Customer Reviews

Reindeer Games [VHS]

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

After trashing "Pearl Harbor" last year and "The Sum of All Fears" this year, I felt the pangs of guilt telling me I was picking on local boy Ben Affleck. Therefore, to appease my conscience, I decided to review a Ben Affleck film I enjoy - John Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games".

"Reindeer Games" is just about the most unremarkable, low-stakes thriller you could ever expect to see, featuring all the obvious twists, all the obvious turns, and set in locations and in pursuit of prizes that do not exactly get the viewer buzzing with excitement. What makes the film work, in its own modest way, are the director and the cast.

Frankenheimer is covering old territory here, but it is like watching a veteran baseball player at the plate or in the field - you've seen it a thousand times before but it is still fun to watch. Frankenheimer knows how to edit his films just right, and he always gets a kinky, dark edge out of all his scripts. "Reindeer Games" is no exception, and one of the DVD bonus features regarding differences between the film and this director's cut really lays out why Frankenheimer should be allowed to present the material as he sees fit. The film has just enough jarring moments that, even though you've seen the typical twists and betrayals before, Frankenheimer keeps it compelling and interesting.

The cast, too, rises above the pedestrian heist plot, tackling the film enthusiastically. The movie does not ask them to do too much, so they have fun with what they have. Ben Affleck goes into smartmouth mode, familiar territory, but puts it to amusing use as a criminal roped into doing a job he wants no part of. One of the more amusing repeat gags involves his quest for some pecan pie, either a subtle nod or lift of Bruce Willis' cappucino quest in "Hudson Hawk". Charlize Theron is alternating sweet and petulent as his would-be girlfriend. Gary Sinise, Clarence Williams, and Danny Trejo are good, menacing fun as the heavies. Perhaps the biggest fun is Dennis Farina hamming it up as the casino manager who brings Vegas-style class by operating a bar that offers both Coke and Pepsi.

A film like "Reindeer Games" moves along quickly. It has to or the inertia will allow the viewer to realize just how silly the film is. Frankenheimer keeps the film busy enough to keep the viewer curious and engaged, while the cast does a good job of providing enough quirks and quality performances so that the film isn't forgotten two seconds after the credits start rolling. "Reindeer Games" is not deep, ambitious, or original, but it is a comfortable and quality cover of heist films past.

I didn't think Reindeer Games was anywhere near as mediocre as the critics thought it was. As a matter of fact, I loved the film, and it's certainly much better than that other much overrated plot twisting thriller Wild Things (a mostly suspenseless which might hold some sort of cinematic record for most plot twists ever).

The film is about a car thief named Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck). His best friend, Nick, who has a pen pal named he plans on meeting after he's released-which is also the same day Rudy will be let out-is killed during a food fight. Rudy, in a very tough decision, decides to pretend he's Nick and meets the beautiful Ashley, Nick's pen pal. At first, everything seems to be going right for him for the first time, until Ashley's brother Gabriel arrives and demands Rudy, whom he thinks is Nick, to help him and his band of cronies rob a casino since Nick used to work as a security guard there. Now, Rudy has to try to pretend he's Nick and convince Gabriel he knows how to get in the casino.

Reindeer Games is an exhilarating thriller, with plenty of action and humor. There are some exciting moments and the film is very suspenseful. Affleck's initial guise as Nick is quite funny, along with the moments thoughout the film that he has to convince Sinise he's who he says he is, be that Rudy Duncan or Nick Cassidy.

The film features Ben Affleck in a great performance as the hero who we all root for. Gary Sinise chews the scenery as the villain and makes up for the travesty that was Snake Eyes though he still has to do another work to atone for Mission to Mars (he should have also had the lieutenant Dan look in Mission, at least that would have solidified that film's camp value, but no, the Lt. Dan look had to go to Don Cheadle). Charlize Theron is fairly good as the love interest for Affleck.

This is one of those films that really keeps you guessing, with plot twists that are surprising, especially a big twist at the end that nobody seemed to have ever been able to have guessed correctly. You can never really tell what's going to happen next, or who's going to come out on top in the end. Will Affleck get out of the whole situation alive? Can he keep pretending he's somebody he's not? And what is the twist in the finale? Watch the film and find out.

Sinise and Affleck at their best. Theron adds the sexual tension and conflict. Dramatic setting, clever plot line and plot twists. Great battle scene in the casino. Think of "Two Days in the Valley", "Pulp Fiction", "Snatch", "3000 miles to Graceland", "Red Rock West"--Slighlty off kilter, but captivating throughout. Not really big hits, but really entertaining. If you don't own these six, you should.

This supposed thriller, released in 2000, has a few good moments. One is the way that its stars Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron couple soon after they first meet. Ben Affleck just been released from prison, you see. And she's there to meet him. She's been writing letters to his cellmate, Nick, who has just been knifed. Ben Affleck tells her he's Nick. Then things get complicated. Very complicated.

Gary Sinise enters the scene as the bad guy. And there's a bunch of bad-guy thugs backing him up. They want to force Ben Affleck to help them commit a crime. It gets more and more complicated. Eventually there are five criminals all dressed up like Santa Claus with the intention of robbing a casino.

The plot moved swiftly. It wasn't hard to follow. Especially since the characters all took turns holding a gun to Ben Affleck's head and explaining how our supposed hero was set-up yet again. Then, the plot would deepen. And deepen. There were a few violent scenes and some bloodshed. And then even more explanations.

