User Reviews

The director for this movie is a Music Video Director and it shows with the quality of sound and the lack of Foley usage.

****SPOILERS****

At the beginning of the movie the bad guys are setting up mines in the rain and obviously they thought they could simply record the dialogue through the rain. Unfortunately all they did was make the words the characters were saying indecipherable to the viewer.

It is a typical premise although supposedly this movie was based on a true story -- or so it says at the beginning. However, if it was based on a true story it would mean that the entire thing had to have been crafted from Forensic evidence after the investigation into what happened.

The usage of music throughout the entire movie where nobody is saying anything simply screams "Music Video" and on more than one occasion I had to remove the headphones until the sound got back to the characters.

Anytime I watch a movie I place myself in the same position as the actors and when I do this I can normally follow a well thought-out plot without too many problems. Unfortunately many of the characters in this movie did things that made no sense whatsoever, like a character forgetting about her gun and allowing her sister to scream like a banshee in an underground facility. She also screamed herself less than a couple of minutes after a bad guy had walked out of the room. Wait a sec, let me guess, the bad guys have "selective hearing."

The actors overall did a good job with what they had to work with but the problems in sound and with some of the plot holes just made the movie difficult to watch and enjoy. Overall, I would say, take a look but don't expect something the quality of "Deliverance."

Title: War Games

Directed 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 minutes

Overall 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.

The only good bit is the start where the "good guys" are playing about with the airsoft guns. I've seen a lot of negative comments regarding the brown and green colours through the entire film, it is "war" so don't expect pretty neon colours.

The acting wasn't too bad but the characters were. At first the main character seems pretty smart, hiding, dropping unnecessary weight, taking the guns from dead bodies etc, it was obvious she would last the longest but it gonw downhill quickly after this. They all picked the complete wrong choice in EVERY situation, wasting bullets, screaming & giving away their position and so on. The ending... She knew everyone had died before leaving so was no need to waste time looking at the bodies. She seen one stand on a bouncing betty type thing yet chose to go towards him on her way out. It ends with her realising that explosive wasn't the only one so steps back away from the body, only to hear a click and then the credits come rolling in.

It was good enough to keep me watching although annoyed at the stupidity. If they put the same amount of effort into the last 3/4 of the film as they did the first quarter, it would have a higher rating from me.

I read some reviews before I watched the movie and they were so-so. The movie starts not too bad, but the negative attitude is annoying. (good acting at least) The few air-soft scenes are well made but very sparse.

When the "real" action starts, the character always pick the worst possible option. Vicarious embarrassment at it's finest. I had to force myself through the movie, as I wanted to see whether it would eventually get any better. It didn't.

The "good ones" miss their shots within arms length, the one girl cuddles with the captured one instead of saving her and just sits around...

To sum it up... one of the worst and most stupid movies i've ever seen. The two points go to the camera-work, which is pretty good.

Do not judge the book by the cover! This movie may look awesome and seem awesome, but it's far from good. Basically this movie is in the genre "Teenagers that goes into the woods and everybody gets killed". Don't get me wrong, this genre is awesome if you can make it look awesome. Take "Friday the 13th" for example, the best movie ever in this category. The only thing that interested me about this movie was the plot... people playing air-soft and it turns into a real war. Everything else didn't work out at all! There isn't even a reason for the war to take place. I can point out tons of epic fails in this movie, not like regular fails that all movies got, but fails that is so obvious. After 15 minutes i could already tell which person that was going to make it the longest and die last.

When it comes to the actors.. meh, the actors was fine I guess. It is more the characters and how the movie was from start to end that ruined the whole experience. But I can't say that I'm disappointed. Usually when there is a unknown director and actors it will turn into sh**!

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).

Poor acting quality, lack of emotions, stupid sound, she left a gun, and forget about it and watch her sister dying instead trying to help or do something

Confused bundle of mince, in drab colours, two boring sisters meet their dumb friends, the cast look too old to be at uni and act too dumb.

I love a good slash and spatter film, this isn't good, the ones who die early are the smart ones they don't have to suffer this film.