Rating: 
Summary: CULT MOVIES 57
Review: 57. THE GAME (thriller, 1997) On the day of his birthday millionaire businessman Nicholas (Michael Douglas) is visited by his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) with a gift. The gift involves Nicholas signing up for a mysterious company which offers a 'game', which in turn offers the participants a series of surprises that "provides whatever is lacking" in their lives. Though a rather pessimistic and somber individual Nicholas accepts in the hopes of escaping the memory of a solitary childhood and witnessing his father's suicide. When the surprises the 'game' issues become seriously deadly Nicholas wants out. But this particular game offers no escape.Critique: Nerve-wracking, high wire act of a movie directed with guile precision by David Fincher ('Seven', 'Alien 3'). So far all of David Fincher's films have been good which is rare for someone who has been dubbed as a purely commercial director. The sort of tagline that is a deathnail for anyone seeking true legitimacy in Hollywood. Michael Douglas is good in the role of another heartless tycoon type character in the mold of Gordon Gekko from 'Wall Street'. Douglas gives the character just a slight insidious turn and taking him into Twilight Zone territory. It's also good seeing Sean Penn in a first rate mainstream movie for a change. Film is made in such a way that every detail has to be dissected in order to make a logical progression of events. Which otherwise would seem chaotic and purely coincidental. Towards the climax it all makes perfect sense and provides a most welcome escape ending. When the credits roll and you know it is truly over it is strangely satisfying and disappointing. QUOTES: Conrad: "What do you get for the man who has everything?"
Rating: 
Summary: A Great, Well-Written Video! Definately a keeper!
Review: The Game is a great movie for someone who likes murder mystery dinner parties and the like. Such a twisted story line and very suspenseful- I definately recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: One of the top 10
Review: Combines many aspects of different movie genres, including very effective film noir aspects. It is obvious that the screenwriters and Fincher know what they are doing. The story couldn't be better with lots of philosophical questions and is full of suspense. You constantly want to find out what happens next and throughout the journey you are sceptical that it will be successful but halleluja! Douglas is ideal and I am very surprised that this previous viewer from San Diego was disappointed with the characterization of the film - IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN OTHERWISE! Most definite: one of the best American films I have seen - among Highlander, Contact, etc.
Rating:
Summary: C'est un film qui meme en utah peut etre vu..
Review: Ce film est plutot sympa et meme les habitant d'utah peuvent le voir, ils n'en mouront pas pour autant car le "R" n'est aucunement justifie.
Rating:
Summary: Michael Douglas hits the mark again....
Review: Nicholas Van Orton, (Douglas) likes his life of being a rich, stuck-up, snooby executive businessman in this beautifully crafted masterpiece from Polygram Films. When CRS (the company his brother Conrad (Penn) suggested he sign up with) starts to take over his life and take his life as well, Nicholas retalliates. Filled with suprises, thrills, really sharp turns, untrustworthy taxi drivers (actually, it's driver, but driver [in this case] is grammatically unsound) The Game is definately worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: A movie about facing inner fears.
Review: I wasn't able to maintain my suspension of disbelief for this conspiracy-minded movie. However, I liked the way Douglas' character was forced to confront his personal demons and reconsider what he valued. But compared to thrillers like Kurt Russell's "Breakdown," the movie was less suspenseful than I expected.
Rating:
Summary: Dramatic and suspenseful
Review: I instantly loved this movie. I must have recommended it to a hundred people. Douglas is masterful in his portrayal of selfishness and self-pity.
Rating:
Summary: If you require redemption, this film's for you.
