10 Good Movies That Could've Been Great (With One Simple Fix)

8. The Violence Is R-Rated - The Hunger Games

The Movie

The hit Y.A. sci-fi action flick that kick-started a hit franchise and established Jennifer Lawrence as a global superstar, in which protagonist Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) finds herself fighting to the death against 23 other "tributes" in a televised competition at the behest of a dystopian authority.

Though widely compared to the cult hit movie Battle Royale, The Hunger Games nevertheless carved out a solid place for itself as a more broad-skewing, "family friendly" blockbuster effort, scoring strong acclaim and netting almost $700 million worldwide in the process.

Between the nuanced performances and tight character work, it's certainly the best opening entry into any major Y.A. franchise to date.

The Simple Fix

The biggest problem of the movie - and really, the franchise as a whole - is how painfully neutered the violence all feels.

It's not terribly surprising that a movie about children slaughtering one another would struggle under the PG-13 umbrella, and duly, director Gary Ross resorts to rendering much of the action scarcely comprehensible through irritating shaky cam coverage.

Obviously this was a commercial calculation above all else, but given how much more disturbing the blood-letting was in the source material, the film version ends up feeling rather sanitised and lacking in visceral impact.

Had Ross been given the green light to shoot for an R-rating, clearly the various showdowns throughout the film wouldn't make for such headache-inducing viewing.