Game of Death (2011) User Reviews

Come On Snipes

[Stofft · 4/10 · 9 March 2011]

Even in this horrible movie you show that you got talent. Why do you lower yourself to work with people that seems to know nothing about making exciting movies? The editing is horrible and there is not real feeling in the action scenes either. guns that sound "pjuff pjuff" along with horrible editing is not a good way to go.

This one had an exciting idea of making an exciting movie but its all just washed away during the course of the movie.

The end fight is worth looking at though so for all that hasn't seen it fast forward to that one for some good old Wesley Snipes action! Otherwise its not much to look at here.

But again, this is not due to Snipes 'cause he seems to be doing the best he can making it exciting but with bad editing and directing overall - noting can save this movies face.

Forgive me father for I have killed.

[Someguysomwhere · 6/10 · 12 December 2010]

This movie is played out thru and as a sort of "confession" to a priest. So the story is not told in REAL time; but AFTER the fact; sitting in a church with a priest.

CIA agent Marcus Jones is given the assignment of infiltrating the organization of arms dealer, Frank Smith, and thru him get to the president or head of a hedge fund operation based in Detroit; man named Redvale, who smith is working with. The CIA wants them both dead. It seems that Redvale Corp. has oil interests some place in Africa but the policies of the local government there is somehow cramping their style or interfering with the conduct of their business. This is where Frank Smith comes in: Revdale is financing Smith to arm rebels opposed to the government.

Immediately after Marcus is given his assignment, the movie cuts to --and begins-- at a point where he has already infiltrated Frank Smith's operation and is now working for him as security or a personal bodyguard. They are in a plane together at this point on their way to the Revdale Corp. to see Revdale and collect Smith's share of money from some transaction or deal in Africa. The plane lands and they transfer to a black SUV with cool musical accompaniment (Don't you wish this would happen every time YOU stepped off a plane or headed for your car?). At the same time, Marcus's CIA team is getting ready to move in; orders are given by their head of operations flying in a chopper overhead, that no action should be take until Smith picks up his loot.

The action begins when "others" I'm calling them (an important plot twist already spoiled for you by the IMDb synopsis) decide to interfere with the CIA operation so that they can get their greedy paws on all the loot that Smith is about to collect. At the same time, in the back seat of the SUV, Smith is starting to feel hot and bothered; complains about the heat; shortly thereafter he is having a major heart attack and has to be taken to a hospital. But the "others", unaware of this, are shooting at the car to get it to stop. They want Smith captured so that they can use him to get into Revdale Corp. and collect his money. A chase leads to a hospital where most of the action takes place as the "others" hunt Marcus and look to kidnap the badly ailing Smith.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie (low expectations, I guess). Turns out this is a good action film. Snipes played his character Marcus in a sober, detached sort of way; like a man who has no other life or friend but his job and whose longest conversations take place within. So he's serious; has no "attitude" and cracks no jokes. Not even a "forced" smile for the nurse who was looking after him and who was clearly flirting (Down fellas, not the nurse of your fantasies). For example, after some comment she made about always wanting to date a bodyguard, he looked at her as if he had no idea what she was going on about; as if human chit chat or conversion was something he was unfamiliar with. So this guy is busy; unless you have something to do with his mission or the job at hand, you exist to him only peripherally.

The movie utilizes the "hunter-and-prey-in-a-confined-area" (a hospital) scenario. And though hardly original, it is a favorite of many people --if done well-- and I thought it was done well here. So it was entertaining to watch hunter and prey navigate the rooms and floors of the hospital; the former trying to kill or capture and the latter trying to survive and get away. I found the fight scenes effective; smart and satisfying; demonstrating that breaking someone's neck is not the snap you might have thought it was (sorry; couldn't resist). Finally, just to give you some perspective: This movie, while not having all the money, star-power, and fire-power of say, "The Expendables", is still hands-down the better made action film. Demonstrating once again that "less" is often "more" and "more" is often "less". Love, Boloxxxi.

Not as bad as expected!

