Rating: 
Summary: Chilling and absorbing
Review: John Malkovich has the eerie ability to say and do horrible things in a totally detached manner. Example - he sets fire to a trunk containing two dead bodies, and as the flames leap up behind him, he whips out his cell phone and calmly orders dozens of flowers for his girlfriend, who will be performing at a concert that evening.
He plays Tom Ripley, the man who claims to lack a conscience, and yet still appreciates the finer things in life - he has a sensuous and talented girlfriend, a lovely villa in Italy, and a love of fine food, music, and art. In the film, one of his former associates, a coarse and obnoxious man named Reeves (Ray Winstone), is looking to kill off some of his competition in the nightclub business in Berlin. Ripley recommends he use Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) as the hitman. Trevanny has a fatal cancer and needs more money to support his wife and son. After much cajoling from Reeves, Jonathan does the deed, but then is horrified to discover that Reeves wants to use him for even more hits. When Reeves steps up the pressure and threatens Trevanny's family, Ripley intervenes, and we see one of the oddest partnerships develop - between the serene sociopath (again, played so marvelously by Malkovich) and the conscience-stricken, cancer-stricken Trevanny (played with such visible emotional agony by Dougray Scott).
The acting is superb, the settings are beautiful (such a contrast to the violence), and there are moments of awfully funny wit (usually delivered by Ripley). The movie also gives us a troubling portrayal of what decent men will do when they are desperate; so many wrong choices are made, and ultimately the movie does not end as you would expect.
Really, this is a great film, and it's a shame that - because of some distribution error - it was not released in the US. It surpasses the Damon movie, A Talented Mr. Ripley; Malkovich suits the role far better.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but Not Entirely Effective.
Review: "Ripley's Game" is the second movie adaptation of one of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels. Matt Damon played a young Ripley in the superb 1999 film "The Talented Mr. Ripley", directed by Anthony Minghella. "Ripley's Game" finds an older Ripley, played by John Malkovich, semi-retired and living a life of luxury with his wife on a grand Italian estate. A partner in crime from the past, Reeves (Ray Winstone), now a Berlin nightclub mogul, turns up on Ripley's doorstep seeking the favor of an assassination. Reluctant to do the job himself, Ripley decides to make a game of goading an ethical but desperate neighbor (Dougray Scott) into a life of crime.
"Ripley's Game" features two interesting performances: those of John Malkovich and Ray Winstone. Malkovich is always interesting, but Winstone may actually top him here. For one thing, even though Ripley is the most interesting character, he's nearly missing from the middle section of this film. Malkovich makes a superb Ripley, but we don't see enough of him or his manipulations. We see more of Ray Winstone and Dougray Scott, as manipulator and complicitous victim. The story is actually interesting, but Ripley is shortchanged by this script. Winstone gives a powerful performance, but there aren't enough layers to his character to compensate for Ripley's too often peripheral presence. And the neighbor, Jonathan Trevanny, is neither despicable or sympathetic. He evokes no reaction at all. Nice scenery, talented cast, interesting premise, but it doesn't come together effectively.
The DVD: Subtitles are available in Spanish and English. There is a DVD-ROM (Windows only).
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect Fit: Malkovich as Tom Ripley.
Review: ...and like Lector, we need to see more of Ripley. Now here's a story you can get into. Is Ripley's game getting rid of the tasteless, crude European played with aplomb by Ray Winstone--who you see Malkovich's Ripley has great problems with as they run a game on an art deal in the beginning? Or is Ripley trying to gracefully get even for the dissing he got at his neighbor the leukemic picture framer's soiree? Tom Ripley has no taste? Indeed. That's akin to saying that all Americans are cowboys... Well, suffice it to say that Ripley and the European made an offer the picture framer could not refuse...a tidy sum and a second opinion given by some specialists in Berlin. The first offing goes pretty well, except for the blood stained glass at the natural museum....however, now the Russian Mafia will come after someone if another execution isn't done. The poor picture framer sees himself getting deeper and deeper and just as he's to do the second one, master improvisionist Ripley arrives. Then an odd fellowship develop between Ripley and the picture framer. And when the movie ends, you really aren't sure that Ripley has gained some type of redemption or not....but, he *does* end up getting away with murder, so to speak. Compared to Matt Damon's Ripley, both Damon and Malkovich are great at fleshing out this complex personality, but as it currently stands, I enjoyed Malkovich's rendition the most. Also see the movie Purple Noon in which Ripley seems to get caught...
Rating:
Summary: I missed Matt Damon
Review: After I saw "The Talented Mr. Ripley", I found and devoured the rest of Patricia Highsmith's stories in the series. This "Ripley's Game" is quite good and translated to the screen in a faithful manner. The only thing missing is the lush scenery of Italy and Matt Damon.
Rating:
Summary: Highsmith's Ripley Plays His Game
Review: Although I enjoyed the film version of 'the Talented Mr. Ripley with Matt Damon in the lead, John Malkovich's portrayal of an older more desensitized Ripley captures the essence of the Highsmith character more accurately. Bravo Mr. Malkovich! WHile Damon's Ripley ponders over his crimes with a sense of regret fueled by his need for love, Highsmith's and Malkovich's Ripley is too amoral to care. And while in this story, the third of the Ripley quintet, we do encounter a slight bit of conscience and perhaps a tad of regret as Tom maliciously involves a dying man in an assasination simply because he was overheard insulting him, we see Ripley in all his unsavory glory, taking control of situations with the swift precision of the sharpest meat cleaver.
