Game of Death

Action superstar Wesley Snipes is back and badder than ever as CIA Agent Marcus Jones, a professional hit man caught in a double-cross between his partners in the agency, a ruthless arms dealer and a powerful Wall Street broker worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Framed for a murder he didn’t commit and chased by expert assassins, Jones must clear his name before its too late.Also starring Robert Davi (Die Hard), Gary Daniels (The Expendables) and Zoë Bell (Grindhouse), GAME OF DEATH is an action-packed thriller filled with pulse-pounding excitement. Wesley Snipes stars in the straight-to-DVD action thriller Game of Death, which is not a bad thing--such fast-and-cheap flicks are the B movies of our time, and B movies have held up surprisingly well. Game of Death starts with a needless framing device, but once the main story gets underway--which can basically be described as Die Hard in a hospital, followed by Die Hard in a bank--the movie zips along, with lean efficient action (Snipes has a casual, almost lazy authority in his fight scenes) and odd but cheesily entertaining tangents, such as when Snipes gets briefly trapped in the hospital's psych ward. A few offbeat details (Snipes's character is diabetic) and some energetic performances (Quinn Duffy, as a corrupt executive, chews the scenery with particular relish) give the movie unexpected flavor. Don't have high expectations; Game of Death doesn't have the budget for spectacle. But if some straightforward and surprisingly coherent action entertainment is what you're looking for, this might hit the spot. --Bret Fetzer