Where to watch Surviving the Game
2 1/2 Stars
Jack Mason (Ice-T), who lives on the streets, wants to cease his life when on the same day his two best friends die: his dog and an older man with whom he shared his food and roof. Just in time, Walter Cole (Charles S. Dutton), from a charity organization, can prevent his suicide and also offers him a quite well-paid job as servant for a hunting party in the Rocky Mountains. Mason accepts the job and flies with them to a hut in the wilderness where they prepare everything for the four rich businessmen who want to hunt something special. Mason does not yet know that he is the victim of their sport that should lead to the basic insticts of man, but they did not count on his cleverness.
Surviving the Game will always be remembered as the wannabe Hard Targe. Regardless of the fact that this film was well into production when the Woo film came out, the similarities in source material, setting, and characters were too coincidental to miss. Ice-T attempts the action-hero role after his well-received turn in the action-drama New Jack City, and he’s adequate at best, puffy, and amateurish at worst.
Surviving the Game is an entertaining little B-movie with minor pleasures throughout. Busey, McGinley, and Dutton are quite good in their respective roles, making up for the miscast Ice-T. The umpteenth retelling of The Most Dangerous Game isn’t as glossy as the similarly themed but much superior Hard Target, but it provides a more faithful retelling of the classic tale. .
Directed by: Ernest R. Dickerson
Written by: Eric Bernt
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Ice-T, Charles S. Dutton