Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Blistering performances.

Blistering performances.

Series 7 sees reigning champion Dawn pitted against five new contenders in a fight to the death.I didn't really get into The Contenders until Series 5, which ended with a tense three-way Mexican standoff that, at the time, I thought couldn't be beaten. Series 6 somehow managed to top this with a brutal knife fight between finalists Rick and Daniel guaranteed to satisfy any viewer's bloodlust.How could Series 7 possibly be any better? Answer: by introducing a romantic angle. It sounds sappy, but by having contenders Dawn (heavily pregnant) and Jeff (dealing with terminal cancer) conflicted by their feelings for each other really adds to the emotional wallop and leaves one reeling at the final outcome.Series 8 is going to have to come up with something really special to outdo this.

Series 7: The Contenders, is a very twisted black comedy about six contestants on a reality show. The premise of the reality show is that the contestants are given weapons and have to murder each other in order to win. The contestants include a mentally insane man living in a trailer park, a cancer patient, a religious nurse, a high school teenager, a middle-aged father, and (the reigning champion) a pregnant woman. The film is structured as a marathon showing and is played as a series of episodes strung together each following these contestants. The film depicts these people as normal and everyday people who are forced into this terrible situation against their will, but the real meat of the film comes in when we get to learn about the histories of some of these characters. That's the point of the film where the film grows out of being a spoof of reality shows and begins to manifest into a social commentary. The high school teenager has parents who encourage her every step of the way and help her suit up for the murders that she is about to commit. The pregnant woman has been disowned by her own mother due to past incidents. The middle-aged parent has his own troubles at home. There's a lot more going on here than at first glance. This is an angry and dark satire that really challenges some of the concepts of reality and the satire of itself.There's a lot here that I truly admire. For starters, the performances. They are pretty awful in a way that, at times, seems cringe-worthy. However, when you take a look at reality television shows such as Survivor and The Real World, the acting in those is even worse. It's supposed to be reality, yet the people in them are not believable. That's what makes reality television such a joke, and so in a roundabout way of saying things the performances here are good because the actors are good at capturing the melodramatic mannerisms of the contestants at large. I particularly enjoyed the performance of Brooke Smith as the pregnant woman. She is ridiculously cold and cruel and monstrous, and you can really feel the bitterness that she feels. Yet her mannerisms are so sarcastic and almost pathetic. The same goes for the rest of the cast, but Smith has a visual presence to her that I've always admired. She's a terrific actress. Nobody can forget her performance as the kidnapped victim in The Silence of the Lambs. I've seen some of her television work as well and she almost always sticks out in a good way. Merritt Wever and Glenn Fitzgerald do an equally good job as the teenage girl and the cancer patient, the former being the most likable person in the cast and the latter having all of the best lines and being the most interesting of all the characters.My favorite thing about this film, however, has to be the momentum of it. Series 7: The Contenders is almost never boring and there's always something going on. It's virtually impossible to stop watching once you've started, even if you pick up in the middle of it. I think this was done intentionally. I think a lot of televisions shows have that same kind of watchability factor, and what I appreciated the most about this film is that there were no commercials that cut into the action. The satire of the film itself is simple and clever, but even if you put all that aside, you still have one hell of a captivating film. Putting the climax of the film aside, you do get to care about almost all these characters and you don't particularly want to see any of them die really.If you want my personal opinion on the film, I cannot say that I like it too much. I don't personally find the film itself to be very funny. I like dark humor, but I thought that this was too sick, really, to be funny. I also really don't like the ending. It felt like I was being beaten over the head by the satire. I also find that the film itself isn't exactly re-watchable. Once you know how it all ends, you really don't have any desire to ever really sit down and watch it. There are films out there that are sick and that you never really WANT to watch again, but at the same time you feel you should and can't help but feel the need to sit through it, but Series 7: The Contenders plays all of it's cards in one sitting and as a result you really don't feel any desire to absorb any of it. It's more the type of film that you just appreciate rather than like and enjoy. I can imagine a lot of horror fan and readers of Fangoria would love it to pieces or at least get a huge kick out of watching it. In my opinion, as brilliant and as clever as it is, I definitely wouldn't advise mainstream moviegoers to watch this. I thought it was a brilliantly directed film in a lot of ways, and the satire was effective, but I can't exactly recommend it. I'm glad I saw it though.

