Surviving the Game

I like this movie, it's not the best action movie, but is very good. The movie doesn't have the best acting and the writing and the beginning is so-so, but it picks up and gets a lot better as the movie goes on. If you ever feel like watching a solid action movie, I say pick this one up. Or if you just want to watch crazy Gary Busey act like Gary Busey.

This movie is about a homeless man (ICE T) that loses everything twice. Then takes a job with some business men (Rutger Hauer and Charles S. Dutton) to help hunt in a isolated place. Ice T soon finds out that they are hunting a deadlier game...

This movie is well worth the rental fee. You might surprise yourself and like it.

In one of our local video store chains, if a movie was considered morally objectionable it was emblazoned with a huge yellow sticker which proclaimed that it was 'Strictly over 18's'. To me, as a youngster, this was like showing a light bulb to a moth. By the time 'Surviving the Game' was released, I was already a seasoned Ice-T and Bodycount fan and so would happily devour any of the nonsensical films which he would associate himself with (a trait which still exists to a certain degree, albeit somewhat diminished at this stage – thanks a lot 'Leprechaun In Da Hood'). Those yellow stickers never failed me; they drew me to movies such as the Tom Savini remake of Night of the Living Dead (1990), Body Melt (1993) and Bad Taste (1987). The peculiar thing about 'Surviving the Game' was that it was only classified with a 15 certificate in the UK, but as I was growing up in Ireland and they had just introduced their own film classification system (one which still prohibits the release of many, many titles today*) one can only assume that they were being extra vigilant.

Such vigilance, however, was not displayed by any staff members at any of my frequented VHS rental outlets and so I was pretty much free to choose whatever I wanted and on one fine day I took the afternoon off school and retreated to my abode to wallow in some Ice-T based goodness.

I regret none of those actions and this all came flooding back when I re-watched STG last week. The first thing that struck me was the plethora of character actors on show, Charles S. Dutton, Ernest R. Dickerson, F. Murray Abraham, Gary Busey, Jack Mason, John C. 'Dr Cox' McGinley and Rutger Hauer all come out in force as a group of hunters in pursuit of the deadliest game of all…man.

The man in question is Jack Mason (Ice-T) a man battling his demons to the extent that he has lost everything, his wife, his child, his home. Now living rough on the streets of Seattle, he even loses his best friend when his dog is run over by a careless taxi driver in the first few minutes of the movie. The altercation with the driver brings Mason to the attention of Walter Cole (Dutton), a man posing as a charity worker, but who is in reality a recruitment officer for Thomas Burns (Hauer), an entrepreneur who facilitates the immoral bloodlusts of the rich and ethically vacuous Mason is brought to Burns' offices whereupon he is offered a job (with very little details provided), he reluctantly accepts and before he knows it, he's held up in a remote cabin in the wilderness with half a dozen of the most peculiar characters you're likely to see share a dinner together. It doesn't take long before their motives are made clear and Mason is cast out on his own, given a small head start before being tracked by the hunters.

Guess what? The hunters soon become the hunted and the tables get well and truly turned. OK, so it sounds dreadful and in many ways, it is. Yet, it is so enjoyably dreadful that you soon find yourself letting go and immersing yourself in Mason's plight. There is an intensity and a unique self-awareness which makes this stand out from similar movies and eventually, this makes this a remarkably endearing viewing experience.

It's violent without being excessively so, it has just the right amount of humour to maintain a suspension of disbelief and by the time comeuppance is delivered, you'll be cheering along. It was refreshing to see a strong African-American lead actor at the time and whist one wouldn't go as far as to call it ground-breaking in any sense of the word, that fact is certainly notable. Ice-T is quite far removed from his hip-hop persona and suits the crusty, dreadlocked role very well. Hauer and Busey are typically and wonderfully bonkers and the support of Abraham and McGinley are both worthy additions.

It was a pleasure to be reminded of a time when action movies could be so enjoyable and when character actors would partake in the movie without dominating it. Admittedly, the rush that I got for simply acquiring it wasn't there this time, but I think that was due to the lack of the yellow sticker.

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There are a few effective concepts in action films which are used over and over again. "Surviving the Game" uses one which was over 60 years old when the movie was made and still works like a charm. Made in 1932, "The Most Dangerous Game" is a movie about a group of people who are hunted for sport. Over the years this concept has been successfully used in big films like John Woo's "Hard Target" (which premiered less than a year before this film) as well as in DTV-films like the Lorenzo Lamas-actioner "Final Round".

The formula works. Although these films rarely offer anything new (you pretty much know the ending before the film has even started), they are very entertaining if the hero is someone who you want to win and the villains are suitably evil. "Surviving the Game" fills this order and throws in some energetic action sequences directed by Ernest R. Dickerson (I also enjoyed his "Bulletproof" a lot).

