A Service of The Arrow           Monday March 27, 2000 8:56 PM

By: Scott Bennett

ARROW STAFF

There aren’t many things more insulting, at least to any audience member breaking single digits in their brain cell count, than an action/adventure movie. One of those things, however, is an action/adventure movie that tries to provoke thought, like the ill-fated Reindeer Games. Movies out of this genre should stick with what they know, like making fun of themselves.

Instead, Reindeer Games tries to engage the audience, and make them guess who the bad guy is, then make them guess again by throwing ‘twists’ into an already faulty plot. The problem is, it’s hard to guess at who’s who when you don’t care about anything going on in the film.

The laughable story opens in a nameless Wisconsin prison, where roommates Nick and Rudy (Ben Affleck) talk about freedom, with Nick pining for his beautiful girlfriend on the outside, Ashley (Charlize Theron), who began writing him letters during his incarceration.

The day before their release, Nick ‘takes a shiv,’ for Rudy, and dies. Rudy leaves prison, and after a drawn-out moral debate, introduces himself as his cellmate to Ashley. Not so bad, so far. Reindeer Games could have survived with some kind of meaning intact if Hollywood had a much-needed ‘bad movie intervention’ program.

Toss Ashley’s conniving, gun-running brother Gabriel (Gary Sinise), and a pack of his thugs into the mix, and things go straight downhill. Apparently, Nick mentioned working at an Indian casino (In Wisconsin?! You may be asking yourself.), and now Gabriel wants to rob the place, with Nick’s help.

But Rudy isn’t Nick, remember? So, throw together a few pitiful excuses for foreshadowing and a couple of clumsily coordinated action scenes, and you’ve got Reindeer Games. Sure, there’s an occasional funny line, but the dialog is more miss than hit by far.

This is another popular case of when bad movies happen to good actors, like Affleck and Sinise. Since Theron’s character calls for no actual depth, her complete lack of talent is irrelevant. She is only a necessity for the semi-explicit sex scene early in the film and the hope that her good looks will detract from this meager film.

Reindeer Games is just another piece of meaningless, frustrating cinema attempting to be engaging, intelligent and funny. Just proof that one can, in fact, blame a guy (or movie, more accurately) for trying.

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