Dangerous Game 2001 Horror Movie Review

DANGEROUS GAME is an early film from director Stephen Hopkins (The Ghost and the Darkness; Predator 2).  Filmed in the early nineties in Sydney, Australia, it’s a clever, but overwrought, little thriller that doesn’t know when to end its welcome.  We meet a quartet of teenagers who are being harassed by a particularly abusive cop.  Seems that he lost a promotion due to one of the teenager’s father’s actions, so now he hounds this boy and gives him speeding tickets, moves his car into a no parking zone, that kind of “harmless” abuse.  Things go sour though when the cop wrecks his motorcycle into a bunch of other cop’s cycles on a supposed high speed chase with his teenage nemesis.  Needless to say, he is suspended and he seeks revenge.  The cop obviously has some deep psychological problems.  Meanwhile, the computer nerd of the teen group, shows off his hacking skills by getting the foursome into a high profile department store after hours.  They manage to get into the building, but they didn’t count on maniac cop following them, and they end up getting trapped in the building with the cop.  The movie then loses its steam because it takes too much time showing the kids exploring the store, and the cop isn’t menacing until he accidentally kills one of the teens with his knife.  From there on, it’s just one long chase, that does have some atmospheric impact, but if they had sped up the action some, it might have been a much better movie.  The cast does very well, though.  Steven Grives as Murphy the cop, is excellent in his portrayal of a man who is on the verge of losing the life he loves; Miles Buchanan, Sandie Lillingston, Kathryn Walker and John Polson don’t stretch their limits, but they are effective as the somewhat doomed kids.  Its cryptic ending is a little over the top, but for movies of this type, DANGEROUS GAME does okay.