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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 (The Net)
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 Gameis a birthday gift given to Nicholas Van Orton by his brotherConrad. Now he’s 48, he’s at the same age his father was when he died, so itisn’t middle-age spread that’s on his mind most of the time. Perhaps thisgift will be the thing to divert his attention.
What exactly the game is is never explained, because it’s different foreveryone. 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 itthough, all aspects of his life are about to change, nothing is how it appearsany 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 andnot only is it the sort of thing he does well (see Basic Instinct,Disclosure, Falling Down and Fatal Attraction), it’s also the sortof film I really enjoy. What then lets it down is its ending. While the restof the film up until the final scene is 10/10 material, the endingcouldn’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 putthe icing on the cake instead of making it feel like someone’s removed thefilling.
In the supporting cast, Sean Penn is very under-used here, despitebeing 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’sexcellent U-Turn.
Elsewhere, Deborah Kara Unger, previously seen as James Spader’s wifein Crash, plays a waitress and James Rebhorn, the school principalfrom Scent Of A Woman and the beligerent Presidential aide inIndependence Day, works for Consumer Recreation Services, the companywho created “The Game”.
To say that about the characters played by Unger and Rebhorn is well-short oftheir true description, but to say any more would give it away altogether.
The picture quality is mostly very good with artifacts not being too prevalentwhich is good news for a typically dark thriller, since artifacts on abadly-encoded DVD make a meal of all areas of grey, brown and black. Theaverage bitrate is a good 4.72Mb/s and the disc is 16:9-enhanced for widescreentelevisions.
There are two versions available here: the widescreen version, which reproducesthe original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 and the fullscreen version. Withouta doubt the ratio of choice is the widescreen one, especially because thefullscreen version gives the surprise ending away a couple of seconds beforeyou’re meant to find out, due to the Super-35 format. The widescreen versionpreserves the director’s vision and so doesn’t give it away until everythingfalls into place…literally.
The sound on the disc is Dolby Digital 5.1, for both English and Germanlanguage soundtracks. This isn’t something usually adhered to by many DVDcompanies as they only give the full works for the original language the filmwas recorded in. What if you haven’t got a DD5.1 setup? Not a problem as thesound is downmixed to Dolby ProLogic for those without the requesite DD5.1equipment.
There are no explosions on view here, but like David Fincher‘s otherworks, the sound is superbly used for tension and ambience to create thethriller atmosphere.
Extras : Chapters :There are 20 chapters spread throughout the film and as it’s just over twohours (the cover states 128 minutes, but that was the cinema length and sincePAL runs 4% faster, the film runs for just under 123 mins here) it could haveused more. There’s no theatrical trailer, which is unfortunate because theycreated a very atmospheric trailer which contained nothing but shouting dialogueand effects as the puppet-on-a-string seen on the theatrical poster was thrownabout 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 andscreen writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris. All of thecontent appearing on screen in this section is replicated in the accompanyingbooklet which is written in both English and German. Coming Soon :This option brings up a selection of available and forthcoming titles fromPolygram : Andrea Bocelli: A Night In Tuscany, Bean, Spiceworld: The Movieand Cats. Languages :
The disc contains English and German language soundtracks both in DolbyDigital 5.1 plus subtitles for the same.
Menu :
The interactive menu is better here than on most titles with a click of themouse doing exactly what is required, unlike some other titles I havereviewed.
Another thing to note is that on playing the disc you can’t skip past thecopyright info. Selecting “Play Movie” brings up the Polygram logo.
Overall, this is an improvement on some of Polygram’s previous efforts sinceit includes both formats of the film, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and a nicebooklet. 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-specificaudio commentary by David Fincher, Michael Douglas and others,behind-the-scenes footage, storyboards, production design artwork, an alternateending, the original theatrical trailer and teaser and a psychological testfilm; while the Region 1 DVD contents itself with the same biographies plusthe teaser trailer and theatrical trailer.
If the NTSC Laserdisc’s alternate ending is what I’m hoping for then thiswould be great for DVD as it could be programmed to play that instead ofwhat is shown here. However, on the bright side, this DVD from Polygram isanamorphic, ie. 16:9-enhanced for widescreen televisions, whereas the Region 1DVD is not.FILM : ***½PICTURE QUALITY : ****SOUND QUALITY: *****EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: ***½
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
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.