Here is the jaw-dropping, heart-stopping movie we’ve been waiting for all year. Francis Lawrence follows up last year’s “The Hunger Games” with a stupendously entertaining sequel. If you didn’t see the first chapter in this three part film version of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling trilogy, get the DVD. Lawrence leaps into Part II with no patience for slackers. Here’s the tease: Katniss (Oscar Winner Jennifer Lawrence) ended the first chapter of this trilogy as a victor in the 74th Hunger Games, a survival-of-the-fittest reality show that kills all but one contestant. By breaking the rules, she saved her friend Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and they both went home alive. In part II, Katniss and Peeta are getting ready for their victory tour, pretending to be a couple. But president Snow (the magnificent Donald Sutherland) has other plans: he invents a new set of games to be played only by…wait for it…former winners. Ouch. It wouldn’t be nice to spoil the fun, so I won’t reveal more. But you should know that all the actors excel at pulling us into the film’s mysteries. Lawrence’s growing maturity as Katniss gives the role a touching gravity. Her scenes with Woody Harrelson, her mentor are superb. Add to that Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee, the new gamesmaker, and you get  a first rate casting choice. The movie suffers a bit from being the middle chapter (no beginning, no end), but Francis Lawrence knows exactly how to keep the action going. And with the cast getting looser and the mind games kinkier, it’s hard to resist. “Catching Fire” is spectacular in every sense of the word. It’s also one of the best sequels I’ve seen in a very long time. “Mockingjay”, the first part of the final chapter, will be released a year from now. I already can’t wait.

Rating: 3.5/4