The Game

I don't get the cockteasing that Criterion did about a DVD release for this.  I feel like they've been promising it forever.  

 

Yeah, this feels like minor Fincher, but it's still a really fun 'fable.'  That's my excuse for looking past the logical inconsistencies!!!!

 

Shit, it's a hell of a lot better than The Girl with the Benjamin Button.

This movie's a helluva ride up until Douglas jumps off the building at the end, which was one ludicrous twist too many. Still, really underrated, and I wouldn't regret dropping money on a Criterion Blu.

Like this movie despite the cheese or perhaps because of it. It is an amazing looking film, just fantastic to look at.

 

Such a great performance by Douglas.

I actually watched this for the first time in years last weekend (it was on Netflix IW, in HD[I think], fyi). My girlfriend had never seen it...she was less than impressed.

 

I love it though. Everything here is great...except the story which stretches credulity. I think I'd give the story more of a pass, if the jump at the end was better executed. When he lands on the air mattress, you should be thinking "Of course, that's why there were all those boxes around the edge of the building." Or whatever...bad explanation for why he'd jump from that one spot...the point is, instead, you think, "Wait, what if he missed the mattress, or hit one of those rafters?" Why show him fall so close to those damned rafters?! It looked cool, I guess. Any of the other stuff, I can explain away if I want to, "Yeah, they had rescue divers ready to swoop in if he panicked and didn't get the window open."

 

Still, story aside, everything about this movie is tops. The movie has also aged well. Sean Penn looking so young ages the movie more than any of the cars or cell phones.

 

It would've been fun if they'd make a side-quel to this, showing the same ludicrous events from CRS's point of view. It could almost be a comedy with CRSs people constantly dropping overlooked clues.

 

I'd love to live in an alternate universe where Christopher Nolan had taken a crack at this story. Not to take anything away from Fincher, but the themes in this movie would fit in well with Inception, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight.

 

 

Really thought we were discussing

 

A fun movie, which I really need to catch again. It was a bit daffy, but it had a certain charm about it that overrode the daffiness somewhat.

Quote:

That would make a great double feature actually. Or with THE TRUMAN SHOW.

 

Yeah, I love this one. I'm a sucker for the "unravelling mystery paranoid fable". Very Polanski. Very PK Dick. Good stuff.

 

Yeah, the jump off of the building is a big 'get the fuck out of here' moment, but I always let it slide because of what follows with the party. It's a good film, and I think it's one of the best performances from Michael Douglas.

A little touch I always found amusing: the guy at the airport who points out the leaking pen is, apparently, the head guy for CRS (He presents the bill at the end). I like the idea that he'd take on a minor role in 'a game' that his company puts on, kinda like a director's cameo within a film.

Another reason why I like this movie: it makes you wonder what your OWN game would be like. How accurately could someone be able to predict your actions? What kind of obstacles would you have to overcome? Would you fall for the game or would you be able to figure it out?

The jump off the roof silliness could have been offset slightly if Douglas had immediately decked Penn and screamed, "How the fuck did you know I would jump THERE?!".

I love this movie and I think it's incredibly underrated. I can't believe people complain about the ending. The movie wouldn't be the same without it. Of course it's absurd, it's deliberately absurd, but it's also 100% the point. 

Mike D'Angelo at the AV Club just wrote up a terrific piece about it. I recommend folks check it out.

This right here.  On my initial viewing, I felt that finale completely undermined the entire film, but I haven't given it a second chance since.  

 

You really need your hand held that much? The surprise party invitation says that guests should expect the party to begin somewhere between 7:32 and 8:17. The idea that they had it worked out that exactly tells you all you need to know: the movie is pretty cheeky with how ridiculous it all is. But again, the movie would not be the same without that ending. It's what makes it work, not where it goes off the rails. 

With the Criterion Blu announced, I was compelled to rewatch this on Netflix tonight, and I came around completely on the ending, which is still logistically ludicrous (Douglas jumps off a fucking skyscraper...it's as insane as Ford jumping off the dam in The Fugitive), but thematically satisfying. I think Deborah Kara Unger is miscast, but she's a weak link in what I now consider one of Fincher's best. Zodiac is his masterpiece, then after that maybe Fight Club, but I'd put The Game right there with Seven.

 

EDIT: Everytime I see Michael Douglas, I think "He's so underrated." This is no exception; he is wonderful in this film.

 

I'm pretty sure James Rebhorn's character says at the party "thank God you jumped, because if you didn't I was supposed to push you off!" which is more or less what you're asking for.  The impression is that these guys had everything under control.  The lengthy registration process Douglas goes through is meant to reinforce the idea that these guys can predict his psyche, and if it all failed then they would have simply nudged him themselves.

 

Also, it's not a documentary, so chill out and enjoy the ride!

 

Love the soundtrack to this film too, I especially dig the trippy music playing in the neon-graffitii vandalised house and during the credits.

