The Game DVD Review

"THE GAME" reviews

DVD

THE GAME

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-05-05 15:31:58

Provider

DVD Review

Michael Douglas and Sean Penn battle it out for 'most stressful performance in a David Fincher movie'. Neither come fully up to scratch in this 1997 film (as Edward Norton and Brad Pitt still share that award for excellent The Fight Club).

Rich and eligible loner Nicholas Van Orton gets the most bizarre 48th birthday present from his often absent and errant younger brother, Conrad - a card inviting him to Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). After arriving at their offices things start to go remarkably strange and decidedly horrible in his world as he's shot at, chased, bankrupted, robbed. Indeed, generally doled out a laundry list of the nastiest of retributions you could think of. Is it all at the hands of CRS or is someone else trying to ruin his life?

Fincher's follow up to 7even is lusher, less dark, but still a fun thriller. The tenet of it all doesn't quite come off and the dabbling of studio bosses to get Douglas more screen time and the audience a happier ending appear to have been in play. It reaches a most most outlandish pique when his character is kidnapped, shipped off and dumped in a south American shanty town with no memory of the trip, any cash or ID (there's a reality TV show in there somewhere!).

This Special Edition will feed a frenzy of Fincher fans with his alternate ending, Behind the Scenes and Location footage plus production artwork. The best is Fincher's commentary though - a man looking afresh at a great thriller turned fairly good and the second misfire from his Hollywood canon (the first being Alien3).

Definitely worth your time to catch Douglas working hard, Penn showing his first signs of brilliance and a whole host of cameos by quality American talent plus Fincher's signature stylings!