[Julian2209 · 6/10 · 13 December 2010]

I don't understand why people vote this movie so down, because its not as bad as a lot of other Snipes movies of the past and there were certainly a lot. Who likes a halfway decent story is right here, who wants to watch 08/15 action movies, is also right here, just the ones who do not like Snipes because of his tax-problems should not watch this movie and certainly not vote it down, maybe even without seeing it.

The most annoying thing of the movie is the lead female part, sometimes really badly annoying because so predictable and as well the pseudo- hard rock music. Nevertheless to me personally its the best movie Snipes did in the past 5-6years! And so a good 6 on the "richter scale"... ;)

Poor quality action

[nebukanezer · 2/10 · 13 December 2010]

First of all let me point out that I really love action movies. I just recently spent time viewing several of Arnold's old movies, which are all classics! Take Commando - this is my definition of a great action film: Extremely simple story, but completely packed with some serious action, with a bad-ass protagonist spitting out cheezy one-liners after each round of pawnage!

Game of Death fails as a movie in pretty much every way possible. A simple "Arnold-like" action movie is what it SHOULD be. However, the people responsible for the film clearly thought that they had a story- line, actors, and camera-crew that would elevate this film to a "higher" level - whatever that is. Briefly summarized: The story and dialogue is a joke - some of the actors did such a poor job it almost makes some of the scenes embarrassing to watch. The main evil female agent must be one of the worst performances of 2010 - not to mention that the director for some reason decided to make most of the poorly acted dialogue scenes extremely long. So instead of filling the movie with cool karate-style Wesley Snipes action, the movie is mostly wasted on the weak story and the terrible acting. Most of the action scenes were even constantly interrupted by the bad guy having to shoot his mouth off - blah blah blah... What we WANT is pow pow pow!!!

By the way: The camera work and editing gave me a laugh. For some reason they have some sudden clips of black'n white shots - and some other artsy-fartsy filming which is COMPLETELY out of place.

I'll give this movie a 2/10 simply because I enjoy some of Wesley Snipes unarmed action scenes. But for gods sake don't waste your time watching this garbage like I did.

Finally a quick appeal to WS:

Dear Wesley,

Please fire your agent - or whoever persuaded you to participate in Game of Death. You are a cool guy and could renew your franchise of films where you kick ass again. But make it SIMPLE. A 1:30 film should have at least 60 minutes of action!!!

And remember to pay your taxes, Nebukanezer

PS: Wesley picks up a Glock 9mm (with silencer) from one of the bad guys in the hospital. These guns typically have between 15 and 17 rounds (full sized or compact versions). Without reloading the gun I think Wesley probably fired around 150 shots from this gun.

Wesley Snipes in slow motion, even when fighting

[Ka-men · 19 February 2011]

With a title like this, what can one expect? A bunch of clichés, seen it all befores, etc. No disappointment here scenario-wise. But what about Wesley Snipes?

Well, I have learned that Wesley Snipes has no emotions. His face is a neatly ironed blanket. It seems like he is sedated throughout the movie. I'm guessing the evil tax man took, besides all of his money, also the possibility of expressing emotions. He is not what you call stone cold - he is dead cold. Or possibly a sleep walker?

And Zoe Belle, the female "bad guy"? Hell, she's funny. Really funny. She tries to put on super scary serious I'm-tougher-than-tough face, but it comes out ridiculous. I honestly laughed a couple of times at her face. I'm thinking she was trying to be sort of a Clint Eastwood with that look, but it simply didn't play out.

But poor acting is not the worst thing here. Absolutely horrible, irritating soundtrack which instead of suspense brings only annoyance and repetitive need to use the mute button on my remote. Also, the camera work is below par and the ghosting effects are completely unnecessary, ugly and debilitating to the picture.

