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.
Rating:
Summary: A ripper
Review: If you were a keen follower of the Hannibal's franchise, this movie would suit you nicely. Whilst the Talented Mr. Ripley (the movie) showed us of the coming of him, Ripley's Game indicated how he had blossomed into a seasoned sociopath. John Malkovich was at his sleek-slimy self & it's hard not to be enchanted by him. The setting was gorgeous and did I mention about the preusal of an actual Palladio villa in Italy? Ripley described himself nicely when he told Dougray Scott's dying character who was enticed to commit a murder(s) that it used to bother him that he didn't have a conscience but not anymore. To top that up, Ripley explained that one good thing about committing evil things were that after a few days, he wouldn't remember anything anymore. How Dougray Scott's character found attachment to the enigmatic Ripley was inexplicable but they did anyhow and formed a rather surreal alliance against the mobsters. The movie was moving along at an even pace and amid the calmness, there was always a tense or edginess to the environment. The relationship of Ripley and his live-in partner, an accomplished Italian harpischodist revealed a conditional relationship of the dominating and the dominated, no questions asked and rewards would come accordingly kind of a relationship. I guess this movie revealed to us that we all have a propensity to do something outlandish or totally evil. We are standing on a very fine line and all we need is a very minor catch to catch us off-guard. Outstanding cast all around but notably, Ray Winstone who played Ripley's ex-partner. Such a tasty movie to sit through. An edge-of-the-seat thriller that slowly unfolded itself but truly satisfying. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Uneven and tedious.
Review: It's no great surprise that this film sat on the shelf for two years before going straight to video all over the world. John Malkovich's particular brand of reptilian charm is perfectly suited to the role of Tom Ripley and it's a pity to think of what he could have done with the same character had he been given a decent film to work with. Dougray Scott (always great) and Lena Headey have real chemistry and intensity together as well, but they're all let down by a script that feels like a rough first draft and by direction that lacks any confidence. The film veers wildly from light drama to clumsily staged action to brutal violence to black comedy -- mostly a series of groan-inducing one-liners after Ripley kills people. There's very little energy driving the thing as it lumbers from scene to scene, and it was quite a chore to sit through the whole film. Perhaps my largest complaint is that the characters have no inner life. After the fascinating psychological exploration of Tom Ripley offered in Minghella's "The Talented Mr. Ripley," this film doesn't even try to let us inside his mind. The narrative focus is not really on Ripley anyway, but on Dougray Scott's everyman. He, too, remains uninvolving, in spite of Scott's committed performance, because we're not allowed into his feelings either. There are a laundry list of things Scott's character goes through that are never explored. He's dying of Leukemia, yet this is barely more than a plot point. He is an ordinary man, who decides to commit a murder for money for his family, yet he needs only a brief moment of consideration onscreen to make this life-altering decision. Later, when he learns that his bland neighbor Ripley is actually a ruthless murderer and proceeds to help him to do away with three men, he barely even bats an eye. And again, when his wife learns what he's been doing and decides to take their son and leave him, he seems only mildly perturbed. Where is any sense of who this man is? If only the film had let us understand either of these characters it might have been worthwhile. The locations in Berlin and around Italy are certainly pretty and moodily photographed, and master composer Ennio Morricone tries to tie the disparate elements of the film together with an effective score which is often vastly better than the film. Given the weak script, however the assembled talent had a hopeless task before them.
Rating: 
Summary: Deliciously Perverse
Review: John Malcovich gives an impeccable performance as middleaged Ripley, playing a perverse game making it up as he goes. Ripley's lover is a beautiful world reknown harpshicord player, who is aware of Ripley's true nature and loves him anyway. Mostly out of boredom Ripley starts a subtle game in which he seduces a perfectly good man to murder, and then steps in to save him, striking an unusual partnership which ends under unusual circumstances.
Rating:
Summary: Even though I'm his biggest fan...
Review: John Malkovich is creepy enough when he's NOT brutally murdering people. This movie is b-o-r-i-n-g.
Rating:
Summary: Malcovitch is Ripley!
Review: Malcovich was born to play this role as an older Tom Ripley. Now settled with his lovely wife in Belle Ombre, he's up to his old tricks and his connections with the seamy underworld of art forgery. Slighted by a neighbor, he plays a cruel cat and mouse game--how far will a decent person go? Like many of Highsmith's stories, it becomes a morality play--how much good is in the worst of us, how much evil in the best? Her stories are cruel, but with a touch of human nature and an ironic sense of humor running throughout. Though I loved the movie I wonder what a person not familiar with the Ripley books would make of it. Being a big fan of Highmith's works, I though the movie did the book justice, even though there were some small changes. (such as Reeves being portrayed much differently.)
