Changing the Game (2012) User Reviews

Excellent, unpredictable, and Brilliant!! A must see!!!

[Kimkeah · 3/10 · 12 May 2012]

This film was well written, well casted, and brilliantly directed!!! The movie is not what you typically expect and requires close attention due to the mature and thoughtful storyline. There are some amazing twists and turns and the end kept the audience sitting in its seats during the movie credits trying to absorb what just occurred. I highly recommend everyone check out this movie and see why it personifies it's title...Changing the Game.

The Director/ Writer obviously took his personal experiences of growing up in Philladelphia and being an educated black man trying to succeed in a field that has very few people of color. It's classic adoption of the survival skills learned from our individual environments that's shape us coupled with those presented by historic figures and how to apply those in the world of business is the brilliance behind this film.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!!!

A low budget movie with a painfully weak predictable script and an aspiring but amateur cast.

[armnkm · 2/10 · 28 February 2014]

All the wonderful reviews posted here are obviously planted. No one in their right mind could call this movie excellent. It very obviously a low budget movie made by aspiring but as yet unskilled actors, writer and director. It is more like something an aspiring high school movie maker would make if he could find any funding. Think of taking a paint by numbers craft project and trying to pass it off as art. The script is very loose and predictable and the acting awkward and stiff.

I regretted spending time watching this but I did learn a lesson. Do not trust ratings for movies with a relatively small number of reviews. It is to easy for those who must have obviously been involved to stuff the ballot box.

The only reason to watch this home made movie would be if you are the odd sort of person who occasionally enjoys sitting through bad movies just so you can get a kick out of laughing at it's many flaws.

If you are truly looking to be entertained look elsewhere. Watching this thing is painful if you expect to be truly entertained.

COLLEGE TRY

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 9 August 2018]

This story is in two parts. The first part deals with a poorly developed friendship between Darell (Sean Riggs) the smart kid and drug dealing Dre (Dennis L.A. White). This loosely sets up the second half where Darrell obtains his business degree and gets involved in some bad investments using the drug money. For some reason because it was his money, he is being investigated because his hedge fund investor (Brandon Ruckdashel) lost it. Go figure.

The setting is in Philadelphia with broken dirty streets. The film likes to use and quote Machiavelli in order to look intellectual, because the acting and directing wasn't going to hack it. The acting was especially sad. They called it in.

What was with giving Tony Todd two different roles, one as disfigured pimp and another as an FBI agent? Didn't Ed Wood think we would notice? The plot had continuity issues especially at the end.

The film tries to go deep, but doesn't achieve. Brarality J. Dowdell, wrote and directed this film. It is his first attempt from his cushy college days.

Recommend "Life of a King" or "Money Matters" instead.

Parental Guide: F-bomb, N-word, brief sex, side breast nudity..

Changing The Game, is living up to its name...

[troyparham · 10/10 · 19 May 2012]

Twiintone Entertainment gives this film two thumbs up.. The Twiins enorse Rel Dowdell's writing and directing. Looking forward to seeing it again! I thought the characters really brought our the time period of the 80's, in the early parts of the film, and the casting was great. The end really surprised me, and I'm glad to see that it was a story with a message. Being a native of Philadelphia, Im glad that Rel Dowdell actually filmed here, in our hometown. I thought the locations that he picked were excellent, and even the soundtrack and score made me feel the film like I was actually there. Being a screenwriter and actor myself, I'm very hard to impress. Rel, job well done!

If your eyes are really open, you will see a lot!

[duffyjanice · 10/10 · 13 June 2013]

The filmmaker did an amazing job showing the harsh reality of the streets and its similarities to the harsh reality of corporate America. Lies, deceit, lust, backstabbing and murder are not only found in the streets - its found in corporate boardrooms all over the world. Irma P. Hall's character moved me! I believe that when you give your children the right foundation, they will stay on the right path. Even if they go off path for a moment, they will find their way back.

This film should be seen by all those looking for a creatively written and well developed plot. This film has a few surprises in store for the viewers. Many times I predicted one course of action and the film went in another direction. BRAVO Sean Riggs provides a convincing performance of the main character from the teen through adult years. This is not your typical independent film. I was pleasantly surprised by it.

Changing The Game!!! I loved it!!

[bmorestlady · 10/10 · 20 September 2012]

Changing The Game!! This movie most def changed the game!! It's not the typical type of movie, it's different it's original, it stands alone. There's not another movie that I seen that can be related to this movie. That's another reason why I loved it so much. All the characters were well developed. The actors/actress play their roles really well. The plot was put together very well... The movie contain the good, the bad, the sad, all had me sitting at the edge of my seat!

