Sopravvivere al gioco

I like this movie, it's not the best action movie, but is very good. The movie doesn't have the best acting and the writing and the beginning is so-so, but it picks up and gets a lot better as the movie goes on. If you ever feel like watching a solid action movie, I say pick this one up. Or if you just want to watch crazy Gary Busey act like Gary Busey.

This movie is about a homeless man (ICE T) that loses everything twice. Then takes a job with some business men (Rutger Hauer and Charles S. Dutton) to help hunt in a isolated place. Ice T soon finds out that they are hunting a deadlier game...

This movie is well worth the rental fee. You might surprise yourself and like it.

In one of our local video store chains, if a movie was considered morally objectionable it was emblazoned with a huge yellow sticker which proclaimed that it was 'Strictly over 18's'. To me, as a youngster, this was like showing a light bulb to a moth. By the time 'Surviving the Game' was released, I was already a seasoned Ice-T and Bodycount fan and so would happily devour any of the nonsensical films which he would associate himself with (a trait which still exists to a certain degree, albeit somewhat diminished at this stage – thanks a lot 'Leprechaun In Da Hood'). Those yellow stickers never failed me; they drew me to movies such as the Tom Savini remake of Night of the Living Dead (1990), Body Melt (1993) and Bad Taste (1987). The peculiar thing about 'Surviving the Game' was that it was only classified with a 15 certificate in the UK, but as I was growing up in Ireland and they had just introduced their own film classification system (one which still prohibits the release of many, many titles today*) one can only assume that they were being extra vigilant.

Such vigilance, however, was not displayed by any staff members at any of my frequented VHS rental outlets and so I was pretty much free to choose whatever I wanted and on one fine day I took the afternoon off school and retreated to my abode to wallow in some Ice-T based goodness.

I regret none of those actions and this all came flooding back when I re-watched STG last week. The first thing that struck me was the plethora of character actors on show, Charles S. Dutton, Ernest R. Dickerson, F. Murray Abraham, Gary Busey, Jack Mason, John C. 'Dr Cox' McGinley and Rutger Hauer all come out in force as a group of hunters in pursuit of the deadliest game of all…man.

The man in question is Jack Mason (Ice-T) a man battling his demons to the extent that he has lost everything, his wife, his child, his home. Now living rough on the streets of Seattle, he even loses his best friend when his dog is run over by a careless taxi driver in the first few minutes of the movie. The altercation with the driver brings Mason to the attention of Walter Cole (Dutton), a man posing as a charity worker, but who is in reality a recruitment officer for Thomas Burns (Hauer), an entrepreneur who facilitates the immoral bloodlusts of the rich and ethically vacuous Mason is brought to Burns' offices whereupon he is offered a job (with very little details provided), he reluctantly accepts and before he knows it, he's held up in a remote cabin in the wilderness with half a dozen of the most peculiar characters you're likely to see share a dinner together. It doesn't take long before their motives are made clear and Mason is cast out on his own, given a small head start before being tracked by the hunters.

Guess what? The hunters soon become the hunted and the tables get well and truly turned. OK, so it sounds dreadful and in many ways, it is. Yet, it is so enjoyably dreadful that you soon find yourself letting go and immersing yourself in Mason's plight. There is an intensity and a unique self-awareness which makes this stand out from similar movies and eventually, this makes this a remarkably endearing viewing experience.

It's violent without being excessively so, it has just the right amount of humour to maintain a suspension of disbelief and by the time comeuppance is delivered, you'll be cheering along. It was refreshing to see a strong African-American lead actor at the time and whist one wouldn't go as far as to call it ground-breaking in any sense of the word, that fact is certainly notable. Ice-T is quite far removed from his hip-hop persona and suits the crusty, dreadlocked role very well. Hauer and Busey are typically and wonderfully bonkers and the support of Abraham and McGinley are both worthy additions.

It was a pleasure to be reminded of a time when action movies could be so enjoyable and when character actors would partake in the movie without dominating it. Admittedly, the rush that I got for simply acquiring it wasn't there this time, but I think that was due to the lack of the yellow sticker.

Read more reviews at zombiehamster.com

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.

There are a few effective concepts in action films which are used over and over again. "Surviving the Game" uses one which was over 60 years old when the movie was made and still works like a charm. Made in 1932, "The Most Dangerous Game" is a movie about a group of people who are hunted for sport. Over the years this concept has been successfully used in big films like John Woo's "Hard Target" (which premiered less than a year before this film) as well as in DTV-films like the Lorenzo Lamas-actioner "Final Round".

The formula works. Although these films rarely offer anything new (you pretty much know the ending before the film has even started), they are very entertaining if the hero is someone who you want to win and the villains are suitably evil. "Surviving the Game" fills this order and throws in some energetic action sequences directed by Ernest R. Dickerson (I also enjoyed his "Bulletproof" a lot).

Ice-T is the hero here. When the film starts, he has no money, no family, no friends and is ready to kill himself. But when he receives a job as a hunting guide from a wealthy businessman (played by Rutger Hauer), he wants to put his life in order again. But after a good meal where Ice meets the rest of the hunters (including Gary Busey and Charles Dutton), the hunt begins and he suddenly realizes that he's the prey. Now, he must use all his strength and wit to survive.

The cast is perfect. While there are no huge stars, these people know the genre and obviously had a great time filming this movie. And there isn't any fault in the production values either. There are beautiful sceneries, a good score by Stewart Copeland and some neat stunts. The script by Eric Bernt (Virtuosity, Romeo Must Die) creates some quite interesting villains and the dialogue, while not perfect, works reasonably well. Luckily Bernt knows that he's writing an action film and doesn't even try to include any deep relationships or hidden meanings in his script.

At the end of the day, this is a good action film which is guaranteed to entertain a fan of this genre for 90 minutes. It's not the best action film ever but it's definitely above-average. This one gets an 8.

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.