one of my absolute favorites!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This movie is great. Richard Lynch's performance is superb. He carries this movie. He makes this movie happen. The other members of the cast are fine, but without Richard Lynch, this movie would be okay but not great. The movie offers a compelling story, strong acting, high tension and fast-paced action. There is nothing subtle about this movie. It dramatizes the sadistic cruelty of some people and how depravity can go undetected. This movie also features William Holden in one of his better roles. It's surprising that this movie has not received more attention because it offers what today's audience seem to want: gratuitous violence and sadistic depravity, presented in a neat cinematic package. After watching this movie, you will think twice before sharing a cabin with a bunch of guys who seem like the nicest guys in the world.

Richard Lynch often plays the villain, but seeing hero types Peter Fonda, and John Philip Law as Lynch's comrades in crime is what really makes "Recon Game" a winner. It appears the three leads had a long leash as far as improvisation goes, and their constant bantering probably strays somewhat from what might have been scripted. The film is not perfect, and there are at least a bunch of tedious moments, especially inside the hunting lodge, including a truly boring sequence involving a Monopoly game. Once the "prey" are turned loose and the hunt begins, this raw revenge flick kicks into gear. "Recon Game" compares favorably with another rarely seen hunted in the woods film, "Hunter's Blood". If you can find it, see it, and along with "Recon Game" they would make a terrific double feature. - MERK

We threw out the Television and broke its picture tube in the middle of this film.I'm not kidding.In my life I have only been fully repulsed by the theme, story, acting and directing of a movie a couple of times. Orca, the Killer Whale comes to mind....Not just bad, but disgusting and disturbing. The mixture of sexual violence and mayhem/murder, a combination I have reported on before, is below any line any film-goer can draw. Coprophagia and cannibalism are all that's left to sink to, and there's no bottom to hit.

Open Season is a terribly unpleasant melange of The Most Dangerous Game and Deliverance. It was a critical and commercial flop in its day, and was further criticised for wasting the talents of some usually reliable actors like Peter Fonda, William Holden and John Philip Law. I'm a fan of William Holden, and as a completist I was eager to seek out the film. However, having finally tracked it down and watched it, I can honestly say that it was not worth the effort. This is a poor movie indeed.The wafer thin plot has three ex Vietnam vets heading off in the autumn to their remote hunting lodge. En route, they kidnap a young, romantic couple and imprison them once they reach the lodge. After fattening them up and sexually degrading them, the delightful trio turn their prisoners loose and pursue them to their death.The plot is such a nasty concoction of themes that it needed sensitive handling to avoid becoming an exploitation piece. Peter Collinson directs with a sledgehammer, stripping the film of any dignity that it may have had and making it a truly horrid little item. The arrival of William Holden at the end, in a half-decent climactic shootout, is the only moment that the film comes to life, but by then most discerning viewers will have bolted for the exits (if in a cinema) or pressed the stop button (if watching a video or DVD). Open Season is a bad, bad film, offensive and unpersuasive throughout and utterly deserving of all the negative reviews it has received over the years.