Good-looking and exciting thriller ruined by a horrible ending

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2011)

Wealthy, uncaring, unfeeling Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is visited on his birthday by his good for nothing brother Conrad (Sean Penn). Conrad gives him a card to join CRS (Consumer Recreation Services) and says it will change his life. Nicholas does call and visit and is given a battery of tests and a physical. Then he is released...and CRS starts out to destroy his life and kill him in the process.
DEFINITE SPOILERS!!!! This movie looks great and is lots of fun...until the stupid ending. Actually there is a big mistake right at the beginning. We're expected to believe that Nicholas would actually agree to all these tests AND a physical. No way. It doesn't fit his character at all. I was able to accept that though. Then at the end, when we find out it was just a big joke, the movie falls to pieces. There is no possible way all of this could have been planned out. Are we supposed to believe the whole city of San Francisco would just go along with everything? Virtually all of the coincidences couldn't have been possibly been set up. Also there are more than a few moments where people could have died! And really--they take him all the way to Mexico, put him in a grave and expect him to come out of there ALIVE??? Come on! The implausibilities in this are just staggering. But it's all OK cause it turns him into a better, more caring person!!!! I got my limits but this movie went WAY over them!
Still I'm giving this a 6 because, for most of its running time, it is exciting, fast-moving and fun. Douglas and Penn are both good and Deborah Kara Unger is excellent as a woman who gets involved in all this. Director Fincher wisely films everything at night or in dark places which just adds to the paranoia of the film. So, I (sort of) recommend it if you can get past the totally stupid ending.