"Battle Royale" review

Battle Royale (2000)
AKA Batoru rowaiaru

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Writing credits Kenta Fukasaku Koushun Takami

Tatsuya Fujiwara .... Shuya Nanahara - Boys #15
Aki Maeda .... Noriko Nakagawa - Girls #15
Taro Yamamoto .... Shougo Kawada - Boys #5
Chiaki Kuriyama .... Takako Chigusa - Girls #13
Takeshi Kitano.... Kitano (as Beat Takeshi)

A high school class gets sent to a deserted island for a Battle Royale. The government has decided that teens are too rowdy and it would be more fun watching them kill each other. Their mission, whether they like it or not, is to kill or be killed. The last person alive wins. Such is life.

"Life is a game. So survive." So begins the Battle Royale. Teens getting the chance to let all their anger and frustration out by wasting their peers. That's the flick. Any movie with girls in school uniforms attacking is cool in my book. I had a good time. It goes without saying that there is no way a movie like this would get made in Hollywood. I think I just read that some studio secured the remake rights. Even so, there's no way they could make it as intense as "Battle Royale".

You can't help but think of the possibilities though. Maybe the Olsen twins could star and there could be a dramatic scene where they're pointing guns at each other. Then Mandy Moore could throw a hand grenade at them while the kid from the "Sixth Sense" knocks her over the head with a frying pan...

Mmmmmm..Dreaming again. Hollywood Battle Royale ain't happening. See this one before the inevitably lame PG-13 version comes out.

SCORE: 3.5 out of 4 for high school Armageddon