Giant Freakin Robot

When a franchise reaches a certain level of popularity, the satire inevitably starts pouring in. How many Harry Potter and Star Wars skits have you seen? Likely you’ve lost count at this point, and with the Hunger Games adaptation hitting theaters tonight at midnight, the Suzanne Collins story is the primary target for the next round of kind-hearted internet ridicule.

Not surprisingly, College Humor has stepped up to the plate this time around delivering The Hunger Games Game, putting slumber partiers into the arena. The skit will remind you a lot of those 90s games that dumb 10-year-old girls played like Dream Phone, and is all the funnier because of it. Check it out below.

File this one under the category of “Nice Problems To Have.” Actress Jennifer Lawrence, who you might have seen playing young Mystique in last summer’s rather awesome X-Men: First Class, is about to become a huge star courtesy of this weekend’s The Hunger Games release. That film, as you may have heard, is poised to be a gigantic hit, which means Ms. Lawrence will become a bona fide hot commodity. The battle to lay claim to her schedule is already shaping up, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Apparently studio insiders are whispering about a potential scheduling kerfuffle between the next Hunger Games installment and the new X-Men sequel, with Lawrence caught right in the middle.

As I said, as far as problems go, “Which multi-million-dollar franchise do I commit to first?” can’t quite compete with “Where am I getting the next meal for my children?” but such is the surreal landscape of Tinseltown. Lionsgate wants to shoot the HG follow-up Catching Fire this summer, which could cause it to butt up against Fox’s planned fall shoot for the untitled X-Men: First Class sequel. Supposedly nobody’s breaking out the torches and pitchforks just yet, and one of Lawrence’s reps says that both studios are “making accommodations for her.” If it did come down to a stand-off, however, THR’s insiders suggest that Fox’s option on Lawrence would trump Lionsgate’s, since Lawrence wasn’t cast in The Hunger Games until well after she signed on the line which is dotted with Fox.

You can see Lawrence as heroine Katniss Evergreen in The Hunger Games, opening in theaters this Friday, March 23rd.

Going into it, I think most assumed that the upcoming Gary Ross directed adaptation of The Hunger Games would be good, I just don’t think most thought it would be this good. Early reviews are hitting the internet for the film and, so far, there hasn’t been a single negative notice. With dozens of reviews available critics seem to be falling hard for Hunger Games.

On Rotten Tomatoes the movie currently has a stunning 100% fresh rating. While that’s sure to dip over the course of this week as a few predictably cranky naysayers chime in, don’t expect it to fall a lot. The Hunger Games is apparently more than just a good adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ dystopian future battle to the death, it’s a legitimately great feature film.

See for yourself. We’ve put together a breakdown of some of the most worthwhile Hunger Games reviews. Read these and check back for GFR’s take on the film later this week.

To promote their theatrical release last year The Muppets released a series of hilarious parody trailers in which footage from their movie was recut to resemble some other film. Now The Muppets is coming to DVD, and they’re at it again.

This time they’re targeting The Hunger Games with a trailer in which, well, the Muppets fight each other a lot. Some of this should be familiar to those of you who’ve read the books, but even if it’s not it’s worth watching simply because the Muppets are genius and, no kidding The Muppets was one of the best movies of last year.