Surviving the Game

Beverage guy Ice T plays a down and out "bum" that is given a job to help a group of guys at a hunting lodge...or so he thinks. In reality, he is to be the prey. Surviving the Game is a reworking of the timeless classic story by Richard Connell "The Most Dangerous Game." Ice T ends up running from this group of selfish, arrogant, and sadistic killers that feel no remorse or shame for killing this man because he is a homeless vagrant. He matches wits with his opponents and then some. This film can best be described as entertainment. It isn't full of great acting..the acting is acceptable with a few good performances out of Rutger Hauer(Man this guy can be scary) and Charles Dutton. The rest are merely adequate...a means to develop the plot and move things along. The story is pretty good but has some flaws, but the film is full of action and suspense.

Released in 1994, Surviving the Game follows Mason, a down on his luck homeless man who after a botched suicide attempt is offered a job as a wilderness guide for a wealthy and enigmatic group of huntsmen, however when he arrives he discovers that he is in fact the one being hunted and the fight for survival ensues.

The movie had the unfortunate timing of being released about 5 months after the similarly themed and much bigger budgeted Hard Target so Surviving the Game went mostly ignored at the box office but did attract the odd bit of praise from a few critics such as Gene Siskel. Ice-T does a fantastic job in the lead of this action thriller bringing to the role hard edged cynicism with an undercurrent of repressed pain and sadness that's made his will to continue with his hardscrabble life more and more of a challenge. However this is still very much an action movie and what's an action movie without compelling villains? Luckily the film has its villains well taken care of as the hunting party is comprised of a veritable who's who of character actors such as Rutger Hauer, John C. McGinely, Charles S. Dutton, and even F. Murray Abraham playing their roles with intensity and enthusiasm to spare.

The action set pieces are also quite thrilling as we see Mason use his wits and surrounding environment to try to stay alive and maintain whatever advantage he can grasp over his would be killers. The movie unfortunately does lose a bit of momentum and credibility in its final twenty minutes thanks to some less than perfect staging(including a fight sequence that takes place in darkness that makes it very difficult to see what's going on), some sloppy editing work, and a final confrontation that doesn't give much explanation as to how a character made it from point A to B when not only was B very far away but he logically shouldn't have even know where B was.

But despite some hiccups , Surviving the Game is an effective and exciting chase movie with engaging performances and set pieces that makes it a welcome addition to the expansive list of films inspired by The Most Dangerous Game.

Well it looks like these guys had a lot of fun making this flick. The movie is unintentionally funny in many places, and the directing appears as haphazard as the plot. F Murray Abraham is perpetually dumb. Gary Busey is perpetually angry. If you like guns, explosions, and seeing bad guys getting wasted, this movie is for you.

I just saw this movie for the first time since it's release in 1994 and while it's not as good as what I initially remembered it to be, it's still a decent popcorn flick to watch when there's nothing else on (which is usually most days of the week).

The basic premise for the film is a pretty good - yet simple - one (even if it's not all that original now) and asks the question - can a homeless man put his "street-smart" knowledge to good use and survive being hunted if put into the wilderness? Well, that's exactly what ends up happening to Jack Mason (Ice-T)...a man who's been surviving on the streets but is given an opportunity at a job to help out with a hunting party. Unbeknown to him, though, HE is the prey. Like I said, the premise is good, but is it realistic to think that a homeless person can survive in the wilds as well just because they are "street smart"? Maybe, maybe not, and probably the latter, but this isn't a film about realism....it's about entertainment and for the most part it does just that. It does get a bit predictable as well, but like I say, this film is about entertainment...not plot twists or a deeply thought-provoking story.

The cast is a pretty decent one as well, even if some of the performances are slightly OTT. However, it's not too bad and it's not enough to ruin the enjoyment of the movie. The main "culprit" of this is Gary Busey, but we all know what he was like when he was in movies...usually loud & in your face type of performances, and it's no different here. Also, love him or hate him, Ice-T does a decent job too as Jack Mason, and does a pretty convincing job of playing a down and out homeless guy who's got nothing left to live for.

The film is by no means a cinematic masterpiece, but it does it's job for about an hour and a half.

So if you don't mind films having some OTT performances and predictable story's that have a sprinkling of cheese, then you might enjoy Surviving The Game.

The "manhunt" action/suspense premise may perhaps be nearly as old as cinema itself, but it's also one that practically always guarantees a bloody good time! I've seen several film versions of the hunting-humans concept and loved them all; except for one (the abominable 60's bore "Bloodlust!"). Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack's original 30's classic "The Most Dangerous Game" undoubtedly remains the greatest version, but I particularly love how there exist numerous variations on the theme, like an excessively violent one set on a futuristic prison island ("Blood Camp Thatcher") or a super-sleazy one where they exclusively hunt scarcely dressed girls (Eddie Romero's "The Woman Hunt"). "Surviving the Game" is a rather rudimentary re-working of the premise, but nonetheless a very effective one with a downright awesome cast listing and a handful of genuine shocks. Jack Mason is an embittered and suicidal homeless man who loses his last will to live when both his dog and best friend in one day. The sly businessman Thomas Burns lures Mason to the wilderness with a false job promise, but instead he and his maniacal rich friends simply intend to hunt down Mason like an animal and kill him for sports. Mason may be suicidal, but he still wants to decide for himself when he dies, and so he successfully fights back. "Surviving the Game" is quite a gruesome and nihilistic-toned film; definitely not for people with vulnerable stomachs. The violence is pretty gratuitous and served without any form of morality, but what else do you expect from a B-movie. As indicated above, the film's main trump is the cast and particularly because each and every cool actor depicts a marvelously eccentric character. I can't even pick a favorite performance between F. Murray Abraham (as a sinister Wall Street big shot), Gary Busey (as an out-and-out deranged FBI psychiatrist), the overacting John C. McGinley (as a frustrated hunter with a vengeance) or of course Rutger Hauer as the mega-bastard. Ernest Dickerson – formerly a skilled cinematographer – does an admirable job directing his first long feature and he went on making the vastly entertaining Tales from the Crypt movie "Demon Knight". The forestry filming locations are impressive, the story doesn't contain any dull or unnecessary padding sequences and the level of suspense is continuously kept high. I don't know about you but that's everything I look for in an action movie.