Hey folks, Harry here... I believe I see this film this week, but I don't know for sure... but from the sound of it... It could be pretty cool. I'll let you know what I think as soon as I see it. Here ya go.....
Saw a preview of a sick little movie recently - Series 7: The Contenders.
"The Contenders" is a reality series where contestants are chosen from a national lottery. Five contenders and the champion are equipped with a personal cameraman...and a gun. The goal-kill the other contestants. The current champion (Brooke Smith, best known as the captive in Silence of the Lambs) has been playing for three seasons now, and if she wins this time, she wins the game's only prize...she gets to stop playing and go free. Hopefully she gives birth...she's 9 months pregnant.
It's every reality show all rolled into one, with "Most Dangerous Game" thrown in, and the result is a perfect piece of satire. They skewer every reality show you can think of: there's a "Cops" parody as one of the "contestants" has to be dragged out of his house to play, another tries to get away in his car (with his baby daughter as a hostage) and we get a "Most Dangerous Police Chases" parody. And throughout the whole thing, we get little "Real World" style interviews with the players as they discuss their motivations, whether or not they'll have what it takes to take out the rest of the players.
We get the whole cross section of reality in the players that you usually get in these shows. There's a middle aged nurse who may have "helped the sick end their suffering" in her past, an old conspiracy theorist who tries to reveal that the show is actually more than it appears, an 18-year old debutante whose overenthusiastic and oversupportive parents buy her extra weapons and drive her to kills, and an artist dying of cancer who, when handed his gun, puts it to his own head and pulls the trigger ("luckily" it's not loaded at that point). And since a reality show is nothing without romance, it turns out the artist and the current champion have a...past together.
The show is filmed on video, and is played dead straight. You're supposed to be watching a marathon of the show's latest season, and it comes complete with commercial bumpers and tag lines that sound as real as anything else you've seen in prime time. ("You're watching The Contenders...this ain't no game!") It's the serious delivery that makes it so perfect; if it had been played over the top like Running Man, it might have been funnier, but not nearly as vicious.
It's drop dead funny at times, touching at others, and they make you care enough about the characters that you start asking those little unanswered questions to yourself after the movie. Who's the baby's father? Is the show really rigged by the government? What's in Marcellus' briefcase? Will Bob and Ray ever rplace radio?
Don't know how big a release it's getting, but if you like a good satire, and are anxious to see shows like Survivor and The Mole get what they deserve, it's well worth seeking out.
'bot
