Rating: 
Summary: Simply Fun And "Games"
Review: I saw this movie merely because I was in the mood for an action movie. John Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games" is an entertaining but forgettable action picture.After being released from prison, car thief Ben Affleck assumes the identity of ill-fated cellmate James Frain in order to make a pass at the woman(Charlize Theron) that Frain met through a prisoner-pen pal correspondence program. By posing as Frain, Affleck ultimately finds himself being forced into participating in a robbery planned by Theron's "brother"(Gary Sinise). Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games" is simply another forgettable action movie. As a Frankenheimer film, "RG" doesn't come close to matching such great films as "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Black Sunday" yet doesn't quite fall into the ludicrousness of such pictures as "The Holcroft Covenant" and "99 and 44/100% Dead." "RG" barely manages to be a so-so Frankenheimer film. The characters are shallow. Sinise's villain is actually slightly more interesting than Affleck's hero. With his scant frame and weaselly features, Sinise is slowly becoming one of the greater villains of present-day cinema. A few violent action sequences hardly help to make the film any more exciting or interesting. The last third of the film is saved by a fairly good twist-ending. Frankenheimer's "RG" is not much more than a passable time killer.
Rating: 
Summary: One extremely thrilling and suspenseful ride
Review: I didn't think Reindeer Games was anywhere near as mediocre as the critics thought it was. As a matter of fact, I loved the film, and it's certainly much better than that other much overrated plot twisting thriller Wild Things (a mostly suspenseless which might hold some sort of cinematic record for most plot twists ever). The film is about a car thief named Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck). His best friend, Nick, who has a pen pal named he plans on meeting after he's released-which is also the same day Rudy will be let out-is killed during a food fight. Rudy, in a very tough decision, decides to pretend he's Nick and meets the beautiful Ashley, Nick's pen pal. At first, everything seems to be going right for him for the first time, until Ashley's brother Gabriel arrives and demands Rudy, whom he thinks is Nick, to help him and his band of cronies rob a casino since Nick used to work as a security guard there. Now, Rudy has to try to pretend he's Nick and convince Gabriel he knows how to get in the casino. Reindeer Games is an exhilarating thriller, with plenty of action and humor. There are some exciting moments and the film is very suspenseful. Affleck's initial guise as Nick is quite funny, along with the moments thoughout the film that he has to convince Sinise he's who he says he is, be that Rudy Duncan or Nick Cassidy. The film features Ben Affleck in a great performance as the hero who we all root for. Gary Sinise chews the scenery as the villain and makes up for the travesty that was Snake Eyes though he still has to do another work to atone for Mission to Mars (he should have also had the lieutenant Dan look in Mission, at least that would have solidified that film's camp value, but no, the Lt. Dan look had to go to Don Cheadle). Charlize Theron is fairly good as the love interest for Affleck. This is one of those films that really keeps you guessing, with plot twists that are surprising, especially a big twist at the end that nobody seemed to have ever been able to have guessed correctly. You can never really tell what's going to happen next, or who's going to come out on top in the end. Will Affleck get out of the whole situation alive? Can he keep pretending he's somebody he's not? And what is the twist in the finale? Watch the film and find out.
Rating: 
Summary: SUPERstupid.
Review: This is one of the worst films of its time. I cannot believe Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise, and Charlize Theron have this stinker on their resumes.... it must be an embarrassment for all three of them. The plot is completely implausible from the word go, Affleck's character has about a billion things he could do to escape that we're supposed to believe just never cross his mind, the plot twists are NOT clever (just stupid), there are gun mistakes in the film (guy firing with Uzi, the scene cuts away from him for a second, then cuts back to him and now he has a Mac-10, crap like that), and if you actually make it all the way to the end of the film (I wish to God I hadn't), the ending is so stupid you're like "I cannot believe I suffered through this entire piece of crap for THAT." Skip it...... trust me.
Rating: 
Summary: An farfechted but entertaining underrated action/thriller.
