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RPG: Real Playing Game brings a return to the screen for Rutger Hauer as Steve Battier, a millionaire who’s dying, but can live again by having his old brain placed in a young body. Unfortunately, that means someone young has to die, so it’s almost like what Freejack would’ve been like had the mind transfer worked between the bodies of Anthony Hopkins and Emilio Estevez.
The way to do this is to take part in a game where he’ll take the form of his younger self, going up against nine other like-minded (and funded) individuals. They’ll all do battle over the next ten hours with only one of them winning, as they bump off all the others.
I figured that with an ’80s action pedigree from the likes of Rutger Hauer, RPG would be worth a watch. Unfortunately, after ten minutes, he gives way to all the youngsters who are planing the ‘game’, and since none of them have much of an idea about how they’ve arrived in a derelict area of Portugal, they all spend far too long wandering around in confusion, rather than killing each other. And since none of them can act and also have varying accents, it’s like an episode of early ’90s soap opera Eldorado.
They are given some in-game rules which you’d think would speed things up a little, but there’s some complex rules thrown in which basically boil down to the fact that they can’t kill each other randomly, as that would cause instant death for themselves.
Unfortunately, for the large majority of this film, which is shamelessly tapping into the Hunger Games market, RPG is missing the one thing that can make a Rutger Hauer film great – Rutger Hauer.
And I’m not even sure why this film’s an 18-certificate. It’s just about a 15 with some of the violence in it, but what’s there is very average. If you go to the BBFC website you’ll see the reasons why they’ve awarded it this cert (beware spoilers!) but since there’s a whole load of time where not a lot else happens, I figured it would all balance out to a 15. Hey ho.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 theatrical anamorphic widescreen ratio and is rather hazy on occasion, showing up most when there’s a lot of white onscreen. It’s very much like a lot of Arrow releases that have this, despite however much remastering they’ve had going on.
The sound is in DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio, and has no issues, but for what was made out to be an action film, there’s an awful lack of action going on, so it isn’t used much.
On the plus side, there’s some nice ’80s-style opening music and I rather enjoyed the closing song, Aurea’s “How Far Would You Go?” (to be young again).
Extras are limited, though. Just an audio commentary from co-writer/director Tino Navarro, plus a trailer.
The menu is mixed clips from the film with a piece of incidental music. There are no subtitles which is very amiss, especially with all the varying accents around.
When it comes to the chaptering, I feel one should come every five minutes on average. Kaleidoscope, like many other distributors, go for a low 12 however long the film. I would like them to increase this number.
Also, there are trailers before the main menu. These should go in the extras section. This disc has 3 trailers for other films. What are they? Not saying. Gah, I hate this practice! We are not in the age of rental video.
RPG: Real Playing Game is out on September 8th 2014 on Blu-ray and DVD, and click on the packshot for the full-size version.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
3 8 7 1 |
| OVERALL | 5 |
Cert: 
Running time: 103 minutes
Cat.no: KAL8365
Year: 2013
Released: September 8th 2014
Chapters: 12
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Arriflex Cameras and Red One Camera)
Disc Format: BD50
Directors: Tino Navarro and David Rebordão
Producer: Tino Navarro
Screenplay: Tino Navarro and Artur Ribeiro (based on a story by Tino Navarro)
Cast:
Steve Battier: Rutger Hauer
Young Steve Battier: Cian Barry
Young Alice: Alix Wilton Regan
Young Boris: Nik Xhelilaj
Young Carlos: Pedro Granger
Young Li: Christopher Goh
Young Maria: Genevieve Capovilla
Young Kate: Dafne Fernández
Young Okot: Reuben-Henry Biggs
Young Yasmin: Cloudia Swann
Young Jorge: Débora Monteiro
Mr. Chan: Chris Tashima
Sarah: Soraia Chaves
Driver: Victória Guerra
Editor: Duarte Grilo
Financial speculator: Tino Navarro
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.