Worth Watching - But Only Once

Rating: 7/10 (5 December 2005)

THE GAME is the type of movie that was very popular at the turn of the century - One that has a great twist in the tail . Unfortunately when the great twist is revealed the film comes crashing down . The producers may claim that that THE GAME is more of a journey than a destination whereby the audience are transported somewhere but the more you think about the plot at the end of the line the more the audience will complain that the journey was a little too contrived to be worth going back on the same route
!!!! SPOILERS !!!! The premise involves " what do you get for the man who has everything " , Nicholas Van Orton has everything we wants in a material world but it's come at a price where he's a lonely middle aged man and you're instantly reminded of Michael Douglas Oscar winning role in WALL STREET as Gordon Gekko . His brother Conrad buys him a birthday gift from Consumer Recreation Services and then all sorts of strange and dangerous things start happening
The problem with the scenario is that when the ending is revealed your suspension of disbelief may not have been suspended enough . The comments pages for this film is full of people pointing out things like " What if Nicholas got mugged in Mexico, or if he jumped off a different part of the building or if he did or didn't contact such and such a person ? he wouldn't have arrived at the ending " and they're right . In fact if you stop to think about it it also means that every single previous customer who used CRS must had a successful time other wise the customer would have sued the company in a multi million pound court case . Are you trying to say all that excitement wouldn't have caused a previous customer to have a heart attack or be seriously injured , perhaps even killed ? Why do you think no one in real life has come up with something like CRS in real life ? That's because of the real life possibility of litigation
I do confess that I'm taking things a little too serious and people will point out that it's only a film and they're right . For most of the running time I found THE GAME rather compelling entertainment similar to TOTAL RECALL without the high body count and sci-fi elements and though everything disintegrates with the revelation I do recommend THE GAME as entertainment mixed in with a redemption plot