Review: When Rudy (Oscar-Winner:Ben Affleck) is getting out of Prison for doing time for 5 years for Grand Theft Auto. When Rudy's Best Friend (James Frain) dies in Prison, he decides to take the place of his friend to meet his sexy pen pal (Charlize Theron). Once they meet, Rudy is forced to help his girlfriend's brother (Gary Sinise) and his friends (Clarence Williams the Third, Donal Logue & Danny Trejo) to do an armed robbery. Directed by John Frankenheimer (Bird Man of Alcatraz, the Island of Dr. Moreau-1996, Ronin) made a fun entertaining but not very believable film. Despite it's cleverly written by Ehren Kruger (Arlington Road, Scream 3, The Ring-2002), which it's full of twists but the film never should have been giving away from the first scene. DVD has an strong anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an terrific Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The Director's Cut added 20 Minutes of Addtional Footage. DVD also has an commentary track by the Director, Alternative Footage of the Original Theatrical Scenes and more. Action fans will love this one. Super 35. Grade:B+.
Rating:
Summary: It's a comedy, folks. You're supposed to laugh.
Review: The script isn't very good, but master director John Frankenheimer at least realized this and decided to make an all-out comedy out of it. Very funny. The bad guys here are even more inept than the bunch in 52 PICK-UP, another Frankenheimer laff riot (also with Clarence Williams III). And how can anybody overlook the amazing camerawork? Name another action movie from the past 10 years that crams so many characters into the frame and plays with depth of field so wonderfully? This is Frankenheimer's most visually interesting film since SECONDS. Also, let's not sell the performers short. I've never been a big Ben Affleck fan, but he's hilarious here -- especially when he's trying to shiver convincingly after being pulled out of the freezing water. I also love Gary Sinise screaming "Where's the powwow safe?!" through a Santa Claus beard. Brilliant. I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 simply because the DVD doesn't include the deleted scenes that were initially promised (like the sequence where Affleck jumps off a snow-covered cliff, which is in the trailer but not in the movie).
Rating:
Summary: Simply Fun And "Games"
Review: I saw this movie merely because I was in the mood for an action movie. John Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games" is an entertaining but forgettable action picture. After being released from prison, car thief Ben Affleck assumes the identity of ill-fated cellmate James Frain in order to make a pass at the woman(Charlize Theron) that Frain met through a prisoner-pen pal correspondence program. By posing as Frain, Affleck ultimately finds himself being forced into participating in a robbery planned by Theron's "brother"(Gary Sinise). Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games" is simply another forgettable action movie. As a Frankenheimer film, "RG" doesn't come close to matching such great films as "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Black Sunday" yet doesn't quite fall into the ludicrousness of such pictures as "The Holcroft Covenant" and "99 and 44/100% Dead." "RG" barely manages to be a so-so Frankenheimer film. The characters are shallow. Sinise's villain is actually slightly more interesting than Affleck's hero. With his scant frame and weaselly features, Sinise is slowly becoming one of the greater villains of present-day cinema. A few violent action sequences hardly help to make the film any more exciting or interesting. The last third of the film is saved by a fairly good twist-ending. Frankenheimer's "RG" is not much more than a passable time killer.
Rating: 
Summary: Put Coal in the Director's Stockings
Review: This movie is bad, boring, and confusing. There is one scene, near the end, where the plot is explained to us by a surprise guest. After explaining the plot the "hero" says, words to the effect, "you have to be kidding me!" I agree. What happened here? With some good stars and interesting effects, I am going to have to blame the director 1'st and the story second. For those of you not discouraged, read on. The basic plot of the movie involves a car thief who gets out of prison after a two years stint. His good friend, who is to be released the same day as him, gets stabbed in jail. So, instead of them both being released on the same day, he goes home and his friend, presumably, goes to the morgue. One problem, his friend's girlfriend, doesn't know about his death. She is waiting outside the prison for him after writing letters to him for 2 years. She has never seen him, she has only written letters to him after having gotten his name from some type of jail house support group. So the "hero" of this film, pretends to be his friend, hooks up with the girl and takes advantage of her. Sorta of. There are a few twists and turns here which are suppose to keep you interested, but they don't. Ben Afflect, who plays the "hero" is not very believable as a despicable con. He is acting and it shows. If you believed in his character, you almost wished something bad would happen to him. Well, something bad does so I guess the movie does give the audience a little bit of what it wants, but not much. The only interesting thing is the acting of Gary Sinse. I think he did a great job, as normal. I first saw him in "The Stand" portraying a hero and leader of a small community fighting an evil demon. Here he is the evil demon, only he is a human being who is psychotic. In either role, we believe in the person who he creates even if we don't believe in the universe that we find him. Unfortunately no matter how good he does in this movie, the movie is not good enough to recommend. Save your money, and time, and skip to a different film.
