MovieChat Forums > The Game (1997) Discussion > This movie was awful.

This movie was awful.

posted 14 years ago by leftwichqb7
72 replies | jump to latest

Reminded me a bit of Eagle Eye.

It was just too over the top.

A 7.7? Really?

More like a 5...AT BEST.

[–] leftwichqb7 14 years ago

Also, I know some diehard fan of this movie will pop his/her head into this thread and say, "You just didn't get it. Use your head." or some pretentious bullsh!t to that effect.

Just STFU.

The movie is not complex in the slightest. I understand the "point" behind "The Game", so don't act like this is some *beep* rollercoaster ride.

[–] okusandman 14 years ago

You know they are lookin' for trouble when they argue with themselves before anyone else has a chance to jump in.

[–] jcoc_ap204 13 years ago

^^ This!

[–] fortunate1 11 years ago

^^ this

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] christoffahoward 8 years ago

haha the STFU part made me laugh...

[–] aps722 13 years ago

You have a right to your opinion, but I think you just didn't get it. Also I think you should use your head.

Get outta here ya half-a-sissy 'for I give ya a slap.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] gottaluvafriend 8 years ago

Hey! STFU.

[–] tiznonayk9 14 years ago

lol, you just watch this on Showtime too? I thought it was really good, actually.

What exactly was too over the top?

[–] whatsthisnow 14 years ago

Must admit, I thought it was the most ridiculous and nonsensical twist that I've ever seen in a movie (M. Night Shyamalamadingdong notwithstanding). Completely ruined the whole movie, for me at least (obviously I'm a minority, given the high rating). I just came away from it thinking Fincher was having a laugh at my expense.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] creepingdeath91 13 years ago

That song is horrendous.

[–] seanfoulkes 12 years ago

Are you talking about Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit?"

You do realize he used that song because

1)first major band to emerge from the San Francisco Music scene (mid-1960s), and the movie takes place in San Francisco.

2)They virtually created the "psychedelic rock" genre, and psychedelic rock investigates much of the detachment-from-reality themes present in this film.

3)The song itself is about a dream world similar to Alice in Wonderland, where the dreamer has a hard time grasping reality.

[–] noboozer 12 years ago

I hear that song and immediately think of that scene. Truly a great scene.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] tiznonayk9 14 years ago

but yeah, no problem on the enlightening . . . . "chief"

but really, what didnt you like about it? youre not gonna hurt my feelings. i didnt work on the set or anything, lol

I thought it was really well thought out, and VERY well acted, personally. I didnt care for Eagle Eye, but I guess I can see the similarities

[–] bk58 14 years ago

SPOILERS

I just watched this last night and I agree completely. I have been trying to organise my thoughts on how many things I did not like about this film. The beginning, the montage of childhood images. First of all it obviously looked like present day images intentionally damaged to look old. It just looked cheap. And why did it have to be 5-7 minutes long when it contained nothing that linked to the rest of the film. The shot of his father jumping off of the roof didnt occur until later in the film as a flashback. So the film starts off with 7 minutes of unimpressive, unimportant material. That's the start.
Then there is the argument of how plausible a movie has to be. The arguments I have seen are that Lord of the Rings and ET contain fantastic situations and that The Game should be treated the same way. That it's just a movie. No. I actually think ET was more realistic than this movie. A fantastic situation starts the movie off but then everyone deals with it using realistic methods. A small bit of magic with a flying bike is charming, it can be explained by saying the alien has powers. The Game offered no explanation for its heightened reality other than the people are really rich and can do anything, even pinpoint where a man will jump off a roof. And they are so rich they can prevent him from breaking his leg when jumping 30 feet in to trash. Rubbish.

