End Game (2006)

How sad is this?

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Angie Harmon who seems to have more success on the small then the big screen with Law&Order and Rizzoli&Isles to her credit teams up with Cuba Gooding, Jr. to investigate nothing less than the assassination of President Jack Scalia. In fact it was rather a freakish event in and of itself. The assassin's bullet passed through Secret Service Agent Gooding's hand and may have changed direction ever so slightly and killed Scalia. That's left Gooding bummed and looking for answers.Harmon plays an investigative reporter looking for the truth as well. But this particular president led a secret life as well along the lines of JFK and Gooding was the one who kept the secrets. He and Harmon team up for the investigation, but Gooding feels a loyalty to his former boss and wants to preserve his legacy. At some point they could be working at cross purposes.The action is exciting however the story had a lot of holes in it. Harmon and Gooding work well together. They could have used some better direction as well. Playing a most mysterious role is a retired general Burt Reynolds. He definitely knows more than he's letting out.Fans of the two leads should like this one.

End Game certainly has a star studded cast with Cuba Gooding Jr, James Woods and Burt Reynolds. Thankfully for your eyesight Reynolds is only in for a few scenes because he looks awful with his plastic surgery and bad wig.Gooding is a secret service agent who was injured as the President was assassinated. A pushy journalist uncovers a conspiracy and people start dying. She teams up with Cuba and discover that there are CIA black ops people involved and people close to the President might have been involved in the assassination.End Game is never going to rival Three days of the Condor or The Parallax View. The writing is no great shakes, the photography looks cheap. Yet the cast actually make it watchable. Its rather a decent time waster. The film drops a few clues as it goes along and there is some nice action sequences.

Don't get fooled with all the big names like Burt Reynolds,James Woods and Anne Archer. They are just glorified extra's. Their scenes were probably filmed in one day or so. Whatever their motives for being in this movie, if you have an actor like James Woods you better make good use of him. To me this is a sign of bad direction through and through. The plot itself wasn't that bad. And the acting from most of the actors was above average. Cuba Gooding Jr. however was terrible. He was so unbelievable that I almost laughed at his dramatic scenes. And since this was meant as a serious movie that can't be a good thing. The action scenes were not bad,but they lacked that special punch to make it more exciting. Again better direction was needed. Also the pacing was wrong for a movie like this. It took the main character almost half an hour to get in action. For an action thriller of only 90 minutes that is far too slow. The only redeeming factor is Angie Harmon. She does her best to make it all work. Too bad the director left her hanging. Yes,this movie could have been much better with a great director. Andy Cheng is far too inexperienced as a director to pull it off. And for an action/stunt coordinator of his caliber you'd expect at least more exciting action scenes. Don't waste your time with this one. Avoid!

I guess I'm the only one reviewing this excellent movie who thought it was very good, up there with the best of the conspiracy movies. I thought the script was well written, the dialogue pared down to essentials, characterisation of the protagonists was well thought out and the actors were all top notch, the directing was snappy and economical with a near documentary feel...shot on a grainy film..this added to the gritty feel of the movie (not face powder as one guy on the message board states...it's film grain!!).The plot was slowly revealed and the twists and turns unravelled nicely. A surprise ending....sexy leads and a cooking music score all added to my enjoyment, it held my attention and suspended my disbelief.A bluddy good film!