5 Star

Trust No One!

David Fincher is well known for films such as Panic Room, Gone Girl, Seven, Zodiac and The Social Network, but most famously for being a video-short maker who was brought in to direct the successful film franchise with Alien³. With ‘The Game’ he hit the bullseye with this drama, mystery, thriller, that has you on the edge of your seat as the protagonist runs for his life and answers to his question “Why me!”

Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, The War of the Roses, Falling Down) is a very wealthy man who has inherited his fathers role as an investment banker, and he is very successful at it. But what haunts him is him as a young boy witnessing his fathers suicide jump from the roof of their mansion. Nick is now at the age his father was when he jumped, this affects the lonely man at the top of his mountain of wealth, his ex-wife is married and happily pregnant, while Nick sits alone in his massive mansion and his housemaid Ilsa (Carroll Baker, Giant, Baby Doll) who was looking after the Orton family before that fateful day.

But now it is Nick’s forty-eighth birthday and his ex-wife Elizabeth (Anna Katarina, Star Trek, The Dictator) just manages to give him a phone call on his birthday. At the office Nick’s gets a message from Seymour Butts, an old call sign of his brother Conrad (Sean Penn, State of Grace, Mystic River, 21 Grams, Carlito’s Way).

“Under the Bleachers”

By

Seymour Butts.

Conrad is the black sheep of the pair of siblings, having been through rehab and various other run-ins with the law.

“What do you buy the guy who has everything?”

After a thorough grilling by Nick, Conrad give Nick a birthday card and a present inside. A card with the anachronism CRS (Consumer Recreation Services)

What is it?

-It’s an entertainment service.

-it’s that I hate surprises.

“Happy Birthday.

During lunch, he unfortunately bumps into waitress Christine (Deborah Kara Unger, One Point O, Silent Hill, Silent Hill: Revelation) (literally). Next day he finds himself right next to the CRS building on the 14th floor. And he thinks what the heck and goes to see what is all about.

We give you what is missing in your life.

He meets Jim Feingold (James Rebhorn, Independence Day, Far from Heaven) in their new office floor, and he willingly if slightly reluctantly subjects himself to all their psych and physical tests and fills in all the forms and after many hours he emerges from CRS non the wiser to his birthday present.

“We’ve never had an unsatisfied customer.”

“I think you mean “dissatisfied”.

“Your right… You’re the left-brained word fetishist.”

On his return to the biggest house on Boulevard  drive, there is something sinister awaiting him, it looks like his fathers death scene. But it is worse, it is a clown, and it confirms your irrational fear of clowns.

With things going a little strange, (the TV presenter talking to him) , the plot thickens as he finds a CRS key within the clowns mouth. Now he knows the game has started. Hold on to your hat Nicholas, it is going to be a very bumpy ride for you and everybody around you.

Even if you have seen this film before it is still a gripper as you try to work out all the events that lead to the final reveal, and if you haven’t well buckle-up this BMW is going full speed ahead.

The Game is available as a Limited Edition Blu-ray

 

TWO-DISC LIMITED DELUXE EDITION CONTENTS

– Limited to only 3,000 units
– Deluxe packaging including a 200-page hardback book housed in a rigid slipcase, illustrated with newly commissioned artwork by Corey Brickley
– 200-page book exclusive to this edition includes a newly-commissioned full-length monograph by Bilge Ebiri, and selected archive materials, including an American Cinematographer article from 1997, a 2004 interview with Harris Savides by Alexander Ballinger, and the chapter on the film from Dark Eye: The Films of David Fincher by James Swallow
– Arrow Academy Blu-ray including new bonus features and UK home video premiere of director-approved 2K restoration
– Universal Special Edition DVD featuring archive extras with cast and crew

DISC ONE BLU-RAY
– 2K restoration from the original negative by The Criterion Collection supervised and approved by director David Fincher and cinematographer Harris Savides
– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
– Original 5.1 & 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
– Isolated Music & Effects track
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
– New audio commentary by critic and programmer Nick Pinkerton
– Fool’s Week: Developing The Game, a newly filmed interview with co-writer John Brancato
– Men On The Chessboard: The Hidden Pleasures of The Game, a new visual essay by critic Neil Young
– Archive promotional interview with star Michael Douglas from 1997
– Alternatively-framed 4:3 version prepared for home video (SD only), with new introduction discussing Fincher s use of the Super 35 shooting format

DISC TWO DVD
– Standard definition DVD (PAL) presentation
– 5.1 Dolby Digital audio
– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– Audio commentary with director David Fincher, actor Michael Douglas, screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris, director of photography Harris Savides, production designer Jeffrey Beecroft and visual effects supervisor Kevin Haug
– Behind The Scenes featurettes – Dog Chase, The Taxi, Christine s House, The Fall (with optional commentary by Fincher, Douglas, Savides, Beecroft and Haug)
– On Location featurettes Exterior Parking Lot: Blue Screen Shot, Exterior Fioli Mansion: Father s Death, Interior CRS Lobby and Offices, Interior Fioli Mansion: Vandalism, Exterior Mexican Cemetary (with optional commentary by Fincher, Savides, Beecroft and Haug)
– Theatrical trailer
– Teaser trailer CGI test footage
– Alternate ending
– Production design and storyboard galleries</td>