Real Playing Game

I absolutely loved this film! It was thrilling, especially trying to figure out who was who before the characters did. I was not at all bothered by lack of special effects, and the plot concept was so deep that I doubt any movie maker could possibly satisfy the full exploration of the concept in just one movie length, even with a big budget. Well done and I loved the accents, it really helped to believe that these people indeed were from all over the world. I am going to google similar movies to watch right now, as this film has inspired me to find others like it. I really did not want it to end. I believe people these days expect way too much and I think the ratings users are giving this film are way too low for the credit deserved.

I was very interested to see this movie after learning that it had been "made in Portugal" and especially after watching the trailer. However I was hugely disappointed. In fact,I left during the interval, something I have not done in a very long time. The acting was very stilted, I could not get into or enjoy the film. In my opinion, if this movie had been made in Portuguese, that is, actors speaking Portuguese, then the actors and the movie would have come across as more natural. I think they were concentrating so hard on speaking English they forgot how to act. This is a great disappointment as Portugal has produced great films and it is just a pity this is not one of them. The trailer appears to be the best part of the film.

I was willing to get past the thought that it's one more "Survivor"/"Hunger Games" concept ripoff and was curious to see if they managed to do something different. The beginning was promising but then it quickly descended into cardboard cutout characters and not much action either.

I understand that this was a low budget production so they couldn't have much in terms of the SFX and action scenes but they could have made a great ensemble piece if they spent a lot more times thinking while writing, coming up with character developments and then treating it almost like a theatrical play with a lot of rehearsals. That's how a low budget production can compensate for the lack of expensive effects and fight choreographies - by taking the time to write much better script and rehearse actors to perfection.

Instead they pinched bits and pieces from different aspects available to this kind of movie and ended up with nothing. Even "romance & sex" scenes were unconvincing.

What is the matter with you people? This cerebral thinking person's gem of a metaphysical film has lofty themes and piquant dialog--quoting Sartre at one point and speculating on what Hitler knew at twenty years of age for heaven's sake. Shades of Bergman or Bunuel! The entire premise is deeply personal as well as universal--what does anyone really know at twenty of the inherent treachery of human interaction and aren't we all trapped in some prison or another--whether it be old age or the naivete of youth? This film makes good use of low budget sci fi sets, as well as carries on the European auteur tradition of tackling the grand themes of philosophy. The fragile balance between trust and suspicion, cooperation and competition, love and hate are so explicitly explored here, how could anyone miss it?

The movie started promising that it would be something different. I was fed up with the Hollywood versions of the story (hunger games) and was interested in watching how a low budget production would show something interesting through acting.

Unfortunately, the acting was rather bad, the scenario was a copy of what we have seen. The actors simply couldn't do something more. They acted the way they could.

As if the above wasn't enough, the ending is a little bit blurred.

My proposal: it's better to see hunger games, which are more complete movies.