Good and Bad at Games (1983 TV Movie) User Reviews

Pull your finger out, Channel 4

[The_Tinnock · 9/10 · 1 December 2005]

Thanks to the helpfulness of a fellow IMDb member I've just managed to watch this film for the second time in nearly twenty years, and I can honestly say it hasn't lost any of its kick. I can't believe that Channel 4 have let this one vanish without a trace as it is an extremely powerful, moving and moralistic take on the consequences of misplaced loyalty.

It focuses on a clique of friends over the course of ten years and their relationship with two 'outsiders' from school; specifically how they use one and mercilessly torment the other. As events from both the past and present unfold the tension gradually thickens, not dissimilar to Shane Meadows' excellent revenge-chiller Dead Man's Shoes. The acting, writing and direction are very bold for 1983 and still pack a wallop today in spite of the upper crust accents of the central characters. Yes, it might be set in public school but it's worlds apart from anything put out by Merchant Ivory; I got a state education and can still draw countless parables from the story.

This is a film that you'll remember for a long time if you see it - except you probably won't, because Channel 4 (or FilmFour) have chosen to bury it. On their own official website they describe it as "an inexplicably overlooked gem from the early days of Channel 4" - overlooked by who? This was one of the very first Channel 4 films (which would later go on to become FilmFour thanks to the success of films like Trainspotting), so somewhere someone must still have the master print. In these days where you can get extended collector's issue DVDs of more or less anything it's a bit moody that they can't give a film this good the promotion it deserves.

So, if one of the Channel 4 production flunkies is reading this, stop making programmes that showcase people humiliating themselves in the hope of securing a tabloid deal, chase up this film and sort out a nice special anniversary edition disc or something, please!

Great Film

[damo-bdr · 8/10 · 29 January 2004]

I absolutely love this film and have seen it many times. I taped it in about 1987 when it was shown on Channel Four but my tape is severely worn now and I would love a new copy of it.I have e-mailed Film Four to ask them to show it again as it has never been available on video and as far as I know hasn't been repeated since the 80's. I have had no reply and it still hasn't been repeated. The performances are superb. The film has everything. Its funny,sad,disturbing,exciting and totally takes you back to school days. It is extremely well paced and grips you from start to end. The scene in the shower room is particularly horrific. I also cannot hear the song Badge by Cream and not think of this film. This film deserves to be seen by a much larger audience as it is superb. Channel Four please show again or release on Video or DVD.

Worst days of your life?

[JBLOSS · 7/10 · 6 July 2001]

I've only seen this film once when it was shown on tv but I can still remember it 15 years later so that must say something about it. I thought it was an intelligent look into schooling, friendship, bullying and the influence it can have leading into adult life.

The title really refers to how being good or bad at sports can either make you the lowest of the low or you will be tolerated by the cliques within school and even later on into adulthood if you're good at it- this is set in a private school in England but it could be anywhere.

The main character is bad at games, seeks revenge in later life which all culminates in a climactic confrontation on a cricket pitch. I must admit I was gutted by the ending - it was powerful and saddening.

A child bullied at school tries to get revenge on his detractors

[a_gillian99 · 10/10 · 29 July 2006]

I remember seeing this film when I was fairly young & being quite disturbed by it. I found the storyline very distressing and can still remember the various bullying techniques used. One in particular was when the other school children spat in his soup before he could even taste a spoonful. They also bound him and shaved his private parts. This was all because he was unpopular. Why was he unpopular? Because he was bad at games. I have a feeling though that even if he was good at games he would have been bullied because it's hard to decide what makes someone popular. To me, he is the type of person who would always be picked on because that's how children operate. Popular children are popular because they are in some way 'cool'. Popularity is a hard thing to define. So, even at the end when he is successful in his career it makes no difference & he is still left feeling tormented. I found the ending quite distressing as there was no resolution.

Why isn't it shown?

