Survive the Game (2021) User Reviews

Another Willis flop. Who funds this garbage?

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 3/10 · 9 October 2021]

I can cut some slack for newb writer Ross Peacock in his first full length screenplay, with only seven prior short films, because he clearly has no idea on how to write a full length story without tons of filler and long dragged out and unnecessary scenes. The normally decent 97 min runtime felt ridiculously long. About 80% of this film was infantile cat and mouse games, and the worst car chases in the history of car chases.

Whoever funded this mess and after viewing the final cut said "that's great, let's go to market" clearly needed a tax write-off. This may have been bearable had Peacock cut out lots of film and kept his story as a short, no more than 25 mins. Even his attempt at any humor was cringeworthy. He pretty much didn't miss any cliche in this genre, and we really didn't need another cops vs bad guys story.

But were there is no forgiveness, is how seasoned director James Cullen Bressack presented us this garbage. Why did he give us the lamest long car chases in the world? The choppy blurred action sequences? The horrible camera work? Did he even direct his cast? A 5th grader could've directed better.

Then we have Willis in his usual has-been acting with him barely awake and smirking his monotonic lines. This guy is moving backwards in time with any acting skills or ability. Stay home Bruce, please. All other casting was also lame and unconvincing, with the exception of Chad Michael Murray who was decent, and in very distant second place, Swen Temmel. Kate Katzman and Zack Ward as unoriginal wannabe Harley Quinn and the Joker characters was cringe, although their performances were the most entertaining.

The only redeeming quality was the score and soundtrack, which were decent compared to other typical B grade films where they're loud, constant, overbearing and unfitting. I'd pass on this mess, and because I didn't have to force myself that hard to stay awake until the end, it's a generous 3/10 from me.

Bruce Willis not even pretending to try or care.

[NickGagnon942 · 2/10 · 16 October 2021]

I keep chucking out the newest Bruce Wills movies because I get so damn curious about them and they all suck. Cosmic Sin, Midnight in Switchgrass, Breach, 10 Minutes Gone, Reprisal, The Prince, Hard Kill, Out of Death. All crappy Bruce Willis films made within the last few years. What happened to this guy? He has no passion left for the craft of acting. Hes hardly trying. Why even continue?

Oh well lets dive into this film called Survive the Game. The film is about two cops (Bruce Wills and Swen Temmel) bust two villains (Zach Ward who was the bully in A Christmas Story and some girl looking a lot like Harley Quinn) doing some kind of deal. I really did not catch what the deal is or what crime they were committing. The movie explains nothing. Willis gets shot in the gut and expresses very little pain. Its like Tim Roth is Reservoir Dogs if he didnt care. Hes wounded for the whole film but its not like it matters. More bad guys chase the cops through land occupied by a man who lost his family (Chad Michael Murray) and they get into multiple non exciting shootouts and lame car chases where its mostly two cares going kinda fast in a straight line. The film is padded with long drawn out dull dialog yet hardly explains any plot.

The real heart of this film is Bruce Willis not caring. Its rather funny how much he does not care. Its like he was at gunpoint while being in this film. Sometimes its not even him in the film. There are clearly double sitting in for Bruce in many scenes. And the cherry on top is that on the poster to the film his picture is the same one they used in Midnight in Switchgrass!

2/10.

Why did Lionsgate put their name on this?

[Gringoen · 2/10 · 8 October 2021]

From the start the acting is terrible and the camework is the worst. If you have Parkinsons disease maybe camerwork just insnt for you.... I gave this a fair shot, but the shaky camera and terrible acting made me turn this off... So yes this is another movie that Bruce Willis should have stayed away from.

Meh!!

[pmcorso · 3/10 · 10 October 2021]

What is going on with Bruce Willis lately? His last 3 movies have been 👎🏻 I only watched this in hopes this movie was a little better.

These criminals are the dumbest I have ever seen!!

Crap actor alert - Bruce Willis - Crap actor alert

[contactmaz · 1/10 · 8 October 2021]

Man oh man... do I ever learn? What an awful film. Every time I say enough, I will never watch another BW film, I do it again. He can't act for toffee and this is another successful attempt of him being a trash actor.

Not worth watching.

[jslaats-99278 · 3/10 · 12 October 2021]

Bruce Willis shines with bad acting. It's like he doesn't care proper acting at all anymore. It seems to be a trend, older top actors who take less and less roles as they get older. Not worth watching in my opinion.

One day Bruce Willis will make a good movie again

[kuner-59029 · 3/10 · 10 October 2021]

Just repeat it often enough, and eventually it will happen: One day Bruce Willis will make a good movie again One day Bruce Willis will make a good movie again One day Bruce Willis will make a good movie again One day Bruce Willis will make a good movie again One day,...