I have given this a very, very generous 3 out of 10.

this movie sucked

[tmfs25 · 1/10 · 4 March 2011]

Besides the cool fight scenes where he always seems to break their necks everything else about the movie was splotchy and missing detail like how there was random rock music when there wasn't anything going on, and during not all but some of the fight scenes the colors changed to black and white or rainbow something stupid. The part of the movie that infuriated me the most was the fact that he had taken one of the supposed bags of money and went to a church with it ??? and the feds and popo are searching for this guy?? i mean they aren't just gonna let him go gta style he killed what half a dozen CIA and they have absolutely no idea if he killed the other ppl besides the one witness but even with that he is still guilty of stealing the money no matter how righteous the cause if you noticed in the end he left the bag there full of money and the humble pasture listing to him didn't even think to try to stop him to give his bag back it was payment to god for his dammed soul which btw Wesley your still going to hell you stole that moola buddy XD but anyhow he was also walking through the ghetto where most cops bust ppl like crazy you would think someone would notice him ? if i could rate it lower than a 0 i would cause it almost made me throw up XP

Very boring action

[maxikompel · 3/10 · 6 June 2011]

I really did not liked this movie and what i am going to say first is that i do not recommend it. I am really bored of the tipic movies of action where the protagonists fight versus 6542548734 guys and they kill everybody, the only times where this is acceptable is when the main character is a good actor or a "comedian" action actor like (at my opinion) Jason Staham or Vin Diesel, etc. But I really do not like Wesley Snipes, he is famous only because of Blade but he is not a good actor, he definitely can not express anything, and i have some little things to highlight about the movie: Some of the ideas and some of the scenes are a little interesting but not much more. It is really boring, i saw it with a friend and we both said it is very bad, so either you are a big fan of Wesley Snipes i do not recommend it. i give it a 3/10. Greetings. maxi0305

Unlimited Bullets !

[adabsiz · 1/10 · 10 December 2019]

From the moment Marcus is at the hospital stairs firing at an "Asian" assassin with a borrowed hand gun, till he is caught by the lady assassin, he managed to fire at least 60+ bullets !! What pure BS prop is that all about !

The rest of the film was more of the same unrealistic BS from a novice director and produced by no less than 19 people all relying on the Snipe's name !! Don't waste your time on this cr*p please ....

what?

[JasonMeadow · 2/10 · 27 December 2010]

I've added this review for those who've watched it.

What the hell was the hospital scene? There are some guys killing and killing somebody and nobody gives a sh*t as if there wasn't only one security camera. Only one? Was not?

Everyone kills each other, OK, I brush it off, but the girl (Zoe Bell) is knocked out by a head and locked by the man in a bank vault. Then stands up and throw a knife or star -or something to the man. And, i gotta say, while all of these things happen, we can't see how the knife -or star- penetrates the close and tight bars. Over-fantastic...

Agent Marcus and Zander are boxing on the roof in a senseless way. The agent is smashing Zender's arms, legs... Then hit his throat and broke his neck. OK. Good. But after that, he loses. Yes, I said "he loses". He was on the roof of a towering bank, and he disappeared.

I must add that: In this movie, there isn't any reloading. The weapons are limitless. ABSOLUTELY!

I don't wanna make this boring. I cut off in here.

They will approve me those who know this movie, but those who haven't done yet:

• Don't waste your time.

Ps: Zoe Bell is a bad actress. I can't stand her.

Decent action flick

[TdSmth5 · 7/10 · 8 March 2011]

Game of Death if a straightforward political action flick. Wesley Snipes plays a CIA agent who walks into a church and tells the priest he's killed a lot of people. He reluctantly confesses. He was assigned to infiltrate and kill an arms dealer. On the day of the mission things start going wrong. The dealers' caravan is attacked and the arms dealer suffers a heart attack. Snipes, who now is security for the dealer at first doesn't now what is going on. In a hospital he finds himself under attack again. His CIA team went rogue and has its own plans for the dealer.

Some interesting and critical things are said of the US, war, and corporate interests. This movie is straightforward action because there is no romantic interest, Snipes isn't fighting for his family or some such thing, in the end it comes down to his own survival.

