Let's be realistic.

Excellent but underrated film

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Hello, I have watched this film about 121 times. I truly have, I even have it saved under my DVR to watch when I need a Gary Sinise pick me up!! This is a great movie, I love the part GS plays and how hes this Gorgeous bad a.. along with his minor league trucking buddies trying to set a plan in place to rob the Casino.GS appearance in this film is superb. The dark Walmart clothing , the cut off tank top (revealing his sexy arms) LOL, and that sexy dang sandy blond shoulder length hair is all to sexy and a awesome change from his earlier and later films. Hes usually more a cut close type of guy but in this film hes got a nice diff look to him that makes my undies moist!! I love u GS!!The only reason I give this film a 9star is because GS DIES. NOT COOL. Great film.

I really like John Frankenheimer's Reindeer Games. Which is a turnaround for me, because when I first saw it years ago I wasn't too impressed. Last year I saw it on vacation around the holiday season on TV though, and found myself enjoying it. It's not the greatest movie, and much of it is ludicrous, but it's packs a mean spirited, sleazy punch and keeps up a nice wintry atmosphere to keep you warm on a cold night, whether from the booze or the bullets. The film gets shat on a lot, especially by star Charlize Theron who famously said she only did it to work with Frankenheimer, but I think it's way more fun than people give it credit for. Ben Affleck back in the sordid chapter of bis career, plays a recently paroled convict who's on his way to meet his cell mate Nick's pen pal girlfriend, pretending to be him. Nice guy. She turns out to be a sweetheart in the form of Theron, and things look up for old Ben. Until, however, her volatile, psychotic gangster brother Gabriel (Gary Sinise) shows up with a pack of thugs who have a notion to rob a casino that Nick used to work at, using him as an inside man. Only, he isn't Nick, and has no idea about the casino, forcing him to think on his feet and stall his way through the dangerous predicament. Sinise is a guy I'm usually indifferent too, or bores me, but here he's a wide eyed, brutish lunatic and really has fun with the role. Theron is appropriately sexy and enigmatic, and there's standout work from three tough guy actors I really enjoy, playing Gabriel's henchman, sporting the delightful monikers Pug (Donal Logue), Merlin (Clarence Williams III) and Jumpy (Danny Trejo). They're like the three ill tempered elves to Gabriel's raving Santa, and steal the film. Dennis Farina plays loudmouth, dirtbag casino owner Jack Bangs, James Frain has a silly bit, and there's a demented cameo from Isaac Hayes ("monsters in the gelatin!!"). It's a loud, dumb flick and it knows it, but it also knows how to have a good time in style. Even when the third act erupts in a cascade of increasingly laughable double crosses and perplexing plot turns, it never stops having fun. Nothing says the holidays like jail time, casino robbery, backstabbing sociopaths, Santa suits and shotguns, and a little murder.

Great action packed film with the best of the ironic twists in it.Ben Affleck gets more than what he bargained for when he assumes the identity of a dead inmate in jail. He meets up with a lovingly Charlize Theron, who satisfies him immensely until he finds out who her supposed brother is.Affleck is beaten and tortured by "brother" Gary Sinise and his crew. Thinking that he is the dead inmate, they want him to help them rob a casino.Theron was great here. She is a real catty type, with innocence first appearing, only to later reveal a shrewd, vicious operator. Sinise, with his hippie-like long hair, is as usual terrific in this 2000 film. Always the masterful director, John Frankenheimer does a great job once again.

I think that the inventor of the gun must be rolling in his grave with unsettling anger that his deadly contraption was utilized in poor timing and handled with flawed effort to boot. Granted there are no protagonists in the movie, it has become utterly monotonous as we are treated to an endless exhibition as the Hollywood clichéd baddies are interrogating their foes at gunpoint as the disgruntled viewers watch as the easy task of pulling the gun trigger doesn't come off at the right time. Even though we don't like to see someone get killed on film, when they might be someone you admire, the credibility gets lost in the shuffle properly. The only time I ever accepted this flaw was the 1960's "Batman" series where the baddies shoot awkwardly and Batman and Robin find themselves in a silly situation and resourcefully managed to break out of it. By rights Rudy Duncan (Ben Affleck) should have been killed halfway through "Reindeer Games'" and I'm the last to judge whether he lives or dies, but when watching this film all I can say is "DUH"! Rudy is an ex-convict who's on the brink of parole and when he's discharged he will confront a young lady who will potentially rectify his life back in sync. These two are total strangers to one another. The only contact these two know each other from is through letters But there's a flawed twist behind this land of confusion. Rudy is coming off as a cell-mate who was killed in a prison rumble and this cell-mate was too meet this lady. Because his lust over women makes him tingle in delight, Rudy comes out of jail, he get more than what was expected from him. His new girlfriend, Ashley (Charlize Theron) has a brother who's a small-time #$%$ named Gabriel (Gary Sinese) who assigns Rudy to take down a casino. It was claimed that the cell-mate Rudy's posing as once ran a casino on a Native American reservation near Detroit, so Gabriel wants Rudy instructions of how the casino is set up, the security patterns and whatnot, anything that will make this heist a huge success. So Rudy, who's in a hole can only bluff his way out of the predicament because he's not the right person or the real person to pull it off.The film is full of holes it's enough to put Swiss cheese to shame. In one scene, Rudy tries to convince Gabriel that he's no the person who he really is and gives a hand-written letter to Gabriel to reveal if this is the right man. So why didn't Gabriel juxtapose the cell-mate's handwriting and Rudy's handwriting to see if this is the same person? Rudy could have reported this to the police, but see that he's being held by law breakers would violate his parole and he would be back in jail again. Some of the entanglements between the characters are quite hilarious and filled with unintended humour and the twists were jilted and contrived and it's hard to root for a leading character we don't really care about.Director John Frankenheimer uses his signature perplexity in making this movie. The real trouble here lies by utilizing his vision, he dismissed the flaws in Ehren Kruger's script. I can't believe that this script was written by the same person who wrote the much better thriller "Arlington Road". His attempt to be different badly hurt Kruger's script. The proof comes from Rudy escaping from the casino as he gets caught in the wilderness. He seems savvy at hot-wiring cars, so he just randomly hijacks one and makes a run for it. How ironic! Plenty of well-known performers are given only one scene and really have no point or any kind of focus to what the story is about. Others are on a substantial amount of time and were not really needed in the end which is always annoying and maddening. John Frankenheimer put in other hackneyed films in the past like "52 Pickup" amongst others and the results were an utter failure. He has potential to be really good, but finds himself lowering himself by making flops like Reindeer Games"and knowing how long he's been in this business he should have known better.The more accurate title should be called "Lamedeer Games".