The hype of The Hunger Games reaches South African shores, fighting its way to the top of the chart while the Titanic begins it’s downward decent into the cold void.

1. The Hunger Games

There was no doubt that Gary Ross’ Hunger Games would be successful locally – after listening to the advertising on the radio constantly, everyone knew about it (and the entire premise). Admittedly it wasn’t a bad film and it has dethroned the latest iteration in the American Pie franchise after a single week. The Pirates also released this past weekend and the 3D helped it to reach the higher ranks but it isn’t surprising that it got this far  - the press screening was too late for most critics to have reviews out and the marketing campaign was virtually absent, otherwise it might have made it to second. The Titanic also hit an iceberg and never made it higher than four, this of course can probably be attributed to the fact that everyone on the planet has watched this film AT LEAST once. An interesting development though is how The Hunger Games got its rating lowered from a 16 to a 13 – to honest I was surprised that it hadn’t started out on the latter as there wasn’t enough evidence to make it 16 (heck Zombieland was 16 and it actually deserved it).

Does a funny caption constitute blasphemy?

This week sees the departure of the two local titans Material and Semi-soet who after an outstanding run have finally run their course, it’s always pleasant to see local films succeed (even if they are mainstream). Angus Buchan’s Ordinary People seems ready for a swift exit and soon enough, televangelism is force fed on Sundays on public TV and it’s enough that it just remains there, not on our big screens.

This week sees releases for One Life – a nature documentary, Mirror Mirror – the latest retelling of the Snow White fable, The Grey – a survival thriller set in Alaska, and The Cup – an Australian flick about a jockey who wants to win the Melbourne Cup. Not a particularly exciting line-up but it only makes way for next weeks Avengers release.

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