For once a good Hollywood remake

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2013)

Usually I tend to be annoyed with Hollywood's way of treating foreign cinema productions as little more than rough drafts or mock-up models, a worthy few of which are honored by being properly re-staged as Hollywood blockbusters. However in this case I have to admit that "The Hunger Games" manage to take a scenario that seemed outlandish, tacky and lacked context in the original film ("Battle Royal") and provided it not only with a plausible background story, but with real depth. What appeared as cheap and almost pornographic in the Japanese adaption is turned into what amounts to valid social commentary on how authoritarian societies manipulate the masses by instilling just enough hope to foster initiative yet enough fear to keep them in their proper place, promoting simplistic mantras as eternal truths and endorsing all sorts of escapism and infighting to keep people from questioning assumed authority.
Why, and I used to actually suspect Hollywood as part of such a machinery...