Sick to death of the Olympics?  One irritating sponsorship advert away from a killing spree you'll end up regretting?  Step away from the hedge trimmer and indulge yourself in some murder sport therapy.  Whilst everyone else is watching the Closing Ceremony, why not sit back and enjoy one of the dozens of films that have turned slaughter into competitive spectator entertainment.  My personal favourite is Death Race 2000, a splendidly camp offering from the Roger Corman stable.  Running down pedestrians is the national sport, with extra points awarded for toddlers and the elderly.  Brilliantly twisted, I really can't recommend it enough.  The 2008 remake Death Race is also great fun, with the awesome Jason Statham in the lead role.  If you prefer Arnie to the Stath, then you could do worse than checking out The Running Man.  In the near future, prisoners are hunted down on television for the amusement of the viewing public.  Hopefully Ken Clarke's not seen it, otherwise it may give him ideas.

Series 7: The Contenders continues the reality TV theme.  Lottery drawn contestants are handed guns and followed by fly-on-the-wall film crews whilst they pursue and shoot each other.  If you can't get enough of folk assassinating each other, and you enjoyed The Hunger Games, you may like to give Battle Royale a whirl.  A little more arthouse than some of my other suggestions, it nonetheless carries an impressive bodycount and some gloriously nasty violence.

Let the games commence!

Last night I went to the cinema to see Safe, which was perfectly enjoyable in a ridiculous way, with the always good value Jason Statham.  However, it was one of the trailers I saw before the film, that I'm a little more excited about.  The Raid looks like the sort of film that has enough ultra-violent fueled energy to power a small country.  Twenty SWAT cops storm a 30 storey tower block, run by a vicious crime lord, encountering non-stop bloodthirsty nastiness on each floor.  Bring it on!  Out in cinemas, 18th May.

If you can't wait another week for high rise apartment fun, and want something considerably less slick, check out Tenement on DVD, which has a similar theme.  The residents of a tower block grass up their local drug dealers and soon learn to regret it, once the gang are released back into the community.  The gang work their way up the floors, attacking each apartment, getting their revenge on the residents inside. 

Tenement has a really grungy tone, like other New York films from the time, such as The Warriors.  Whilst The Warriors also had a dilapidated bleak feel to it, the film was nonetheless good fun.  Tenement is much more brutal, and had it been made with more skill it could have been quite a powerful, if nihilistic film.  Interestingly, for such a masculine film, it was made by a female director, one Roberta Findaly, who with her husband Michael, made numerous pornographic/exploitation films during the sixties and seventies.  Check out The Flesh Trilogy to see their art at its finest.