This is the type of independent film that I love.1st let me say, it was a hard time getting this film. Every time I went to red box it was (rented out) . Finally I was able to get my hand on it after a 2 week waiting period. The wait was well worth it. I watched the movie over twice!! Job well done!!!

Very effective, very poignant, very ambitious

[trulyvanes · 10/10 · 12 May 2012]

This film was one that was one of the most pleasant surprises I've seen this year. I really did not know what to expect. What I got was one of the most ambitious and satisfying journeys in film that I have seen in a very, very long time. Protagonist Darrell Barnes takes us on a journey from childhood to adulthood where he learns that the unforgiving streets of North Philadelphia and the corporate private rooms of Wall Street are cut from the same corrupt cloth with many memorable characters in between. The film, for an independent, is truly ambitious in every regard. The cast is eclectic and consummate, and one scene in particular brought me to tears with its realism and heartfelt emotion. I also commend the chutzpah to pull of that very clever surprise ending. Kudos to the filmmaker and the entire production team from top to bottom for not being afraid to venture into unchartered independent film territory and pull it off so well.

An intellectually entertaining plot twister...

[gradyperdue · 8/10 · 13 October 2012]

One of the major keys to a great film, is a solid story directed by an able hand, since if the plot is delivered adequately the viewer is almost able to visualize internally without a screen. Fortunately in the case of the Rel Dowdell directed film, "Changing the Game," the viewer is granted the benefit of a well crafted screenplay (Rel Dowdell & Arron R. Astillero), delivered by an able cast, captured with entrancingly and captivating visuals, which echo back to such early independent classic black films as Larry Cohen's "Black Caesar" and Ivan Dixon's "The Spook Who Sat By the Door."

"Right now I'm on my way to your trough to eat your breakfast, since you don't have sense enough to eat it yourself." Templeton

Set in the colorful yet gritty North Philadelphia backdrop, Changing the Game begins with a young Darrell Barnes (Jakobi Alvin), adeptly reading the above quote from E.B. White's children's classic "Charlotte's Web" in front of his mildly attentive elementary class, while doting instructor Mrs. Davis (Suzanne Douglas) looks on admiringly. It is Mrs. Davis interest in Darrell's background, added with her compliment heavy motivation, which gives the sense that she was integral in shaping Darrell's early academic aspirations. Forward to the drug infused, crime ridden mid 1980s, Darrell (Sean Riggs) is now an accomplished and intelligent high school senior with intentions of attending college for business. It is at these formative beginnings, where Barnes's life and death circumstances and personality shaping people, such as his shrewdly tactical, highly ambitious, long time friend and street hustler Dre (Dennis L.A. White) as well as his morally influential and religiously devout guardian Grandma Barnes (legendary Irma P Hall), begin to give the viewer a more concise image of the potentially multi dimensional character Darrell may truly be.

I do not wish to give many of the plot details due to the fact that Changing the Game is a film that must be watched carefully in order to understand the nuances and depth of Darrell's and his surrounding character's roles in the story-line. I will only share that this is a not the typical cliché shoot em up, hood tragedy flick. Not only does it subtly touch upon the struggles and ills of a desperate impoverished ethnic community, it also ventures off into the social and political dynamic of higher learning institutions, the typically white male dominated American corporate boardroom and the more ethnically and culturally diverse international business environment. There is an interweaving of classical literature such as Machiavelli's "The Prince," which only embellish and compliment an already intriguing story about a not so common man, facing all too familiar circumstances with an intelligently creative and militarily calculated ambition. Those aforementioned qualities alone have made this a film that must be watched more than once to gain full appreciation of how dynamic Darrell Barnes' character is. 8/10

Great Movie! Forget idiots like White Chocolate Assassin!

[geraldinejames996 · 10/10 · 5 May 2013]

This was such a wonderful film with colorless and timeless messages. It could not have come at a better time. If you grew up as a suburbanite who was never exposed to urban America, or as one from Sweden who was privy and never for a moment growing up in the type of environment shown in this film, then this will definitely be like watching a foreign film without the subtitles. One has to know what it's like to overcome obstacles and succeed in life despite having everything against you to appreciate everything this uplifting film has to offer. Also, you have to be one who has someone in your life who has introduced you to having faith in a higher being to appreciate this film, like the grandmother (played by the incredible Irma P. Hall) did for the main character (superb newcomer Sean Riggs.) It is definitely not for the atheist. This film is SO much better than films like "Empire" which could never hold a candle to it. Changing the Game gets the highest of recommendations.

So real... It made my cry!

