The Game is, just like the film that would follow it, 1999's Fight Club, a superior genre film that deserves more respect.

Rating: 6/10 (1 May 2010)

The Game is an intensely exciting puzzle-gimmick thriller, the kind of film that lets you know from the start that it's slyly aware of its own absurdity. A rich control freak (Michael Douglas) receives an unusual birthday present from his brother (Sean Penn): entry into a live-action game which unfolds in the course of the player's everyday existence.
The Game is a darkly comic thriller that toys skilfully with different levels of reality, asking us – like the film's hero – to question what we're seeing at every stage; the ending allows disappointingly little room for doubt, but Douglas unravels in such tremendous fashion en route that we get right behind an initially unsympathetic character. David Fincher's direction is impeccable.