This is an East-coast B movie that has a certain 90s feel to it. It's all about the action and the action is very good- typical Wesley Snipes stuff- energetic, fast, brutal. Snipes has always been somewhat of an under-appreciated action star.

The movie could have had a bit more story, especially about the sinister corporate/government deals. Snipes, who is a fine actor overall could have gotten a bit more do. It suffers from some weird visual choices. Often there are quick scenes filmed in black and white for some reason, or other color changes during actions scenes that serve no purpose. Otherwise, this is a pretty entertaining, plain action flick with good fight scenes.

Disappointing

[bptr-1 · 4/10 · 18 February 2011]

I was totally stoked about this movie after seeing the preview (by the way I can't stand the "cool" industry insiders who insist on calling movie previews "trailers" just to prove that they are cool movie insiders. Do they appear before or after the feature film??? DUH!!!).

Anyway, this movie turned out to be cheesy and formulaic. The preview made Snipes' character seem totally invincible with far superior karate fighting skills (which would have been awesome and something I long for).

After watching the Special Features - which were not very good at all - I realized what the problem was. The Director was thrown into this project right before they started shooting with little preparation (and possible experience in this genre) and has a working style of 'just getting it done'. He did just get it done - with very unremarkable results.

I don't blame Snipes at all - his performance was very good with what he had to work with. He seemed to just go along with this schlock, just as he went along with the con artists (one was actually named Kahn) who led him into an illegal tax scheme to defraud the federal government that landed him in jail.

I also see how movie Previews are made by independent production houses and can be very misleading about the actual quality of a film. In this case they made a very good one. Maybe they should have produced the entire film!

Oh, one more thing. 100 millions dollars (in 100's) can be carried in just 2 modest-sized duffel bags? Wow! How dumb do they think we are?

'Game of a tax evading 'B' action movie star trying to make some more big bucks, that he'll hopefully pay taxes on this time'!

[Hellmant · 6/10 · 25 April 2011]

'GAME OF DEATH': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Another direct to video Wesley Snipes action film (although it was released theatrically in Japan last November, 2010). In this one Snipes plays a CIA agent who's double crossed by his team on assignment in Detroit. Most of the action takes place in a hospital where Snipes dukes it out with a team of crooked CIA assailants. The film co-stars Zoe Bell, Robert Davi, Ernie Hudson and Gary Daniels (who also played one of the main evil goons in 'THE EXPENDABLES'). It was directed by Giorgio Serafini and written by Jim Agnew and Megan Brown. The film is pretty standard direct to video action fare for the most part but it does have some pretty well done fight scenes and is slightly more entertaining than most, I'd say.

The bulk of the film is played out in movie flashbacks as CIA agent Marcus Jones (Snipes) explains the events of his last assignment to a Catholic priest (Hudson) in a church one afternoon. Jones tells how he was posing as the body guard for an arms dealer named Frank Smith (Davi) when his former CIA team double crossed him and his mentor in an attempt to steal $100,000,000 from Smith and his partner John Redvale (Quinn Duffy). They attack Jones and Smith in the car they're traveling in when Smith has a heart attack and Jones takes him to a nearby hospital. The crooked CIA agents then ascend on the hospital in attempt to capture Smith when Jones takes them on one by one.

The film is somewhat predictable and pretty routine. The directing is stylized and kind of cool at times but not so impressive at others. The martial arts fight scenes are all well done though and Snipes once again makes a cool 'badass' action hero. Hopefully he can get back to doing some more A list work when he gets out of prison in three years (for tax evasion) but these B action films aren't a bad way for him to show his skills either. They definitely make him and other comparable action stars decent money so you can't feel too sorry for Mr. Snipes paying his dues for trying to rip everyone off. Daniels and Bell are good action movie villains as well and the movie as a whole is just about what you'd expect from something like this. Like I said the film is about average, I'd say it's a little better than the usual but not much.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU_O9yN8W_E

Snipes Just About Holds The Film Together

[superal1966 · 5/10 · 25 April 2011]

*Contains Spoilers*

I like Wesley Snipes, he is pretty decent at what he does and I don't suppose we'll be seeing him in anything new for some time but I was looking forward to Game of Death when I saw it was available on pay per view.

