Awakening in a mysterious house, a group of strangers find themselves trapped inside where they are instructed to perform a series of cruel games to allow themselves to be wiped free of debt which forces them to confront a series of carnivorous dinosaurs to get away alive.
This was a solid enough if problematic take on the franchise. Among the fun aspects featured here is the setup which provides a great way to continue the franchise's tradition of establishing the characters for the games. Taking the tradition one more time here with the group being gathered together of low-level desperate figures looking for a way to get out of their financial despair and figuring that the experience will bring them out of it, the film gets rather fun with the idea of the group here going through the usual motions of getting the team brought out to the location and undergoing the rules for the experience. As everything here comes together with the expected route even if it forgoes the usual method of kidnapping them against their will, this keeps everything intriguing enough to work rather well. This makes the series of interactions and confrontations with the dinosaurs as a part of the game come off as perfectly cheesy and enjoyable. There's plenty of fun to be had with the way this one changes up the formula into offering a series of tasks or objectives that are to be completed by the dwindling group while the dinosaurs serve as the demented boss that eats the losers which takes place here. The chases here after meeting up with the raptor or the Dilophosaurus who comes about after the demented form of Russian Roulette that has some tense moments involved, and the involvement here with them being used as these punishment dealers for those that fail is an intriguing way of utilizing the creatures in some cheesy situations. These all manage to work quite nicely here as there are some factors with this one that hold it back. Among the main drawbacks with this one is the general setup here that tries to provide more of a game-shop experience for everything which makes for a tough time getting through this. The idea of the host trying to tell lame jokes and aggravating commentary attempting to present everything as a hip, edgy lead makes for an immensely frustrating time where it's hard to get into what's going on. The concept of the game itself feels quite flimsy with very little about it coming together into a coherent style either as everything is structured on bizarre games with only a tenuous survivability ratio so there's little about it that makes this feel like an organized game show the way it's supposed to feel. As well, there's also the other issue in the general air of cheapness that permeates everything here that makes for a somewhat comical low-budget approach. The idea is goofy enough with the idea being done once again to get everyone together at the hotel which is immensely obvious that this is just a reconfigured house rather than an actual hotel being used. There's nothing here about being in anything other than a strange house and it takes a lot of the sting out of this one much like the space here barely making sense of what's happening much like the typically goofy CGI used for both the dinosaurs or the few bits of gore in the kills. These are all enough to lower this one overall.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.