Rating: 
Summary: fun (kind of) with john malkovitch
Review: malkovitch portrays a tom ripley far-removed from the tortured character portrayed by matt damon in the previous american installment. the creepily refined malkovitch plays ripley as a poor-man's hannibal lecter (if only because he lacks the suave british accent, and the medical degree.) this ripley, like lecter, is smooth, likeable, and sociopathic - but fair. after the success of the hannibal lecter series, and tv's the apprentice, its no surprise that the producers of this film recognized the market niche for the sociopathic but fair character. but if you're going to base an entire film around a deliciously witty villain, then SHOW HIM THE ENTIRE TIME. mike meyer's realized after the first austin power's that people just wanted to watch dr. evil do crazy sh*t. the writers of this film would have done well to do the same. the movie wastes too much time on portraying the moral downfall of its tortured protagonist, Trevanny, who, dying of cancer, is tricked into playing . . . RIPLEY'S GAME. films generally dont handle the transition from nice guy to crazy guy very well, and this film is no exception. early in the movie Trevanny has trouble even fathoming the idea of killing another man, 35 minutes later he's shooting at anything that moves. the film gives doesnt handle this transition well, leaving its viewers nothing to attribute this drastic change to. i was able to forgive this plot jump by convincing myself the character was just kinda stressed out about his leukemia, perhaps you can do the same. trevanny is played by the actor who was last seen playing the wonderful handsome prince in drew barrymore's atrocious "ever after." however sorry ladies, the past few years have not been kind to him. to quote the girl i watched the movie with he looks like "that dude who plays anakin skywalker, but on heroin." between the rings under his eyes, and his attempt to play a tortured innocent, this character was just kind of annoying, and less forgivibly, boring. anyway, listen, the movie's ok, but like hannibal, the weakest Lecter installment, this film ultimately buckles under its own sadistic inclinations and thinly veiled admiration of a sociopathic protagonist. its a trashy movie that would have done well to accept its trashiness. oh! but it does reference straw dogs!
Rating:
Summary: Great acting but gore replaces suspense
Review: Of course it's begging for comparison with Strangers on a Train, given that both are based on a Patricia Highsmith novel and both involve a similar "bring an innocent man into the realm of the killer" scenario. But unlike Strangers, this film doesn't have much suspense. A big scene, in which the "innocent" man's wife learns more than we want her to know, is passed over way too quickly. This was basically the emotional climax of the film and it just zipped by. Hitchcock would have understood that it, not any shootout, was the film's big moment and would have lingered accordingly. However, Malcovitch and everyone else does a great job and Italy is beautiful. So if you can stand the gore, you may enjoy it as a rental, but it's no must-have.
Rating:
Summary: Great acting but gore replaces suspense
Review: Of course it's begging for comparison with Strangers on a Train, given that both are based on a Patricia Highsmith novel and both involve a similar "bring an innocent man into the realm of the killer" scenario. But unlike Strangers, this film doesn't have much suspense. A big scene, in which the "innocent" man's wife learns more than we want her to know, is passed over way too quickly. This was basically the emotional climax of the film and it just zipped by. Hitchcock would have understood that it, not any shootout, was the film's big moment and would have lingered accordingly. However, Malcovitch and everyone else does a great job and Italy is beautiful. So if you can stand the gore, you may enjoy it as a rental, but it's no must-have.
Rating: 
Summary: I hated it!!!
Review: Patricia Highsmith is one of those novelists whose time, unfortunately, has come posthumously. Though she died in 1996, it has only been recently that her gifts as a novelist have been appreciated. Much of her core writing examined the psyches of homosexual characters, never exploiting them, only using their sexuality as an enhancement of their full character development. RIPLEY'S GAME, the most recent transfer of Highsmith's book to film, is part of a trilogy she wrote about the character of Tom Ripley, a sensitive, gentle soul who finds his way into the world of the wealth by means of criminal acts. In the first book of the trilogy THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, Tom Ripley is driven by his need for acceptance not only in the (to him) inaccessible world of the wealthy, but also in his urgent need to be loved by other men. In the second novel, RIPLEY UNDERGROUND, Highsmith seems to drop the sexual overtones in favor of pushing Tom Ripley into the arms of a wealthy wife and monetary power, capitalizing on the greed for achievement overshadowing the need for love. By RIPLEY'S GAME the usual trademark Highsmith sexual innuendoes have nothing to do with Ripley, but are very much present in the life of Ripley's confidant in crime - Reeves. This final installment in the Ripley stories has Ripley as teacher, instructing his pupil in the macabre methods of murder for gain. In the title role John Malkovich is his usual wily, brilliant, but misdirected self and his performance is superb (if similar to all of his other roles). Dougray Scott is Ripley's odd pupil Jonathan, Lena Headey his wife Sarah, Ray Winstone is Reeves, and with Chiara Caselli as Ripley's harpsichordist paramour all four add fine performances. There is beautiful photography of Berlin and Rome and the movement is kept at a keen pace by Director Liliana Cavani. So why just 4 stars? There is just not the flavor of Highsmith's lack of predictability here to justify that. But in all, it is an entertaining movie and sure to encourage more to read the works of Patricia Highsmith.
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