Stylistically it's a beauty, with khaki-uniformed waifs fighting for their lives to a crashing classical score.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 25, 2012

Awful deaths (and hysterical reactions to them) punctuate declarations of love and friendship, revelations of treachery and heavily armed expressions of angst.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 24, 2012

Forgive the film its small flaws of histrionic performances and cheap execution for the giddy rush of its banal, Verhoevenesque atmosphere...

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 22, 2012

It may suit a certain worldview, but Battle Royale's cynicism is still a form fantasy-a balm as well as a bomb.

| May 22, 2012

3D conversion of a classic teen massacre thriller raises the gore level.

| May 22, 2012

Maybe Battle Royale's ultimate punchline is its inexplicable ability to fool some people into taking it seriously.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 20, 2012

Departing from two decades' worth of domestic and personal dramas and returning to his roots as Japan's maestro of mayhem, Kinji Fukasaku has delivered a brutal punch to the collective solar plexus with one of his most outrageous and timely films.

Full Review | May 20, 2008

Some will be uncomfortable or appalled, and the mix of humour and horror is uneasy, but this isn't a film you'll forget easily. And, seriously, what would you do?

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

A minor sensation in Japan where questions were asked in parliament, this noisy and bombastic adaptation of a recent pulp novel doesn't shape up as satire or death-sport fantasy.

| Jan 26, 2006

Races along with the swift, brutal precision of a samurai sword cutting through cotton.

| Original Score: B+ | May 3, 2005

Fukasaku, who is now 70, is the most durable master of all that's hard-boiled in Japanese filmmaking.

| May 9, 2003

Fukasaku's film maybe can't maintain the sheer exhilarating rush of its first thirty minutes, but it's an outstanding work nevertheless.

| Sep 17, 2001

This is a heart-stopping action film, teaching us the worthy lessons of discipline, teamwork, and determination, but wrapping them up in a deliberately provocative, shockingly violent package.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 10, 2001