merklekranz
"Surviving the Game" is a hunted in the woods action picture with numerous problems. The set up in Seattle, with Ice T being duped into becoming the hunted, takes way too long. Once in the remote wilderness, there are frequent talky moments that seem like, and are, nothing but celluloid filler. The movie becomes less and less logical as it goes along, and the conclusion is a total train wreck. A night instantly changing into day sequence on atv's is absolutely priceless. Some of the acting is acceptable, and character development is pretty good, but the film fails to impress, because eventually all logic flies out the window, and the ending is rushed and wretched. - MERK
kneiss1
There is not much good to say about this movie. The pretty much only thing I remember are the nice nature pictures. Everything else about this movie is plain bad or mediocre. The dialog is stupid and ridiculous at the same time. She story is silly and uninteresting. Not even the action scenes have been acceptable. They have been poorly directed: Often illogical and all the time boring. For example, during one action scene, the night turned into day within 2 seconds. The movie felt like a complete waste of time. - It wasn't even bad enough to be funny. Avoid this movie at all costs unless you are a fan of brain dead action movies.
Scarecrow-88
Seattle street bum(Ice-T), whose wife and child were killed during a building collapse, is offered what he believes to be a potential job worth a substantial amount, not knowing that the hunting trip into the Oregonian woods he will serve as the hunted. Those out to get him work for the CIA, retired agents whose leisurely activities include hunting those they consider trash, societal outcasts no one cares about. What they don't expect is that their quarry is so resourceful, tough, and clever, soon turning the tables on them.Variant on The Most Dangerous Game, doesn't stray from formula at all. It goes exactly as you'd expect, with Ice-T, no matter how implausible / improbable, upending his adversaries, despite their distinct advantages. The uniqueness this film brings to the familiar formula is who is being hunted, Ice-T, an obvious street-lifer, using his survival instincts from spending his life in the harsh environs of the Seattle urban areas to combat those with all the comforts and weaponry(..including ground vehicles)at their disposal. Just seeing Ice-T in an environment alien to him adds a nice touch to a rather overdone plot premise. The cast is something, I'll tell you..the hunters include Rutger Hauer, Charles Dutton, F Murray Abraham, John McGinley, William McNamara(..the moral core of the film, the son of Abraham, who finds this sport contemptible, but is caught in difficult circumstances, pressured by his father to hunt with them), and Gary Busey, who makes his short time on screen quite memorable(..get a load of the story he tells Ice-T regarding pops and how he got a scar under his eye!). McGinley steals the film as a loose cannon, with asthma, whose traumatic loss of a daughter fuels his desire to kill Ice-T. The ending, how Ice-T gets even with Hauer, is as far-fetched as it gets, but should satisfy because he's such a cretin. Dutton uncharacteristically portrays a loathsome scumbag, here, playing against type, relishing the hunt for Ice-T. Director Ernest Dickerson deftly handles the action within the wilderness quite effectively.Poor Ice-T's character gets run through the ringer. He had already lost his family, living off the street, his dog gets hit by a taxi cab, his old pal dies, and just when it appears that Dutton is offering him a way out of terrible poverty, he becomes hunted by devious killers. He has to survive a leap into water, a hurt leg after crashing a ground vehicle he steals into a downed tree, is shot in the side, and escapes numerous altercations with those after his hide. Ice-T, to his credit, is rather good, with us able to understand how rough life has been to him, the strife evident in his eyes, having developed alligator skin after all life has dealt him.
Coventry
The "manhunt" action/suspense premise may perhaps be nearly as old as cinema itself, but it's also one that practically always guarantees a bloody good time! I've seen several film versions of the hunting-humans concept and loved them all; except for one (the abominable 60's bore "Bloodlust!"). Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack's original 30's classic "The Most Dangerous Game" undoubtedly remains the greatest version, but I particularly love how there exist numerous variations on the theme, like an excessively violent one set on a futuristic prison island ("Blood Camp Thatcher") or a super-sleazy one where they exclusively hunt scarcely dressed girls (Eddie Romero's "The Woman Hunt"). "Surviving the Game" is a rather rudimentary re-working of the premise, but nonetheless a very effective one with a downright awesome cast listing and a handful of genuine shocks. Jack Mason is an embittered and suicidal homeless man who loses his last will to live when both his dog and best friend in one day. The sly businessman Thomas Burns lures Mason to the wilderness with a false job promise, but instead he and his maniacal rich friends simply intend to hunt down Mason like an animal and kill him for sports. Mason may be suicidal, but he still wants to decide for himself when he dies, and so he successfully fights back. "Surviving the Game" is quite a gruesome and nihilistic-toned film; definitely not for people with vulnerable stomachs. The violence is pretty gratuitous and served without any form of morality, but what else do you expect from a B-movie. As indicated above, the film's main trump is the cast and particularly because each and every cool actor depicts a marvelously eccentric character. I can't even pick a favorite performance between F. Murray Abraham (as a sinister Wall Street big shot), Gary Busey (as an out-and-out deranged FBI psychiatrist), the overacting John C. McGinley (as a frustrated hunter with a vengeance) or of course Rutger Hauer as the mega-bastard. Ernest Dickerson – formerly a skilled cinematographer – does an admirable job directing his first long feature and he went on making the vastly entertaining Tales from the Crypt movie "Demon Knight". The forestry filming locations are impressive, the story doesn't contain any dull or unnecessary padding sequences and the level of suspense is continuously kept high. I don't know about you but that's everything I look for in an action movie.