I personally think Zodiac is Fincher's one unassailable masterpiece, a true crime odyssey that mesmerizes me from start to finish. Seven and Fight Club are viscerally powerful, but I was surprised how much the ending of The Game moved me this time around, in a way that Fincher's other films simply haven't done for me. 

For most of the film it's a brilliant exploration of paranoia and unease, but I have to say I think it botches the landing. The ending is just a bit too improbable for my tastes. It wraps everything up too neatly and the sentimental nature of the reveal feels at odds with the menace that came before. It's still extraordinarily compelling as a film, and I'm not sure any ending really could have lived up to the slow burn first half.
 

Edited by Dr Harford - 6/23/12 at 4:44pm

Dr. Harford, I agreed with you 100 percent the first time I saw the movie, but I felt differently the second time around. I think it was because I stopped focusing on plot and realizing exactly why CRS made those choices in the game in relation to Douglas' character. (Rewatching the opening helped a lot with that.) I'm not at the point like the D'Angelo column above, but I'm more moved by the end result. I still think Deborah Kara Unger is weak.

 

EDIT: To clarify more, I think Fincher makes a fatal mistake in staging when he sets the final confrontation on a building that tall. The way it's shot, there's no way that Douglas survives the fall.

Thanks for the reply, Mangy. I did read that AV Club piece. I just don't happen to agree with it.The film doesn't work well enough for me, emotionally, to overcome the absurdity of the ending. I am glad the film works for some people though, as I said for the most part I think it's masterfully constructed.

Weird, I just saw this for the first time in many years last night. I remembered liking it a lot back in the late 90's (it was among my late night insomniac staples at the time), but it's been one of those movies I have't seen since then that I figured probably wouldn't age well or hold up at all if I saw it now. Imagine my surprise. On paper this movie should by all rights be a complete disaster, but its like Fincher's making it sing almost by sheer overpowering force of will. Well, that and Douglas/Penn/Unger who are all undeniably fun here. I disagree about Unger being weak here by the way. I actually kinda miss her in general. She's one of those actors/actresses who went through a period (in her case the mid through late 90's) of popping up just in about everything before completely disappearing off the face of the Earth (only things I remember seeing her in during the last ten years are Silent Hill and The Salton Sea). Too bad. I always thought she made a cool femme fetale.

 

Douglas' "Do I feel guilty when I masturbate?" line always gets a big laugh from me without fail. Fantastic deadpan delivery.

 

As far as the ending goes, I'm certain its Penn holding up that "I was drugged and left for dead in Mexico and all I got was this stupid t-shirt" jersey that clinches the absurdity as being totally justified and appropriate. This isn't a movie that's for one moment meant to be taken "seriously" or scrutinized heavily for logic. I also feel like this is without a doubt a movie that could never get made now, at least not with top tier A-list talent like this behind it. Its just too fucking unabashedly weird.

I'd certainly agree that this definitely classifies as a modern attempt at a fable. A really odd, warped, bizarre, quasi noir-ish fable, but a fable all the same. Apart from the beyond ridiculous premise that's completely removed from reality, Douglas' classic, played completely straight, Aesop-like character arc alone all but cements this.

 

I disagree that this is anywhere remotely in the same league as Seven (a film which I consider to be utterly without flaw and more than deserving of the loaded title "masterpiece": easily among my desert island favorite films of all time), Fight Club has tons more depth (and being routinely misunderstood by idiots doesn't change this fact one bit), Zodiac is just plain stellar, and I'm one of those maniacs who loves Alien 3 (the assembly cut at least) and considers it a great film that's way unfairly maligned... but this is still a solid, wonderful little oddity in Fincher's body of work.

Edited by Jaquio - 7/14/12 at 1:48pm

I'm hip to the emotional rollercoaster angle with this.  If it gets you there you should be fine to the end.  If you feel the need to figure out every film (or just this one) then its in trouble.  But I was totally with it.  It was :" yay, his brother is ok and does actually care. Oh now he's shot him and committing suicide, man.  Oh but he's fine because it's all fake!"  Yeah, that was me.

Even though it makes no goddam sense, and it's all about astoundingly rich people playing self important astoundingly expensive games of self discovery where a good slap across the face might just do the trick (which ought to be worse to me).  I went along with it in a post modern North by Northwest sort of way.

It's actually the squibs remark that makes the least sense.  The fall seems marginally more orchestrate-able than that.  But running away from fake gunfire, not knowing which direction they are going to run in advance, they'd have to wire up the whole street.  (no, people bugged by the fall aren't wrong.  It's just down the list a bit for me).

 

Knowing all that and still enjoying it means it must be pretty well done I'd say.  It's really well done, high concept pulp with a heart.  I don't really get people being sniffy about this sort of film when three transformers movies get made and are madly profitable (nobody here, really.  Just in general).  Better endless this and Panic Rooms than any of those.