This is the a better funded version of Triangle, which is the only reason it got 6 stars. If one could look pass the horrid clichés, basic acting, and boobs, this movie would be quite enjoyable. Micheal is the saving grace of this film, though the stupidity of the other characters is sure to annoy throughout. Seriously who the hell goes into an abandoned mine at night? More importantly, who the hell, after seeing what the charters saw, goes back into said mine repeatedly.....still at night?!

There are just so many things wrong with Mine Games from the beginning to the very last second. I must admit that the camera-work was excellent, location was fitting and the premise itself is intriguing but everything else in this production is extremely inadvertent and I found myself rolling my eyes continuously. The script is weak and bland, every cliché you could possibly think of was present, the decisions the characters made were not just "typical horror movie bad decisions that people make when they're scared and not thinking straight" kind of decisions, they were just decisions that would specifically keep the movie from stopping in its own tracks. In the end, there was literally not one specification on why anything had happened. Not a trace of resolution or meaning for any of it. I haven't seen a movie with this amount of carelessness and large quantity of plot holes in a while. If you look at my other reviews, you'll see that I'm extremely generous when it comes to rating films, probably TOO generous. But this.... this truly needed a substantial amount of work in so many areas. I would not go as far to say this is a terrible movie because you can tell that director Richard Gray tried to get creative and have some fun with this so I do respect that he tried to create something unique in such a repetitive world of film. It just really needed so much work to be considered good. It upsets me that someone didn't tell this guy about all these silly and avoidable mistakes that he was making throughout the course of the pre-production and production of this film. This could have been something special but it ended up being a messy, negligent, and heedless attempt. Would recommend to those who enjoy movies based PURELY on the entertainment factor and nothing more. I do not recommend you watch this if you cringe at plot holes, clichés, and absent resolutions.

This movie started off painfully dull. Seven friends are on their way to the woods where there will be A.) no telephones B.) no cell phone service and C.) no other human beings for miles. Sound familiar? Oh yeah, and on the way to the cabin in the woods (so cliché) their van breaks down. So already I'm half checked out of this movie. The oddities began with the main character, Michael (Joseph Cross), and they only ramped up from there after the gang explored an abandoned mine.The exposition and build up phase of this movie was dreadfully slow. We were treated to little tidbits of strange activities without giving us the full entree. Though the plot can be readily deduced with all of the hints throughout you still have to be patient to see how it all unfolds. This movie is not unique and it's been done better by others. I will say that the end picked up the pace and delivered a solid finish. Not all questions will be answered, as is typical with this type of movie, but enough to at least make you feel like you were invited to the party.

MINE GAMES has something going for it, I'll admit that: it's a film that at least tries to do something different from the usual low budget American B-movie horror flick. Instead this has much in common with the likes of TRIANGLE and the (excellent) Spanish film TIMECRIMES in that it deals with characters who find themselves trapped in a time loop, forced to repeat the same actions over and over again.Unfortunately it's much worse than either of those films mentioned, thanks in part to a muddled story which doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you think about it closely. A group of unappealing characters head off into the wilderness for a break, only to visit a creepy abandoned mine which messes with their heads. One bizarre event after another makes them realise that something REALLY odd is going on.The execution of this film is very poor, particularly in terms of the cinematography. Much of it is too dark so you end up squinting at the screen trying to figure out what's going on. The cast is poor, with below averages performances from Briana Evigan (SORORITY ROW) and Gregory Peck's grandson, if you can believe that. The director is too obsessed with shooting this like a slasher film - bumping off his cast members one at a time - when instead he should be focusing on the novel stuff, not the predictable.