It's a brave film, I'll give it that but Series 7: The Contenders is just too casual and at times, oddly uninspiring nor interesting when it comes to the pinch. I can only assume that writer/director Daniel Minahan is American and wrote this low-budget, purposely amateurish looking piece at a time and in a world where reality TV is quite probably the bane of television. Coming from the United Kingdom, we get a show entitled Big Brother once a year in the summer which usually turns into one long, hot summer slog as every night we tune in to see what pointlessness unknown's to us have got up to.For Britain, that's about as far as it goes but America perhaps take it several steps too far; they glamorise their reality stars and take it to a level that is beyond sensibility. Programs such as 'The Hills' and many real-life, MTV, 'spring break' (whatever the hell that is) set programs covering the actions and re-actions of American teens; all of whom do not, it would seem, have a care in the world. This sort of material threatens to leak over to our screens but mercifully; it is limited to only the digital networks and not the mainstream, free-to-air channels. And so comes Series 7, a film posing as a TV programme that we are directly watching but comes off as a failed piece of entertainment more so than it does an attack on reality TV.Series 7 may fall short but it is only a marginal fail, in my opinion. By the time the film enters its final stretch, I feel we are supposed to feel genuine compassion for the characters as they come to terms with their feelings but if we are not supposed to and are to remain focused on the satire then the film has failed on an even larger scale because we are wasting our time watching it. This is due to the satire that has been introduced, arrived and then left in exchange for what I presume to be mere guilty entertainment. The biggest problems with Series 7: The Contenders is its logic but this may be deliberate since a lot of reality TV shows (and their competitors) have logistical problems. These can range from the straight forward continuity errors such as the blowing out of a tire of one competitor's vehicle before having it intact the next scene to the passage of thinking of certain characters.The film comes off almost like a Dogme '95 film what with its use of natural lighting, real life settings, utilisation of props found on the location and hand held camera. The film does contain voice-overs and inserts found footage but even Scandinavian Dogme films break the rules now and again - and they invented the movement. The primary error with the film is that despite trying to look like a reality TV show, you never get the convincing feeling you're watching one. This is due to a lack of consistency on the character's respective behalf's. The idea is that several random people get drawn to take part in a free for all death match across a randomly selected city using guns or whatever they like to kill the other competitors: last one standing wins. Brilliant idea, you think but when characters such as Tony (Kaycheck) are stupid enough to remain in their homes despite knowing they're in the game, only leaving when they come under fire from other competitors, you know you're watching something that has something to say on a certain subject (reality TV) but is not putting in enough effort to make it a subjective experience.There is a distinct lack of empathy (perhaps deliberately so) towards Dawn (Smith) when she tells us her father is 'buried around here, somewhere' before insulting him. Later on, we must like her enough to support her when the film enters its final acts. Then there is the flaw in the overall idea of the film: if last competitions victor is brought back each time then that person will be continuously living a life of killing, etc. until they are killed themselves – that cannot be right, can it? Then there is the issue surrounding the theological reason for the programme. The government within the film's universe comes up with this idea that there must be a contest in which the last competitor left standing wins and they use guns to kill each other. Surely in a country like America, what with its gun culture; its frequent shootings and gun crime, such an idea would be in poor taste. So we are to believe the government is promoting the use of firearms as a means of entertainment instead as a means of protection – which is also in bad taste.I know it sounds like a contradiction but the most disturbing things amongst all this low budget but high realism violence are actually the scenes with Jeff (Fitzgerald) and his wife and how certain elements within his life affect the overall situation of the game. But it is a small element of drama that quickly turns into routine romance that we've seen in films such as Natural Born Killers, True Romance and Badlands. Indeed, more bizarre still; try watching this film which is 'government run' on a commercial television channel: a government produced TV show that is interrupted by adverts? Now you're really starting to take the cake.

Six people from a medium sized town are chosen at random in a government-sanctioned lottery to participate, whether they want to or not, in a "reality" show called Series 7, the Contenders. Rules are simple - kill the other 5 before they kill you. Last one left alive wins.The characterizations and plotting of this satire may leave a lot to be desired, but the extremely contrived plot (though I hesitate to use the term) twists and Jerry Springer-ish performances by the contenders and their families hit the bulls eye in mocking and parodying what we see every day on talk and reality shows. If you're not a fan of reality shows, you'll likely find the many soliloquies and sappy "moments" cloying and distracting, and wish for more action, such as it is. Even if you can accept the premise at face value, the movie has the believability of the absurdest of soap operas. Still, it's entertaining, not overly long, and worth a watch.