It's one week till Christmas, and Rudy (Ben Affleck) and his best friend, Nick (James Frain), are just about to be released from prison. Nick's primary reason for wanting desperately to be released is so that he can be with Ashley (Charlize Theron), a girl he has fallen in love with while corresponding with her from prison. However, a brawl in the mess hall results in his being stabbed and killed. Rudy leaves prison the next day and hooks up with Ashley, while posing as Nick. While everything goes well at first, Rudy is soon "introduced" to Ashley's brother, Gabriel (Gary Sinise), who wants Nick's help robbing a casino. Rudy is unable to convince Gabriel and his cohorts that he isn't Nick, and he soon finds himself planning a heist which he has no idea how to accomplish.

While the film started off poorly, I thought maybe it would pick up once the real bad guys showed up. I knew I was in some very serious trouble when the line behind the film's title came out. It goes like this: Gabriel has been told repeatedly by Rudy that he is not Nick, and is now pointing a gun at Rudy's head. Rudy starts yelling that he is Nick afterall, and Gabriel responds by lowering the gun and saying "don't you be playing any reindeer games". I actually spent the next few minutes trying to figure out just what in the world that meant. My advice, don't bother trying to figure that, or anything else in this movie out. You'll just get a headache. Rudy also appears to have the greatest luck in history in this film. I'm not talking about John McClane kind of luck, where you're shot at by a machine gun for a few seconds, and it does nothing but hit walls. I mean, Rudy gets shot at from point blank range constantly and yet always escapes unscathed.

Along with the cheesy dialogue and insanely unbelievable luck, there are the "surprises". I saw this film in a fairly crowded theater, and, as a result, I was able to listen in on a few conversations. These mainly consisted of people saying, "And next, he's gonna" or "I'll bet you that he's really," followed by something which would occur in the next couple minutes. As for the casting, Ben Affleck is horribly miscast as a car thief who's been in prison for the past five years or so. Throughout the film, he looked like he just got out of college and took a wrong turn in a really bad neighborhood. He found everything that transpired to be shocking, and he wanted nothing to do with any illegal activities. Sorry folks, it's not that I don't believe in reform, but I don't believe prison turns you into a boyscout either.

Like I said, the two supporting actors, Gary Sinise ("Forrest Gump", "The Green Mile") and Charlize Theron ("The Devil's Advocate", "The Astronaut's Wife") are all that make this film worth seeing. However, both these actors have appeared in far better films, and I suggest you go rent one of them rather than seeing this one. "Reindeer Games" runs about fifteen minutes too long at 105 minutes. I recommend it only to those who adore Ben Affleck (he's in almost every scene),or to those of you who are starved for an action movie (though this hardly qualifies). If you want my advice, go see "American Beauty" this weekend instead. I give "Reindeer Games" a sadly generous two out of five stars.

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* * * * * - One of the greatest movies ever made, see it now. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it only if you've got nothing better to do. * - One of the worst movies ever made. See it only if you enjoy pain.