[hugh1971 · 19 December 2001]

I remember this film very well, as being a vivid evocation of bullying at school and the effect it can have on the rest of your life...the final climactic scene on the cricket pitch still haunts me today! My one complaint is that this is never shown on TV - it hasn't been on for about 15 years for the best of my knowledge, while many lesser films get an annual outing!

losers lose

[tobyhjames · 10/10 · 10 September 2017]

I saw this as a teenager in the early 80s on VHS. It stuck in memory. I then came across this on Youtube many years later. I went to boarding school in England the 80s. It was only on re-watching that I appreciated that this film characterises every type of boy that went (or goes?) to these schools. There are two protagonists - one is a loser who knows it (and knows who to blames), the other is a loser who doesn't know it and only realises this at the end. Both lose in the end. The most pathetic figure is the thick Niles. Really believing he is one of the gang, either too stupid (or in denial) to realise that it is only his sporting proneness that leads to him being included in the gang. The film brilliantly captures the loneliness and fear of the bullied Cox. At the beginning there are tragic scenes where Cox is forced to and then tries to ingratiate himself with the schools sportsmen. Anton Lesser is fantastic. He switches between cowered victim to futile obsessed avenger. Martyn Stanbridge is brilliant as the hapless Niles. The bullies are clever, witty (Colenso) but one dimensional. They inflict humiliation on Cox without even thinking about it - it is just something they do when the situation arises. I thought the dramatisation of the the bystanders- grinning as more humiliation is inflicted in Cox and then inflicting it themselves - was wholly accurate. It is the constant grinding humiliation of Cox that sticks in the mind as well as indifference the bullies show to their victims (including Niles) - treating them as objects and 'other' from them.

So watch this on Youtube. There are no satisfying denouements (as in real life): the arrogant and privileged win and losers lose. The picture quality is lousy, but this will stick in your mind especially if you went to one of these schools. However, my brother, who went to regular secondary school saw it once and loved it. Channel 4 -repeat this now. The main soundtrack - just one song by Cream - is inspired.

Good and Bad at Games

[marcushanson1 · 9/10 · 10 March 2013]

I lament that this film has not enjoyed greater exposure. In character,it is a thoroughly English film. Indeed,a tale set against the backdrop of a public school,military presence in Ulster AND a cricket game could come only from England ! The story is terrific , but the acting is no better than average - with one exception. The exception is the performance of Anton Lesser as the bullied,vengeful Cox.Why we have not seen more of this man in big-budget, better-known films is both a mystery and a disappointment. The other actors seem to be content to play the stereotypical roles of outsider(Stanbridge),bullying snob (Jephcott) and bored neglected spouse(Davenport). Paradoxically,I STILL enjoyed ALL the performances , especially that of Stanbridge. Possibly that is due in part to the strength of the writing and direction.And the music by Cream!

Mr.Lesser, however,seemed to "live and breathe" his character. He gave one of the most memorable and convincing performances I have ever seen,by any actor.

one of the best films ever made

[klippspringer · 10/10 · 14 February 2007]

here in Germany it was only shown on TV one time. today, as everything becomes mainstream, it's absolute impossible, to watch a film like this again on the screen. maybe it's the same in USA, or especially GB. The Message is a brutal truth : Find friends to make your ideas come a bit closer to reality, or you become a loser, if not an asshole instead.

The whole film is not particularly as simple, as it may seem here. Every little scene, every sentence, every behavior of the characters show a sharp look at what could happen, when one person is not accepted in a sadistic crowd, which calls itself normal.

Very well played by all this is a must seen. Who is the main character? John (not Cox, folks, remember ;-) ore Niles (who still is Bimbo) Decide and you will get the plot as it is intended.

A bitter look at what society becomes in a repressive system. Kind of Salingers Catcher in the rye and Goldings Lord of the flies thought to the very end.

The Final maybe change your own mind. Word

There is a compelling argument for its reissue on DVD.

