As Good As It Gets

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a movie about four Japanese twenty somethings being forced to torture themselves and one another by a mysterious captor. If the four participate they have to partake in challenges that range from disgusting acts, like eating maggots, to traumatizing mutilation, like sitting in a chair covered in nails. This movie has a slow start which reminded me of *Audition*, (sweet movie by the way, I recommend it,) so I got my hopes up; and when things started to get bloody I was on board for a gore flick. But then near the end you learn information about the protagonist that is supposed to turn the audience against him, but it seriously fell flat on me. Had the movie not made the decision to corrupt the protagonist's character I would have easily given the movie an 8/10.If you are curious about the premise of the movie I doubt you will regret watching the movie, but if you want a violent revenge movie just watch the original *Oldboy*.*SPOILERS* PROBLEMS I HAD WITH THIS MOVIE *SPOILERS*-How the hell did they rig the television to play cartoons when they picked their games? What was the TV wired to the PAPER NOTES?!-If the Revengencers, (they don't have a real name in the movie,) had the prisoners under surveillance the whole time, how did they not notice Hideaki getting up?-Where were the other Revengencers when s*** started to go bad? If your group is built around punishing bullies wouldn't you be backing each other up in case one of your own was in danger?-Hideaki did two bad things in this movie: lie to a bullied girl, and pick a new kid to get bullied after the bullies threatened to bully Hideaki. Because of these two acts he has to be placed in the X-Games, but what the f*** was Hideaki supposed to do? The Teacher wasn't going to do anything and of all people, the two who got bullied should understand how much you wouldn't to go through with the X-Games. The kid was like 9 what the hell did you expect him to do? I highly doubt they would have just taken the games themselves if they had a choice.-Have you ever noticed that Japanese bullies have no souls? Every time they are depicted they are extorting people and putting victims through punishment that would land you in prison or an asylum for the criminally insane.-If the college professor was the Mastermind how the hell did he get bullied? Was he bullied for having a limp? Was the bullying the reason why he has a limp? Were his bullies the classroom that laughed at him when he stumbled? Good luck kidnapping 40 people who share your class and NOT becoming a suspect.-"The police were in on it," feels like such a lame twist when trying to explain why the Revengencers don't get caught. With all the resources at their members' disposal, couldn't they just cover up the murders as suicides? They do it at the beginning of the movie, and that guy died with a big f***ing "X" branded on his face."Oh yeah, he totally ran away from his newlywed wife, put a hot iron to his face, and then jumped off a building. This is a textbook suicide. What? He was missing for a few days? Well obviously he had trouble finding the iron, you can't not brand yourself before jumping off a building you know."-There were a lot more people involved with the childhood bullying aside from Hideaki and Chie, more directly as well. But we never hear about them getting any punishment. I guess the Revengencers only allow for 5 victims a member or else nobody else would get their turn.-Eating rice and maggots seems like a pretty tame punishment when you compare it to SETTING YOUR HAIR ON FIRE.-I didn't realize the milk challenge was a valid form of torture.-If any of the players died during their challenge would the rest of the group just be executed on the spot? It looks like that was the case when Hideaki got the Death Penalty. Man wouldn't that be ironic. "Yes, now I will finally get my revenge for all who wronged me! But first they must endure all the games I had to endure as a child. The irony alone makes my nipples tingle with excitement! HAHAHAHAA!... Wait he choked on the rice and maggots?! But that was only the first round, I still have like 12 more games set up! I event went through the trouble of wiring those papers to the television! Do you know how hard it is to buy like 5 crates of bottled milk on a college student's budget!? I had to take a train like four hours just to find a place where they still sold milk in glass bottles!"

