The Game (1997)

[jibberking 1]

What a fantastic birthday gift from Conrad (Sean Penn) to his brother Nicholas (Michael Douglas) - a game of death to commemorate their father's suicide. Good thing Nicholas jumped off the safe side of that skyscraper, eh?

 

Fincher be damned, he deserves the HDTGM scorn.

[Lando 2019]

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

"Okay guys, we're at the big finale where the player has decided to commit suicide after thinking he just shot and killed his brother and will hurl himself several stories off a building. Get ready to inflate the airbag and position it directlty under the glass ceiling he'll be crashing through, but will miraculously not break a single bone in his body (or even receive a life threatening cut or even a scrape). On my mark. Wait for it... Wait for it... Wait... For... It.... Now!!!"

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, uh: SPOILER ALERT!!!

[jibberking 1]

Hmmm, did I hit a sore spot Lando? A simple no would have sufficed.

[Lando 2019]

Yes, people coming in and just assuming that everyone is going to be on their side of disliking a relatively well received movie always hits a sore spot.

[jibberking 1]

Holy crabcakes douchebag, you are way off. Wasn't assuming anything, anyone can post their own bad movie recommendations, this was mine. I may only have posted five or six times, but I've been listening to Earwolf for years, so I have every right to post something. Chill gringo, time to get that stick out of your peehole.

[Lando 2019]

Saying that Fincher deserves scorn for this film is a pretty bold and presumptive statement.

 

And I could have easily put the 10 hour version of Hitler saying "Nein" but the 4 second version seemed much more appropriate.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I haven't seen the film since theaters, so I don't know if it holds up to the "Everything had to work out exactly the way that it did to get to this without someone dying" ending on a repeat viewing, but if the movie DOES fail itself, I'd be up for some discussion, because it's always fun when a movie betrays it's own logic for the sake of a shocking twist ending, such as when a monstrous masked serial killer with superhuman strength is ultimately revealed to be a petite girl with absolutely no fighting ability. "The Game" could be good crazy, and I'd be happy to finally re-visit it if HDTGM or a similar podcast did a show on it.

[jibberking 1]

"Saying that Fincher deserves scorn for this film is a pretty bold and presumptive statement."

 

Chillax troll, let me guess, you got you're first boner during a matinee screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?

 

Posting a 4 second or 10 hour clip of Hitler is a pretty bold and presumptive statement too.

[Lando 2019]

[jibberking 1]

Too many pretentious hipster douchebags here. Is that how you gum your clients Lando?

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

[Merkin Muffley 24]

This thread needs puppies!

 

[MondayCity 194]

I agree . . . with everyone. I really liked The Game, and someday someone is going to get an elaborate birthday prank from me that involves actors strategically placed throughout the city improvising dialogue that will basically serve as cut scenes for a random set of missions. Having said that, the movie could have worked a little harder to make the ending less dependent on sheer luck. Did they have a line in there at the end somewhere about having other ways of making sure he got to the party? Even that would have helped. I do have a weakness for twist endings involving what we thought was real, like Vanilla Sky, Jacob's Ladder, Fight Club, but it should not have too many cheats. Still, I'd even rather see a failed attempt at twisting reality than something really good about realistic problems. (That has everything to do with me and nothing to do with art.)

[RyanSz 3140]

"Saying that Fincher deserves scorn for this film is a pretty bold and presumptive statement."

 

Chillax troll, let me guess, you got you're first boner during a matinee screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?

How is he being a troll by just posting a clip saying no, when you're the one calling names?

 

I loved the Game but I can understand how someone can find issue with how it played out. I just went under the assumption that because Douglas' character was such a type-A personality with a set schedule of things in his life it was easy for this massive company to plot out how he would do things once things started going against the grain for him. And they did have alternatives for if he didn't do something, like in the end when James Rebhorn told him that if he didn't shoot Sean Penn he was supposed to fight him and throw him over the side. Plus Sean Penn was there the whole time to give suggestions to the company on how to handle his brother and what possible choices he might make.

 

And if you're looking for as you say "pretentious hipsters" go to IMDB's boards for that shit.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

The Panic Room is a much more podcast worthy movie of Finchers. The Game was a fun movie. I particularly liked the scene where they used the spliced dialogue of the news anchor to talk to Douglas.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

The Panic Room is a much more podcast worthy movie of Finchers. The Game was a fun movie. I particularly liked the scene where they used the spliced dialogue of the news anchor to talk to Douglas.

I'd forgotten that "Panic Room" was his. "The Game" was kind of implausible, sure, but I remember "Panic Room" just being fucking stupid. You spend the movie being about 10 steps ahead of the characters ("Oh yeah, we could use the cameras that we've been watching for the last two hours to our advantage!"), and having lived in a place with all hardwood floors, I find it impossible to believe that no one hears anyone else towards the beginning when the crooks are bitching at each other on the first floor while Jodie Foster is still up and about on the third, when no one knows that anyone else is in the building yet.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

The entire premise is just fucking nonsense.

 

Jodie Foster gets divorced and her first course of action is to buy a four story brownstone in New York for her and her one daughter.

Which just happened to be owned be a reclusive millionaire who had an safe room installed. Which also just happened to have $22 million in bearer bonds stashed away in it.

 

Oh and the bad guys are Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, and Jared Leto in cornrows.

[RyanSz 3140]

And Yoakam was named Raul.

[Lando 2019]

How is he being a troll by just posting a clip saying no, when you're the one calling names?

 

 

I admit that my 2nd post probably came off harsher than I had intended, but alas that's the internet where there is no tonal inflection. However, when someone goes to personal insults I just grab the popcorn and let them go.

[Lando 2019]

So I saw this movie for the first time probably a year ago. I don't think that it quite holds up and it requires a lot of things to go right but it's not a bad movie. More than anything this movie was at the beginning of the twist ending craze of the 2000s and as such I don't think it's quite fair to judge it by what has been built upon since.

[blando von lando el douchero 0]

Eeesh, I was going to throw this movie out, it's not horrible but definitely full of loop holes, but now I'm fearful of backlash after seeing these responses. What's with the Downfall clip, great movie, but that seems way out of place as a retort. The quarter Jewish in me is offended, but the quarter German in me is quietly laughing.

[Lando 2019]

IIRC this came in a wave of "let's suggest popular movies as if they're universally accepted as crap" posts from random newbies. I was half joking, but with no tone on the internet OP took me too seriously.

 

FWIW I don't mind if someone suggests "good" movies, just as long as they realize that it's going to be a long shot and explains why it should be done.