[stanistreet-2 · 31 August 2007]

I am presently reading "BAMBOO" by William Boyd & immediately ran to IMDb to see if there was any information on his disturbing filmed insights to bullying at school. Regrettably, as has been noted by many respondents, "Good and Bad at Games" has been consigned to the mothballs by Channel Four, which is strange, seeing that they have made Film Four free to air & show some good retrospective films. When compared with the crap that is shown recently - "Big Brother" - and similar pap, it would be salutary for a new generation to see some of the really good productions of the 1980s. I think of "Among Barbarians"; "The Happy Valley"; "Another Time, Another Place"; The "Country Matters" series of HE Bates short stories such as "The Little Farm" and think they still have the power to move and thrill. These were all gems, and never date. Boyd is probably the best chronicler of school days (Try "Dutch Girls") & makes "Tom Brown" look tame. In particular, he is spot on when he traces some of his schoolmates' careers after the monastic confinement of 10 years at a public school. He remarks that the only way to survive is to get out before the end. I did & know what he means, especially when I hear so many of my old school friends reminiscing, almost in tears, about the glory days when they scored "50 not out". All of the popular ones are comparative failures, many joining the army or navy and forever talking about the thrashings they got. No wonder so many are incapable of a human relationship with a woman & go to whores to recapture the joys of enemas; floggings & Castor oil!

A half forgotten great

[glenn-aylett · 9/10 · 19 April 2013]

I don't think Good and Bad at Games has been shown on television for at least 20 years, has never been released on DVD and can only be seen on Youtube if you don't have a video recording.This film is a half forgotten great from the early years of Channel 4, when they made their own low budget and mostly excellent films.

Basically the story is about John Cox, a totally unathletic pupil at a boys boarding school in the early seventies, who is ruthlessly bullied by the rugger and cricket playing in crowd, led by the arrogant and totally unpleasant Alastair Mount. The story switches between scenes of Cox's bullying, in particular two horrific scenes where the gang spit in his dinner and where they torture him in the school toilets, and the modern day( 1983), where Cox has become a left wing journalist and decides to investigate his nemesis, Mount, who has become an army officer with a reputation for incompetence and financial impropriety.

Good and Bad at Games starts off with Mount and his best friend Niles, who still is called by his public school nickname( it's a taboo nickname so I won't print it on here), playing cricket for an old boys team. Sitting on a bench watching the game is a shabbily dressed individual that neither of them recognise, but is Cox, planning his revenge after ten years. Also the film flashes back to Mount and Niles sporting prowess at school, where they were on the first XV, and how Cox came to hate them and seek his revenge. Also at school Mount is portrayed as an arrogant boor and another character we're introduced to, who has the nickname of Bogdoor, spends most of his time looking at pornography and later in the film is shown as a sexually inadequate character who makes obscene comments about a waitress in their drinking club.

The film then fast forwards to 1983 where Niles is shopping in a mini mart and is approached by Cox, who introduces himself by his nickname of Animal, and then, after a long pause, Niles recognises him from the cricket match and school, but makes no comment about the bullying. After agreeing to go for a drink with Cox, Niles tells him he is involved in the motor trade( actually he is a not very successful manager of a car repair centre) and Cox reveals he is a journalist.

Niles then agrees to meet up with Cox for dinner. Cox lives in a squalid flat where the walls are covered in left-wing posters, which elicits comments from Niles about reds, and then Cox pressurises Niles about Mount, showing him a file he has on the army captain and asking him to get him information about Niles best friend. Becoming increasingly angry, and complaining that Cox lives in a cesspit after using his filthy toilet, Niles storms out.

Indeed Niles is just as much a victim as Cox. Unlike his more affluent friends Bogdoor and Mount, he lives in a flat in Notting Hill with rastafarians living underneath as he can't afford anything better and is only tolerated, something Cox points out to him when he stops him in the street, because he is good at cricket. Indeed Niles, after asking his friends if there are any high paying jobs in the City, hears his so called friends talking about him behind his back at a cricket match and more or less calling him a loser. An interesting sub plot develops where Niles has an affair with Mount's wife, which is his payback for only being seen as someone to be used for his sporting skills.

