Greenes
Please don't spend money on this.
Abbigail Bush
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Winifred
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
Fleur
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
cmoyton
Thats a quote from the movie and at that stage in proceedings i was thinking exactly the same thing having sat through the boring preamble waiting for the paycheck to arrive. The other reviewers who like this name check Deliverance and Southern Comfort. Please! this isn't even on the same continent never mind ball park. In recent times outdoor pursuits such as paint balling have given cinema a ready made excuse to re enter the backwoods. Think Severance, The Hunters and yes Paintball - and no they were not any good either. War Games has a mismatched cast of English and American war game players being hunted by a curious mix of English and continental Euro villains, the leader of whom most of the time spoke in indecipherable English. This is B movie from hell territory with a few decent gore scenes the only redeeming feature.The director chooses to shoot with bleached out film so that browns and greens are the only colours displayed. This did not add to my enjoyment and only exacerbated the cheap look of the movie. Cannot say i knew any of the actors and if i had the power i would not be looking to cast them in any future roles. As soon as the final villain is despatched by the remaining survivor the ending is immediately signposted (she may as well have amputee tattooed on her forehead).
ben-437
This movie fails at the most basic level of telling a story that makes any kind of sense.The premise (the good guys start off in an air-soft game, but it becomes a real 'war') sounds like it might be vaguely interesting (if you haven't already seen the much better film Severance). But the air-soft element is completely forgotten as soon as the baddies show up - the characters who are supposed to be good at the game behave just as idiotically as the rest.It's not even that they make the understandable mistakes panicking civilians might make in a deadly situation - they just do whatever random, stupid things they need to progress the 'story' to the next plot point. One character is happy to kill an injured enemy in cold blood, but then hesitates when confronted by an armed enemy coming for her two minutes later. One character who's armed with a real gun nonsensically *puts it down and forgets about it* just to let a particularly nasty and sadistic scene happen without her preventing it.The cinematographer's main trick is to have the focus wander between foreground and background - which looks classy the first time, but loses its appeal when it happens in every other shot.Not at all good.
DaveCooper
Cosimo Alema has crafted a really gritty and dark thriller which pits it's excellent young cast against some pretty nasty euro villains and watches in delight as they fight to survive. The idea of city kids being hunted in the wilderness by crazed locals is nothing new and has been done better in Deliverance and Southern Comfort but the old saying rings true, if it ain't broke.... The film really benefits from it's stylish burnt out visuals, no doubt thanks to Alema's background as a music video director. It gives the film a strong identity and makes the most of the awesome back drop in which the film is set. The hunting ground itself is a awash with lakes, waterfalls and forests which all lend to some great set pieces. The cast all do a good job to flesh out their limited characters, and give us a reason to root for them, whilst the bad guys all look typically gruff and nasty. Low on scares the film does throw in one or two good shocks and whilst never lingering too long on the kills as the cast are inevitably whittled down, it does create a very tense and believable atmosphere. A scene involving the two sisters Lara (Stephanie Chapman Baker) and Monica (Valene Kane) is heartbreaking and truly memorable. Sam Cohan does well as the groups de facto leader Alex who may or may not know more than he is letting on, and Neil Linpow is definitely one to watch as the reluctant hero Riko. A really good example of what I'd call Friday night fluff. An enjoyable watch that wont set the world on fire, but will keep you entertained throughout.
JC Amie
The plot centers around two estranged sisters, Lara and Monica, who along with some friends go out to the countryside to play airsoft. They stumble across the hideout of three ex soldiers who have been using the area as their own hunting ground. The soldiers then decide to pick them off, one at a time. So I got this flick on mail order mainly because it's about some guys playing airsoft, which is a real hobby of mine and because Im a big fan of the stalker slasher genre. I was hoping to see some cool battle scenes and these kids pitting their skills against some hardened soldiers and some good old fashioned slashing. The airsoft scene at the start is pretty cool, and the director did a great job catching the frenetic pace of the game. It was good to see that the actors that were meant to have been really good at the game were well versed in the proper techniques and gave their characters a sense of authenticity. The film is more than just a slasher though. In fact I was surprised to find that it was a bit smarter than that, and two of the deaths apart, it isn't actually very gory at all. What it is very good at though is creating a level of tension and unease early on and wracking it up as the film continues. The mood of the film is very haunting, which is achieved through the stunning visuals and the beautiful soundtrack. It's very clever how as the film uses the soft, delicate music is in such stark contrast to the violence on screen. The hand-held style in which the film is shot pulls you into the story and makes it feel very believable. This is obviously also helped by some very strong performances from the largely unknown cast. Stephanie Chapman Baker and Neil Linpow are especially good as the two main characters and it's their slow burning romance set against the horrors around them that gives the film some real heart. The soldiers all look the part, and do a fantastic job with their limited dialogue. It is in fact Michael Lutz who gives the stand out performance as Uncle, the leader of the three. His face is so worn and tells us everything in a look. I am a little disappointed that the back stories of the soldiers were not explored, as I think that it would have added an extra dimension to the film had we known more about who these guys were and how they had become so bitter and twisted. That is one of the main problems with the film. The script is at times a bit clunky, and the story doesn't really take us in any new directions, in fact it's pretty generic. It would have been nice to see some twists and turns. There is one shock early on when the first character is killed, but after that it just seems to follow a well beaten path up to it's conclusion. That said, it does this well, and keeps you entertained and pretty taut throughout. I think that Cosimo Alema on the back of this will go on to make better films, but this is a really solid debut.