First off the bat, I expected much more from this. Remakes tend to be much more glitzy and exciting, especially as far as horrors go, the remake of Straw Dogs, another example. What we have here is one mess of a film, which has heavily borrowed from The Running Man. The team behind the solid Indie crime flick, Redball, are back, where Hewitt, has just slumped lower after that weak sex flop, X. We even have some of the old players from the original. This does move in much different directions as the original, as the horrible Purcell, once part of the CIA, was framed and made to take the fall for slaughtering innocent civilians, women and children. Now a prisoner, he used in a game show, ala Running Man, minus the suspense and thrills. Surviving two stages, the best player, so far, of course, he's sprung from the show, by a former lover, work colleague (the hot Viva Bianca) which furthers the story. Just with Sound Of Music's recent passing of Liesel, (Hammond) who played Frederich, plays Thatcher, here, but with a different character, to that of G.P's Michael Craig, in the original. It's a fine performance, as with many here, (Bianca, McClory, donning a fantastic and polished American accent) except for our clunk head lead. There are a couple of gruesome bits, a head exploding scene, and a suicide one. It ends somewhat similar to that at the end of that 2001 movie, Series 7, but the whole film spells mess, disappointment, and some real crappy photography. The highlights of the film are our two over enthused hosts of our death survival show. Hopefully Hewitt, can one day, return to the kind of film making he did so wonderfully, with his baby, Redball, where here he's almost B grade, ground level.
