to many positive words to say about The Mockingjay.  I left for the movie thinking how is that possible?

My summary:

It is obvious from the start of the movie that it was darker than the two previous films.  It is a more mature film (extra violence) and it is more thematic (as far as the visuals of the destruction).

The Mockingjay is also more political and emotional.  The movie does get off to a slow start, I agree with the critics on that but the ending was nonstop action and suspense.

image from the web Pres Coin

At the end of Catching Fire, District 12 was completely obliterated by The Capitol all thanks to Katniss and her Quarter Quell uprising.  Katniss' family and Gale were able to escape the destruction. District 12 was a cluttered mass of skeletal remains and rubble.  Gale and Katniss' mom and sister were now safe and sound in District 13 living underground, along with other survivors from other districts throughout Panem.

The people in District 13 built their own new society of sorts, and this society is highly organized and strong.  The people of District 13 want Katniss to be their symbol in the fight against The Capitol and President Snow.  Katniss is reluctant to do so as she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after what happened in the Quarter Quell but she finally relents.

image from the web

Katniss spends a lot of time crying, giving propaganda speeches, and singing in The Mockingjay.

image from the web

Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) is their barbarous president.  She is precise, and she is not playing around.  Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffmann) and Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) are there to encourage and support Katniss.  Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) and Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) are also there for Katniss but in a little different capacity.


Poor Effie Trinket, she is a political refugee and has lost all of her glam, sigh.

image from the web

This is a"new world order" led by Katniss.  She is the face of the revolution.  She is the Mockingjay.

There is, however, one big problem.  The ever so ruthless President Snow had Peeta kidnapped to be manipulated and used as a weapon against Katniss.

This is pretty much the time that Katniss realizes how she really feels about Peeta.  President Snow will stop at nothing.  He is such a menace.

image from the web

A rescue mission to get Peeta and a few other survivors of the Quarter Quell out of the Capitol was devised.  This happens during the last half of the movie.  It is very suspenseful at times.

image from the web

As part of The Capitol's manipulation of Peeta, the fabulous Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) completes several interviews (propaganda-style)  for all to see.  In these interviews, Peeta denounces Katniss.  He begs for a cease-fire.

Of course, there is a cliffhanger at the end of the movie.  The end of this movie was like the power going out, it was just over.  Cliffhanger may not be the right word for it and I know that everyone in the theater wished that part 2 would start immediately.  Too bad we have to wait another year. (Boo!)

I think this is a good place to stop the summary.  I really do not want to reveal too much even though you will find spoilers everywhere on the internet so beware!

image from the web
Boggs

Other stuff:

Along side of the veteran cast members of the Hunger Games Trilogy were new players including Julianne Moore, Mahershala Ali, and Natalie Dormer.  They get to have the spotlight in a few scenes.

They were all fantastic and added to the movie tremendously.

image from the web
Cressida

Julianne Moore (Alma Coin) is the leader/president in District 13, Mahershala Ali (Boggs) is a solider and President Coin's right-hand man, and Natalie Dormer (Cressida) is a rebel filmmaker.
One of my favorites Johanna Mason played by Jena Malone is
only at the end of the film but do not blink or you will miss her.  Bummer!  I really like her character.  We will see her again in part 2.

image from the web
Johanna Mason

Everyone we went to see this movie with loved it!  I know the critics have a job to do but I personally think they were not exactly on target with their critiques of The Mockingjay.  I know everyone has an opinion so I can disagree with the majority of what was said, and I am, I will. HA!
Tips:
*get to the theater early.
*do not drink a lot during the movie.
*if you are a peeaholic like me, do not leave the theater to pee in the last half an hour. Your best bet is the first hour.
*wait until the final credits and songs are finished before you leave.  They show the new Mockingjay symbol for part 2.
*go with friends.

Image from the web

You can find the full cast here.
Mockingjay on Pinterest
The last Mockingjay trailer before the movie.

abc news clip of a scene with Boggs.
Images from the movie set.
Final thoughts from Finnick, so true!

image from the web

And of course the film was dedicated to the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Image from the web

Woody Harrelson 1989 Monologue - Saturday Night Live-Hillarious!

Yes, the Mockingjay lives!

We just got back from seeing The Mockingjay with friends, and I just wanted to pass along quickly how good this movie is!  It was more fun going with friends and sitting beside really silly people.  Of course, a followup movie review will follow but for now, ignore any negative reviews if your read them.  See this movie!

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Our friends picked up our tickets, and we are ready to go to the early premiere on Thursday!

Catching Fire

Advanced tickets go on sale October 1st!

Watch the movie trailer at Fandango.

Movie night

Last night, my girls and I decided to have a "Movie night."  This basically means laying around the living room and watching a movie (quietly) while eating popcorn and candy and then heading upstairs to bed.  Well, things did not go that way at all last night.  We were all hunkered down with blankets, popcorn, and brownie bites ready to sit back and watch The Hunger Games for the 145th time when the wildness broke out.  C13 was blasting her ipod and laughing for no reason in particular, A11 started throwing popcorn all over the place and dancing around wildly, and I was just sitting there thinking, this is actually awesome and joined in with the popcorn battle waged by A11 and singing along loudly with the music that C13 was playing which neither of them appreciated because having your mom singing songs by Pitbull is apparently, "Not cool!" Finally, that wore them out a little so we proceeded with our movie and from that point on, we all said the movie lines as the movie was playing.  I think between the 3 of us, we know every line in The Hunger Games.  So much fun!

