I would argue that Hunger Games serie is very much influenced by the Battle Royale IP. The BR book was completed in '96, released in '99 then turned into a manga series in 2000 followed by a live action film in, I believe, the same year. So there was a lot of attention/awareness of the story/concept before the first Hunger Games book was written in 2006.
The same criticism was noted in The Hunger Games novel entry in Wikipedia. It was the reason I was interested in Battle Royale, of which I had never heard previously. Rationalizations and excuses were made as to why THG was not a ripoff of BR, but they seem pretty weak after seeing both movies. To me, THG is simply a bubblegum copy of BR. Claiming that BR was influenced by Lord of the Flies would be an example of one movie inspiring another. Both stories show cohesive groups of young people savagely turning on one another when removed from ordinary social structures and institutions, yet both movies are very different. That is just a hypothetical example, I know of no such claim of BR influence ever being made. I do think both were inspired by the same idea (i.e. the innocent, decent and civilized readily becoming vicious, violent savages). "Copied" is not "inspired".
I enjoyed Battle Royale a few years ago. Haven't seen the second one though. Funny. About 5 years ago my wife's book club was reading Hunger Games and raving about how great it was. I didn't read the book but was trying to explain to them how it sounded very similar to Battle Royale. They had no idea what I was talking about. Oddly enough, there was another recent book they read (I don't remember the name) that was about a baby that washes ashore at a light house in a life boat. The light house watchman raised the child as his own. This is a similar plot line of the 1924 Baby Peggy movie Captain January. Goes to show that everything old is new again.
On New Year's Day we went to see The Hobbit - part 3 in the Brussels cinema: 4K, 3D, 60 frames per second, 60.000 lumen (the newest Barco laser projector) and Dolby Atmos (128 discrete audio tracks and up to 64 unique speaker feeds). Amazing experience! I really enjoyed the movie as well!
Charade Really good mystery/suspense in the vein of Hitchcock. Cary Grant was still a smooth character in his late 50's.
I only managed 15 minutes of the Hunger Games. The economic structure of the society was too flawed to be believable and I just couldn't take anymore. Maybe I should have had a few drinks before watching....
Just checked out Out Of The Furnace with Christian Bale and Casey Affleck. I thought it was great. I've always like Bale and Casey Affleck is becoming one of my favorite actors.
In bed with a bad back. Recovering is a non-prescribed scotch and some movies. Feeling like an old, broken man I thought this was a great choice. That and I love this movie (probably third time watching it). I find the acting to be....'effortless' in lack of a better word and really just a great watch.
Last night on Blu-Ray: The Wild Bunch. On the Silver Screen this past weekend: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 3D.
British scifi from the 50's and 60's is usually pretty good. A lot different than the US flicks of the time.
John Carpenter's They Live. I like the overall message of the movie almost as much as I like the awkwardly dragged out fist fight with gratuitous amounts of nut shots delivered via knee to groin.