Firstly the direction was 'odd'. At times the camera angles felt totally out of place and on occasion even slightly disorientating, but some of the scenes, especially the car chases were done quite well. I'm not sure if it was just my TV but I also felt it didn't always run smoothly.

The acting wasn't great, Zoe Bell was annoying throughout although Gary Daniels played the part well enough and Snipes' charisma just about manages to hold things together.

My biggest criticism is that too many simple things weren't 'right' just for the plot to fit and progress. Snipes' gun had unlimited bullets throughout the film until the roof top just so the finale could end in a hand to hand fight. The security at the vault was beyond pathetic as well; for a vault that has $100 million, two security officers seems a little on the lean side. The entire hospital also seemed oblivious to the gun fight going on around them, I could go on, but nothing felt like it really fit.

As a final point, and not necessarily a negative. I couldn't help but feel that rather than the movie itself being about losing ones way and forgiveness and redemption, instead a story was conjured up to fit around Snipes confessing in the church.

Despite my criticisms of Game of Death I did enjoy watching it for what it was, although I doubt I'd recommend it to anybody else unless it happens to just be on TV on any given random day.

5/10

lame screenplay, bad directing and acting...

[rightwingisevil · 21 December 2010]

but i have to give the credit to the stunt and action scenes, including the fantastic defensive driving scenes that actually were nicely done. but the whole movie simply proceeded in an ridiculous way that i have to blame to the poor logic thinking of the director. how could it possible a hand gun kept firing over 30 or 40 times and didn't have to reload? how could it possible a so-called CIA female agent wore two big round earrings during a dangerous mission? besides, she acted so poorly to look like a convincing agent. snipes acted well and his fighting techs still looked so smooth and flawless. but this screenplay simply was just stupid, ridiculous and highly impossible even good fighting scenes would not salvage this poor crafted movie.

There's much worse direct-to-video movies, but this still isn't very good

[adamscastlevania2 · 5/10 · 24 December 2014]

(46%) A fairly reasonable direct to DVD outing for Snipes, that is better than most of what Seagal can usually churn out without necessarily being up to cinema standards. There's a touch more effort put into the writing, even if it is pretty ropey at times, and the slightly slower pacing allows itself to build at least some sense of character absent from almost all movies of this type; there's also a coherently told plot adding another string to its bow. What does let this down more than a little though is the distracting direction that feels like the director made his way through every annoying effect preinstalled in his camera. With added help from famous faces of Robert Davi, Ernie Hudson, Zoe Bell, and fair share of decent action, making this is a decent watch, if not entirely anything that needs to be seen.

poor Wesley

[FredPenner · 2/10 · 2 March 2011]

I guess he needs to make some money so he has to crawl with some low quality stuff. While the acting is mostly really bad, the part that makes this movie truly awful is the "story" and I use that term loosely. Some of it is funny like the handgun with the limitless supply of bullets.. some of it is insulting - thieves go into a bank to steal money but leaves SKIDS of it behind. They take the $100M carefully laid in the two suitcases (that fills three dufflebags) and leave the other pallets of money alone. By the way, $100M in $100 bills would take up a full pallet (one million 100$ bills) Wesley Snipes was great, the action scenes were good, the car chases were OK and much more realistic that the traditional cheese. His fight scenes (as usual) were fun to watch, but the utter stupidity of the script and story make this a true stinker.

This kind of movie is what i expect from a 12 year old to make using adobe flash and his handy cam. Actually, it would be better. No, seriously.

[patrick-sapper · 2/10 · 26 June 2011]

Cons:

• No gun is reloaded in the whole movie! They shoot about 100 bullets... it's almost like they are playing GTA with infinite ammo cheat!

• Too much killing. For people that used to work for the CIA you'd think they would have a conscience. I'd have to say they shot every person they came into contact with! Only like 2 characters survive.

