Rudy Duncan and Nick Cassidy are cellmates who are both due to be released in a couple of days; Rudy talks of getting out and having a mug of hot chocolate while Nick talks of meeting up with his pen pal girlfriend, Ashley. Then Nick is stabbed and apparently killed during a riot. On his release Rudy goes up to Ashley, who hasn't seen Nick, and takes his cellmate's place. Rudy's luck doesn't last long; it turns out Ashley's psychotic brother, Gabriel, has learnt of her relationship with Nick... the problem is he expects 'Nick' to help him and his gang rob the casino he'd worked in. Rudy knows a few details that Nick had mentioned but not enough to confidently commit the robbery. He will have to think fast if he is to survive; especially after he learns so surprising facts.This film, retitled 'Deception' here in the UK, opens well with a shot of a number of people in Santa costumes lying dead in the snow before jumping back six days to show us what led up to this scene. There is plenty of solid action, a real sense of danger and more twists than I expected. The story itself is rather far-fetched but as it moves at a decent pace that isn't a huge problem. Ben Affleck is solid as Rudy, Charlize Theron is suitably sexy as Ashley and Gary Sinise is delightfully over-the-top as Gabriel. There are plenty of twists, perhaps a few too many, as it turns out much of what characters and the viewer think is true turns to be a deception. Overall this isn't a must see but it is worth checking out if you are a fan of the genre.

REINDEER GAMES is one of those films I hate which try way too hard to be clever. As a 'thriller', it attempts to confound the audience by throwing in a major twist ever ten or fifteen minutes or so, totally twisting the story upon its head in an effort to be one step ahead. It doesn't work. The storyline just ends up being preposterous, unbelievable, you name it...and, in the end, this would have worked a lot better as a tension-fuelled heist movie, something like DOG DAY AFTERNOON.So, with an awful script sapping life from the viewer, what IS worth watching? John Frankenheimer's direction, for one. Frankenheimer, who directed the superlative RONIN as well as many other great flicks over the years, is way too good for this material. His direction is solid, as usual, with plenty of stylistic flourishes and well-handled moments of both suspense and action. It's very sad that this was his last completed work, as he deserves much better material than this.The cast, too, is better than you'd expect than in a failure of this type. Okay, so we're saddled with a typically bland Ben Affleck as the lead – his only good scene is when he's having darts chucked at him, which I'm convinced was done for real – and the equally uninteresting Charlie Theron, complete with a gratuitous topless scene, as his love interest. Further down the line, the cast gets more interesting. Gary Sinise is one of my favourite underrated villains, and as the bad guy here he's impossible to dislike: a rough, tough street-level crim with aspirations to make it big. You can't fault him. Then there are lots of familiar faces, seemingly stuck playing henchmen or prisoners: Isaac Hayes has a memorable cameo, Ron Jeremy is a prisoner, Donal Logue a lunk-headed thug, Dennis Farina a casino boss, Ashton Kutcher credited as 'college kid', and the ever-great Danny Trejo criminally underused as one of the bad guys.In the end, though, the ludicrousness saps this one dry, even if there are one or two half-decent suspense sequences along the way. Unfortunately, as in his other film PAYCHECK, Affleck is too bland and smarmy an actor to generate one ounce of empathy in the viewers, making this another forgettable attempt at something big.

Wow. I'm pleasantly surprised. Put this in to satisfy different tastes in small group--figured it would be acceptable to everyone, but, like vanilla ice cream, pretty much ordinary and forgettable also. The production values were only on par with TV and the acting was not particularly compelling, but it kept moving forward in unexpected ways and legitimately held everyone's attention. Nobody was disappointed, and while no great film, it's more than watchable. The ending slightly disappointed me, because that is not quite how I would have handled the money situation, but then I think that's probably because Ben Affleck's character is a better person than I am.

This Movie could be used as Exhibit A in the Case, Ben Affleck accused of impersonating an A-List Actor. He is at His best when he does not distract. In this one he almost single handedly destroys what is already a Film struggling to maintain any credibility.It is unsure of itself and too much emphasis is put on things that are boring, or unnecessary and not enough on those that should be definitive in a Witty Action Thriller. The early Love Scenes are unconvincing, as is the Plot of misidentification and nothing seems plausible as the Setup begins to unfold.This is not the Director's worst Movie, for that see (or don't) The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). Highly removed from His best work, this is watchable, but the cleverness is clunky and there are too many things that just don't flow. It hiccups its way through a twist or two or three or too many to count, but it is all for not as things just don't add up and the ride getting there is hardly worth it.