3 stars for an interesting but poorly executed sci-fi film.
RPG (Real Playing Game) is written by Tino Navarro and directed by Tino Navarro and David Rebordao.
What first attracted me to this film was the fact that it stars Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner, Sin City) as our hero. Hence the disappointment that he barely features at all, and even then only as a static holographic image for the majority of his appearances.
RPG tells us the story of Steve Battier, who is suffering from a terminal illness and applies to a biotechnological company called RPG or Real Playing Game. They offer a service whereby they can immerse the extremely wealthy in youth and fitness once again. For an astronomical fee, each person may have themselves placed into a young body of their choice for a total of ten hours.
Ten millionaires from around the world, people in positions of power, have paid to take part in the game. They awaken in their new bodies in an unfamiliar location and begin to learn the rules of the game.
It does begin to get interesting at this point, even though it has very strong elements of other films (most notably Battle Royale and Hunger Games). The ten youngsters are faced with the holograms of all their older selves and told that one of them must die per hour. The catch, that no-one knows who the others are and you must match the person you kill to their correct hologram or your own life will be forfeit.
The last man or woman standing will win the ultimate prize, to keep the young body in which they currently reside.
This paves the way for scheming, plots and counter-plots as tenuous alliances begin to form and everyone desperately tries to trick others into revealing their identities so that the killing can begin.
The acting performances are pretty good, starring Cian Barry (Hard Times, Help Point), Alix Wilton Regan (Forza Horizon, Zombie Diaries 2), Genevieve Capovilla (Dalston, The Nmber One Girl) and Chris Tashima (Americanese, Little Tokyo Reporter).
There’s nothing specifically wrong with this film, it just seems poorly paced and for such a great idea, it falls short of expectation and brings nothing new to the party. They also seem to have tried to add a twist at the end which serves no purpose other than to further confuse a rather vague and badly explained back story.
All that said however, if you are a Rutger Hauer fan then you may want this for his brief appearance and if you are a sci-fi fan then you will probably find this watchable, just not brilliant.
RPG is available to buy now on DVD and Blu-ray.
| Director | Tino Navarro, David Rebordao |
| Genre | Sci-fi, Action, Adventure |
| Starring | Rutger Hauer, Cian Barry, Alix Wilton Regan, Nik Xhelilaj, Christopher Goh |
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