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`Coming soon to a theatre near you'. It's a phrase we hear or read in upwards of 7 times before each new movie we watch in the theatre. The trailers that precede this announcement come with both anticipation and expectation.

I remember sitting in a theatre, what seems like years ago now, and viewing the trailer for Ripley's Game starring John Malkovich. I wondered if it was a sequel to the Matt Damon vehicle, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and I raced home to find that was exactly the case. Looking back, I cannot remember a date being flashed across the screen as to when Ripley's Game would be accessible, but usually it only takes a few months before our thirsts are quenched.

Then came 2004, and my local DVD provider began to advertise Ripley's Game as an upcoming release on disc. At first, I couldn't remember why the name was so familiar, but after a quick internet check, I found that two years later, Ripley's Game was being released without ever hitting a theatrical venue in North America. Too bad.

Ripley's Game gives us an older Tom Ripley. Gone are the chiseled good looks and innocent smile of Matt Damon and in are the glacial stares of the stoic Malkovich. When we catch up to Tom he is still the con man brokering an art forgery transaction that leaves one dead and Ripley unamused. We quickly forward ahead three years to Italy where we find Ripley in his favorable environment. Tom is living in a luxurious villa and has a woman he completely adores.

Ripley's old life soon catches up with him and a former associate looks to Tom for help with some Russian mafia types. Ripley suggests the use of an ‘innocent' for the job and gives him the name of a fellow countryman Tom has a slight distaste. Soon the novice is coerced into contract killings becomes part of Ripley's dastardly web of deception and murder, and the two join forces to first complete a contract and then later to save each other's lives.

It's great to have a film that picks up a fascinating character years after. Wouldn't you like to see what Forrest Gump is up to in 2004? Or what about Elliot from E.T. or Michael Douglas from Fatal Attraction? Without parading sequels that try and catch a character one second from the time the final frame of the original finished, wouldn't it be fresh to check in on some of our faves? Well Ripley's Game does just that.

As Ripley, Malkovich gives us an incredibly restrained performance. He kept me thinking that this is probably what Hannibal Lecter would be like if he had a family or other interests. Whether he is talking to someone about the restoration of a vintage piano or killing someone in a train's restroom, his pulse never seems to race nor does he seem terribly concerned about the chaos left in his wake.

Even when he surprises us by showing up to help the same man he pulled into his world, we don't see it as guilt or an attempt to show dominance in the world of criminal activity. Instead, Malkovich projects a man who is just going about his business no matter what the reprehensible activity may encompass.

Ripley's game is an exceptional film that unfortunately got ignored by the Hollywood studio system. Maybe they were too busy with the Lord of the Rings trilogies. But, if I were to add up all the movie tickets for movies like Eurotrip, 50 First Dates and Starsky & Hutch, it even seems more of a waste that I wasn't given the opportunity to get comfortable in the local multi-plex for Ripley.

www.gregsrants.com

The picture focuses on Tom Ripley (John Malkovich) , a cold and cult assassin . At the beginning , the cool Ripley and his associate (Ray Winstone) are planning a swindle which goes wrong . After that , the wealthy as well as ruthless killer convinces a man (Dougray Scott) happily married (Lena Headley) to execute a crime on a mobster for a great amount of money ; but the happenings go out of control and the cruel gangsters seek vengeance .

This provoking film is an exciting thriller and superbly interpreted . In the picture there is drama , action , tension , intrigue and a little bit of violence when the murders happen . From start to finish the suspense is continuous and that's why it is entertaining . Acting by John Malkovich is top-notch , he's excellent as Ripley , an urbane , and literate -but brutal- murderer with exquisite manners living luxuriously in a villa in the Veneto . Dougray Scott as the ill-fated and victim of his play gives a first-rate interpretation . Ray Winstone plays correctly an avaricious and savage nasty . Fascinating musical score by the great Ennio Morricone . Glimmer and watchable cinematography by Alfio Contini who shows stunningly the Italian palaces , theaters and interior scenarios . The film is based on Patricia Highsmith novel , whose Ripley personage has been well adapted in former versions as ¨Blazing sun¨ (Rene Clair with Alain Delon) and ¨The talented Mr.Ripley¨ (Anthony Minghella with Matt Damon) . The motion picture was rightly directed by Liliana Cavani (The night porter , Francesco) . However , financial problems and former commitment to direct an opera caused Cavani had to leave the production before final shooting and Malkovich , then , took over and completed the movie . The flick will appeal to John Malkovich fans . Rating : interesting and well worth seeing .

