Movie Review by : Thomas Huong
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I saw the trailer for Reindeer Games a few weeks ago and thought
it looked promising in terms of action and thrills. The cast (Ben
Affleck (Armageddon, Dogma), Charlize Theron (The
Devil's Advocate, Mighty Joe Young) and Gary Sinise (The
Green Mile, Mission To Mars) only
served to heighten expectations.
However, after previewing it,
Reindeer Games has been demoted from 'great expectations' to 'good
action thriller but nothing spectacular.' Directed by John
Frankenheimer (Ronin, The Island Of Dr. Moreau) with an
Ehren Kruger screenplay, the movie centres on Rudy (Ben Affleck)
and Nick (James Frain), two inmates of Iron Mountain Prison, a
maximum-security stockade. Nick is looking forward to meeting his
as yet unseen pen pal girlfriend, Ashley (Charlize Theron). But a
day before his release, he gets killed in a prison fight and Rudy
ends up impersonating Nick in order to take advantage of Ashley.
But he didn't count on Ashley
having a brother like Gabriel (Gary Sinise). Gabriel's a nasty
piece of work, who wants Rudy to provide him with information
about a casino's security setup and help him rob it. The problem
is, only Nick has the information Gabriel needs and Nick's dead!
The problems with Reindeer Games
aren't really apparent at first. The movie is quickly paced, with
enough firepower and gun play to make it an exciting and powerful
thriller. But the plot is almost too predictable and after a
while, the story turns stale, with Nick's various attempts to
escape Gabriel and his gang having all too predictable outcomes.
However, the movie is tight enough
to take the audience through some very breathless, nail-biting
moments. Sinise is great as the scary, psychopathic Gabriel
despite the limitations imposed on his character in the plot.
Theron is passable as the seemingly weak and scheming Ashley, but
it is Affleck who is the biggest let-down, turning in a
surprisingly limp performance as the whining and moderately
sarcastic Rudy (or Nick).
Another point against it is that Reindeer
Games has one of the weakest endings of any movie I've seen.
It's almost cartoon-like, the bad guy trying to kill off the good
guy using an unnecessarily elaborate method while gloating over
the whole flimsy scheme. And it really doesn't take a genius to
figure out whether the bad guy succeeds in carrying out his scheme
or not.
Still, Reindeer Games does
have enough nicely choreographed action scenes with exciting
gunfights, a thrilling struggle under the ice and ear-jarring car
explosions to put it slightly above the B-grade movie category.
But in the end it is still "close, but no cigar."
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From John Frankenheimer,
the director of "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Ronin" comes an action
suspense thriller starring Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron, Gary Sinise, Clarence williams
III and Dennis Farina. After being released from prison, all Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck)
wanted was to start a new life with Ashley (Charlize Theron), the girl of his dreams. But
between them and happiness stands Ashley's brother, Gabriel (Charlize Theron) and a team
of criminals who think Rudy has inside information about a job he had at an Indian
reservation casino that they plan to take down. Now, just when Rudy and Ashley thought
they could start a new life, their entire future is on the line. 
