The Game

Blackly comedic thriller is a bit skimpy in characterization, but fast pace helps audiences overlook holes in the storyline.

With all the predictable, emotionally void and action-driven blockbuster films Hollywood continues to churn out, we're lucky if we're surprised at what happens in these movies — much less if we care about what happens to the characters.

And even if the new, blackly comedic thriller "The Game" is a bit skimpy in characterization and its plot is highly implausible (make that incredibly implausible), the movie is still a lot of fun simply because of its ability to shock and surprise.

A wild mix of "After Hours," "The Most Dangerous Game" and "A Christmas Carol," "The Game" imaginatively places a self-absorbed businessman into the middle of a deadly, real-life game of cat-and-mouse and then watches him fight for his survival, both emotionally and physically.

Said businessman is Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas), an investment banker more concerned about hearing television financial reports than in celebrating his 48th birthday. But his estranged, black-sheep brother Conrad (Sean Penn) has thoughtfully bought him a gift certificate for Consumer Recreation Services, a company that runs imaginative role-playing games for its customers.

And at first Nicholas doesn't seem too interested — at least until he goes through the company's arduous "testing" process and his application gets rejected. But that's actually the first "move" of the game, which gets progressively deadlier.

Along the way, Nicholas manages to involve a seemingly clumsy waitress (Deborah Kara Unger, from "Crash"), nearly dies in a runaway taxi cab and gets shot at by dark-suited thugs posing as cable TV repairmen. And then things get even wilder, as he uncovers what appears to be a huge conspiracy to drain his vast financial reserves, as he is humiliated and killed.

As mentioned, there are so many huge plot holes in John Brancato and Michael Ferris' script that you could spend the entire film asking "what ifs." But director David Fincher ("Seven") has paced many scenes so tightly and given things such a creepy tone that many audiences probably won't notice.

Brancato and Ferris have also thrown in enough humor to keep audiences off balance for some of the film's really big shocks. Additional credit should go to cinematographer Harris Savides and production designer Jeffrey Beecroft, who have made "The Game" look a lot like a particularly vivid nightmare.

Playing yet another one of his trademark, flawed businessman characters, Douglas again excels here, as does Penn, who actually seems to get better with each film.

Almost as good is the film's cast of supporting players, including both Unger and James Rebhorn, whose characters are nearly impossible to "read" for motivations, and a trio of veteran character actors, Peter Donat, Carroll Baker and Armin Mueller-Stahl.

"The Game" is rated R for violence, profanity, brief gore, some quick glimpses of nude photos and drugs.