Saturday, May 3, 2008

The 'Wrong Game' Review

A couple weeks ago, I was with Jamie Berke to watch The Wrong Game at Gallaudet's Foster Auditorium. Little did we know we'd be sharing the campus with a festival and what looked to be a basketball game. The movie itself was quite good, the first time we've watched a full-length ASL/signed movie. The first thing I'd noticed was no sound. Next thing I noticed was that it had no captions/subtitles for those who don't sign well or at all. Not a problem there.

All through the movie, I noticed little elements from other movies and books here and there. It's rather difficult to list them, but suffice it to say that some major elements seem to have been taken from the SAW movie series. Namely, people being stuck in a room and having to do something in order to exit a maze or room. Even though the movie was low-budget, you know they had to fake, but otherwise their acting 'told' you what was going on. Very little blood and gore was used, with the most being in the Lion's Den when a character put his arm into one of the lion's mouths on the wall... Hardly a gush by Hollywood standards.

Other elements I'd noticed came from books I'd read over the years, a little Hitchcock here, a little Stephen King there, and a few other things here and there. Some of the props and scenes were made to look even more scary and menacing by the use of spiders and snakes. It was interesting seeing Bernard Bragg, both in one of the pre-show ads and in the movie.

Whatever questions I had through the movie were answered at the end. The signing was clear, although with the "old man" character in the attic with the blue gloves was a little hard to understand what with the dark gloves color against a dark background. The camera tricks were pretty well-done as well.

No spoilers here for those who haven't seen it. Let's just say the ending was quite interesting.

Move over, Hollywood... There's a new player in town and it's called Deaf Cinema.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We saw it last night at Tucson's ASDB...the picture was great but actors and actresses seems to be forced to follow the director's or the writer's scripts that doesn't have sense of flow with conversation; too many pauses. Usually when the script was written doesn't have to be exact words from the actor's personality and that's the nature of Hollywood movie.
I did a review on "Deaf Housewives" (warning: deaf pornography) with the whole 2 hours. i am amazed how well Dino Capone had directed and the acting/dialogue had exceed my expectations than Wrong Game. I asked him last night how he does it differently than "Forget me,Not", "Deaf Family", "Wrong Game" , etc. without his strong film background. His comments were "every actors and actresses has its own personality but knowing all the script's plot. Go with the flow naturally" He also said he doesn't do retake on each set that often. Interesting!
Wrong Game was invested by Sprint of $120,000. If it was $120,000, then they could do better! They tried so hard to be different than regular movies. That's the downside.
Hopefully, the lesson was being taught so let's see what's next.

Anonymous said...

Why not get yourself involve with Deaf Film and see if you are the BEST or not?

Anonymous said...

Dino Capone has advanced to their level. Sorry to say.

Anonymous said...

deafywood?

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding? Dino's movie is horrible! Lousy seedy actors!

Anonymous said...

How can you justify lousy seeding actors? I'm a beta video tester and if you see the preview of "Deaf Housewives" The slapping scene is real and she hit him HARD! That's acting! Also, Savannah and Jennifer had a very easy flow of conversation and makes you feel like you're part of it. That's acting!
Yes it is porn but some deaf like porn and some don't however it's good to have freedom of choice in the deaf community, right? I support porn and that's why i'm a reviewer of all films produced from g rated to x rated.
Wrong Game can do better and we love to see more deaf films with a better quality entertainment. These cast were experienced but it has lot to do with Director's decision making in this film.
So this movie is D-. Picture A+

Anonymous said...

The movie was interesting and different from the other movies I am accustomed to. Pleased to see the fully ASL spoken movie to happen and look forward to more ASL movies in the near future. Anyway I thot the middle of the film was kinda dry and boring. Good thing I didnt fall asleep or I would have missed the end. Oh I saw it in San Diego last week. It is not recommended for ASL 1 and 2 students unless they want some challenges or unless they have previews before seeing the movie.

... Paulette