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The game

Threat advisory: Guarded - General risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Are you ready to play the game?

Nicholas van Orton (Michael Douglas) is a shrewdly successful businessman who is accustomed to being in control of each facet of his investments and relationships. His well-ordered life undergoes a profound change, however, when his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) gives him an unexpected birthday gift that soon has devastating consequences. As Nicholas begins playing the game, he discovers that it has very high stakes, although he isn't certain of the rules or even the objective. The game becomes an enigmatic life or death contest that will change his life forever.

Directed by David Fincher.

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Not as much fun as I thought it might be.

There are intense bits, thrilling bits, scary bits and even funny bits, but the biggest problem with The game is that while it's set in the real world, it could never happen. There are just too many co-incidences to ring true. How do you guarantee that someone will get into a certain taxi at a certain time? How do you know that someone will unknowingly put a hidden camera right where he can be seen by it? how do you make someone jump off a roof - from the correct side of the building - and land in a crash bag without killing themselves? And besides which, who really cares what happens to Michael Douglas anyway?

Although it is mildly entertaining, there are other, better films about mind games than this one (try Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo).

A mediocre effort that you may well miss because it has already gone to video.

Security censorship classification

M (Medium level coarse language, low level violence)

Not for public release in Australia before date

2 October 1997

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