"The Game" Movie Critique

 I recently watched The Game featuring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn.  This movie is about a successful investment banker that lives a fairly dull life.  All he cares about is his job, and he does not have much of a life outside of his job.  He witnessed his dad commit suicide by jumping off a building at a very young age, and therefore took over the responsibility of raising his brother.  For his fortieth birthday, his brother gets him a present.  It is a subscription to a service known as CRS, or Certified Recreational Services.  This company is said to spice up someone’s life and introduce them to a game.  He goes to the company, conducts a series of tests, and his game begins.  This is all I will tell you, however there are a lot of twists and turns that come afterwards. 

This film is in the drama/suspense category of film genre.  It is a drama film because it is slow moving at times, and contains many dramatic elements such as intricate dialogue and there is more going on that meets the eye.  It is a suspense film because the film is very entertaining.  There is a car chase scene, a running chase scene, as well as multiple shooting scenes.  The whole movie is somewhat suspenseful and there is a lot of twists and turns throughout the movie as well.  The end of the movie is very suspenseful, and is not what you would be expecting at all. 

There are many creative elements to this film.  One is the lighting; most of the movie is shot in dark lighting, indicating suspense and excitement.  There is also one part of the movie that where he comes home and his house is completely dark, but when he turns on the lights they have all been converted to black lights, and there is graffiti written all over his house.  This is a powerful creative element as it further adds an element of suspense to the movie.  Another creative element of the movie is the ending, while I wont tell you it, it is unexpected and extremely unexpected. 

A few critiques I had of the movie is that it is, at times, unrealistic.  It is one of those movies where the main character, much like James Bond, goes through an impossible amount of near death experiences, and escapes with not even a scratch on his cheek.  The main character survives being shot at multiple times with machine guns, almost drowning in a locked car, and jumping off a tall building.  While movies are meant to entertain, and are obviously not real, at times, when a movie is too far fetched, it takes away from the beauty of it.  Of course the exception to this would be if the movie is in the science fiction genre then it is ok for the director to create scenes that are unbelievable because the audience knows what to expect.  However, when watching an action movie the audience wants some sort of realism in the movie, and “The Game” lacks this at times.