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Game of Death
Score: 82%
Rating: R
Publisher: Sony Pictures Home
                  Entertainment

Region: 1
Media: Blu-ray/1
Running Time: 111 Mins.
Genre: Action/Thriller
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish

Features:
  • Previews
  • A Look at the Story
  • The Action of Game of Death
  • The Cast
  • Working with Director Giorgio Serafini
  • Behind the Stunts
  • Shooting in Detroit

In Game of Death, Agent Marcus Jones (Wesley Snipes) is a CIA operative who's quite good at his job. Unfortunately, his current assignment hasn't exactly gone as planned. While on the way to a very important meeting, his charge, Mr. Frank Smith (Robert Davi), has a heart attack and the driver of his vehicle is shot while detouring to the hospital. Marcus knows that this is going to be a bad situation, but he has no choice other than to take Smith to the hospital and hope for the best. Once there, he has his weapons taken away by security since there are no weapons allowed in the hospital. But for someone like Marcus, he doesn't have to have a weapon to take care of himself. He takes care of the first attacker quickly and then has a weapon. Now he just has to hunt down the rest of the people after him, but there's a catch. The guys attacking him are supposed to be his backup from the CIA!

The prize at stake is 100 million dollars and Smith's life. Marcus' ex-partners have decided that they weren't getting paid enough and for that kind of money, they can disappear and live happily. Floria (Zoë Bell) tells him that Zander (Gary Daniels) has given him the choice to now join them or try and stop them. Of course, he's going to try and stop them. It wouldn't be a very good movie if he didn't! Marcus is going to have to manage to take out everyone and come out of it alive. He does have a bit of help in that Smith's doctor, Rachel (Aunjanue Ellis), is going to stand up to the gunmen. She's not going to let her patient go until she's done her job properly. Of course, that's not really much help when they've got guns and she's only got medical training. But since they need Smith alive to get the money, they've got to listen to her.

Now we know Marcus escapes because he's telling the story to a priest and we also know that he's been framed for the murders in the hospital. From the hospital on, Marcus is going to be on his own to figure out how to try and deal with this situation, minimize the deaths, and take down his friends. Given that now he's wanted by the police and he has no help left at the CIA, everything just got a lot more difficult.

Overall, Game of Death is a decent action flick. Snipes' performance was great to watch. I've enjoyed him as an actor over the years and his role in Game of Death was very well done. Zoë Bell is more known for being a stunt double (Uma Thurman's in Kill Bill, but she gets to have her own role and do her own stunts here, which was great to see. There is a lot of action, gun battles, and fist fights throughout the movie. My only real complaint is that the ending was a bit anti-climactic.

For a Blu-ray disc, there aren't that many special features, but what is there are good. There are six featurettes total, all behind the scenes interviews with the cast and crew. I was a bit shocked that there weren't any interviews at all with Wesley Snipes. I would have liked to have heard his take on how the film came out, but I guess that couldn't be helped. The quality of the picture is amazing though. The film has a very gritty feeling which matches the story quite well. The director did an amazing job capturing that feeling perfectly and since it's on Blu-ray, you get to see every detail in crystal clear color.

Game of Death is a pretty good action movie overall. If you're looking for a movie with a lot of gun battles and fight scenes, I recommend you check it out.



-Cyn, GameVortex Communications
AKA Sara Earl
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