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Dom Robinson reviews

The Game

Are you ready to play?

Distributed by

Polygram

Cat.no: 056 226 2
Cert: 15
Running time: 123 minutes
Year: 1997
Pressing: 1998
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 20 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 (for both languages)
Languages: English, German
Subtitles: English, German
Widescreen: 2.35:1; Fullscreen: 4:3
16:9-enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Price: £17.99
Extras : Scene index, Biographies, Booklet

Director:

David Fincher

Alien 3, Seven

Producers:

Steve Golin and Cean Chaffin

Screenplay:

John Brancato and Michael Ferris

Music:

Howard Shore and James Haygood

Cast:

Nicholas Van Orton: Michael Douglas (Basic Instinct, Disclosure, Falling Down, Fatal Attraction, The Jewel Of The Nile, A Perfect Murder, Romancing The Stone, Wall Street)
Conrad Van Orton: Sean Penn (Bad Boys, Carlito's Way, Casualties Of War, Colors, Dead Man Walking, State Of Grace, U-Turn)
Christine: Deborah Kara Unger (Crash, Highlander 3: The Sorceror, Hotel Room, Keys To Tulsa, No Way Home)
Jim Feingold: James Rebhorn (8 Seconds, Blank Cheque, Independence Day, Scent Of A Woman)
Anson Baer: Armin Mueller-Stahl (Lola, The Peacemaker, Shine, UTZ)

The Game is a birthday gift given to Nicholas Van Orton by his brother Conrad. Now he's 48, he's at the same age his father was when he died, so it isn't middle-age spread that's on his mind most of the time. Perhaps this gift will be the thing to divert his attention.

What exactly the game is is never explained, because it's different for everyone. He attends a medical - which goes on far longer than expected - and then is turned down by the company who created it. Before he realises it though, all aspects of his life are about to change, nothing is how it appears any longer and he is put into a series of near-death experiences.

Yes, it's another "Michael-Douglas-up-against-it-until-it-hurts" thriller and not only is it the sort of thing he does well (see Basic Instinct, Disclosure, Falling Down and Fatal Attraction), it's also the sort of film I really enjoy. What then lets it down is its ending. While the rest of the film up until the final scene is 10/10 material, the ending couldn't be any more of a let-down. I can't give that away here, obviously, but I will say that if events had taken the opposite turn, it would have put the icing on the cake instead of making it feel like someone's removed the filling.

In the supporting cast, Sean Penn is very under-used here, despite being second in the cast list, but he too had his time in a "one-man-against-the-world" thriller as the lead role in Oliver Stone's excellent U-Turn.

Elsewhere, Deborah Kara Unger, previously seen as James Spader's wife in Crash, plays a waitress and James Rebhorn, the school principal from Scent Of A Woman and the beligerent Presidential aide in Independence Day, works for Consumer Recreation Services, the company who created "The Game".

To say that about the characters played by Unger and Rebhorn is well-short of their true description, but to say any more would give it away altogether.

The picture quality is mostly very good with artifacts not being too prevalent which is good news for a typically dark thriller, since artifacts on a badly-encoded DVD make a meal of all areas of grey, brown and black. The average bitrate is a good 4.72Mb/s and the disc is 16:9-enhanced for widescreen televisions.

There are two versions available here: the widescreen version, which reproduces the original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 and the fullscreen version. Without a doubt the ratio of choice is the widescreen one, especially because the fullscreen version gives the surprise ending away a couple of seconds before you're meant to find out, due to the Super-35 format. The widescreen version preserves the director's vision and so doesn't give it away until everything falls into place...literally.

The sound on the disc is Dolby Digital 5.1, for both English and German language soundtracks. This isn't something usually adhered to by many DVD companies as they only give the full works for the original language the film was recorded in. What if you haven't got a DD5.1 setup? Not a problem as the sound is downmixed to Dolby ProLogic for those without the requesite DD5.1 equipment.

There are no explosions on view here, but like David Fincher's other works, the sound is superbly used for tension and ambience to create the thriller atmosphere.

Extras :

Chapters :

There are 20 chapters spread throughout the film and as it's just over two hours (the cover states 128 minutes, but that was the cinema length and since PAL runs 4% faster, the film runs for just under 123 mins here) it could have used more. There's no theatrical trailer, which is unfortunate because they created a very atmospheric trailer which contained nothing but shouting dialogue and effects as the puppet-on-a-string seen on the theatrical poster was thrown about like Douglas's character, before you saw a brief shot of Douglas...
... well, I don't want to spoil it :)

Cast And Crew Biographies :

There are detailed biographies for Michael Douglas, Deborah Kara Unger, Sean Penn, director David Fincher, co-producer Steve Golin and screen writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris. All of the content appearing on screen in this section is replicated in the accompanying booklet which is written in both English and German.

Coming Soon :

This option brings up a selection of available and forthcoming titles from Polygram : Andrea Bocelli: A Night In Tuscany, Bean, Spiceworld: The Movie and Cats.

Languages :

The disc contains English and German language soundtracks both in Dolby Digital 5.1 plus subtitles for the same.

Menu :

The interactive menu is better here than on most titles with a click of the mouse doing exactly what is required, unlike some other titles I have reviewed.

Another thing to note is that on playing the disc you can't skip past the copyright info. Selecting "Play Movie" brings up the Polygram logo.

Overall, this is an improvement on some of Polygram's previous efforts since it includes both formats of the film, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and a nice booklet. I only wish the ending could have been changed though.

There are a number of additions that could have been made to the extras though. The special edition NTSC laserdisc (RRP $99.99) contains a screen-specific audio commentary by David Fincher, Michael Douglas and others, behind-the-scenes footage, storyboards, production design artwork, an alternate ending, the original theatrical trailer and teaser and a psychological test film; while the Region 1 DVD contents itself with the same biographies plus the teaser trailer and theatrical trailer.

If the NTSC Laserdisc's alternate ending is what I'm hoping for then this would be great for DVD as it could be programmed to play that instead of what is shown here. However, on the bright side, this DVD from Polygram is anamorphic, ie. 16:9-enhanced for widescreen televisions, whereas the Region 1 DVD is not.

FILM	 		: ***½
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ****
SOUND QUALITY		: *****
EXTRAS			: **
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ***½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.

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