Review: The Game is better than that. Written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris and directed by David Fincher, of the recent and creepy-Catholic inspired Seven, The Game is an entirely orthodox vision of a man who is forced - by his own choices - to his own breaking point, which is the only point that will release him from the trap his life has become. Without the religious jargon as its delimiters, The Game nevertheless powerfully portrays the entire human drama of sin, confession, penance, absolution, forgiveness, oh, and crucifixion and resurrection - all in just over two hours. The Game is equal parts Adam, Cain, Abel, Jonah and Lazarus all rolled into one of the most taught psychological thrillers that I've seen. Some of the film's most beautiful moments are the deft touches that seem incidental at first blush, but nevertheless point to the underlying allegory: first communion, a statuette of the Virgin Mary, a reference to the book of John, and not one, but two resurrection scenes unlike anything you've ever seen. If only Walker Percy were still alive! If writers Brancato and Ferris aren't Walker Percy fans I'll eat my foot. The author of The Moviegoer would recognize his ideas unmistakably by the film's exquisite rendering of a man so lost in the cosmos that he isn't even aware of his despair. The question that Walker Percy spent his entire life asking - How do you speak to a man sensibly about ultimate truth in a Christ-haunted and Christ-forgetting culture? -- is not only truthfully but beautifully answered by The Game. Nicholas Van Orton is the man who has everything, and thus values nothing. As an insanely successful control-freak investment banker who disdains all those who should be closest to him, Van Orton is at once, as Percy puts it, "both the hero and ******* of the cosmos." His wealth and power have sated him to the point of extreme boredom, and it is clear that all viable re-entry points have either already been attempted or are simply too base for a man of his stature. What are the conditions under which such a man could actually see the Parthenon and not be bored, or in this case, the Golden Gate Bridge? In Van Orton's case, it takes the work of Consumer Recreation Services, a gift that Van Orton receives from his younger brother for his 48th birthday -- the age at which his father before him (like another father and son in another Percy novel) has committed suicide. Van Orton is mildly amused by his brother's gift, and one day finds himself coincidentally in their new San Francisco office, so he decides to inquire. Here he meets an administrator named Feingold who tempts him into trying the game with the same logic that Satan used on Eve: first, admit that you're interested; it's a no-risk obligation. Van Orton then fills out a questionnaire that sounds more like a confessional transcription than an application to a recreational service: I sometimes hurt small animals, I feel guilty when masturbating, etc. But CRS might as well stand for Character Redemption Services, because the company and its omniscient database immediately begins pursuing Van Orton like some deranged hound of heaven on steroids, backing him up against the wall of his greeds, gluttonies and lusts for what reason neither we nor Van Orton know. Initially, Van Orton is intrigued by the attention; he smiles as he walks into the airport and realizes, with the shock of discovery, that every exchange, glance and action is imbued with tremendous potential significance. He is returned to that state of innocent childhood belief that around each corner the scene has been constructed just prior to his arrival and will collapse just after his departure. But he doesn't know how far it goes, where it starts and ends, and why. Like life, he is only armed with the one clue that the purpose of the game is to discover the purpose of the game. CRS gives Van Orton the full Job treatment: as his security, safety, and luxury are all pulled out from under him with astonishing speed, he is forced to confront the bankruptcy of his own soul and the fragility of his own life. What he doesn't know, and nor do we until the end, is that he has his own personal Beatrice guiding him through the underworld his life has become, and passively but definitively leading his action every misstep of the way. The waitress Christine is almost always with him, and there are little clues here and there, that she is in on it, such as when she mutters to herself, "Watch out for boards and nails, there should be a fire escape" as she leads Van Orton through the second floor of an abandoned building before jumping into the garbage cans in the alley below. One of the nice touches comes at the end when we learn that his guide's real name is not Christine, but Clare, who happens to be the patron saint of television, a perfect choice for a story so completely layered and selectively filtered. From the allegorical point of view, The Game's great strength is in its depiction of the relationship between free will and original sin. With CRS in place of God, Van Orton is placed into situations where by varying degrees he is or is not allowed to exercise his controlling tendencies. When Van Orton is least curious about CRS, they are casually there in the form of a bum asking for money or a toilet stall occupant whose run out of toilet paper. By the film's end, when Van Orton believes he has regained his control, he is actually playing as tightly and closely to the CRS script as is possible. The climactic scene has Van Orton discovering that this is his crime, and that he cannot actually have control. Facing the mirror of his own soul, Van Orton judges and condemns himself to death, choosing the inheritance of his father's and grandfather's death. In the most incredible scene of free-will-as-God's-destiny ever played, Van Orton jumps to his death and lands perfectly inside the circled X that CRS has scripted for his game. Van Orton falls, quite literally, of his own choosing, and lands squarely in the arms of his savior. After reviving him and checking for cuts, one of the medics says, "It's always quite a fall." At the film's conclusion, Feingold congratulates Van Orton saying, "It's a good thing you jumped, because if you didn't I was supposed to push you." Ultimately, The Game pulls off in allegory what the majority of modern cinema has failed to do convincingly or persuasively for as long as I've been alive. The Game, as one of the CRS decoys says to Van Orton early on, is all about John 9:25 - "Whereas once I was blind, now I can see." The Game delivers the old eternal truth in the wrappings of a new mystery. Without a single preachy cliche, without any embarrassment or camp, The Game forces Van Orton and the viewer to recognize the most fundamental paradox of the Christian faith: he who would save his life must first lose it.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: Edge of my seat, can watch it many more times type of movie. Recommend to anyone who likes suspense and action. Simply AWESOME!
Rating:
Summary: Very suspenseful aka Alfred Hitchcock
Review: This is one of the most suspenseful films to come out in a long while. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It is a well written story that has you wondering what will happen next. Michael Douglas is excellent and Debra Unger's performance is underrated! This is a film that you can watch many times with ease.
|