Rating:
Summary: Silly plot and bad acting but yet mildly entertaining
Review: This supposed thriller, released in 2000, has a few good moments. One is the way that its stars Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron couple soon after they first meet. Ben Affleck just been released from prison, you see. And she's there to meet him. She's been writing letters to his cellmate, Nick, who has just been knifed. Ben Affleck tells her he's Nick. Then things get complicated. Very complicated. Gary Sinise enters the scene as the bad guy. And there's a bunch of bad-guy thugs backing him up. They want to force Ben Affleck to help them commit a crime. It gets more and more complicated. Eventually there are five criminals all dressed up like Santa Claus with the intention of robbing a casino. The plot moved swiftly. It wasn't hard to follow. Especially since the characters all took turns holding a gun to Ben Affleck's head and explaining how our supposed hero was set-up yet again. Then, the plot would deepen. And deepen. There were a few violent scenes and some bloodshed. And then even more explanations. I kept watching Ben Affleck's facial expressions, which never seemed to change no matter what happened to him. Charlize
Theron is pretty and never missed a chance to show off her body but her acting ability is on a par with Affleck's. Gary Sinise was better; he's a good actor and this part called for overacting. And so what we got was a villain who was just too bad to be true. This sounds like a comedy. Right? Wrong. It was supposed to be serious. Give me a break! I did find it mildly entertaining however.
Rating:
Summary: Ben Affleck's character was from Signaw Michigan?
Review: The only 2 memorable things from the movie was the great performance by Charlize Theron and that Ben Affleck's character is from Signaw Michigan (Which I think is supposed to be my old home town of Saginaw). Theron gave an impressive performance as the mysterious, yet sweet...pen pal of Affleck's cell mate. The movie had me interested until the final act which turned into a typical pier six brawl. Two stars for the movie and one extra star for Theron and Signaw, Michigan. Oh, the movie is supposed to take place in Michigan, but I don't think any of it was filmed there. The movie doesn't really name any Michigan landmarks, so I'm going to assume Affleck is released from Jackson State prison at the begining of the film, travels someplace down river Detroit, let say Wyandotte, to hook up with Theron. From there he heads up north to rob the casino in say Mount Pleasant, or someplace off US-27. Finally, Affleck's drivers license lists his home as Signaw, which has to Saginaw!
Rating:
Summary: Reindeer Games-A True Suspense Thriller
Review: Reindeer Games, was an interesting thriller. Ehren Kruger
wrote it, he wrote Arlington Road, and was attending Georgetown Day School. For a teenager, those two films where actually well written. Director John Frankenheimer did a fine job directing this film, but unfortunately he passed away. The Director's cut is thrilling and boy is it fun to watch.
Ben Affleck plays Rudy Duncan, who was recently released from prison, his lover or pen pal Ashely is desperatly awaiting his arrival, played by gorgeous Charlize Theoron. Soon, Ashley's brother, amazing Gary Sinise, needs Affleck's character.
Originally, they had planned a heist that would take plan in a casino or actually Affleck's prison mate, did. His prison mate was murdered, while in prison or so I thought. From here we get loud, chaotic pointless violence, that some would find highly entertaining. I think that the performances were great and so was the death-defying action. I enjoyed the film very much. Reindeer Games is rated R for Strong Violence, Language and Sexuality, so possibly not the best choice for young children. The violence is quite intense and strong from loud gunplay to fistfights. The language, well now a days many films contain excessive, needless language. And the sexuality, some what explicit. So, parents watch this one with your kids, probably a very wise and obvious decision to make. Trust me, the director's cut is a lot better than the original version, but maybe not for young children. See Reindeer Games, a good suspense thriller. Now available to own on Video and DVD! GET IT!
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