I actually loved him in Adaptation., which is also a personal favorite of mine. And I am dying to see The Weather Man.

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The Game (1997) - ***
Director: David Fincher
A middle-aged businessman must play to take control of his life when it is consumed by a game received from his black-sheep brother as a forty-eighth birthday present.

I have to be honest. I was ready to give this one three-and-a-half stars, maybe even four. The acting, camera work, premise, and everything inbetween was great. I'm not really sure what I was expecting. I had heard it was alot like Vanilla Sky, and it was, although I still feel Vanilla was slightly better... But similarities were present. Even the suicide scene at the end of both movies seemed to be done the same way.

-Warning: Spoilers below!-
But none of this bothered me. I wasn't expecting complete originality. The only thing that bothered me was the last scene. It ends with Nicholas (Michael Douglas) atop the roof of the CRS building, CRS being the company who runs the game. He holds a gun to Christine, a CRS employee and major character. She tells him it's all pretend, and not to shoot; she claimed his gun was real and all the other guns were fake. Behind the door leading to the roof, what is believed to be armed security guards attempt to bust through. She claims it is really his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) about to throw a surprise party for him. And naturally, when the door opens, and Nicholas instantly fires, he appears to have shot and killed his brother, holding a bottle of wine and cake in hand. Nicholas couldn't deal with it, and like his father years ago, approached the ledge of the building and jumped. Now, this wouldn't been fine with me. I liked this ending alot. And an ending is what I thought it was. But then, as Nick breaks through the glass dome atop of the building below him, and lands on a giant mat, he is at his own party. Conrad is alive and all is well. This bothered me. The whole scene on the roof was set up by CRS, and it looks like they were aided by Hollywood. How could CRS have known Nick would react as he did? If he had acted any differently, they could've really put someones life at stake. And how did they know he would jump off the building? And how did they know he would jump off the exact spot that he did? He could've jumped off any other spot, and died. It just looks like someone in Hollywood pushed for a far-fetched and unrealistic, but happy, ending. The only reason I give it three stars, is because everything leading up to this was great.


"Somebody told me when the bomb hits, everybody in a two mile radius will be instantly sublimated, but if you lay face down on the ground for some time, avoiding the residual ripples of heat, you might survive, permanently fucked up and twisted like you're always underwater refracted. But if you do go gas, there's nothing you can do if the air that was once you is mingled and mashed with the kicked up molecules of the enemy's former body. Big-kid-tested, motherf--ker approved."