My biggest problem is the taxi. It is not realistic for someone who loves his brother to put him in a cab and potentially drown him. It is not. And as far as the quality of the movie, how hard would it be to put in a line saying that there were scuba divers in the water ready to assist should he be trapped too long underwater, or simply show them in a flashback for 2 seconds? I think the writing is lazy. So we are to assume that they placed whatever they do in movies (fireworks) all over his apartment when he is attacked by the gunmen the first time? Because there are plenty of small bursts to imply that bullets are hitting targets? Wow, I hate this movie.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] bk58 14 years ago

But to me that's like saying we didnt really finish or polish this script, so how about you just imagine yourself and fill in the holes. If I wanted to do that, I would write my own script or buy a Choose Your Own Adventure book. In my opinion that shows complete disrespect on behalf of the director; delivering an unfinished product. If he wants to show me the movie for free then he can do whatever he wants, but if he is making money and accepting mine then there needs to be accountability. When I watch a movie I expect a really great story, or perhaps groundbreaking images that contribute to the art of film. The Game did not have groundbreaking visuals, so the least it could do after accepting my money was have a story that made sense.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] bk58 14 years ago

I do agree that I love to discuss choices that are presented in movies. However, do you think there is a difference between these two situations?
Wait, make it three including the Game.

SPOILERS for Gone Baby Gone and Inception.

In the end of Gone baby Gone, the viewer is asked whether they would leave a child with its birth mother who is a crack addict, or approve of stealing that child and delivering it to a nice family even if that is against the law. Now that is something to discuss about the story of the film and has nothing to do with its plausibility.

Or Inception where at the end the script follows its established rules and has the main character check to see if he is dreaming or in reality and the audience is not shown the answer and left to ponder. run on sentence, sorry. I enjoy debating about plot points like that as well.

I am arguing that the questions about The Game stem from being very unclear about its own rules and the rules of reality. I am not pondering The Game because its story was intriguing, it is because I found it implausible. I don't think that kind of debate speaks to a movie's quality. This is subjective, but the movie did not make me care one iota whether or not Michael Douglas gets that date with the blond woman at the end.

But I do agree, the vandalism and lighting of Michael Douglas's house was very well shot and did actually make me feel frightened. Good music as well. It just did not sell me on its overall atmosphere.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] bk58 14 years ago

I wonder why these posts were deleted... The person replying to me had some interesting things to say and he wasnt using any bad language at all.

[–] peteyandjia 14 years ago

The beginning, the montage of childhood images. why did it have to be 5-7 minutes long when it contained nothing that linked to the rest of the film. So the film starts off with 7 minutes of unimpressive, unimportant material. That's the start.

First of all it was 1 minute. 1. You thought that 1 minute was 7 minutes. So that proves you have no attention span right there and should maybe be on medication.

Second it had everything to do with the film. You just didn't get it. It paints Nicholas' childhood as one he thinks back on sadly, shows the importance of his father, his father walking away into the darkness is an analogy of his death, and there's even a scene where young Conrad pushes Nicholas into a pool, and then helps him out of it. Which is foreshadowing of the CRS game/epiphany he is about to give his brother.

All of this was there for you to see, if you had paid attention. But instead you tuned out, because it was too long for your attention span, ya know, 7 whole minutes. I mean 1.

My biggest problem is the taxi. How hard would it be to put in a line saying that there were scuba divers in the water ready to assist should he be trapped too long underwater, or simply show them in a flashback for 2 seconds? I think the writing is lazy.

Guess what dopey, that line IS in the movie.

Deborah Unger's character says it to Nicholas at the very end, when she is trying to convince him that it was just a game, and not to shoot his brother. She says something like "the taxi, divers were standing by..."

So the writing wasn't lazy, you just didn't pay attention. This movie was over your head.

[–] nevermore806 13 years ago

I am so freaking glad you pointed out that poster obvious misconceptions. I literally made an account just so I could refute his assertions about the movie having been "lazily" written. Again, thank you.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Temrael_Darkfury 13 years ago

SPOILERS

I really like this film, yep it takes liberties, it requires a bit of latitude from the viewer but I love what it says and how it says it. :o)

I had to pick up on a couple of things that bk58 said though. Totally respect your opinion but I think you might have missed a couple of bits.