More Hunger Games

We are still surviving The Hunger Games.  There are so many lessons that I am having to eliminate some.  There is just not enough time left in the arena this school year. 

Here is a list of more topics we are covering and a few we are still working on.

~government (who can really understand this one?)
~social classes
~growing up in coal country
~name origins and meanings
~more plant studies
~world hunger
~wild dog packs (history of the canine species)

These topics should bring us to the end of our school year.  This has oddly been a fun unit to work on.  I was surprised how much we enjoyed this study.  I was very skeptical in the beginning due to the theme of the book but I found my way past it and decided to give it a try and I am glad I did.  There are a lot of lessons in this story that you can actually relate to except, of course, the killing.  The world can be cruel, and it is good to know how to deal with it and how different situations and environments can affect you and shape the person you are or will become.  Some make you weak and some make you strong but you have to stay true to yourself regardless of your circumstances and fight for what you believe in.  No matter what!

Happy Hunger Games

Hunger Games resources

clipart from the web

We are still making our way through our literary unit study on The Hunger Games.  We had to finish the reading ahead of time because we just could not put it down. 










Here are a few of the topics we have already studied or we will be working on shortly.

~world hunger
~poverty
~society and class
~Ancient Rome
~gladiators 
~a few Latin words
~Roman names
~anthems
~violence as a form of entertainment
~reality TV
~morality
~human rights
~government control
~uprisings
~alcoholism
~plants-edible versus nonedible
~plants for healing purposes
~mutations
~slavery (district 11)
~character studies
~heroines
~hallucinations
~war
~compare and contrast the book and the movie

I know I am leaving something out.  I will update later.

We also made up our own type of reaping game.  I wrote down a lot of discussion questions on different colored index cards.  They were placed in a big, clear bowl and drawn out one at a time to be answered.  This was a real hit!

Here are a few resource links.

We played this post-it on your forehead game using Hunger Games characters

online Panem name generator

Name, district, and fate in the arena

Scholastic

Games from Scholastic

Discussion guide from Scholastic

HAPPY HUNGER GAMES!

Dandelions for dinner

We are going full speed ahead with our literary unit of The Hunger Games.  I love this book!

There are many different types of plants throughout the book so I decided to make a lesson out of it.  We are learning how to identify edible and non-edible plants and what health benefits they have.

We started with dandelions (Taraxacum).

Did you know you can eat every part of this plant, right down to the roots.  You know we had to try this out so we went on a dandelion hunt but only found a few in bloom.  We unanimously agreed that the taste was not so great.  If you want to learn more, I included the Wiki link below.

picture from Wiki

Wiki page for dandelions.








Also on our list of plants are katniss, primrose, clove,  rue, and night lock but we discovered that was a made up plant. 

Happy Hunger Games!

The Hunger Games

My original plan for our final unit study for this academic school year was supposed to be Hitty, Her First Hundred Years but my kids are so distracted with all things hunger games, we decided to do a literary study on that book instead. 

We will cover topics like government, archery, poverty, wealth, hunger, survival skills, and many other things that I have not picked out yet.  There are hundreds of pre-made units available but I may just go on my own and make it up as we go.

Happy hunger games and may the odds be ever in your favor!

The Hunger Games movie

picture from public domain

After much anticipation, we saw The Hunger Games movie.  We had to wait until the noon showing on the first day because there was no way I was going to the midnight showing but it was just as good then (to me anyway).

I know the theme is very controversial and I know a lot of parent's have reservations about their children seeing this movie but I really liked it and my kids were fine with it.  There are a few emotional parts in this movie.  I myself teared up on 3 different occasions.  The movie did include some violence but the violent scenes were filmed in a way that you could understand what was happening in the scene but the picture was not clear.  I personally would not recommend anyone under 10 go to see this movie but I do recommend everyone else to go while it is still in the theater. 

HAPPY HUNGER GAMES AND MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR!

Hunger Games madness

Last night, 03/12/12, there was special livestream coverage of the stars of the Hunger Games walking the red carpet (which was actually black) and giving interviews before they viewed a special premiere screening of the movie.  And yes, we stayed up later than usual to watch.   My kids are still counting down the days.

Proof that C12 is obsessed with all things Hunger Games:  Yesterday while we were out, she saw a lady reading book 3, Mockingjay, and just by seeing where in the book the lady was reading, she knew exactly which part the lady was at and proceeded to fill A10 and I in on the details.

 Here is a link for all you die hard Hunger Games fans.

Hunger Games red carpet interviews.

The Hunger Games stop motion trailer

We stumbled across this hilarious stop motion trailer for The Hunger Games so I had to post it.  It is so funny!  Some people are so creative!

The Hunger Games

Capitol, mockingjay, district, tribute?  Peeta, Katniss, Effie, Haymitch? 

C12 has been obsessed with The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  She read all 3 of the books in less than 2 weeks.  I was a little hesitant at first due to the storyline but after talking with several people who had already read them, I decided to let her read them.  The recommendation on the books were 12 and up. 

There has been a lot of talk about The Hunger Games in this house lately and because of all of this talking, A10 and I are as excited as C12 to see the movie which comes out on March 23.  C12 was begging to go to the midnight showing but I explained very nicely that people my age just cannot be out that late.  The movie is also suppose to be 2 hours and 22 minutes long so if you do the math, that puts us driving home around 2:30 in the morning. 

Watch a trailer for the movie here.

Listen to a song from the soundtrack here.

Countdown the days with us with The Hunger Games movie countdown.

I really hope this movie is good and does not stray too much from the original storyline.  I guess we will find out on March 23!