'Mr Morino committed suicide' is what the opaque opening sequence is about. Hopefully this will resolve. Early on, Morino is just a sixth grade teacher. Also, part of a university lecture is shown discussing 'urban legends' about the bullied getting retribution against the former bullies. The stage is set at 10 minutes in. The question is, who is going to be thrust into the meat grinder?Hideaki is an obvious jerk, and would be my lead candidate. Why his girlfriend, Rikako, puts up with him is hard to see. One finds out toward the end of the movie.Takeshi and Tetsuya were leaders in the stylized bullying done in the sixth grade, and they get to join the festivities. Chie Koizumi was also a contributor.After a bit more stage setting to justify vigilantism, these four wake up in a locked room. They are compelled by two large hooded people with powerful electric shock weapons to play the X game, as explained on tape by the dead Mr. Morino. There are 13 levels of punishment. At each turn, a victim and a perpetrator have to be picked. If the punishment is completed in under 3 minutes, the game goes to the next turn. If not, the loser gets to be branded with a large X, about four inches in diameter; the spokes close to an inch across.This game was played in the sixth grade by the bullies; the main victim was a girl named Mariko Kaburagi. By one means or another, all the contestants are made to remember that fact. One of the final points of the film was made by the character Tadashi Ishimatu: the bullies all forgot about him, but he still has PTSD from the bullying. Not one of the four bullies even remembers him, much less what they did to him.So, this is the vigilante justice mentioned academically in the beginning of the film.How far does the vigilante justice succeed?-------Scores--------Cinematography: 9/10 Excellent in the well-lit scenes; reasonable in the dark ones.Sound: 10/10 OK; fairly good on creepiness.Acting: 7/10 Hirofumi Araki was rather good at being almost clueless to scared out of his wits. Some of the other performances were a bit wooden.Screenplay: 8/10 Had a beginning, middle, and an end. The exposition of motivations was good.------PS--------Probably the saddest thing I saw about this film was the tone of the comments made on Netflix. About half of them had the same attitudes as the bullies mentioned above: that was ages ago, have you not forgotten? We were just having fun; what's wrong with you?

"X Game" ("X Gêmu") could have been much more than it turned out to be. Why? Well, the movie had a tendency to drag on in long scenes that could have been shortened down by some more inventive editing. Plus, the storyline was fairly weak.If you want to make a torture movie like this, and don't plan to play on a solid storyline, then at least make sure you have some cruel and grotesque torture scenes that will make the audience squirm, and not just some half-hearted attempts to do so. Which was sadly, what director Yôhei Fukuda had done here with "X Game". "X Game" seems like a light version and more audience-friendly version of the "Saw" movies.The movie takes place mostly in a classroom with only four characters there along with two hooded wardens. As such, there was a lot resting on the shoulders of these four, and ultimately they didn't really manage to pull it off. It wasn't because of their particular performance, but because the movie was suffering from a bad script and storyline.However, compared to the Japanese movie in the same genre, "DeathTube", then "X Game" fared much better. Both movies aren't particularly memorable or noteworthy, though.And there were some awful errors in the movie. The worst one was the animations on the TV. How could the person behind the whole act possibly know which number of punishment was on the piece of paper drawn by one of the four contestants without showing it to the camera? But still, miraculously, the person knew and could play the appropriate animation on the TV. It was just ridiculous.For a Japanese horror movie, then "X Game" is a low ranking entry to the genre, and compared to many other heavy-weighter's in the Japanese horror genre, then "X Game" is hardly worth the time or effort.The ending to the movie, when you find out who is actually behind the things that happen, was actually nice, and does come as somewhat of a surprise. Which was far from predictable.I wasn't impressed one bit by the movie, but still managed to sit through it all. I can honestly say that this movie will never make a second trip to my DVD player. It was had no value to support a second watching.

The other reviews on this page are for Deathtube, a different film by the same company. I watched X-Game on Netflix where it was actually labeled Deathtube.I enjoyed the heavy anti-bullying message of X-Game. Hideaki is our "hero" through much of the movie, yet his character proves to be more complex in the last third of the film, as do the roles of all the "bad guys." The characters are well-developed and their stories are told from multiple viewpoints. Some of the special effects are cheesy but it can be forgiven as the film works hardest to establish the roles and responsibilities of its many characters. The gore is gory, standard horror fare. Truly horrific is the bullying using the X-Game box to deliver red paper penalties, for both the children and the adults.There are no heroes when the bullied strive for revenge ... there are only new bullies. Where will it stop? Not at the end of this film. You learn in flashbacks and late reveals of the forces behind this chain of revenge. It may cause you to change your mind about the characters several times during the film.