Firstly, the montage of childhood images told us a lot. It's true the dad's suicide isn't shown later but I think this makes sense, to introduce the suicide then would have been to early. The opening flashback (which I thought looked fairly authentically like 8mm film) told us...

- Nicholas came from a super rich family (the house, party and staff)
- Nicholas' father was a distant/cold man (the boat given to Nicholas and the way his father steps back into the shadows)
- Nicholas was very much older than is brother Conrad and was brought up to look out for him (Nicholas holding conrad as a baby)
- Clowns were introduced as a motif for childhood innocence and play, the time before his father died

I think the harsh jump from that carefree childhood existence, surrounded by people to the cold clinical opening of him washing and dressing alone and leaving his huge house for the office works really well. It shows us what he lost having to grow up so quick.

The trash could have been deliberately soft I guess, remember they were chased there by CRS and maybe that was the only place one could get down.

The taxi, one of the things Christine/Claire says on the roof as things really start to kick off, when she mentions squibs etc to illustrate all has been illussion, is "the taxi... there were divers".

Finally, a lot of people mention what if he had jumped somewhere else. Yep it's a stretch and I dare say there would have been a few forms to fill in if CRS had turned Nicky into strawbery jello heh but if you look at where he jumps from you'll see...

- It's the nearest part of the roof to him, directly away from the elevator
- It is equidistant between two flashing aerials

I guess we could choose to believe that Nicholas was a little anal and liked things just so. He jumped from the nearest, neatest place from where he was stood, headed away from his dead brother.

Anyway, I do understand peoples different reactions to this film but I love it. It's essentially a story of redemption, a modern day Christmas Carol if you will and I am a sucker for those sorts of things. :o)

At your service,

Temrael Darkfury
"Time flies like the wind but fruit flies like a banana!"

[–] khamier 11 years ago

It's also similar to the SAW movies, in that it takes someone that has quit living their life - and puts them through huge trauma to make them realize that by facing death, they want to live.

I agree with all your points. The movie does a really good job of showing how he had a happy life at one point, but since his father's death - he has been living as though he died at the same time.

As far as all the stunts.... sure you need to suspend some disbelief, but all those stunts support a strong theme of making him live life again. The company CRS, is shown to cater to the extremely rich that need a 'wake-up call' in life. Thus, it's not crazy to believe they have a huge budget...

Bah, here I am on a Sunday morning responding to 2 year old posts because I just watched one of my favorite movies with my morning coffee....

I think this movie is totally frigging brilliant. As far as 'plot-holes' at the end - I have no problem believing the ending - the one actor in white tells Douglas "it's a good thing you jumped, or else I was supposed to push you". Also, his brother is walking around in a bloody suit that has a bullet hole and blood on the back of the suit... Why would he have this?? unless it was in case the situation demanded that he be shot in the back instead...

All these little details - help to build the illusion to me, that CRS planned many different ways for things to happen and covered many of the different outcomes. If it didn't happen the way it did - it would have happened in a similar way that would have had the same end result.

Some people love this movie, some people don't... I'm in the loving it group.

[–] psycop 13 years ago

Very overrated movie. It's just a pretentious bluff. Good for entertaining purposes but there is nothing to look for beneath the surface.

I would give it a 6/10.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] allhaildougie 12 years ago

I just finished watching this movie and there is definitely a scene in which the main female actor tells him that there was a scuba team. It's at the bit where he's threatening to shoot her on the rooftop.

[–] allhaildougie 12 years ago

bk58, did you actually watch the film?

[–] vestdennis 12 years ago

I agree bk58. No company could afford the insurance liabilities that came with "The Game". Risk someone's life by having the car they're in fly into the water? Okay, some people say there were divers. So? What if he hit his head while plunging into the water and was knocked out. A person could easily drown before divers could get to him. No company would agree to such stunts. Plus the jump from the 15- 20 (or more) story building. What if he jumps from the wrong side? He could easily break a limb or his back by such a fall.