I kept watching Ben Affleck's facial expressions, which never seemed to change no matter what happened to him. Charlize
Theron is pretty and never missed a chance to show off her body but her acting ability is on a par with Affleck's. Gary Sinise was better; he's a good actor and this part called for overacting. And so what we got was a villain who was just too bad to be true.

This sounds like a comedy. Right?

Wrong. It was supposed to be serious. Give me a break!

I did find it mildly entertaining however.

Its one of those movies, that you get hyped up on and you go up and down on during the movie, with the hype, if you havent seen it already watch it for the first time, its good...but after you've seen it more than once, everything falls in its own place, if this sounds good to you... pick it up.. its a 4 out of 5 in my book... well for first timers anyways then id say a 3 for the people who watch movies over and over like myself.

Reindeer Games just didn't fly well with me. There are about a zillion reasons, but I'll condense.

First, the acting. The acting is what makes or breaks a movie. And the performances in this movie shattered it. OK, so Ben Affleck makes one good movie, and I'm using good loosely here. Does that mean he should be offered starring roles? No. Does it mean we can forgive him for making such garbage? No! Likewise, Gary Sinise wasn't all that great as the villain. He just wasn't believable. And that kind of ties into what I'll talk about next.

The plot and script. Typically, a movie these days is going to have a few plot holes in it. But, to have hole after hole after hole just isn't going to cut it. And some of the things that happened just were not believable. Tires do not squeal on snow. Semis don't growl like Lions. When you fall into a hole, the first place you're going to try to climb back out of is the hole that you fell into! These types of things overshadowed any attempt the movie made at making a smart, creative plot.

Reindeer Games was an action/romance/suspense/prison flick that had all the elements, but just didn't bring home the bacon. 2 Stars

I was expecting more after seeing the previews of this movie. I found the beginning of the story to go very slow. It seems to take a long time to get to the "point" of the film. The action scenes in the casino were very good but were over to quickly. The movie seemed to build up to this scene for so long and once it got there it did not expand on it as much as I would have liked. The ending had lots of twist and turns, almost too many. It was getting to seem that another twist was added to the last twist, just to add yet another twist (if that makes any sense).

I have a feeling this would be a much better book then it was a movie. The director took too much time setting up the viewer with the information that would be the first few chapters of the novel and then had to hurry up and put all the action and the twist to the plot in the finale.

The script isn't very good, but master director John Frankenheimer at least realized this and decided to make an all-out comedy out of it. Very funny. The bad guys here are even more inept than the bunch in 52 PICK-UP, another Frankenheimer laff riot (also with Clarence Williams III). And how can anybody overlook the amazing camerawork? Name another action movie from the past 10 years that crams so many characters into the frame and plays with depth of field so wonderfully? This is Frankenheimer's most visually interesting film since SECONDS. Also, let's not sell the performers short. I've never been a big Ben Affleck fan, but he's hilarious here -- especially when he's trying to shiver convincingly after being pulled out of the freezing water. I also love Gary Sinise screaming "Where's the powwow safe?!" through a Santa Claus beard. Brilliant. I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 simply because the DVD doesn't include the deleted scenes that were initially promised (like the sequence where Affleck jumps off a snow-covered cliff, which is in the trailer but not in the movie).

This movie was just terrible. The acting is the worst that I have seen out of all of the actors. It's not because they are bad actors, it is because they were given such terrible dialogue to work with. Ben Affleck's character didn't know whether to be tough or scared. It was just so up and down, that it seemed like he was playing two characters. A wimp and a tough guy. It didn't make sense. The only reason that I gave the movie 2 instead of one stars is because it had a little surprise at the end that I didn't expect. Other than that, it was a complete waste of time. I wouldn't even advise renting it, let alone buying it.

I realize that when you watch a film there is a need to suspend disbelief, but this film is ridiculous. This story has more holes than a colander and it gets more ludicrous as it progresses.

It starts out well plausibly enough. Upon release from prison, Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck) impersonates his cellmate Nick (James Frain) in order to get with Ashley (Chalene Theron), his lovely pen-pal girlfriend. After a short frolic, Ashley's evil brother Gabriel (Gary Sinise) and his thugs kidnap Rudy, thinking he is Nick. It seems Nick once worked as a security guard in a casino that the thugs want to rob. The film is intriguing to here, but a succession of dubious situations and plot twists mar what started out as a good setup.

Ehren Kruger has given us some good scripts (Scream 3, Arlington Road), but in this story he tried to be a little too clever and it bombed. There was a lot of exceptionally bad dialogue. There were so many holes in the plot, Kruger felt compelled to try to patch it up with explanatory dialogue near the end. The ending was so far beyond inconceivable that it bordered on moronic.

Director John Frankenheimer did a very nice job with the camera, giving us a great variety of innovative perspective shots, and pacing the film well. The action scenes and stunts were also well done.

The acting was terrific by the entire cast. It is a pity that they didn't have better material. Gary Sinise was nefarious and slimy as Ashley's evil brother. Chalize Theron was wonderfully duplicitous as Ashley, all dewy eyed with Rudy at first, then playing the helpless victim, and later as the cold-hearted woman with the pistol in her hand. That was quite a range and she was fabulous in just about every scene. Ben Affleck might have been a little too nice to be Rudy. Though he was only a car thief, he just didn't seem much like a convict. Still, he has good screen presence, and he carried the role off pretty well.

I rated this film a 6/10. I subtracted three points for the dubious plot and another point for the absurd ending. The acting and directing were marvelous, but the story was so flawed that it couldn't be redeemed.