A notch above your average heist movie, Reindeer Games is an entertaining guilty pleasure with a pretty good cast. I mean, any movie starring Charlize Theron and Gary Sinise is bound to be at least decent. Oh yeah, we also have Ben Affleck, whom I personally don’t like but also don’t hate. He was pretty good as a petty criminal down on his luck here. So, you know the formula for these movies, a bit of action, a bit of snappy dialogue and you got yourself a nice little time killer. The characters we’re going to meet are quite a rowdy bunch, especially the main villain played by Mr. Sinise. It was also nice to see Danny Trejo giving this movie some street cred. Vatos Locos forever ese!
Reindeer Games is also John Frankenheimer’s last movie. In case you’re not familiar with his work, he directed a bunch of classics back in the sixties and seventies. Movies like Manchurian Candidate, Seconds, and French Connection II. He tried to go back to his roots with this one, something you can notice with the camera angles he used. An added bonus of black humor gave the movie the edge it needed. I should also mention all the plot twists that were sometimes really good and surprising. And finally, who doesn’t like a Christmas heist movie? Speaking of which, I should remind you to check out our Subversive Rabbit selection of heist movies.
Meet Rudy Duncan, a car thief currently doing a five-year stretch in your local prison. During that time, Rudy comes up with a great idea, to assume his cellmate’s identity. He’s not going to mind because he’s dead. And Rudy wants to meet the mysterious woman that he was supposed to meet. This is where things get both good and bad for our poor Rudy.
Holidays are always better with good action movies and if you’re sick of seeing the same old ones, Reindeer Games is going to be a refreshing change. The production values are pretty good despite the overall B-action movie plot. After all, the opening scene is showing us a bunch of dead people dressed as Santas. Although I will admit that this did pique my interest.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise, Isaac Hayes, Ron Jeremy, Charlize Therom, Ashton Kutcher
Fun Stuff: At the time of shooting, Gary Sinise and Charlize Theron were dating.
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184858/