[brucebryant470 · 10/10 · 11 November 2012]

This movie was so real, that it made me cry... It's all about knowing what's right & wrong. I give it 5 plus stars! It was so good that I watched it twice! !! The main character's grandma reminded me a lot of the conversations I have had with my 3 sons, and that's why I cried, it hit home run with me. THANK YOU GOD, for another awesome grassroots movie with substance, heart, and soul. No big budget here, but good acting and resources to quality scenes made you forget its grassroots. Fantastic beginning, middle, and end. And none of them predictable. And to top it off, the actor who played "Candyman," Tony Todd, played two very symbolic and memorable roles!

"Changing The Game" is Changing Hollywood

[MabasaN · 10/10 · 17 June 2013]

Rel Dowdell gives a Tour De Force Directing. Changing The Game is an Absolute Must See if you enjoy Films in The Most Artful Form of how Movies were meant to be. Changing The Game gives you a Bang for Your Buck in all things Suspenseful, Gritty, Witty and UnDeniably Believable with a Plot that seems as though it was ripped right from contemporary news headlines. While Epic and Sprawling in Scope, Changing The Game manages to pay attention to details, coming across as a Well Thought-Out, Well Researched and Well Put-Together Piece of Art. Changing The Game returns to our Screens what The Film-Making Fore-Fathers intended for us to see within those couple of hours of Reality Escape we spend watching a Movie. Changing The Game fashions a World in which it's Characters enjoy Amazing Plot Twist and Turns filled with Intrigue and Suspense that will keep you guessing and at the edge of your sofa. In the words of The Great Movie Reviewer, "Two Thumbs, Way Up" for CHANGING THE GAME, Mr. Director Rel Dowdell!

Moving drama that never stops moving

[danewjack · 10/10 · 23 May 2012]

This is probably the most accomplished and ambitious independent film that I've ever seen. If this film doesn't garner some significant acclaim or awards down the line, I feel there is no justice in the world. I came in seeing this film with really no expectations, but left out like I has seen and traveled the world with an African-American man whose life actually meant something not only to himself, but the lives that he touched. I was unfamiliar with the lead actor Sean Riggs, but am now very impressed with his wondrous talents. The entire cast is more than commendable, led by longtime matriarch Irma P. Hall, Sticky Fingaz, Dennis White, Munir Kreidie (breakout performance), and Suzzanne Douglas (from the show "The Parent Hood"). This no doubt was a very difficult film to pull off for the filmmaker, but the reward for all involved, especially the audience, could not have been greater. Kudos.

Heart wrenching, Suspenseful and Engrossing

[cdash708 · 10/10 · 15 May 2012]

I was enthralled right from the start. The cinematography was great—the depiction of the murals was absolutely phenomenal! I was almost afraid to blink that I might miss something. The story took off and kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. There were times I tried to predict what would happen next and was completely wrong—which speaks directly to the twists and turns in this film being so eloquently placed. It definitely tapped in to every single one of my emotions. I'm sure everyone can identify with the characters—we all know or knew of someone just like Dre, Darrell and his grandmother. Changing the Game, simply put-- genius!

Not for the narrow minded.... Definitely inspirational!

[yannapeters · 10/10 · 3 November 2012]

I really enjoyed this movie - it was excellent! The acting was great and is definitely one of the best films I've seen in 2012. The storyline and the ending were well worth watching. It even had some tear jerker moments. I kept replaying some parts of the movie because it was so good! The entire cast was excellent and very memorable. The layered messages of morality and spirituality will not be caught by all. You have to have a real moral compass to be able to appreciate everything offered in this film, because it hasn't been offered before. For those who have an open mind without all the negativity, you will enjoy this movie! It was full of action from the beginning to the end!

Emotional, Unique, Smart, and with a TON of HEART!

[gluefox · 10/10 · 14 May 2012]

Now this is what I call a SURPRISE!!! I went into this film with no expectations and only decided to go because of the tile of the movie 'Changing the Game'. I thought maybe there would be some very funny irony that I could post if the film in fact did not "change the game". But as I started watching I realized I was witnessing something truly remarkable... a multidimensional, multicultural, mind-enhancing spectacle of entertainment and inspiration. I really don't want to give away any plot because it is filled with many major twists and turns that need to be experienced firsthand. I believe it is always better to see a movie with an "unframed" mind. What I mean by unframed is not allowing others to shape your expectations and understandings before you see it for yourself. That being said.... I love the characters (especially Irma Hall and Riggs), I LOVE the plot, and I love the overall uniqueness of the film. The cinematography detail is excellent as camera shots and character movement seemed to evoke unforced natural emotional cues that enhanced character dialogue and overall character development. BTW, the dialogue is awesome as every word seems to power the plot instead of depleting it with clichés. I feel like I am getting too technical so let me just say that this is a MUST SEE. The only knocks are that it could use some bigger budget polish and I felt like I wanted to see more interaction between the kid versions of (Darrel and Dre) because their childhood history and interaction is kind of bare. But this does not hurt the movie overall in any way. When I first came I had pretty low expectations but by the end not only did it blow my negative expectations away and turn them into positive fulfillment it made me want higher expectations for myself. That alone is priceless. I guess it's time for me to start changing myself in this game of life we all play.

