“The Most Dangerous Game” - that’s what the main character of the 1932 classic thriller “The Most Dangerous Game” called the man. French director Jean-Baptiste Leonetti and Hollywood debutant Eitor Dahlia offered the public their variations on this subject, releasing two projects of the same name with a difference of three years - "The Survival Game". Reviews both tapes are diverse.
Paranoid Thriller Gone (2012)
The work of the Brazilian director Eitor Dalia, who made his Hollywood debut with English-language films, is positioned as a successful thriller with a lot of suspects and an insane victim. Responses to the "Game of Survival" from Dahlia received neutral, the rating of the film on IMDb is 5.90.
Among the undoubted advantages of the project, reviewers single out the leading actor Amanda Seyfred. The actress plays a girl convinced that her sister has been abducted by a maniac, from whose paws she managed to escape in the recent past. The police do not believe her, in desperation, the heroine decides to independently engage in a battle with a serial killer. In this case, it is likely that the character is prone to bouts of paranoia.
Also, critics did not ignore the participation in the picture of the star of category B fighters Michael Pare. But most of them limited themselves to the observation that the creation of Dahlia is a movie of one actor, highlighted by the faint flickering in the background of colleagues in the shop. Although it’s a shame that most of the stellar members of the acting ensemble were shown frankly nondescript.
Cinema once or twice
The film “Game for Survival” is also mediocre due to the fact that, according to the respondents, the atmosphere came to the forefront: incessant rain, heavy and gloomy locations, impulsive and disturbing musical accompaniment. All the components together cause almost nervous psychosis among the nervous spectators, and the ardent fans of the genre are tuned to a minor wave, the expectation of surprise.
According to critics, the Survival Game is a thriller for one or two views. Like the worst genre example, he keeps the audience in suspense, but, alas, the grip is not steel. But the original ideas of the screenwriter Ellison Barnett and plot twists, from which the viewer will not be able to fall asleep in the movie theater, do not allow to negatively evaluate the film.
Impressions of one day
Viewers in reviews of the "Survival Game" were no less categorical. According to the absolute opinion of the majority, the film does not focus on feelings and the psychological background of actions. For 91 minutes of timing, Amanda Seyfried in the image of Jill runs over rough terrain, and her character is driven by fear. In fact, the picture is a demonstration of the impression of one day of the heroine, suffering from an exacerbation of paranoid personality disorder, and was created as if before that there was not a single film about the vicissitudes of altered consciousness.
The director makes maximum use of all possible genre tricks, extinguishing the heroine’s fears as darkness falls so much that at the time of the climax in the cinema there is practically no air and light. To learn the denouement of history, of course, is interesting, but almost unimportant. After all, Jill invented a maniac or not, you can watch a film about how much a girl is afraid of men in almost one breath.
Minimalist thriller Beyond the Reach (2015)
The film by Jean-Baptiste Leonetti is based on the work of writer and screenwriter Robb White. The novel in 1974 was already filmed, but due to the fact that copies of the tape were not preserved, there is nothing to compare the 2015 movie with.
In fact, the basis of the picture is the competition of representatives of opposite social strata, the game is not for life, but for the death of a rich man and a poor man. The hero of Michael Douglas is an oligarch, a corporate shark, he does not recognize the rules and laws. The character of Jeremy Irwin is a young man in need of money.
Although the rating of the tape on IMDb is 5.60, according to the ratings of filmmakers expressed in reviews of the Survival Game, there’s nothing to watch except Douglas in the cinema. Suspense is not pumped to the desired level, there is no psychological subtlety in sight. One hero for most of the time poisons another, until he, brought to the limit, goes over to active hostilities.
Horror style
At the same time, mediocre directing cannot be called the key problem of the film. Rather, the blame for the unsuccessful choice of a young actor who does not have powerful charisma. Jeremy Irwin (Retribution, War Horse) in Leonetti’s project impresses only with physical data and a taut figure, which manages to demonstrate when the character of Douglas makes his hero expose himself. The young British performer was discovered by the great Spielberg, he is in great demand, but his charisma and skill are many times less than that of the wise Douglas. Therefore, in the tape, he is perceived as an unfortunate rabbit whose teeth are cut out when the script requires it.
According to the authors of the reviews, the "Game of Survival" can hardly be watched until the final, and the final part is already perceived not as a dressed-up culmination, but rather as an optional epilogue in the horror style. In the tape there are too few characters and potential situations in which the heroes could find themselves if they did not stop their "war". You can’t call the action boring, but it’s also especially fascinating. Therefore, only the traditionally magnificent Michael Douglas is remembered from the whole picture.