• The main character... wow… You'd think that after someone innocent is shot he would show some kind of emotion? I count about 5 innocent people shot right beside him and he acts like nothing happened... i thought he was CIA??!?

• The hand to hand combat scenes are corny and dumb. They speed up the motions making the characters move their hands at some ridiculously unrealistic speed.

• The end fight scene... the main character just happens to run out of ammo? The first gun in the WHOLE movie to run out of ammo.

• NO CLOSURE. The movie just ends basically. The main baddies are taken out except for a few? Do they really expect a sequel?

• Effects imported from Windows Movie Maker?

• MOST IMPORTANT: NOTHING ORIGINAL. Seen it before in 100 other wannabe famous action movies. The ONLY thing that makes a movie is originality. It's like in music: when someone makes a cover it is NEVER as popular or good as the original.

The list just keeps on going, however, I'll stop there before i bore you.

Summary:

If you're bored on a long school holiday and have seen every rental in the video store, maybe consider it. Don't expect anything special or original. Be prepared for over the top killing, swearing and emotionless characters. Finally, when the movie ends, Don't expect closure. To be honest, I've seen better movie talent on YouTube.

Tony Scott did it better!

[jonny-riggs · 1/10 · 5 September 2013]

If anyone reads this just know i only got 30mins into this god awful movie before i fell asleep. no, i was not tired, it just bored me to tears is all! the ghostly camera work at the start is ugly. an opening sequence of city shots layered on top of each other? tony Scott did it better! slowing down and speeding up the film? tony Scott did it better! in fact this movie just steals from every other movie and has no originality. the creepy music is out of place and snipes looks bored and desperate for any acting job.in fact the whole cast is rubbish and cant act! why bother tell this story? its not worth telling..i have no idea why they bother

What happened to Snipes ?

[tomkusmierz · 1/10 · 28 March 2017]

Man, I remember when having Snipes on screen would give you chills ... in this move everything is so forced ... it makes you vomit :( Snipes, what happened to you man, you used to be not only high kicks but a good screen plan (to some extent). This movie is just forced :/

People that are not fans on Blade will say that blade was A LOT better ... and that says a lot that cheesy vampire flick is better than this.

So, if you like a movie that carters to conspiracy theorists that claim that system is corrupt, you like corny c*** where main characters are cardboard cut outs of stereotypes, a movie where even action scenes where you should run for you life looks like somebody is speed walking - watch it.

And yes I din't understand people that give more that 1 star to movie that has no value ... to have some value you need to go beyond large CG muzzle on pistol (specially one with suppressor, for f*** sake)

Very enjoyable

[caroeb · 7/10 · 19 September 2011]

I guess you guys didn't notice that it was stated that the hospital wing was mostly empty because they had moved the patients and staff to a newly built wing? Anyway, I liked this movie. Even though the plot was simple, they kept it moving (no pauses to reload guns ;-) and it was suspenseful because you couldn't be sure what might happen next. Excellently choreographed and performed hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot combat. Wesley has the moves, wow. His deadpan suited this movie, too, I feel. Just enough humanity was included by way of innocent bystanders, but not too much so as to distract from the urgent intent of the protagonists. The unusual photographic effects here and there added to the edginess, in my opinion. Pure adrenaline rush, if you stay with the flow.

Not worth the time it takes to watch it.

[darranphelps · 2/10 · 5 February 2017]

I have just had the most miss-fortunate of experiences that I felt compelled to write a review of this film, my first ever. I have been a Wesley Snipes fan from the first film that I saw him in. He has always, I believed been a good indication of a quality film. And so having found a film that I was not familiar with I sat down to watch in anticipation on a Sunday evening. The start of the film left me a little confused as to the plot, but never the less I gave it time and watched on. It seemed that his confession would be either heart felt or not at all. This I put down to screen writing. But still I ploughed on. This was beginning to drag I thought to myself. Before long I found my mind wandering and it was time for coffee. That would break the monotony. The acting was wooden. The pauses between the dialogue cavernous. The cinematography and editing was bad and confusing jumping from colour to black and white to slow motion with some weird pastel effect. The fight scenes were unrealistic. There seemed to be an endless supply of bullets. Not once do I recollect seeing anyone in the film reload a gun, and only once did anyone run out of bullets right at the end so that the final fight scene could take place. An obvious convenience. The end deflating.