Ice-T is the hero here. When the film starts, he has no money, no family, no friends and is ready to kill himself. But when he receives a job as a hunting guide from a wealthy businessman (played by Rutger Hauer), he wants to put his life in order again. But after a good meal where Ice meets the rest of the hunters (including Gary Busey and Charles Dutton), the hunt begins and he suddenly realizes that he's the prey. Now, he must use all his strength and wit to survive.

The cast is perfect. While there are no huge stars, these people know the genre and obviously had a great time filming this movie. And there isn't any fault in the production values either. There are beautiful sceneries, a good score by Stewart Copeland and some neat stunts. The script by Eric Bernt (Virtuosity, Romeo Must Die) creates some quite interesting villains and the dialogue, while not perfect, works reasonably well. Luckily Bernt knows that he's writing an action film and doesn't even try to include any deep relationships or hidden meanings in his script.

At the end of the day, this is a good action film which is guaranteed to entertain a fan of this genre for 90 minutes. It's not the best action film ever but it's definitely above-average. This one gets an 8.

Surviving the Game came traipsing in a year after Jean-Claude Van Damme's much more popular Hard Target. Both films featured down-on-their-luck men being used as human prey for rich. bloodthirsty psycho's desperate for the thrill of the kill. Ice-T is a good actor, but not in this film he ain't. Though he still out-performs JCVD as the man on the lam.

T plays Jack Mason, a Seattle hobo plucked from the streets and given a job in the wilderness. Without asking any serious questions or growing suspicious he sheepishly accepts the offer. Upon arriving at a remote forest cabin (actually Lake Wenatchee Airport, if you don't mind me spoiling the magic) he meets a bunch of wealthy weirdos and is well fed and watered. When he wakes the next morning Mason discovers that his job is to run as fast as he can back to civilization.

Director Earnest Dickerson has no control over his cast and allows them to overact to ludicrous degrees. F. Murray Abraham, Oscar or no Oscar, has no idea what he's doing. Gary Busey turns up, goes mental, and then exits (a stupid mistake as he's the most interesting character). John C. McGinley goes over the edge with the minimal of back-story, which only just starts getting interesting before he too exits. It's like they actually wanted to strip the film of any engaging substance.

They try to inject some kind of subtext with the character names. Mason is the everyday working man. He is hunted by men called Hawkins, Griffin, Mr. Wolf and Wolf Jnr. He is employed by men called Cole and Burns, and taken to a place called Hell's Canyon. If writer Eric Bernt was trying to be clever it's lost in the bumbling incompetence that cripples the action scenes.

The whole film is shot like a cheap TV movie, which is twice a let-down as Dickerson himself is a former cinematographer who really ought to know better. The editing is a joke (dead characters mysteriously reappear in some shots as well as the fact that both day AND night seem to last all of two minutes out in the wilderness). The dialogue is terrible, and frequently badly ADR-ed as a quick fix to the consistently poor narrative. A sense of place and location is apparently irrelevant...

What does STG have in its favor? Um...nice music and pleasant scenery. In a film with a wide cast of character actors playing psychos in a story that has been the inspiration for many other action movies that's a pretty disappointing couplet when you're trying hard to recommend it. Stewart Copeland's score IS very good though, and I'm surprised it's not on CD. And the lovely hills and mountains of the Pacific-Northwest will no doubt inspire you to go out for a summertime hike.

Surviving the Game could have been great, but is merely an incredibly dumb, badly-directed pot-boiler, and a massive guilty pleasure.

I just saw this movie for the first time since it's release in 1994 and while it's not as good as what I initially remembered it to be, it's still a decent popcorn flick to watch when there's nothing else on (which is usually most days of the week).

The basic premise for the film is a pretty good - yet simple - one (even if it's not all that original now) and asks the question - can a homeless man put his "street-smart" knowledge to good use and survive being hunted if put into the wilderness? Well, that's exactly what ends up happening to Jack Mason (Ice-T)...a man who's been surviving on the streets but is given an opportunity at a job to help out with a hunting party. Unbeknown to him, though, HE is the prey. Like I said, the premise is good, but is it realistic to think that a homeless person can survive in the wilds as well just because they are "street smart"? Maybe, maybe not, and probably the latter, but this isn't a film about realism....it's about entertainment and for the most part it does just that. It does get a bit predictable as well, but like I say, this film is about entertainment...not plot twists or a deeply thought-provoking story.

The cast is a pretty decent one as well, even if some of the performances are slightly OTT. However, it's not too bad and it's not enough to ruin the enjoyment of the movie. The main "culprit" of this is Gary Busey, but we all know what he was like when he was in movies...usually loud & in your face type of performances, and it's no different here. Also, love him or hate him, Ice-T does a decent job too as Jack Mason, and does a pretty convincing job of playing a down and out homeless guy who's got nothing left to live for.

The film is by no means a cinematic masterpiece, but it does it's job for about an hour and a half.

So if you don't mind films having some OTT performances and predictable story's that have a sprinkling of cheese, then you might enjoy Surviving The Game.