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.

I thought that War Games was one of those really nice surprises. Its one of those films that you end up catching by chance that turns out to be a nasty, cool little movie. Its about some kids who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and get messed with by the wrong people. It's kind of similar to pretty much every movie like that, that you have ever seen, except what I thought was cool is that the film creates this really cool atmosphere, and really shows the beauty of the nature of the wilderness that the kids have gone to. Its kinda strange that this nasty stuff is happening in such a beautiful setting. Most of the characters are pretty generic, cardboard cutouts, but the actors do a good job with them, and keep you interested in their fates. I think on the whole, War Games works best when it catches you unaware, one of those films that lets you drift into it, and suddenly it's got you, and I love finding films like this.

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.

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**!