War Games: At the End of the Day (2011)

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Title: War GamesDirected by: Cosimo Alema Storyline: We're first introduced to two men planning landmines in the wet ground. We're also introduced to them as the villains as they steal dogs from a gas station and shoot them for fun. We are then introduced to a group of people who are going out into the woods to play a game of airsoft. One of the group explains the rules of airsoft to his friends. They start actually playing airsoft, they go around using military hand signals and tactics. Making it looks like a semi believable game of airsoft, it is only semi believable because the people spend more time hitting the water than they do hitting each other, which they do non of until the plot calls for it. Two of the group come across the butchering base of the two hunters who were out killing dogs, it is full of blood and body pieces. The slaughter begins with one of the guys shooting one of the group while their talking, I would be saddened by this if I could remember anything about the character, at this point all I know is that he is the only one with an actual firearm. One of the group runs off by himself and runs over the mine that was planned by the two hunters at the beginning of the movie, yet another character I do not care about. The hunters then smoke out the group to get them to run, and after this it is a basic hunting them down one by one story. The blonde one runs off by herself once they take down one of the hunters, but she is selfish and takes the gun with her as the other 2 surviving ones go to find the sister of one of them who was kidnapped first. The surviving girl is able to smoke out the last hunter and kill him before walking off home with all of her friends dead. Acting: The acting seems quite stale for the most part, stale but oddly realistic. Even if I couldn't name any of the characters personalities off the top of my head. Or even point out who was suppose to be the main character... Noticeable Camera work: Within the first 10 minutes you can see why this movie is down rated so much. The audio is not lip synced with the actors so you can see the actors mouthes stop moving before the audio stops. The shots are your standard run of the mill shots for the most part, but you do get some gems of alternative angles and shots such as voyeuristic shots and others such as focus pulls that you would miss if you blink at the wrong moment. During the airsoft fight there is a bit of shaking cam going on which I am not a fan of even when it is done correctly, which it is not in this movie.Length: 90 minutesOverall Feel: This movie disappointed me greatly, the concept of the movie could have had great potential, but it makes me watch characters I don't care about debate relationship things I don't care about. The guys in charge of camera and editing seemed to do their jobs OK. This movie surprisingly had a cinematographer and I say surprisingly because the range of shots go from more than standard to less than great. The movie also had 2 people working on sound and some how it was still un-synced. The acting was tolerable, it was at that grey point between decent acting skills and no acting skills, constantly moving up and down the point. Half of the crew looked like they worked hard on this movie, whereas the half looked like they were just doing this to make a bit of money. Disappointing to say the least, especially as the concept and box art made it out to be a great thriller movie. Thriller movies work best when you care about the characters and want them to survive.

Seven friends travel to the countryside to play airsoft simulating a war in the woods. They stumble with three paranoid and sadistic ex-soldiers and they are killed one by one. "War Games: At the End of the Day" is another stupid collection of clichés, with a imbecile group of hysterical and idiotic teenagers that does exactly the opposite that should have been done: cry when should be quiet; shoot when should wait; return when should flee. Further, the bullets in the pistol end unexpectedly in a moment of advantage for the dumb group or the shooter misses the target. There are several other movies with the same storyline ("group of friends travel to the woods to play paintball, or to fish, or to camp or whatever, and stumbles with a group of sadistic men.The music score is something dreadful and the long conclusion is absolutely predictable. Last but not the least, I should have watched the soccer game live on television instead of wasting my time seeing this crap. My vote is one (awful).Title (Brazil): "Jogos de Guerra" ("War Games")

We had a bit of a movie marathon at home this weekend, catching up on various horrors that slipped under our radar in the past year or so. I must be honest, I went into War games with no real expectations as this is hardly ground breaking in it's ideas, but I was really very surprised to find the film to be as good as it is. After a kind of a naff set up and introduction, the film really gets going and never lets up until the final image. The chase/hunt is relentless and it's quite a tense watch. It's got some quite clever visuals where the camera kind of drifts in and out of focus, and because it's shot hand held it really puts you into the movie. This is also helped because none of the cast are particularly well known, at least not to me, so everyone was expendable and it was clever how the film sets up certain characters as the lead only to bump them off unexpectedly. You never really know beyond the main girl who's gonna stick around til the end. To their credit the actors are all very good and should go on to be better known. I think that the film could have benefited from spending more time on the soldiers background because their motives are never really clear, but then again, that also makes it kind of scary too. Not the best film we saw over the weekend, but pretty bloody good all the same.

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).