So glad I went to see this film.. And will see it again!

[michelethegrad · 10/10 · 15 May 2012]

I just saw this film at the Magic Johnson theater in Harlem and I felt like I went on a roller coaster ride of emotions. I am learning more and more that it is independent films that make me feel like I've been on a real cinematic journey. The last time I felt like my emotions ran the full gamut was when I saw "American History X." Every character in "Changing the Game" goes through a dramatic change because of the decisions they make, for the the better of for the worse. Another big asset for this film was something most African-American films rarely try, and that is the surprise ending this film pulls off so well. In simplest terms, this film is "Changing the Game" in many ways and I hope people support it and tell others to also. This is the rare film that you need to see more than once to fully appreciate all it has to offer.

Intriguing, surprising and well rounded film.

[deeva1297 · 10/10 · 14 August 2012]

I had the pleasure to finally see a movie that I can appreciate in many ways. There is so much truth in "Changing the Game" that many have been afraid to admit, tell, or even identify. The challenges that this young man faced are so real. An eye opening film in so many ways.

A young mans plight to succeed in addition to all the twists and turns kept me mentally involved as to what would happen next. I enjoyed the fact that nothing was obvious or predictable, and that each Actor went through different changes whether they were positive or negative.

Great writing and Casting. From beginning to end, the Cast kept me engaged in the film makers story. Very Intriguing, and a must see.

I look forward to future work from Rel Dowdell as his creativity and diversity in his films will be a refreshing addition to a viewers movie experience.

Entertaining & Thought Provoking

[thephotodiva · 8/10 · 22 May 2012]

"Changing The Game" really surprised me. The characters instantly won my heart. I found myself crying within five minutes of the start of the film. That does not happen every day. Love and compassion for humanity jumped off the screen from the start. The film was well written and the cinematography was exceptional. The tone was properly set at the beginning. I must commend the writer on a job well done. The characters were well developed. People from all walks of like should be able to relate to them. I was able to follow the film, but was unable to predict what was going to happen. The film made me reflect on societal issues and the roles we play. It gave me hope in knowing we have power to change the game. Everyone should see this film and celebrate those who dare to dream.

Changing the Game, A must see movie!

[sulett2793-430-198535 · 10/10 · 23 July 2012]

I saw this movie in New Jersey along with many people from my church and would like to encourage everyone to go see it. Now, I am a person who usually falls asleep in movies in a heartbeat (keeping it real), but this movie was great enough to hold my attention the entire time. Love the storyline. Love the realness. Love the ending. When I told my 17 years old son about it, he went to see it. I was thrilled when he called to say, "Mom, it was AWESOME!" If you asked for one word to describe it, I would have to say, like my son, AWESOME. It is a movie that everyone should see (at least twice). It is a movie for all mature audiences. Way to go writer/director and cast!

A Classic!!!

[TUSPJudy · 10/10 · 24 August 2012]

Excellent - MUST SEE FILM! Changing The Game is hands down one of my favorite independent films of all time. It is an intelligent, moving, timely, brilliantly told story filled with depth of emotion, strong characters and dialogue, classic literary references, superb acting by a diverse and well chosen cast, with a surprise ending Hitchcock himself would applaud. While the film takes place in an Urban setting, this is NOT your typical "Urban Drama". It has heart, honesty and shows that Black Men in the inner city can be victors in any circumstance as opposed to victims of their circumstances. The characters are so well scripted and acted, as a viewer, you are engaged and involved in each of their story lines. They make you laugh, cry, cheer and they make you care about their fate or outcome. The production, props, set design, wardrobe and special effects make you forget this is a small budget film shot in Philadelphia in just 21 days. This film by Director and Writer Rel Dowdell, fills a void in modern Black Cinema, by artfully and masterfully maintaining a balance of great story telling, with believable characters and multiple themes which are thought provoking without being "preachy". Sean Riggs, Dennis L.A. White, Irma P. Hall, Nicoye Banks, Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones, Tony Todd, Brandon Ruckdashel and the rest of the cast, do a phenomenal job telling a great story. This is a film you will definitely want to see multiple times.