Does anyone really think a company is going to attempt such stunts? The cost would be something only the federal government could afford (b/c they print money). The liability issues alone would be massive!

People say "well it's make-believe" or "fiction" and we're not supposed to take everything seriously. The problem with that argument is that they didn't say this movie was "make believe". It wasn't sold as such. If I go to The Hobbit or ET I know it's fantasy.

The makers of this movie just asked us to completely ignore plot hole after plot hole and just buy what they're selling...

[–] VirtualMark 12 years ago

I have to agree. What you said about the jump into the trash for example - that could have easily cost him his life. He could have hit his spine on the bin and have been paralysed. Either slightly before or after that he was chased by dogs that only just missed him, it was way too close to be controlled. There was tons of moments like this that just don't add up.

I don't think I'd be too happy afterwards either. Maybe even emotionally scarred! After all he did try to kill himself at the end, that's a pretty big thing for anyone, not something I'd personally find funny or acceptable.

[–] avortac4 (3746) 3 years ago

"And they are so rich they can prevent him from breaking his leg when jumping 30 feet in to trash. Rubbish."

Literally... I mean, jumping to TRASH is RUBBISH.

All humor aside, people should stop jumping to trash bins/cans/containers in movies, as if it's something safe.

In movies, it of course always is, because 'movie trash' is 'shredded paper' and other soft materials, maybe soft cardboard at best.

Real-world trash is metal, sharp-edged tuna cans, broken electronics, torn and spiky plastics, old lamps, all kinds of dirty, smelly, stainy, clammy and oily plastic containers, discarded food items of all possible kinds, rotting and insect-ridden, moldy and unhealthy-to-touch crap. Real trash is DANGEROUS on more levels than one - you would most likely (VERY likely) injure yourself physically, in addition to catching some nasty disease, damaging your skin the very least, contaminate your clothes and any bare skin parts...

JUMPING INTO TRASH IS DANGEROUS, but in movies, it's always safe as can be, because movie trash is mostly shredder soft paper.

Think of any movie situation where the protagonist has to deal with trash - from The Matrix, when Neo jumps into a trashcan from a very high distance, and instead of instantly slicing his body painfully into multiple parts and fracturing multiple bones by hitting all that sharp metal/plastic and then catching a nasty infection from all the unhygienic and disgusting filth and slime those broken body parts would come into contct with, the movie trash is just some mattresses and other clean, soft materials.

Even the small bit in 'Liar, Liar', where Jim Carrey's character is beating himself up in the toilet, and he turns a trash can upside down above his head, only safe, soft 'movie trash' falls out.

Imagine if this was realistic and used tampons and possibly drug needles, discarded dirty and wet, oily paper towels with who-knows-what on them would fall on his face and stick to it.. ewww...

Don't jump into trashcans.

[–] Robbmonster 14 years ago

I think you mean that Eagle Eye is reminiscent of The Game, not the other way around.

But all the same, thank you for your in-depth review. There is a job reviewing movies waiting for you somewhere...

Never defend crap with: "It's just a movie"
My work:
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[–] cameleopard-1 14 years ago

I agree that this could be called Eagle Eye 2, except that like most Fincher movies the plot in The Game is lost.

It's also entirely inappropriate to watch with one's children despite what trolls on this board might say.

"Religion: it's given people hope in a world torn apart by religion." - Jon Stewart

[–] PrimordialDreamer 14 years ago

No, this is great fun, but Eagle Eye was crap.

If you keep an open mind... you`ll discover dark secrets.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Amthermandes 13 years ago

funny, just like how you think it should be rated lower, there are many people who think it should be higher (like me).

So 7.7 sounds about right.

And for the record, Eagle Eye was a great movie as well. If you don't like good thrillers, then stop watching them.

"Negative, I am a meat popsicle"