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The Game (1997)

tomatometer

71

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 49
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 14

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

58

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 5

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, 2 hr. 8 min.

Mystery & Suspense

John Brancato, Michael Ferris

Jun 6, 2000

Cast

All Critics (49) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (14) | DVD (18)

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
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 | Comment
Variety
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 | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A crowd-pleasing pip most of the way.

January 1, 2000 Comment
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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 | Comment
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 | Comment
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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 | Comment
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 | Comment

"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 | Comment
Arizona Daily Star

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

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

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

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | Comment
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 | Comment
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 | Comment
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 | Comment
Montreal Film Journal

Once again, Fincher settles for artifice over art.

June 5, 2002 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment
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 | Comment
Boston Phoenix

David Fincher has emerged as one of the most provocative filmmakers of the decade.

February 28, 2002 Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies | Comment

David Fincher directs this claustrophobic thriller with visceral punch and stylistic vitality.

February 27, 2002 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | Comment
Spirituality and Practice
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Game

It's the movie everyone should be watching instead of Fight Club. Like that one this is about a man who discovers how hollow and empty his life has been, but he doesn't go out and start a cult, he gets the carpet pulled under him to make him realize that we shouldn't take for granted a lot of things in life.

September 29, 2007
DragonEyeMorrison
Tsubaki Sanjuro

Super Reviewer

While not as evil as Se7en and not as trippy as Fight Club this is still pure David Fincher excellence. Like Michael Douglas while playing the game (or being played by the game?) the audience also has no clue what is going on, as the plot is playing with expectations and plot twists just to solve it all in the most

March 23, 2007
ironclad1609

Super Reviewer

    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 (6 months ago)

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