In Ripley's Game, the latest screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's series of novels, John Malkovich plays Tom Ripley, the bisexual art connoisseur whose game is manipulation of people for his own ends. The film directed by 70-year old Liliana Cavani, is entertaining but lacks the probing subtlety of Wim Wenders The American Friend, a 1979 Ripley adaptation. Ripley is an unscrupulous art dealer and also a cold-blooded killer. He is cerebral, wealthy, charming, talented, and entirely without principle with something clever to say about everything, even murder. "The most interesting thing", he says, "about doing something terrible is often, in a few days, you can't even remember it." Ripley justifies his acts by saying that they rid the world of useless predators. Malkovich's performance keeps the film afloat, though his smug, sinister persona often borders on camp and Dougray Scott is unconvincing as picture framer Jonathan Trevanny.

Ripley's Game takes place about twenty years after Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley leaves off. Ripley (Malkovich) has married into wealth and now resides in a luxurious Italian villa with his wife Luisa (Chiara Caselli), a professional harpsichord player. When an old crony, Reeves (Ray Winstone) asks him for help in dealing with Berlin mobsters threatening his business, Ripley thinks of a local art restorer and picture framer, Jonathan Trevanny (Scott) who is known to be dying of leukemia. Trevanny is a good candidate in Ripley's mind because he recently insulted him at a party by blurting out "That's the trouble with Ripley-too much money and no taste." Ripley's interest, however, is mostly in the pleasure involved of seeing a mild family man turned into a cold-blooded assassin, no matter how implausible the scenario might be. Trevanny falls for the bait and collects $100,000 to kill a Russian at the zoo.

As one hit deserves another, a second more dangerous plot is hatched to take place on a crowded train but Ripley has to come to Trevanny's rescue when too many bad guys show up. Afterwards, events begin spiraling out of control forcing the picture framer to hide the truth from his wife Sarah (Lena Headley). Though Malkovich fits into the role perfectly, Scott's performance provides little insight into what led a decent family man to become a paid killer. The ending, which could have been suspenseful, is simply unpleasant as the body count escalates. Though beautifully photographed and filled with dark humor, there is little at stake in Ripley's Game and the entire project feels unimportant as reflected in the studio's decision to bypass a theatrical release and send it straight to DVD.

RIPLEY'S GAME (3+ outta 5 stars) Not actually a direct sequel to "The Talented Mr. Ripley"... this film is based on the third book in the Ripley series by Patricia Highsmith. (Dang... they have filmed the first and third books TWICE EACH... and they STILL haven't done the second book even once?) This time around Ripley is played, quite menacingly, by John Malkovich. Long after the events of the first book, he is living comfortably in Europe and engaging in little odd jobs of forgery, robbery and murder to maintain the upkeep on his fancy estate. After being insulted by a new neighbor and approached by a threatening ex-partner to do a murder that he really doesn't want to do... Ripley concocts an elaborate game of revenge whereby he will turn his neighbor into a conscienceless killer somewhat like himself. Unfortunately, to his consternation, Ripley finds that a conscience is something that one either has or doesn't have... it can't become lost. I'd really like to see Malkovich do more in the Ripley series... maybe after his movie career is over he'd contemplate a series of made-for-cable movies? (Since the producers wouldn't even release this movie to theatres in the first place!)

I won't spend time on the plot, THAT's what the Plot Outline's for... Rather, I'd like to point out a few aspects of this film that struck me. Uno. Considering it's production and directorial source (Italian), this film captures the English/American/Italian cocktail surprisingly well! For a change we're not in Rome or corny Tuscany, but in the austerely handsome Veneto, a far more likely habitat for the cold-blooded likes of Mr. Ripley. Due. Considering the fact that the film's director is a woman, and over sixty, the film surprises for its near Hitchcockian skill in handling violence and suspense. The 'camp' train-murders scene is (almost) an instant classic!* Tre. Considering Signora Cavani's interest in homosexuality, the film handles the subject with subtle ambiguity. Funny and something of a poke at her own personal 'dilemma', the shot of Miss Caselli's bust and Mr.Malkovich's hairy arms playing the harpsichord is a witticism which acts as the director's signature! A man trapped in a woman's body (?)...

