Jenko and Schmidt weren’t friends in high school, as we learn in the 2005-set prologue. Jenko was the jock triumphant and a lousy student, and Schmidt (sporting an impressive mouthful of braces) spent most of his waking hours being embarrassed by his parents.

In a future where the government keeps a tight rein on the populace, the annual reminder of an earlier failed uprising is The Hunger Games, a televised battle to the death of teens chosen from each of 12 districts. When her young sister Prim (Willow Shields) is selected as the female tribute from District 12, tough rebel Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers in her place, getting paired up with local baker’s son Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).

That’s really all that’s necessary — a girl, suddenly alone in a dark house in the middle of nowhere. Dad (Adam Trese) was there. But he went upstairs to check out a noise and disappeared. Uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) took off with the only car. There’s no power, no phone, no “Can you hear me now?” bars.

John Carter (a rugged Taylor Kitsch) is an American Civil War soldier who has deserted his regiment to quest for gold and treasure. He’s imprisoned for deserting, but is more interested in his quest than in the needs of his country, refusing to return to active duty.

Stan Brakhage may have died in 2003, but his legacy lives on in the town in which he made his home. To this day, the spirit of the experimental filmmaking legend lives on in many ways — and in Boulder, there is no shortage of places to go and see films and speakers whose work fits in the same vein as Brakhage’s experimental spirit.

Things only start to go wrong when they rip off Costa’s well-armed, disturbed drug dealer. Costa has blasted the invitations all over social media, so the socially anonymous Thomas will be hosting hordes of “randoms,” peers who don’t know he exists. Not to worry, though.

Most of the picture, as did the book, unfolds as a flashback to the Once-ler’s rabid capitalistic youth, when he harvested the precious Truffula tree for its velvety tufts and commercial prospects. Taking its cue from a single line in the original about the Once-ler’s family, The Lorax.

Its Navy Sea, Air and Land team warriors, better known as SEALs, collaborate without friction. They stick to the plan or adapt it when needed. Authority is not bucked. Voices are raised only under fire.

Only they’re not funny. The take of him doing this scene in the film isn’t amusing either. And Rudd is easily the most experienced member of the Apatow Frat Pack in this cast. If he can’t find the humor in this comedy about uptight New Yorkers who drop out on a Georgia commune, what chance do his castmates have?.

Coetzee was not a man easily dominated. After he led the first expedition from the source of the Nile in Uganda to the Mediterranean — a 4,100mile trip he undertook in 2004 to show the humanitarian situation in that part of the world — some people griped that he hadn’t started at the true source of the storied river.