Surviving the Game (1994)

You won't be disappointed!

Expected more

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Surviving The Game is a great action movie inspired by the short story The Most Dangerous Game. The film is very similar to John Woo/JCVD flick Hard Target that was released a bit before this. Hard Target has more to offer as far as non stop action craziness, but in my opinion Surviving The Game is a better film. Ice T does a good job as the lead in the movie. He plays Mason, a homeless man who lives on the streets of Seattle. He gets a break (or so he thinks) by getting a gig as a survival guide for a hunting party of rich guys on vacation in the wooded mountains of The American Northwest. It ends up being a game of survival by a bunch of sociopaths where Ice T must utelize his street survival skills in the woods as he now is hunted for sport. This group of affleunt hunters is lead by by Rutger Hauer in one of his finest and most sinister performances. His tight bro and wingman, Charles S Dutton is impressive as well and is also rounded out by outstanding performances from Gary Busy and John C McGinley. The pace is quick, the locations look great, story and character development is solid and packed with action and memorable, great performances.

I have watched this film over the years and it just gets better . The cast is unreal and the story great . Gary Busy is at the top of his game as Dco :) The wilderness shots are very well done. Great plot twist as Mason thinks his luck has finally changed only to be set into this game of survival . The trophy room mason finds later in the film is a nice touch ! Ice t plays the homeless man with a chip on his shoulder to perfection .If you like action films with great acting and not tons of CGI like films used to be made give it a shot. I would say I have seen this 30 to 40 times its priceless ! Some great one liners as well.

I rated this G-awful turkey a 1 just to try to get its rating down to about where it belongs - a 2 or 3 at best! Unbelievable that such high caliber actors would take part in such a cinematic mess - they must have been paid well or desperate for something to do. Normally only a bunch of unknowns would act in such a turkey. The events and actions portrayed are absolute nonsense and totally unrealistic - did anyone with half a brain read the script before shooting began? Could have been much better with a better script.SPOILER: One of the biggest nonsense parts (towards the end) was how the heck did Mason (Ice_T) get back to civilization when he was stranded in the middle of nowhere AND IN ONLY 3 DAYS! Just one of the MANY ridiculous story elements.Don't waste your time with this.

This really could have been a great chase/action movie. It has all the right ingredients with the hunters, the hunted, the unwilling hinted man being chased for his life through the woods...the claustrophobia, the suspense, the psychological element, yeah it had enough in there to maker a really great story. What happened then? First let me point out that I thoroughly enjoyed this film!! I enjoyed it when I realised it was not as professional as I might have thought at first, so I sat back to enjoy a good old action flick in the manner of Schwarzenegger or something and it fitted the bill well. The doc, Gary Busey, was just perfect in his role and I was a bit saddened when his character was no longer. He could have brought more to this movie.I haven't had the 'pleasure' of watching Ice-T in a movie until now.Ice-T is a bad actor! He also had such bad lines that maybe it wasn't exactly his fault. Either way he was quite a part in the downfall of this film. For someone who is a streetwise homeless guy he seemed to lack a bit of judgement and was as gullible as they come.OK OK OK forget all that. If you want to enjoy this film then you must suspend disbelief, don't ask questions about this or that character or why this happened or didn't happen, just get yourself cosy, sit back and have a good night in with this eclectic bunch of weirdo's trying to kill each other in the woods. It is as simple as that. For that it deserves at least 5 stars. Enjoyable but could definitely have been miles better.Oh and remind me not to watch Ice-T again...