The film RPG theatrical release called “Real Playing Game” features a new concept in being forever young. Now on DVD for the first time, the movie has a creative storyline and some cool special effects. What it makes up for with the aforementioned loses from lame acting and bland cinematography. That said, the film has potential in a party atmosphere where you can get together with some friends and talk about how it could have been a lot better “if”.
The premise of the story goes like this. It’s the distant future and at RPG Corporation they are offering the very rich a chance to return to their youth in a body of their choice. For a very tidy sum of $5 million Steve Batier (Rutger Hauer) one of ten billionaires can play a game where they choose their young bodies from a hieroglyph, get placed in a special comfort lounge and transported to a pre-chosen place on Earth. They arrive and are told how they will play the game through their new bodies. When each of the young contestants find out that they must kill off one another one hour at a time with only one survivor, the stakes push the game into overdrive.
The premise is a good one and has tones of films like The Hunger Games, Human Race and Battle Royal. Directors David Rebordao and Tino Navarro must have had a very low budget and spent it all on the special effects in the binging and end of the film; as you can see from the sets during the meat of the film, things had to come low-priced. The stage is an old run down mill and apartment house that was probably donated to the project. The actors probably either worked for scale or just did it to have their face on camera for the first time. The cast is very good looking, seem to know their lines and looked like they enjoyed their scenes, but without good direction, props, costumes, choreography, timing and lighting, it just doesn’t work.
RPG has been rated R by the MPAA for violence, language and sexuality. Most of the violent killings are unoriginal, but the straight and lesbian sex does come off the screen pretty torrid, even though there’s no nudity involved.
Specifications and additional video information:
Cast: Rutger Hauer, Tino Navarro, Soraia Chaves, Nik Xhelilaj, Chris Tashima, Clan Barry, Alice Wilton Regan
Director: David Rebordao, Tino Navarro
MPAA Rating: R for violence, language and sex
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure
Running Time: 1 hr. 43 min
Video Release Date: February 10, 2015
Original Film Release Date: August 29, 2013
Language: English
Format: DVD
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Widescreen “Letterbox” Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Subtitles: None
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: ARC Entertainment
