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| Reindeer Games |
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  (6/10)
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Runtime: 105 |
| Public Rating: 4.36 (14 votes) |
Director: John Frankenheimer |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Thriller/Action |
Year: 2000 |
| Writer(s): Ehren Kruger |
| Reviewed by: Arturo García Lasca |
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After directing "Ronin" (1998) John Frankenheimer took a small break, and when he decided to make a film again it turned out to be another action thriller, in this case with less action and more suspense, so what's most important in here is the story itself and not any particular exiting scene(s).
Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck) and Nick Cassidy (James Frain) will leave pisson in just a couple of days; Rudy just wants to go home while Nick is planning to meet her girlfriend who he met while being in jail, she has never seen him but he has seen her photos and they've exchanged many letters. While all the prisoners are eating there is a fight started and Nick is killed, so when Rudy goes out a couple of days later and finds Ashley (Charlize Theron) waiting for Nick he decides to pose as him since he's got nothing to lose -Ashley is very pretty also-. They immediately start a relationship and make love in a motel; but one day when Rudy returns to the motel he finds Ashley's brother Gabriel (Gary Sinise) and his men in there, who beat him and force him to help them. You see, Gabriel said he had been reading Nick's letters so he knew he used to work at the Tomahawk Casino, now all he wants him to help him get in there, the only problem is.. Nick isn't really Nick, but saying that won't help Rudy at all so he needs to find another way to get out of the situation.
The film was pretty interesting from the beginning, when they showed 5 Santas dead in the snow, from that the audience is able to deduce something went wrong at some point and the film will show what exactly happened. It's a nice way to begin a film. The performances in this film were fine, Affleck has been known as a good actor for a while now and he added a nice touch of comedy to the film since he was the only character who was always scared and improvising. Average performance by Charlize Theron, not bad but nothing special either. I've always considered Gary Sinise a great actor, and despite this isn't the best kind of role for him he was pretty good at it.
If a film is being just average the whole time but has a cool twist at the end, then you have a good movie; if a film is being already good and then has even a better twist, then you have a great movie; but if a film is being good and after the twist you just wonder what kind of moron would actually believe that story, you don't have a very good movie. There are a couple of changes in the story, but it's the final twist that makes you ask yourself a question that Affleck himself said in the film, "How many things could have went wrong? a thousand?". It's a real pity since the film's atmosphere was very thrilling and it had kept some nice suspense so far, then they had to come up with that ending which just adds a huge hole -or a bunch of holes!- to the story. A real pity as I've said, but there's nothing we can do about it. The film is still worth watching I guess, it's fairly entertaining the whole time, but it wouldn't be one of my top recommendations.
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