To be quite honest I enjoyed the film, especially the up-tempo performance of Winstone as the very British 'spiff', giving the vampire-film a bit of necessary vibrant blood. Malkovich's soft spoken Ripley is a far more subtle, credible, or... well... at least ENJOYABLE variation of the 'sofisticated killer' made world-famous by the 'Hannibal Lecter/Anthony Hopkins Team'. Italian critics have been scathing with Cavani. Critics in general have not been to kind with Malkovich either (they say he's dishing out his reptilian stuff again). May be... But he's better at it now, and the film is his little Puppy. Forget the critics and don't be too critical... Rent the movie. You might be surprised!

* Patricia Highsmith wrote the books.... why shouldn't Liliana Cavani shoot the film! As a matter of fact Hollywood's ghastly "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was an atrociously kitsch stab at the Man and the Country (Italy), a Technicolor 'Roman Holiday' gone wrong.

The Tom Ripley character is one of the great characters of all time. In all the movies, Ripley is a complete sociopath...a man with no sense of conscience and who is willing to do anything to get what he wants in life. The's such a great character because he's so incredibly believable...a textbook example of the antisocial personality. While some incarnations of Ripley were quite gorgeous (especially Alaine Delon in the first Ripley film), this one features John Malkovich who brings his own take on the menacing man. In this case, he looks so incredibly ordinary...yet is a man who kills with zero remorse!

The film begins with Ripley committing a brutal murder. However, much of the movie is not about Ripley the assassin but Ripley the master manipulator. Years pass and Ripley notices a young, cocky Jonathan (Dougray Scott) making fun of him at a party. Later, Ripley learns this same man is dying from cancer...and he uses this information to eventually turn this genuinely decent man into a killer...almost as if he's some science fair project! What's next? See the film.

I must warn you that this film has some very brutal and vivid murders....and it's NOT a kid's movie!! But it also is very well written, acted and is very engaging and a savvy look at just what sociopaths are capable of doing.

I have great respect for Night Porter's director Liliana Cavani who, whilst making substantial changes to the original story, manages to preserve some of its original emotional themes, particularly the relationship between Tom Ripley and Jonathan Trevanny. I read many of Highsmith's works in the past and I have always found the experience quite fascinating and painful, not even the best screen adaptation can in any way reproduce the reality of complete morale but mostly psychological disintegration she depicts in her books where you will hardly put to find any redeeming feel-good elements. The only catharsis is generated by navigating the angst and the horror of the narrative and getting out at the other end. I personally found the 'Talented Mr. Ripley' more apt to convey a sense of moral and psychological horror, while to me 'Ripley's Game' is more of an excellent and interesting thriller, very slickly executed and with more than a few nods and winks to the Hannibal Lectar's franchise ('Hannibal' in particular). It is quite interesting to note that the original story was set in France rather than in Italy, and some of its more subtle psychological elements are sadly lost. This however is not necessarily a negative reflection on Liliana Cavani's spirited effort.

This movie is perhaps the best of the Ripley movies out there. Malkovich, cynical sociopath, with cool but deadly presence, is perfectly cast. Movie takes a fresh look at some moral issues, and, as with other material from Patricia Highsmith's pen, challenges common morality. Movie is shot on location, which is only appropriate. A bit old fashioned and not for the masses marinated in social media "culture", but if you liked Silence of the Lambs this might be a movie for you.

Having read some of the other comments here, I'm wondering if people saw the same film that I did - because this one is an absolute stinker. The things that made the Talented Mr Ripley (TMR) (1999) so good - acting, location, music, and of course story - have all been abandoned.

To start with the acting, John Malkovich gives a flat performance, with monotonous delivery of (it must be said) bad dialogue. There's no menace in what he's saying - he could almost be reading out a shopping list. There's a scene where he's correcting Reeves for mispronunciation - yet the "corrections" are the American mispronunciations. In TMR, Ripley is an explicitly gay character, unlike in the book - here Malkovich gives a camp performance of a seemingly hetero character.

Dougray Scott fares no better - and what horrible teeth! He tries to nail down a plummy English accent, but for the most part is pretty wide of the mark, coming across as half-Perthshire/half-drama school. And for someone with cancer who is hoping for a miracle cure, why does he smoke so much?

