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There are loads of good ideas out there, but the people who run the studios and have all the cash just refuse to take a chance on any of them. And because of that we get films like "Hunger". It's your standard dreary tale about a bunch of strangers locked in a room together trying to figure out why they are there and dealing with the oh so gory issue of cannibalism. Yes, this is well worn territory, but if it is done right it can be entertaining enough to make you forget that you have seen this kind of film before. Since they don't do anything interesting with the concept you sit there knowing that you have seen this film done before and the last time you saw it, it was done much better.
A bunch of pretty people wake up in some kind of skanky-ass dungeon and don't know where they are, who they are with or how they got there. All of the people in the dungeon fall into the stereotypes that you would generally expect; there are the two pretty white girls, one brunette, one blonde, one book smart, one a little bit dim. The strong silent type who doubles as the father figure of the group ( in this case played by a guy that I can only describe as a poor man's Treat Williams. And you know it's bad when you can't cast Treat Williams), the tough, douche-bag, gangsta kid ( played by a brunette Seth Green knock off a' la "Idle Hands") and an expandable brown person. Thus far the only original thing about "Hunger" is that the expendable brown person is played by a nondescript chubby guy who is either of Indian ( the kind from India ) or Middle Eastern decent. Part of me is happy that they haven't decided to cast another stereotypical hoodrat black person to be the expendable brown person, but at the same time I am a little bummed. This poor schlub barely has many lines, and is barely a beep on the character radar. At least when the expendable brown person is black, they at least get to talk shit and have a few witty one liners before meeting their inevitable doom. Ah, but I digress. So here we are, all of our sad, scary miserable little stereotypes all lined up and trying to figure out why they're there and how they are going to get out of this horrible situation. As the cast fumbles around in the dark and screams at each other, it goes without saying that they are being watched by the fuck-wad that has trapped then down there. As they run through the dreary tales of what could they all have in common to wind up in such a mess, it comes out that all of the participants in this wretched little comedy called "Hunger" have all committed an act of murder. At this point the only murder that I care about is the murder of the director.
The pretty people try to escape their dungeon but to no avail. They know that they've all killed someone, but neither the characters -or the writers of this farce- take the time to develop that there may be a connection to the individual murders. I assume that part of the story either slipped their mind or was too much like work, so they said fuck it. For the next hour we watch our pretty stereotypes yell at each other while some guy -who looks like the unfunny love child of Zack Galifianakis and Seth Rogan- watches their breakdowns. Throughout the film, Seth-Zack Galifi-Rogin watches our cast of characters scream and murder each other. All the while taking little notes on his computer screen. Notes about what, we never know. His interest is these people is as baffling as what their connection may be in the first place. But rest assured he is taking fucking notes! Through all of the yelling and note taking we are treated to some flashbacks as to what may have driven Seth-Zack Gandi-Rogen to want to kidnap these people. Apparently when he was a kid he was trapped busted car in with his dead mom and was forced to feed on her flesh to survive. I think we all can agree that being forced to eat your mom for survival is some pretty fucked up shit, the writers for "Hunger" never see fit to delve into anything else that would have made this particular character pick these particular people to kidnap. Apparently he did it for the notes. We go through all of this trouble to watch everyone get killed and get all cannibal with the shit. *yawn* that's right a big fat bloody fuckin yawn. I can live with a weak plot, gaping plot holes and shite character development as long as you can give me some interesting murders. Alll "Hunger" manages is a few slashed throats and a bludgeoning. Neither of which do anything to satisfy the blood lust that has built from watching an hour of crap on a cracker.
When all is said and done, the smart blond makes it out alive, everyone else is dead and we still don't know why Zack-Seth Gandi-Rogen wanted all of these people dead in the first place. Watching "Hunger" is nothing short of frustrating and void of the concept of plots. "Hunger" is frustrating because it promises everything and gives you nothing. No interesting murders, no solid character development and no resolution in the end. Almost all of the other shit could be forgiven if they took the fucking time to tie some of this shit up in the end.
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