Battle Royale 2 Revenge Uncut SE
Facts
| Directed by | Kinji Fukasaku |
| Cast | Tatsuya Fujiwara; Riki Takeuchi; Sonny Chiba |
| DVD Release | October 11, 2005 |
| Running Time | 155 minutes |
| UPC Code | 596817001595 |
| Buy this item | $19.95 at Amazon.com As of May 16 20:10 EDT (details) 1 DVD, Toei, Usually ships in 24 hours, Anamorphic, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen Languages: English (Unknown) Or 3 new from $19.89 |
About Battle Royale 2 Revenge Uncut SE
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User Reviews
Average user review:I enjoyed the parts of the film I have seen yet, I have bought 2 copies and both seem to be missing footage and the end of the movie. The two copies I bought were from 2 seperate sellers and neither had ever seen the film so they could not answer my question. Has anyone else had this problem? March 9, 2008
Don't trust anybody over 30. Shoot everyone else.
"Battle Royale 2" is exactly what would happen if Michael Moore got all liquored up, had a weekend cheeseburger & rotgut bender in some cheapo New Mexico hotel room, and then remade "Saving Private Ryan" the next morning.
Why not just take all of the first film's fans and shoot them in the face? That would have at least been merciful.
Instead, Kenta Fukasaku, who took the helm of Number 2 when his old man Kinji croaked, rips off everything insane, edgy, dangerous, and gloriously bloodthirsty about the infamous Battle Royale---pretty much "Lord of the Flies" with an NRA membership and exploding necklace IEDs---and turns it into a steaming cauldron of rhinoceros doodle.
Without a doubt the younger Fukasaku was already in an untenable position: #1, he had to finish what his old man had started. And #2, he had to make a sequel to Battle Royale, a wicked, deviant, deeply troubled cult classic, full of sound and fury (oh yes, especially fury) signifying total carnage.
So going in, did I expect Kenta Fukasaku to top his old man? No. But did he have a make this atrocity?
BR2 badly wants to be Battle Royale, like a little changeling dwarf child badly wants to be a real boy. So it has all the ingredients, all the trimmings, all the neato stuff Kenta thought he should include, of the first flick: the graduating class riding together on the bus; the nerve gas interlude; the chaotic broil of soldiers, armor, helicopters, klieg lights, herding Shenizaru Middle School #4 into the Death Room for guns, gear, and a little object lesson in what happens to disobedient children (hint: spare the beeping collar, spoil the child).
This time our class has been drugged and dragooned by their Sensei (Riki Takeuchi, who chomps pills like Rush Limbaugh in a fright wig and later really switches it up for a groovy last-minute mass die-in, donning his rugby gear and death-collar to get into the game, you know, really show you what it means to be the ball, BE THE BALL BABY!)---hauled to a military camp on a desolate beach overlooking, um, Monster Island, and forced to don battle-dress to take out that dastardly bunch of truants, the Terrorists, now doing a little Brand Management(tm) as the Wild Seven. Jeez, and you thought high school Detention was rough.
The rest of the flick goes by the numbers and on the Bounce, as follows:
1) Kids storm the beach! Machine-guns chew up the Kids like they're beef jerky in an all-night truck stop!
2) Gratuitous Syrupy Flashback! OK: the first flick did this too, chiefly as a way to develop character on the fly. But a) you actually cared about the characters in the first BR, and b) the first BR didn't chow down on donkey rungus.
3) Kids/Special Forces/Army/Tac-Nuke Storm the Beach! (see #1, above)
4) Lead Terrorist Guy Emotes! Makes rousing speech!
5) Gratuitous Syrupy Flashback!
6) Kids Storm the Beach!
That's the film, and it goes on for what feels like, uh, eternity. Comparing BR2 to its infamous predecessor is like comparing Bizarro to Superman. The guy's got the color scheme right, you know, same hairdo, red cape, flies around, faster than a speeding bullet and so on, sure, but there's something---wrong. Something off. Like a Hot Fudge Sunday, only with liquid squid sclooge for a topping instead of hot fudge.
It is monstrously terrible. It is ploddingly derivative. It is howlingly incompetent. It can be funny, though---in a "we're laughing at you, not with you" way. Example: the Military kidnapped the kids, bullied and beaten them, shoved guns and billy clubs in their faces, slammed them into the blood-smeared concrete floor, shot one of their number at point-blank range, popped the tops off two others like ripe grapefruit courtesy of their necklace-bombs, and then force-marched the rest out to Monster Island on a suicide mission---and even so, one radio-man slaps his cheeks McCauley Culkin style later in the movie and shouts in shock and surprise "Commander! This is impossible---your class has joined up with the terrorists!" Betrayal! No way!
Credit to Kenta for portraying us (America, baby, yeah!) as the monsters we are. We worked hard for it! That's right: just as a hot crap Sundae would be nothing without a cockroach doodle on top, BR2 manages to underscore and highlight its own inferiority by being pointlessly, gratuitously anti-American. The survivors end up hiding out with the Taliban (and, evidently, a papier-mache tank) in Afghanistan. The chicks are in burkhas. One of the schoolboys is even named "Osamu". GET IT? OSAMU, GET IT?
Taken another way, "BR2" is the ultimate Daddy Movie, a Far Eastern take on the Big O (for Oedipus, not Oprah): a non-stop cage fight with a barrel of Daddy Issues! The Ingenue & Beat Takeshi---Daddy Issues! The Grown-Ups v. the Kids---Daddy Issues! The Cool Emoting Hero with a Revolutionary Father---Daddy Issues! And best of all, the Ultimate Daddy-Kiddy Relationship, Japan v. the USA---Daddy Issues!
Whatever. BR2 is hardly an act of filial piety: if Kenta wanted to strike a blow at Daddy from Hell's Dark Heart, why not just snort the old man's ashes over a cheeseburger, the Keith Richards way? That would have been kinder (& certainly more interesting to watch).
If I've made this swill seem enjoyable, I've failed: this is shoddily done tedium that is a snooze to sit through. Kenta Fukasaku has made a war flick that really is The Bomb---just not the kind he was hoping for.
JSG March 5, 2008
Not as good
This wasn't as good as the first. The first is way better. This one went too far off the story line into a whole other type of movie. I did not enjoy this as much as i enjoyed the first, but this is still a good movie. September 14, 2007
good foreign film
it is a very interesting foreign film, it stays action packed for most of the movie. but be warned this movie has a few cheesy moments. anime fans should like this live action movie. April 5, 2007
Battle Royale Flush more like it.
Battle Royale II takes all the substance out of what made the original so compelling ... the character studies, the story arc, the underlying social commentary.. and what have you... leaving a hokey... sci-fi channel movie production quality neck blowing up fest. Now that shouldn't be the worst thing ever... sacrificing story substance for cheese at least sounds like a fun time...case and point-Howard the Duck or Snakes on a Plane. but they sacrificed the fun too.... this movie is boring and every scene drags. This is a "cash in" film, and a horrible one at that. File with Weekend at Bernie's 2, Mannequin 2, American Psycho 2 (starring Mila Kunis of That 70s show), Beverly Hills Cop 3, Honey we shrunk ourselves, Secret of Nimh 2, The Neverending Story 2, The Ring 2,... you get the point... although Mannequin2 and Weekend at Bernie's 2 were easier to sit through. March 17, 2007