The connection with Reeves (Ray Winstone) and Ripley is never made clear - how did they meet, why are they still acquainted etc. Reeves comes across as a would-be gangster from a cheap Sunday evening drama on a low-budget satellite channel, wholly unconvincing, and spouting dialogue straight from the "How to be a cockney gangster" handbook.

Chiara Caselli as Ripley's love interest is just awful. Her accent wavers between London and Rome, as does her acting ability. Surely employed because she was cheaper than a British/American actress who could do a reasonable attempt at an Italian accent.

As for the locations, like TMR, this takes place in Italy, but where in TMR we had azure skies, panoramic vistas beautifully framed by John Seale, olde worlde streets and beautiful Italian extras, here we have Italian countryside (although who can tell Italian countryside from anywhere else's?), leaden skies, wet streets and Germans. I won't bother comparing the clothes - John Malkovich in a beret, need I say more?!

Gabriel Jared's beautiful score complimented TMR perfectly, delicately highlighting emotion and view. Here we have - apparently, although I refuse to believe it - Ennio Morricone jarring the senses with a repetitive, dull, and frankly non-melodic piece played on, of all things, a harpsichord. There's a reason you don't hear harpsichords in musical scores very often - they sound awful.

And finally the story. Ripley almost plays second fiddle to Reeves in the story, as it seems to be Reeves who does most of the arranging of the murders (some minor plot detail of getting one Balkan country's mafia to start fighting another ex-Soviet mafia leaving Ripley to take over... what?)

It's Dougray Scott's character who is then contracted to do the assassinations, until finally it's all brought back to Ripley's door, by which time you don't care who gets killed.

This is a singularly bad film. The director has no vision or flair for film-making whatsoever, and this is surely a low-point in the careers of all actors concerned. Ennio Morricone should go hang his head in shame for allowing his name to be attached to this project.

Avoid at all costs.

[s p o i l e r s]

There have been many cinematic Highsmith stories, and even many filmed Tom Ripley's. Why another one? Well, as I am hardly the first to say – Ripley's Game came out in England last summer, and had a brief theatrical showing in New York several months ago – there are ways in which John Malkovich was both born and bred to play the mature Mr. Ripley. Give the young one to Alain Delon or Matt Dillon: both were arguable versions of the fledgling scoundrel. But it's uncanny how well Malkovich wears the skin of the grown man. And it's cruelly weird that in America a film of this caliber could have been sent straight to DVD.

Life requires action, sometimes the slow patience of the lizard, other times the gift of abrupt violence. Ripley's accomplished murders and thefts, so bold, so risky, so improvisational, prove that he possesses the existential courage one needs to survive and enjoy life. As his reward for jobs well done, Tom occupies an expansive Palladian villa in Treviso with a beautiful harpsichordist. He enjoys the best wines, the best cars, and the best risotto made from truffles in his kitchen by the best cook in the Veneto. He knows the difference between a Guercino and a Parmigianino and he's never anything but well dressed. Markovich serves the role as well as it serves him: isn't he, like Ripley, a brash American turned well-heeled European sybarite?

The paradox of the Ripley novels is that a master criminal may also be good at the art of living, and the tricky thing about watching Malkovich is that one may be tempted to admire him. This isn't a new experience for the reader of Highsmith's many novels, particularly the Ripley ones: to enter the world of her criminals has the appeal of being bad and getting away with it. As Graham Greene famously said, `[Highsmith] has created a world of her own – a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger.' And yet within the first ten minutes we see Ripley kill a man with a poker for little more than mishandling some renaissance drawings.

The perfect foil for Ripley in the movie is Trevanny (Dugray Scott), a man whom fatal illness has given an edge of desperate bravado, but who remains sensitive to moral values. Eventually after being lured into committing a serious crime for big money (which he can leave to his wife and young son), Trevanny waits with Ripley in the villa for some gangsters bent on revenge and as they chat to pass the time he remarks that in school he always got caught.

Tom smiles and says, `You know why? Because you didn't think of just killing your teachers!'