Okay maybe not.

This movie here, as so many of his recent outings, is bottom of the barrel low budget fare, though unlike Midnight in the Switchgrass, this one was botched from the concept stage on. It could have worked as a kind of "Die Hard on a farm" type movie. That would have been really clever.

Switch the role of the farmer to Willis. He's an old Vietnam or desert storm vet or retired cop. Switch the role of the young cop with Willi's hostage character. The young cop chases the bad guys to the farm, gets injured in the process and becomes their hostage.

The bad guys call for backup, Willis has to Die Hard his way to victory. Of course this would mean Willis would have to do some action work instead of spending the entire movie sitting down in a chair.... Add a ticking clock element by having Willis daughter and family be scheduled to visit in a few hours. Willis has to defeat the bad guys before that happens, forcing him to take undue risks.

Instant drama.

Instead we get Willis sitting in a chair for almost the entire movie, no name cop character who's not even on the cover killing most of the bad guys, two main heroes who don't really work together for most of the film, with neither of them really an audience avatar, and villains so incompetent they make Wile E. Coyote look like a genius.

How dumb are the the bad guys. In more than one scene, they have loaded guns / rifles in their hands, approach the heroes from afar and try to use the guns and clubs. It's that bad.

The final death of the main villain happens off screen with an awkward cutaway, since they couldn't be arsed to pay for a dummy body in a shirt to take a fall onto grass from a 1st floor balcony.

Add to this a cavalcade of bad film making tropes: Awkward dubstep / rap score, shaky cam action scenes, lens flares where there shouldn't be any, and eye cancer color grading.

This is actually why I gave it 3 stars. It enters "so bad it's good" territory. It's fast moving enough to not bore you too much between laughs. Whether it's Willis mumbling his lines while sitting, at one point even saying "I will gladly sit down" to actresses with botched plastic surgery, deliciously bad acting from all except the main villain (the henchman, not the GQ model cartel boss), and even a Harley Quinn knockoff character complete with goth makeup, blonde hair and heart tattoo under her eyes.

Lawsuit from Warner incoming.

Unironically, the last word in the film, spoken by Willis, sums up the entire movie: "excrement" (he uses a four letter word).

Awful movie

[tgagovidigal · 1/10 · 11 October 2021]

Really bad, from script to acting.

Once again I am disappointed by one of my favorite actors of all time. Bruce Willis seems to be just after any paycheck he can get.

Avoid this at all cost.

Bruce is being kidnapped. That's new. Is it good? Mmmm...

[imseeg · 2 January 2022]

In my quest to see ALL Bruce Willis movies I also watched this one. Let's not forget that some of the movies Bruce Willis is making nowadays is only because of contractual obligations. That's the reason why he is churning out 5 till 10 movies a year upon year. That's a lot. Of course you cant be picky when you are starring in 10 movies a year. He often only stars in each movie for no more than 15 minutes or so. Producers happy, because they sell tickets with Bruce his name on the bill. Bruce Willis happy because he got his paycheck and can pay alimony to his ex-wives. But the audience watching it, might not be so happy, because they are expecting DIE HARD quality filmmaking. And to put it politely, some of these newest Bruce Willis movies are "a bit" inferior to DIE HARD.

At an (excrucially) important sidenote, let us not forget WHY we are watching Bruce Willis movies to begin with. We watch Bruce Willis movies because of DIE HARD (1988). THE ONE AND ONLY BIGGEST ACTION AMERICAN ACTION CLASSIC OF THE CENTURY.

This classic is still standing strong after more than 30 years. Millions of people still REwatch it during every Christmas holiday. Recently a petition was launched to rename Nakatomi Plaza into DIE HARD plaza.

A life time achievement award for Bruce Willis is in the making.

DIE HARD (1988) NEVER DIES but is still ALIVE AND KICKING IN 2022. Why not simply REwatch the brilliant DIE HARD (1988) again and start the new year with a bang! Happy New Year!

Best movie since Die Hard

[m_page23 · 9/10 · 3 March 2022]

This is the best acting and storyline I have ever seen. Must watch, A+. Go in with high expectations and prepare for better! Great cast of characters, everything you want in a action thriller. Major plot twists and sweet car chase scenes with a Bondesque feel.

I'm with you

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 18 October 2021]

Detective David Watson(Bruce Willis) and his younger partner Cal (Swen Temmel) decide to go it alone on a drug bust in a remote building without backup. They are outnumbered as David takes a bullet to the abdomen and his partner leaves him for dead and takes off after just two of the bad guys, still not calling for help. (Had some plot issues, but what Willis film doesn't?) They get chased to Summer Canyon Farm, a remote house. (Filmed in PR). The lone occupant is Eric (Chad Michael Murray) a depressed, suicidal Purple Heart vet who lost his family. He is not running. We eventually have the good guys grossly outnumbered and out gunned by the bad guys and have to go after them one at a time, that would only happen in the movies.

