The Game

This is not a movie that can bear much postgame scrutiny. The minute you begin to question one element of the plot, gaping holes of logic appear throughout.

It's formulaic, yet edgy. It's predictable, yet full of surprises. How far you get through this tall tale of a thriller before you give up and howl is a matter of personal taste.

At times The Game is frustrating to watch, but that's just a measure of how well Fincher succeeds in putting us in his hero's shoes.

The film itself is limited by the material's nature as a brainy exercise and by its narrow focus; individual response will depend upon how tantalized one is by puzzles and games, as well as upon how off-putting one finds the central character, who is center-stage throughout.

It's a cut above the throng of mindless, purported thrillers in which explosions and gun battles replace even rudimentary story telling.

By any fair standard, this lushly produced film is a long, bumpy ride to a major letdown.

Certainly handsome, well made and for most of its running time gripping, the film ultimately turns into a $60-odd-million piffle.

La trama avanza con lentitud; sin embargo, tiene mucha tensión y la actuación de Michael Douglas es excelente. ¡TOTALMENTE RECOMENDABLE!

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Michael Douglas accepts an invitation to join a mysterious, exclusive "recreation activity" at the insistence of his loser brother, and is then thoroughly terrorized by the game makers. The Game is a mile-a-minute barrel ride over the edge of a waterfall, with the audience left in the dark right alongside the protagonist. Young director David Fincher plays up the suspense like an old master, but isn't quite able to compensate for a few inherent flaws with the premise. First and foremost is Douglas's leading part, a thoroughly unlikable one-percenter who's such a Scrooge it's impossible to feel too invested about his fate. In a way it's cathartic to see him tormented by such a brutal series of twists and turns, especially in the afterglow of the Wall Street bailout, but the film goes out of its way to paint him as a sort of tragic hero. The plot's reckless yanks on the steering wheel, too, aren't all they're cracked up to be. Those constant swerves provide a great series of unpredictable thrills, but ultimately ring hollow when our suspension of disbelief is nudged too far beyond the coincidental. The entire closing sequence, in particular, is just so dependent on things happening in precisely the right place, at precisely the right time, that it left me questioning the validity of everything that came before. A nice effort, and a strong-legged concept, but one which falls short in too many important areas to deserve high marks.

The Game is quite a thrill seeking ride directed by David Fincher. For as entertaining as it is, it still comes with pitfalls. Exactly how all these things that happen in the movie could done so precisely is baffling. Maybe Fincher wanted it to be like this but at the end of the film I still felt like this was all to good to be true. 60/100

i dont know how this movie got a high rating! i felt bored as i watched this nonsense and only stayed to see what the big reveal was and i was disappointed, i probably would have rated it higher if i had watched it in 1997, it was flat and long and boring, i cant say i enjoyed this movie at all and felt like i wasted 2 hours of my time, especially that ending its just is not logical and a complete nonsenseOnly things that were good were acting and direction