John Malkovich hasn't very often played a nice person. Yes, he's been Biff in Death of a Salesman and Tom in The Glass Menagerie, but then we get to Lennie in Of Mice and Men and (triumphantly) Valmont in Dangerous Acquaintances and Gilbert Osmond in Portrait of a Lady. In between he has been an out and out villain as in In the Line of Fire, or supercilious prigs like Port in The Sheltering Sky and Jake in The Object of Beauty. Tom Ripley is Malkovich's triumph. It combines all of these. Is it a surprise that playing the wickedest man of all, he has never been more appealing? Finally all his slimy traits here come together. This is what he's about, we say. At last it all makes sense. Being Ripley has never been more fun and that's because the role fits the actor like a glove. There's something sublimely ugly about him that reminds us that good looks are not the only attractive features in a man. There is also power, taste, and originality. He's elegant, he's an esthete, and he's smart. When Reeves asks him if he has the extra fifty thousand he's offering, he just snaps his cell phone shut. The ruthless man is also impatient with stupidity.

This is an actor's film. Ray Winstone is superb in the smaller role of the abominable, self satisfied lowlife Reeves who comes to Ripley to get a murder done. Reeves is little more than a pretext for a caper, a reason for coming out of retirement, but Winstone makes him forward without ever being overdrawn. Dugray Scott is Trevanny, the picture framer in the Italian town near which Ripley lives who has acute myelogenous leukemia. Scott is an actor who looks both handsome and unwell. He may suffer a little too much, but he also has an admirable recessiveness that keeps the glamour Cavani spreads over her characters (they're all a bit too well dressed, but this film comes out of Italy, the land of 'bella figura') from overwhelming his essential weakness. He also illustrates the strength that comes to desperate men. He gets just as mean as Ripley toward the end, and he dies with a smile on his face.

This film shows us the two essential elements of Patricia Highmith's books: Tom Ripley is pure evil; and it's a lot of fun to be him. Cavani's suave Game gives the Devil his due. People unfamiliar with the Highsmithian sensibility may find the end unsatisfying. But it is perfectly in character.

Although I thought early on this flick would be somewhat mindless, I was surprised to find a gem of insight into human character. Ripley, of course, is rich and without conscience so we could easily believe. What in fact Ripley's game really is I am unsure unless we could presume he is Satan in disguise.

The psychological abduction of the young father who it was said had a fatal disease, could have been rewritten I think to make the good vs. evil underpinning and irony stronger. Indeed, what did the young man have to lose if his disease was fatal. I suppose one could say, to do as he did, allowing manipulation by Ripley to do great evil, underscores what many soldiers know, to kill once difficult, often and many easy.

The plot seemed illogical at times and rushed towards the end. Do you really think, will all these dead bodies, some have baked story about a robbery would explain her dead husband and the German Moffia thugs?

The contrast between who Ripley was objectively, a deceptive murderer and thug verses the refined music lover and cultured swine, cannot be over looked.

Murder is murder and blood is blood after all.

The flick left me pondering some of the more dicey parts of human existence, despite its short comings.

Urbane art expert Tom Ripley (John Malkovich) is in Berlin selling forgeries with British thug Reeves (Ray Winstone). He kills a man and promptly steals the money and the art. He gives the money to Reeves and ends their relationship. He lives in an Italian villa with his girlfriend Luisa. He meets locals Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) and his wife Sarah (Lena Headey). Reeves shows up with a job for an outsider to kill a rival. Ripley is not interested until he discovers that Jonathan is dying. He sees an opportunity to play a game.

Malkovich is good as the creepy snakelike cold-hearted criminal. The movie could use some better style. It's a great psychological thriller. The visual needs to be more intense. There are some good work from Winstone and Dougray Scott. However the production looks more like a TV movie although it's a well-made Masterpiece Theatre TV movie. The movie should be terrifying but it feels slightly tired. I have to put it down to the director.

I was quite surprised at Ripley's Game, just like a lot of people were, when this came out, as I was fully expecting something of a sequel to the amazing "The Talented Mr. Ripley" which starred Matt Damon and was directed by Anthony Minghella. Not only is it not a sequel, but has Ripley as a heterosexual, one which I'm not 100% sure I'm comfortable with.

Everyone's favorite Matt Damon substitute, John Malkovich, plays Tom Ripley this time out, who seems to have 'retired' from the con game, but is amused enough by a former business associate to have one more go at it, using the services of a unwilling assassin to get the job done.

That assassin, played by Dougray Scott, is actually the main focus of the movie. He is a carpenter suffering from leukemia and has family bills piling up. Although he doesn't want to, he takes the job that he is forced into, then finds himself in a trap next to impossible to get out of.

