Year:
2000
Studio: Dimension Films
Movie:
3/5
DVD: 3/5
Movie
Reindeer Games is
a standard drama/action movie. Rudy (Ben Affleck) is in prison serving
the relatively minor crime of grand theft auto. He and his bunkmate
Nick (James Frain) are getting out in a few days, just in time for
Christmas. Nick has his penpal love, the beautiful Ashley (Charlize
Theron), waiting for him once he gets out while Rudy has no one.
Naturally, Rudy has also fallen in love with Ashley, or at least he
longs for that type of relationship. Nick dies in a prison altercation,
paving the way for Rudy to take his place with Ashley since she's never
seen any pictures of Nick.
Once he succumbs to temptation it all goes downhill. Gabriel (Gary
Sinise) shows up with his boys. He's Ashley's brother and a shady
character who wants to strike it rich. And "Nick" is going to help him
do it by providing him security information for a local Indian Casino
where Nick used to work at.
How does Rudy get out of this situation without getting himself killed?
That's the rest of the movie along with a few plot twists to keep
viewers on their toes.
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Actors
This movie is a Ben Affleck vehicle where he gets to take on a sort of
action role. It didn't work out that way -- for some reason Ben Affleck
can't seem to carry mainstream movies.
DVD
John Frankenheimer's audio commentary is a bit too positive. It got a
little tiring hearing how great actors Affleck, Sinise, Theron, and the
others are. But he also talked about other things and why certain
scenes were shot this way or certain story elements were changed.
There are also the standard five-minute promotional featurette and the
theatrical trailer.
Recommendations
Reindeer Games has
no remarkable qualities. It's a very run-of-the-mill almost action
movie with plot twists that, although somewhat surprising, are not far
enough out there to be shocking. The only reason people should watch it
is to see Ben Affleck or Gary Sinise, or to see Charlize Theron or even
just to see her breasts. There is no real reason for me to recommend
this movie other than it doesn't suck.
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