Battle Royale

[tragichubris 0]

This movie isn't really horrible as much as it is really Japanese. By that, I mean it has all of the lovely over-acted scenes that they are famous for with tons of unrelenting violence. Basically, the premise of the movie is that a group of children are selected every year to fight to the death in a "battle royale." The OG Hunger Games, if you will. The reason for this is that the economy in Japan has tanked and groups of students are protesting and boycotting their classes. Because of this, the government enacts the Battle Royale Act. Every year 42 students from the freshman class are abducted and forced to fight to the death within the three day limit, or they all die. It is a fantastically violent movie with some very creative deaths throughout. Give it a watch if you think you can handle that sort of thing. I believe it is still up on Netflix, so check it out.

 

I personally liked this movie. I think this would fall under the "this movie is so insane that I don't know how it was made" category.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266308/

[RyanSz 3140]

I loved this movie, and to a much lesser extent its sequel. It was actually a pretty decent adaptation of the manga, albeit with less character background and no car chases. The violence was really something to behold as it isn't too over the top like in some Japanese movies.

[Johnny Unusual 525]

It was actually based on a novel, though the aforementioned manga adaptation was deservedly popular. As for this, I don't think it's right for the show.

[jarrycanada 2483]

I love this movie, this movie is great. some say it's what hunter games got stolen from. I would agree. as we watched it after the Hunger Games and it blow my mind out how much better it was. all of the things that are missing in the hunger games is here.

[RyanSz 3140]

To me the subject matter needed to be done in an R setting. The Hunger Games books were at least violent for being Young Adult books, but the movie really held back on the violence since it was PG-13, although Breaking Dawn part 2 was apparently super violent and the same rating.

[jarrycanada 2483]

I guess part of the reason I enjoyed this is because i am a aduit male so if I was young 12 and up I would of liked Hunger games, it's got a age requirement in order to enjoy this. like breaking down does..

 

I just watched Birdemic and was reminded why I listen to this show. the worse the movie the better the show is. plus great guests really do help. but I had water running out my nose during that show. so I am not so sure this would make a great show. it's a good movie but it's not crazy.

[GianniRed 24]

Man I'd love to hear hear Jason's take on this flick. "Next level bonkers" indeed.

[Lando 2019]

I'd actually argue that The Hunger Games rips off Deathrace 2000 more than Battle Royale.

 

I--as a grown ass man--read the Hunger Games trilogy (and enjoyed each one less than the one before it) before seeing the first movie and was pretty lukewarm on the film. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that in the book there is a LOT of internal dialog and they opted to not go that route. Plus there's this sense of how long the games last and how exhausting they are. In the movie the games go by quickly and it seems to take only a little bit of time.

[RyanSz 3140]

I can see it being more like Death Race in the later books as they became more about political uprising. The first book is most like Battle Royale as it goes over the idea of kids having to kill one another for the entertainment of others, a subject that is hard to pull off in a young adult novel.

[tragichubris 0]

I just want to hear them discuss this film. I think they would have some funny takes on it. That is all.

[Lando 2019]

Oh yeah, no doubt that when I first heard of The Hunger Games it immediately made me think of Battle Royale and it wasn't until I read the books that I realized the Deathrace 2000 connection (note, I specify "2000" because I haven't seen the Statham version, which I imagine is HDTGM fodder). Ultimately the books are a cross between Battle Royale and Deathrace 2000, I think that they're probably like 60% Deathrace 2000 and 40% Battle Royale.