To be honest with you, I liked this movie a lot. Malkovich is great as always, as is Dougray Scott. The plot is interesting and everything moves along in a brisk pace. The one big problem I have is that there is absolutely NO mention about the goings on in 'The Talented Mr. Ripley'. I mean, wasn't this guy a murderer? Should he not be locked up somewhere still? And what OF his sexuality? There is some discussion on here that Ripley's sexuality is rather ambiguous, a mystery, just like Ripley himself. I'm sorry, I don't buy it. Damon as Ripley wasn't showing any interest in women in the original movie, and I had NO doubt he was gay.

Anyways, I've aired out what I had to say. Like I said, I liked this movie, but you should treat this as a separate entity from the "Talented" movie, and enjoy this movie on it's own merits.

I have always thought that Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels were aimed (like a missile) at the reader. So, the films. One's immediate reaction to Ripley tells more about the viewer/reader than anything at all about Ripley. His charm is that he is absolutely immoral in a pseudo-moral universe of sentimentality passing for decency. He has taken the society's values, not at their word, but at their obvious meaning: benefit yourself at all cost; nothing is more important than your own welfare; if it seems necessary, do it - you can probably always get out of the consequences. He is popular with us all, not because he is a snob, or a cad, or a mediocrity,although he may be all of those things. He is popular because we recognize ourselves in him. This film portrays the Highsmith character fully and true to the novels. I found Malkovich, who I usually dislike, perfect in the role and the other actors are excellent. Being a European production makes it easier to avoid the soppiness of The Talented Mr. Ripley, a truly dreadful film to my mind. The score was a grand addition as was the perfect lighting and ambiance of the sets - brilliantly dark, full of the emptiness of a reality so flatly conveyed.I will be happy to see it again.

John Malkovich plays the sort of character you wish him to play in all movies. A calm, collective, emotionless director of intensity and intelligence. He seems to have such a professional balance of effeminate attitude; contrasted to his very manly appeal. It's easy to say Malkovich is what really makes this film worth watching.

Without John and imagining anyone else this movie would ride the fine line of a B-Listed movie, but with John coming out as an older, wiser, and hardened Tom Ripley the movie is instantly worth shelving in your collection. I wouldn't say it's a classic, but it's a classic Malkovich.

The film basically takes place many years, probably decades and decades after the original: The Talented Mister Ripley and Ripley appears to be completely different. Complete evolved and trained in what sort of monster he had become. He lives in Europe living the high life as a black market art dealer and owns a beautiful plot of land with a mansion with a beautiful and talented wife to boot. A wife who even knows his business makes you realize how amazing Tom Ripley is. To be a thug-con artist and swing an amazingly talented wife at the same time.

The plot starts rolling with Tom Ripley being publicly insulted at a neighbor's dinner party. The subject being that "he has no taste". Tom rolls with it and ignores it for the most part but tracks a laughable revenge by setting him up with a mobster who coerces him (the insulter of Ripley) to become a one time hit man.

Things spiral out of control from there. Or at least out of control for everyone, but Ripley, who seems to just be calm, collective, and uncaring of all the events surrounding him. This film doesn't have the greatest cast or the best plot. It's not that that makes this film worth watching. It's the superior class Malkovich brings to the stage/film. If you like Malkovich and/or liked the original film, you will want to see this.

Watching this film brought to mind two other films with a connection to Malkovich: Dangerous Liaisons, and Cruel Intentions. I thought Malkovich over-acted and was utterly unconvincing in Dangerous Liaisons. His female counterpart in Cruel Intentions was the same. Ripley's Game has Malkovich playing a similar style of role and, yet again, he fails to come through. He does not give the feeling of evil, or even wickedness - he gives the feeling of nonchalance; a feeling which does not match up with the character as you can see from his surroundings and interaction with people in the film.

The entire lifestyle of Malkovich was affected and the script writing added some very uncomfortable moments as scenes appeared which were very obviously included simply to try to enhance the evil characteristics of Malkovich. An especially striking example of this is when Malkovich has just set fire (with absolutely no emotion or energy) to some dead bodies in a car boot; as he walks away he makes a mobile-telephone call to his florist to order flowers for his wife's recital. It was utterly ridiculous and extremely transparent. A note the scriptwriter: if the audience can see what you are trying to do, you have failed to do it.

