I haven’t seen a lot of them but the parody movies I have seen I have enjoyed. When my brother and I were walking through time, space, and Walmart yesterday for what seemed like years, going through the $5 movie bin and every shelf in the store, we found The Starving Games. Finding it along with a thumbs-up recommendation from one of his friends at school was enough reason to buy it and give it a shot.
The Starving Games is a Hunger Games parody if you haven’t figured that out yet starring Maiara Walsh as Kantmiss Evershot, our front and center heroine. This isn’t a movie looking for character development or any semblance of a normal movie. It’s just looking to make us laugh and have fun at how stupid what we’re watching really is. Case and point: This movie is pretty stupid. Some jokes are used far too much but I will admit I still was chuckling over some of them, not necessarily because of how funny it is, but because it’s just so dumb. There’s plenty of references to the top movies and music from the year that you can get a little bit of a grin at, including a short Avengers skit that was one of my favorites of the film.
The thing that slows this movie down and restrains the reigns of progress is that the film is progressing along with The Hunger Games plot. I know it’s a parody film so that is to be expected, but I don’t think making up a few more scenes that didn’t happen in the original would have hurt the final product. There’s plenty of room for improvement here, including a lack of potent one-liners that actually make the audience respond with some type of emotion rather than drool and the scratching of the scalp.
Once again, if you’re new to my blog, I’ve always ranked movies on a scale of 0-100 (I don’t know why, I just always have). Here’s the grading scale.
90-100 It’s a great movie and definitely one worth buying. (Mission Impossible, Mission Impossible II, Mission Impossible III, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2)
80-89 It was a pretty good movie and definitely one worth seeing, but it doesn’t quite scratch my top ten percentile. (Non-Stop, Divergent, Spider-Man 3, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Young Guns)
70-79 It’s okay but I’ve seen better. It has its moments, but it has its flaws, too. (Captain America: The First Avenger, Dawn of the Dead, Flyboys, 300, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)
60-69 It’s got plenty wrong with it but I still got enjoyment out of this one. (Pacific Rim, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Disaster Movie)
50-59 This movie isn’t intolerable but it’s not blowing my mind either. I’m trying really hard to get some sort of enjoyment out of this. (Aliens, Alien Resurrection, Full Metal Jacket, Thor, You’re Next)
40-49 This movie is just mediocre. It’s not doing anything other than the bare minimal, so morbidly boring that sometimes I’m actually angry I watched this. (Pitch Black, Alien, Serendipity, Cowboys and Aliens, 300: Rise of an Empire)
30-39 Definitely worse than mediocre, the 30’s ironically define the 1930’s, full of depression, lack of accomplishments, poverty and just so dumb. (The Contract, Pride and Prejudice, Redemption)
20-29 What did I just watch? Cliches, stupidity, nothingness, did I mention stupidity? Just…wow. (The Sum of All Fears, Thor: The Dark World)
0-19 Watching this movie resulted in one or more of the following: seizure, loss of brain cells, falling asleep/unconsciousness, feel you wasted your time/day, accomplished nothing for you, left the movie knowing less about it then you did going into it, constantly asking yourself why you came to see this movie, or near-death experience. In short, staring at a wall was just as entertaining as watching this movie. This movie deserved a sticker or a label that said, “WARNING: EXTREME AMOUNT OF SUCKAGE.” (Midnight Cowboy, Dark Fury, Alien 3, Open Grave)
My score for The Starving Games: 50.
All in all, The Starving Games fails to be all that memorable for those parody film fanatics out there and is one that will most likely be forgotten in a few years, but does contain enough material that provides smirks and grimaces that it is at least decent although barely so. I would suggest you wait for the price to drop from $13 though because it’s not worth it.
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