Best movie ever!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I saw this a couple of years ago with very little idea of what what was in store. Since then it has bubbled up to the top of my consciousness maybe once a week or so. As a point of comparison I don't remember too much about the original "Running Man" but I do recall it was a ham-handed "what if" scenario of a brutal futuristic game show that asked me to believe in the fairy tales that good is 100% good and always wins, bad is 100% bad and can't survive the light of day - if only it were so. In these times of corporate dominated media and government domestic spying such notions seem naive in the extreme.So, to me anyway, this film was more about how incredibly effective the corporate media is at manipulating one's persona, and how anyone can fall victim - on both sides of the screen. None of the contestants seemed to have any choices. They couldn't not participate in the killing, but almost more important they had no control over how they were portrayed on the screen, their humanity subsumed absolutely by the stereotypes thrust upon them in the editing room. And we, being the flawed creatures we are, fall for it time and again, even if we suspect we are being manipulated, which I find profoundly depressing.I've seen tons of all sorts of movies, and this is one of the few that I desperately wish I'd had the idea for. The intentional cheesiness of the acting and intentionally lame TV video quality only enhance the reality of the experience. What a totally genius, high impact, low budget, incredibly effective project. Bravo!!!

SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS is both a taut thriller and a deft satire on the outlandish lengths TV networks will go to in order to lure viewers. Set in the near future, SERIES 7 is cleverly constructed as a marathon of seventh-season episodes of "The Contenders," a hit reality show in which contestants are selected via state lotteries and given guns with which they're expected to hunt down and kill their fellow contestants (although they're free to use their own weapons and be inventive). The object: to stay alive. The prize: whoever remains alive after 3 Contenders seasons wins his/her freedom from the high-rated program/ordeal. The champ is Dawn Lagarto (Brooke Smith of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), a pregnant, troubled but essentially decent drifter. Trapped in the program for the past two seasons, Dawn's reluctantly willed herself into becoming a frighteningly efficient killing machine to keep herself and her unborn baby alive. For her third and final season, "The Contenders" sends Dawn to her hometown of Newbury, Connecticut. Her fellow contestants/adversaries include prim but ruthless ER nurse Connie (Marylouise Burke of MUST LOVE DOGS and A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION); teenage Lindsay, whose well-meaning but overbearing parents (Mom is played by Donna Hanover, TV personality and Rudy Giuliani's ex!) coach her for the show as if she were trying out for an athletic competition; unemployed asbestos-removal worker Tony, who's trying to use this cruel TV twist of fate to unite his family; crazed conspiracy theorist Franklin; and Jeff, an artist who's dying of testicular cancer -- and who also happens to be Dawn's high school sweetheart. The lingering flames of love and resentment between these two, and the reactions of Jeff's long-suffering wife, provide the film's most poignant and suspenseful moments, as well as one of its funniest: clips of the low-budget student film they made in high school, including every 1980s video cliché imaginable and Joy Division's technodirge "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on the soundtrack. SERIES 7's authentically television-like feel is augmented by its story being told entirely through such TV conventions as bumpers, interviews, voiceovers, cutaway footage, dramatic re-enactments of events by doubles, and exciting tag lines ("Real people...in real danger...in a fight for their lives!"). We even meet most of the characters as they're notified of their selection for "The Contenders" on-camera, as the show's masked, armed minions come to the new contestants' homes like sinister Publishers Clearing House representatives. These TV gimmicks create deliciously satirical overtones in and of themselves, and yet the movie's irony and gallows humor works precisely because it's all played absolutely straight, not with the "nudge nudge wink wink" air that too many recent thrillers have overdone in their attempts to be edgy and postmodern. But the film's brilliant craftsmanship wouldn't be nearly as effective without the power of the fine cast's performances, particularly Brooke Smith; her riveting performance makes Dawn the emotional center of SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS. That said, the film also chillingly portrays the way fear and self-preservation can turn even the most decent human being into a stone-cold killer. This sharp, smart, exhilarating thriller works on so many levels, and it's got one of the niftiest twist endings in ages, too! Somehow, I suspect it's only a matter of time before a real-life reality show figures out a way to go this far... :-)

I turned this off about 50 minutes into it! Whoever the moron was who decided to steal the idea of Koushun Takami's book(Battle Royal), & make it into a pathetic reality TV show scenario, deserves to be shot!It has done the Film Industry a good turn though. Now Directors like William Malone(Fear Dot Com) can say "well at least it's better than Series 7" This piece of crap & Dracula 3000 tie for first place in the worst 100 movies ever made! Be warned this is not a 'So bad it's Good'Flick!This is a disgrace to Film Makers everywhere! Never see this movie!

Six people from a medium sized town are chosen at random in a government-sanctioned lottery to participate, whether they want to or not, in a "reality" show called Series 7, the Contenders. Rules are simple - kill the other 5 before they kill you. Last one left alive wins.The characterizations and plotting of this satire may leave a lot to be desired, but the extremely contrived plot (though I hesitate to use the term) twists and Jerry Springer-ish performances by the contenders and their families hit the bulls eye in mocking and parodying what we see every day on talk and reality shows. If you're not a fan of reality shows, you'll likely find the many soliloquies and sappy "moments" cloying and distracting, and wish for more action, such as it is. Even if you can accept the premise at face value, the movie has the believability of the absurdest of soap operas. Still, it's entertaining, not overly long, and worth a watch.