1/10
The worst of the reality show craze
28 June 2003
I had the chance to see "Games People Play" at the CineVegas Film Festival and was highly disappointed. I don't recommend this film to anyone. The hardcore reality show junkies will be disappointed at the unbearably slow pace and lack of originality while the raincoat crowd will be unaroused by the lack of eroticism in the quasi-comic situations.

The description the festival program gave the film sounded very intriguing, calling this it "an extremely explicit and graphic reality show where the contestants bare their skin and their souls." That was all I needed. Curiosity took hold of me and I readily admit that I trekked to the theatre immediately and hoped to see both.

In the nudity department, the film delivers. About 1/6 to 1/4 of the entire film has people in the buff. Full frontal, unabashed, male and female nudity. If that's all you want then you get it. Just don't expect it to be erotic because it's not. Regular people playing practical jokes in the buff is the furthest thing from a turn on I found. And that would be okay it the jokes were funny or shocking, but you see them coming from a mile away. The few times I found myself chuckling, my humor quickly left as I saw that the filmmakers intended to exploit their few original jokes past the maximum time allowable by law. All skits went on and on and on until they were far from funny and almost painful to watch. I had to wonder if the filmmakers had ever heard of the cutting room floor.

The cutting room floor is where the rest of the film belongs. It also is unbearably slow and boring. Every situation is dragged out for as long a possible. We see the filmmakers select the cast for the game show for what feels like a half hour. Boring. Then we get intimate portraits of each of the six contestants (3 male & 3 female). While they are supposed to be baring their souls as the advertisements promised, what actually comes across is a fake, melodramatic whining in a pitch that is not too unlike that of fingernails on a chalkboard. Painful The contestants then do their challenges (the aforementioned practical jokes) and compete for points to see who will win. Why anybody cares would've been a more suspenseful premise if you ask me.

Bad movie. Avoid at all costs.
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