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The Game

The Game (1997)

tomatometer

71

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 52
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 15

The ending could use a little work but this is otherwise another sterling example of David Fincher's iron grip on atmosphere and storytelling.

54

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 6

The ending could use a little work but this is otherwise another sterling example of David Fincher's iron grip on atmosphere and storytelling.

audience

82

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 118,718

My Rating

Movie Info

Director David Fincher followed the success of his dark and atmospheric crime thriller Seven (1995) with another exercise in stylish film noir, this time lifting the pallid atmosphere a notch to indulge in a fast-paced trip through the cinematic funhouse. Michael Douglas plays Nicholas Van Orton, a Scrooge-like San Francisco investment banker following in his father's Scrooge-like footsteps. On Nicholas's 48th birthday (the age at which his father committed suicide), his younger, free-spirited

R,

Mystery & Suspense

John Brancato, Michael Ferris

Jun 6, 2000

Universal Pictures

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All Critics (52) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (15) | DVD (19)

This 1997 thriller is fairly entertaining nonsense if all you're looking for is 128 minutes of diversion. But if you'd like something more from David Fincher, the director of Seven, don't get your hopes up.

October 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment (1)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Regardless of how far one chooses to buy into The Game -- and the ending ambiguously suggests that it could go on and on -- there is no doubt as to Fincher's staggering expertise as a director and his almost clinical sense of precision.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film's 'message' about complacency transformed by chaos and uncertainty is hackneyed...

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The picture provides Douglas with one of his best roles. If he doesn't quite reach the bizarre heights he achieved in Falling Down, The Game makes its own demands.

June 18, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
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As it's unspooling on screen, the film is hugely entertaining, but there are several significant plot holes that grow wider the more closely they're investigated.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: ReelViews
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Fincher is still working on the assumption that he has better things to do than entertain an audience. Which would be fine if he weren't drawn to such schlocky material.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Salon.com
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[N]ifty filmic style and crackpot sensibility.

October 18, 2012 Full Review Source: Film International
Film International

Well-written, expertly paced, and undeniably riveting, The Game is perhaps most impressive in the way it strips down the Nicholas Van Orton character. The whole process is very layered and each layer breaks down Nicholas even more than the last.

October 6, 2012 Full Review Source: Examiner.com
Examiner.com

This is one of those movies that's so tightly written and densely plotted, it leaves no room for error -- or viewer queries. Unfortunately, the questions will start flying even before the picture's over.

September 26, 2012 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing

Criterion continues to polish their gold standard with their release of David Fincher's most underrated and unseen masterpiece, The Game, which is given even greater depth thanks to an excellent commentary track.

September 25, 2012 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

Sure, it strains credulity, but it's clever, well-paced and builds to a spectacular -- if not altogether satisfying -- conclusion.

October 4, 2011 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Good looking, tightly controlled thriller. An exhilarating ride that prepares the ground for Fight Club.

October 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

"The Game" is a thrilling end run of deception in which a master manipulator is masterfully manipulated.

April 29, 2007 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star
Arizona Daily Star

A solid original screenplay -- one of the best out of Hollywood this year.

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews
Reeling Reviews

The Game is one of those films that requires the viewer to suspend his disbelief to a great extent, but offers pretty good entertainment in return for that effort.

March 16, 2003 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope
Laramie Movie Scope

The Game is something more than a stylish thriller, though it dishes up style and thrills in abundance.

October 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Enquirer

You know how some films could be great or have indeed some great moments, but for some reason, are disappointing? This piece is exactly in that category.

September 10, 2002 Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal
Montreal Film Journal

Once again, Fincher settles for artifice over art.

June 5, 2002 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment (1)
Boxoffice Magazine

The rocky blur between reality and fantasy aspires to be a Hitchcockian After Hours, but at two hours plus, The Game gets played out early on.

March 24, 2002 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix
Boston Phoenix

Audience Reviews for The Game

A misanthropic millionaire gets a strange birthday present from his brother: an invitation to play in "the game," a contest that turns out to have no clear rules but lots of gunplay. Solid thriller that keeps you wondering to the end and disguises its many implausibilities well enough so you don't think about them much until the movie's over.
October 10, 2012
366weirdmovies
Greg S

Super Reviewer

Nicholas: I don't care about the money. I'm pulling back the curtain. I want to meet the wizard. 

"There are no rules in The Game."

The Game is, above anything else, a lot of fun. It's not just entertaining in the ways normal films are, but it actively keeps you in the experience like few movies can. It sucks you in, and your goal is the same as the movies tormented character Nicholas: to find out just what the fuck is going on. Is someone fucking with him? Is he hallucinating? Is he dreaming? Is this a con? Is this a true present? Who the fuck knows, but the lead up to the discovery is magnificent. So what if the payoff is a little too easy. The other 99% of the film is hallucinatory. I couldn't tear my eyes away from it. It's David Fincher doing what he does best. And it's Michael Douglas doing what he does best. Hey, and Sean Penn is there too. What isn't to like? 

Nicholas is an investment banker, who doesn't really do anything other than work. He doesn't have any true relationships anymore outside of his housekeeper. He meets his brother, Conrad, who he hasn't seen in sometime. Conrad gives a birthday gift and it isn't the usual birthday gift. He gives Nicholas a certificate to play some sort of game that is different for every customer. When he decides to go to the CRS office and see what it's all about, his life is thrown upside down. He soon finds himself seeking answers to just what is going on. It's a movie thats pieces fall in place as it goes, and as they do, we discover that this puzzle has some glaring holes in it. Some pieces were lost along the way, but that can't take much away from just how well paced and directed and acted, this film was. 

The Game winds up being a smart, stylish film in the end, no matter how it is wrapped up. There's a trend to Fincher films. They are all smart and stylish. The movies style is equaled by its substance. I appreciate how far this movie goes to warp our view of the situations and occurrences of the events in Nicholas' game experience. The twist at the end isn't one that will completely make or break the movie in your mind. It's just there. The lead up is the movie. The twist is just some way to end it. 

A highly recommended film. If you can't have fun watching The Game, then I don't what type of movie could make you have fun. This one is as entertaining a movie as you could hope for. Is it as good, technically speaking, as Fincher's other thrillers like Seven and Fight Club? No, but it is just as involving, twisted, and entertaining. Another movie to use as evidence to show just how great of a director Fincher is. 
July 12, 2012
blkbomb
Melvin White

Super Reviewer

    1. Conrad: [on Consumer Recreation Services] They make your [Nicholas] life fun.
    – Submitted by Jacob H (5 months ago)
    1. Jim Feingold: What are you gonna do, anyway? You won't get your money back.
    2. Nicholas Van Orton: I don't care about money. I'm pulling back the curtain. I want to meet the wizard.
    – Submitted by Mike B (7 months ago)
    1. Nicholas Van Orton: I'm a very wealthy man. Whatever they're paying, I'll double it.
    – Submitted by Mike B (8 months ago)
    1. Conrad: Holding t-shirt, which reads: I was drugged and left for dead in Mexico - and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.
    – Submitted by Mike B (8 months ago)
    1. Nicholas Van Orton: [Nicholas van Orten loses a shoe when climbing a fire-escape ladder] There goes a thousand dollars.
    2. Christine: Your shoes cost a thousand dollars?
    3. Nicholas Van Orton: That one did.
    – Submitted by Sam B (22 months ago)

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