Bad girl Violet (Kate Katzman) made the film enjoyable by being a Harley Quinn clone. Bad guy Frank (Michael Sirow) moves his head and cricks his neck, the bad guy cliche that replaced black hats. BTW he wore black also. I liked the soundtrack and cliche action scenes even if you didn't.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

What is Bruce doing?

[brushwood_darren · 1/10 · 17 October 2021]

It's quite sad to see the amount of rubbish that Bruce Willis is producing. This effort is so poor. I'm really pushing it to give one star. The story is very poor and the characters are a joke with one saying baby all the time and her boyfriend, well I'm not sure what he is supposed to be.

Awful

[chrisy555 · 1/10 · 14 October 2021]

Terrible acting, slightly worse story line, camera work awful. Really nasty cheap movie, which is surprising because the actors are pretty big names. Maybe they were having an off day.

Bad

[pjwolcott-73852 · 1/10 · 9 October 2021]

It's movies like these that allow me to think anyone can make a movie...

Another 14 day shoot

[uajx · 4/10 · 28 October 2021]

The money behind all these BW films the last few years is the same company. They've done a ton of these in Puerto Rico and Cincinnati. BW comes in and films all his scenes in a day and they film the rest in two weeks. Follow the money.

Disaster

[dejobos · 1/10 · 10 October 2021]

This is one of the worst movies i watched ever... B. W. really started filming everything these days...

LAME

[shefchenko · 4/10 · 23 October 2021]

People with guns not shooting them, rather going close to the person they should have shot at.... Brilliant writing and directing! Acting isn't that strong either.

Awful..

[the_blueeyes · 2/10 · 16 October 2021]

Willis phones in another One-Day shoot for cash.

He did not even bother to stick around for a photoshoot for the movie poster. They cut and pasted his photo from "Midnight In The Switch Grass" to this.

That alone should warn you to avoid it all together...

WHY??!!

[turkey101381 · 1/10 · 20 January 2022]

Bruce Willis why did you do this movie??!! The only good thing was seeing Chad Michael Murray, feels like I haven't seen him since One Tree Hill and House of Wax, and some of the comedy from the sidekicks!! This movie was very laughable!! Oh and that chick that was channeling Harley Quinn...UMMM NOOO!!

Only because it's Bruce..

[idadaspida3 · 7/10 · 19 December 2021]

Bruce oh Bruce what have you done? The same thing old actors do. Taking films like this or making their own like our guy Sylvester Stalone. The man has to make a living and I will always love my old action/cop/bad guy heros..

Anything Willis is in PASS!

[jqfarina-12992 · 1/10 · 16 October 2021]

As if the guy doesn't have enough money.

Maybe he is saving up for a brain transplant.

No respect for the craft. His greed is disgusting and so is anything with Bruce Willis. Self inflicted downfall!1111.

What was this?

[M0vieL0ver · 2/10 · 4 March 2022]

I wonder how many viewers made it to the end of this "film"?

Two stars for a couple of the actors that at least tried knowing that this was complete garbage. What a risk for those in this movie.

The "pull" was Willis, which was a dud. Hollywood is dead.

Writing was awful.

Actions scenes were awful.

Acting (in general) was laughable.

Nothing was believable. Was this sci-fi or fantasy?

Petite women stronger than the in-shape young, lean and trained cop or war veteran men? Lol Hollywood is dead.

Another Bruce Waste

[BOOKSMART1 · 3/10 · 12 October 2021]

This is another all time flop of Bruce Willis. To keep review short I would just say that I slept twice watching it. I don't understand that why do they cast Bruce in their movies when all the action is done by his double.

A joke

[timquitzau · 1/10 · 6 May 2022]

Seems like a bad joke. The Expendables that actually all is expendables from script writer to actors. Do not know if it was intended to be a comedy but find it amusing I actually spent money renting this. Do not know where they found the actors nor do I get where they found the writer or director. It would be fine if they put them all back. And Bruce Willis should clean up his act. This is the third rip off. Do not know how much longer his fans will support him making trash like this.

Survive the MOVIE!

[LeanneBarker · 3/10 · 2 December 2021]

Such a cliché story... horrible lines... bad acting... the director overdid it with the lighting effects... "this is my farm"... "this is my farm"... takes another drink from the bottomless mickey... Willis must be hard up for jobs...