Not exactly bad but certainly not great either.

Rating: 6/10 (7 September 2012)

Not having read the book I can't say how true it is to that version but for me the basic premise seemed fairly flawed, the reason for the games just didn't have enough weight behind it and left you not really rooting for the main characters enough.
Also they're were other instances where the story didn't seem to hang together, one example for me was how the young lad it seemed purely due to the fact he'd decorated cakes was able to fashion extremely convincing rock and bark disguises that completely hid him from sight out of very little.
It's hard not to draw comparisons between this and for example the Japanese film Battle Royale which isn't perfect but had much more emotion and edge to it.
This isn't to say its all bad, its always good to see Donald Sutherland and there were some fairly clever moments in the look, feel and some action sequences but overall it just felt a little hollow.