The plot pretty much follows Hishsmith's novel; a slight change of venue from France to Italy and the substitution of an Italian wife rather a French one for Ripley does not change the opulent backdrop depicting the spoils resulting from Tom's doggedness to live a life of good taste and extravagent wealth.
If you are a fan of the Highsmith novels, I recommend this as a must-see. If you are not acquainted with the books, do become so---get to know Tom's malignant audacity and then check out Malkovich's rather on target portrayal. Would love to see Malkovich as Ripley in 'Ripley Goes Underground' where his art deal scam is explained more thoroughly.
Rating:
Summary: not your usual thriller
Review: but it draws you in. At first it seems slow-moving, but then the bodies start to pile up. At times it is darkly funny. Malkovich is great -- he really is a bad guy and yet I found myself rooting for his success. None of the other reviewers (maybe they had more familiarity with the underlying book?) thought the Ripley character changed at all during the film, but I find myself wondering - if he is as conscienceless as he claims -- and usually appears -- to be, why the heroics? I recommend this movie as pure entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: I love Ripley's Game! Sort of.
Review: Did I say John Malkovich was an aquired taste? I guess I've just aquired it, then. His mannered style is just right for this gem of a script. Actually, I loved this film the first time, but found it utter crap upon second viewing. Go figure. It's still pretty funny, though, if superficial. I was expecting a formulaic plot in which the Dougray Scott character is pulled into nasty machinations by Ripley and it ends with some sort of showdown between the two in which the Scott character probably comes off worse. I was totally right, but also, totally wrong. The way it goes is totally unexpected, and a laugh. Scott nails the whole British thing. The bulldog in him is prised out with chilling ease.
Both characters end up experiencing some sort of epiphany, and at the film's close you are left with questions you really don't want to begin to answer. I really like the final shot, it's great.
Rating:
Summary: "Because that's the game."
Review: Director Liliana Cavani's Ripley's Game has something in common with her (in)famous 1974 film The Night Porter. Both movies are about people without a conscience. And about their games. Unlike most storytellers, Cavani doesn't waste time trying to explain why the Ripleys of the world exist, she just shows them to us. Ripley's Game starts by showing how different Ripley is from the rest of us, then tries to prove there isn't much difference after all. John Malkovich is perfect as the amoral criminal as artist. Ripley's crimes pay for his life amid beauty at his Italian villa. His lover, who understands what he is, is also an artist, a musician. Even Ripley's chef, "the finest cook in the Veneto," is an artist who immediately understands Ripley's hint when he suggests she "might want to visit her sister" when violence threatens the villa. The Ripleys thrive because the rest us, normal people who imagine we live by our scruples, love them and understand them. We need Ripley and the night porter. Ripley, by now jaded and barely able to remember the "truly horrible" things he's done, corrupts an innocent young man for several reasons, and for none, but mostly "because that's the game." Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) is Ripley's opposite: a working-class picture-framer, not an art patron and connoisseur, with a naïve wife instead of a sophisticate (she doesn't even recognize her boss's lecherous behavior), and with a young son instead of a barren relationship. Jonathan, under financial pressure, becomes capable of the things that Ripley is capable of, and, because of his choices, loses what he loves most. Ripley seems vindicated in his view of humanity. ("I lack your conscience. That used to bother me when I was younger.") But at the last moment Jonathan suprises Ripley and maybe even himself. "Why did you do that?" Ripley asks without comprehension. Jonathan's wife, too, instinctively shows she is not like those Ripley has surrounded himself with. After a symphony of violence, Ripley attends his lover's concert in an ancient theater where art is classical, preserved from centuries past, not like the pop music that was on the radio at a party in Jonathan's home and at his shop. Earlier, Ripley sat down at the harpsichord with his lover while she was practicing. Ripley's fingers interposed jazzy modern music with her somber classical piece. If there's a little Ripley in us, maybe there's a little of us in Ripley.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling, suspenseful movie
Review: I enjoyed this movie. It reminds me of Hannibal with Anthony Hopkins. John Malkovich perfectly plays Tom Ripley. He is the evil protagonist that you end up rooting for. The intrigue in the movie stems from an innocent Italian husband and father being pulled into the role of assassin as part of a sick game played by Ripley. The movie contrasts the sociopathic Ripley who easily justifies killing with a conscience-stricken picture framer who can't stomach killing others but learns to do it. The movie also shows the consequences of evil actions--that there is no such thing as getting away with it, even for the conscienceless Ripley. The acting is superb and the plot driven at a face pace. The events are realistic and not far-fetched like so many thrillers recently. With a main character like Tom Ripley, no one is safe in the movie. He is cast as very much like Hannibal Lector--the refined psychopath.
Rating:
Summary: Malkovich IS real Ripley
Review: I think Malkovich captures more accurately the character created by Patricia Highsmith than Damon does. In "Ripley's Game" we see a more perverse and tactician criminal, very near of what Highsmith describes in her novels. I also am grateful to see this film brought to the end of the 20th Century, plenty of mobile phones, terrific Alfa Romeo cars and modern costume design. The story per se doesn't have significant changes and the film is perfectly set out in another time. In "Talented Mr. Ripley" the story goes back to the 50's or 60's, that is, the time Ms. Highsmith wrote the Ripley's series. The rest of characters are really interesting. Dougray Scott has an ascending role and not only has he got more presence in the film as it goes on, but this presence is more convincing little by little. Good job. Another good thing is that you don't have to see the first part to enjoy completely this "Ripley's Game". Very recommendable.
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