The film, after more flashbacks to the public school and Cox's torment, then races to its climax. Cox has traced Mount's home and sets up an ambush, where Mount stops his Volvo at the entrance to his home as it appears someone has had an accident, only to be coshed by Cox, who then steals an army revolver from the car's glovebox. Finally, the film ends where it begins, at the old boys cricket match, where Cox storms on to the pitch waving the gun and then shoots Mount in the leg and, face contorted with rage, pushes the gun into Mount's face and tells the terrified army captain( who is shown up as a coward rather than a military hero) that he is going to kill him. Only the intervention of Niles, who knocks out Cox with his cricket bat, saves Mount's life, and even then Niles, who is hailed as a hero by the cricketers, seems to look more towards the unconscious Cox than the injured and prostrate Mount.

On the whole a very good film with a cast who were little known then and still mostly are now, Anton Lesser, who played Cox, has never been more than a middle ranking actor. Only drawbacks are the rather OTT accents employed by the public schoolboys, which sounded amusing even 30 years ago, and also would 18 year olds in 1973 still be listening to sixties beat group Cream, when they would more likely be listening to David Bowie.

An extremely impressive and rarely seen early Channel 4 film

[Red-Barracuda · 10/10 · 12 April 2015]

Like a few others, I saw this film on Channel 4 back in 1983 and have only rediscovered it through the joys of YouTube. For some ridiculous reason it has never been replayed on TV or given a VHS or DVD release. This is especially unfortunate, as this really is a hidden gem of a movie. I remember being somewhat disturbed by it back in the day, probably exacerbated by the fact I was a school boy then myself but on re-watching it now, it still retains its power to unsettle. It looks at the British upper class system from the perspective of the experiences of a couple of boys, via their experiences at a public school and their lives ten years later. Quentin Niles is lower class than his peers and is known by a demeaning nickname but he is accepted on account of his skills in sports. A decade on, he remains in contact with his rich school friends but is only tolerated because of his sporting prowess, a fact he is not clever enough to realise. He works in a mid-ranking job dealing with car parts and is actively excluded from the lives of his wealthy 'friends' in anything other than his role in the cricket team. Things change irrevocably when an ex-schoolmate of Niles, John Cox, makes contact with him. Cox was known by the nickname 'Animal' and was the victim of terrible bullying at this school, he is now an investigative journalist and needs Niles help in getting information on their old schoolmate Alistair Mount who is seemingly acting criminally in Northern Ireland in his role as an officer in the military. Mount was the chief bully and a thoroughly unpleasant individual. The situation is complicated further when Niles begins an affair with Mount's wryly observant wife who sees through everything.

This is a story about the used and the abused. The former is Niles, who is only tolerated by his privileged school friends because of his skills in games, which are so important to these people; the latter is Cox, who is very bad at games and doesn't seem to fit in in any capacity. In fact, the title of the film has more than one meaning, as aside from the obvious reference to sports, it could also refer to the games people play to fit in. Niles instinctively knows how to play these games, whereas Cox has no idea at all. It's a story about misplaced loyalty though, because Niles discovers more and more that the people he had thought were his best friends really do not respect him very much at all. It all fittingly comes to a conclusion with a finale which is played out on a cricket pitch where Cox tries to win at last on the games field over his long term foe Mount by threatening him with a gun. Niles thwarts Cox, again fittingly, by using his sports skills in a deadly manner. When he hits Cox hard with the bat he seems to do so partly through hate, as he knows that Cox has shattered the illusion he had been living and when we see him trudge off the pitch at the finale, we know that he is leaving these people, never to return. It's a very uncompromising ending that offers little respite or closure but it's a clever one that seems apt for this particular story.

One of the bsst dramas I have ever seen

[sheldoncole · 10/10 · 7 November 2017]

Other reviewers have eloquently explained why this is such a painfully accurate and disturbing drama - particularly if you went to a school like this, of which there were many. The outsider Niles particularly rings true - desperate to be accepted, but despised by Mount, Joyce and Harrop. It is such a shame that Channel 4 don't repeat the film or make it available on DVD. I can only assume it is because of Niles' nickname - even though the whole point of the name is to show the obnoxiousness of the characters of Mount, Joyce and Harrop and to emphasise that Niles will always be an outsider to them.