Ripley has somehow become straight - I am not sure what that is about - perhaps he was never gay in the first place and just had a childhood crush on the character played by Jude Law in the first film? He is now married to a woman who might as well have not been in the film - though I guess the writer added her so she could perpetrate the crime of writing the pathetic scene described above! The wife seems entirely insouciant when Malkovich tells her that his old friend wants him to kill two mafia heads in Berlin.

If you liked The Talented Mr. Ripley, do NOT see this film - it really is awful. I found myself cringing frequently through it.

I must admit I enjoyed Matt Damon and company very much in The Talented Mr.Ripley. The character of Tom Ripley is thoroughly dislikable but also intriguing. Therefore when I realised that another Ripley film had been made I was curious to enjoy the earlier experience again. I was not disappointed either. John Malkovich who I usually do not like as a performer was totally creepy and perfect as an older Ripley. Up against him was the very talented Dougray Scott as his unlikely accomplice in murder, Jonathon Trevanny. There are grisly murders galore in this film of revolting Russian mafia murderers. The ending is great. I won't give it away as it would spoil it for others. The Italian and German settings are brilliant as are the train scenes. This film is very enjoyable.

Yes, this is the same Ripley as the Tom Ripley of ‘The Talented Mr Ripley', only this time it is an older Ripley played by John Malkovich. This is not to say you necessarily have to have seen Matt Damon's film to make ‘Ripley's Game' worthwhile as the story stands alone in its own right. In ‘Ripley's Game', we learn what we need to know about the character –that he has a taste for the good things in life including a love of fine art, and a ruthless attitude to anyone who stands in his way which enables him to con and even murder when necessary.

Because of his past successes, Ripley is approached by Reeves (Ray Winstone), an old colleague who wants him to murder a rival. At a party, Ripley overhears the host, Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) insulting him in front of his guests. When Ripley learns that Jonathan is terminally ill, he plans revenge for the insults by exploiting the illness to turning Jonathan into Reeves' paid assassin, thus intruding on and destroying his quiet and happy family life.

The fascinating nature of the character of Tom Ripley makes for an engaging film. It is interesting that I found myself rooting for both the bad and the good guy throughout. Malkovich excels in the role: on the surface he is charming –even funny at times, but awareness of his psychotic tendencies and his lack of conscience provides an uncomfortable and chilling edge. Dougray Scott gives a believable and sympathetic performance, while Ray Winstone is sufficiently unpleasant as the acquaintance which Ripley is keen to lose.

I found following Ripley's Game compelling and entertaining and it has been a while since I have been able to associate the word ‘compelling' with any film.

Ripley's Game is the third Ripley story (by Patricia Highsmith) to be filmed, following 1960's Purple Noon (with Alain Delon as Ripley) and 1977's The American Friend (with Dennis Hopper as Ripley). Purple Noon was later remade as The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), with Matt Damon as Ripley, and here The American Friend is remade, with John Malkovich as Ripley.

In this story, Ripley's all grown up and has become quite the conniving scoundrel. Phrases like that are best at depicting the completely amoral Ripley, especially when put against a backdrop of Germany and Italy and Old Europe in general. It's not that Ripley doesn't care, it's that... well, okay, it's that Ripley doesn't care.

Ripley's pal Reeves (Ray Winstone) has a job that needs to be done, but when he asks Ripley to handle it, our resident evil-doer demurs - he has a better murderer in mind. Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) is a framemaker whose son has leukemia. Ah, the perfect man for the job. Ripley offers Trevanny a lot of cash, drawing the innocent into his game.

The main problem with the movie is that there's no real urgency, no sense of peril. We understand from the get-go that Tom Ripley's a sociopath, but we're given no clues as to his intentions or motivations. And adding to the ennui is Malkovich himself. Ordinarily, I can't think of anyone better at playing a conniving scoundrel (see him in 1988's Dangerous Liaisons), but Malkovich is so understated in this role that often you can hardly hear what he's saying! For the lead character to be so quiet and unassuming ought to be a federal offense. What was the director thinking?

But even if the performance was stronger, the plot itself is rather pedestrian. Oh, sure, you get pretty scenery (it's well photographed), but the twists and turns are really a simple matter of connecting the dots. Almost any fool could see how this one ends.