Pretty good for a B-movie

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 6 September 2013]

GAME OF DEATH (bad choice, choosing a title the same as the Bruce Lee movie, as well as making this sound like a tournament-style film, which is isn't) is one of the last movies Wesley Snipes made before being jailed for tax evasion, and it's one for the fans. Most people unaccustomed to B-movies will see it for what it is - a cheap, overly familiar star vehicle that's not much different from the kind of DTV trash Seagal films these days.

However, those who enjoy low budget action flicks may find a surprise or two in a film which turns out to be a lot better than expected, purely because it's serious, straight to the point, with a well-focused script and plenty of action. In essence, Snipes is part of a CIA team who turn renegade and forget to tell him about it, leaving him the only guy capable of taking down the bad guys.

GAME OF DEATH has plenty of action, and a lot of it is good. There's an extended hospital siege scenario (complete with homages to HARD BOILED) which takes place around the halfway mark, and this is the highlight, offering a series of frenetic one-on-one fights as Snipes tackles numerous henchmen, including DRUNKEN MASTER II's Ho-Sung Pak. The fights aren't the best the genre has to offer, but they're pretty intense and don't shy away from violence, which is always a good thing.

The rest of the storyline, taking place outside of the hospital, is less gripping, but the last third is still pretty good. It helps that Snipes is on top hard-ass form, refusing to back down and taking it to the villains throughout. The ever-underrated Gary Daniels is a nice choice as the chief baddie, and there are great supporting turns from familiar actors who have been away from our screens for too long, like Ernie Hudson and Robert Davi. Choreography is fairly good and the film zips along at a fine old pace. I liked it.

Overall disappointing

[Wizard-8 · 11 March 2011]

Obviously, this movie should not be confused with the Bruce Lee movie of the same name. The only thing they have in common is the use of martial arts. Anyway, I didn't find this movie as bad as some of the user comments here. Although it was released direct-to-DVD, the production values are mostly strong; this movie could have been released to theaters. Shooting in Detroit also gave the movie a unique backdrop. But I was disappointed in the end. Although the action scenes do show that Snipes indeed knows his martial arts, they were directed and choreographed in a way that drains most of the excitement out them. Also a bad directorial touch was the use of black and white, which comes out of nowhere and seems out of place. The resolution of the climax will most likely leave viewers unsatisfied with how things are wrapped up. But long before that, the movie's mean streak will have turned off viewers (a TON of innocent people get killed during the movie!) Still, Snipes fans may be forgiving of a lot of these flaws, since this will probably be one of the last Snipes movies they'll get to see for a long time, with Snipes now in prison.

So bad it could have been a spoof.

[bonzodog-29475 · 1/10 · 11 May 2022]

Terrible script, awful acting, rubbish fight scenes, but most ridiculous of all was the hospital scene. He's had a heart attack apparently, having a stent inserted and still wearing his suit. She says I have a line in his groin that goes into his heart. Ha ha. He still has his trousers on? I've had two stents. Team of about 7, heart ecg is monitored and you are in a hospital gown. Plus, they have to shave your pubic hair if you have a stent through the groin. (Mine was done through my wrist.) Don't bother to watch.

Not terrible

[LetsReviewThat26 · 5/10 · 9 September 2023]

But this film was not great either. For me game of death failed on one simple thing and it was just poorly acted. Snipes being the best really. Speaking of Wesley he plays Marcus. A man sent to protect a man, kill two others aswell but is also part of a group of thieves trying to steal a man named Frank's money. Some parts of the plot get thin in places and basically makes Marcus the only good parson who is helping. The action is not terrible, but definitely not the best I've seen in any film and it's lackluster overall. Game of death is a dumb name anyway but it was watchable and still entertaining.