My endless search for baseball movies led me to a beat-up VHS copy of NIGHT GAME purchased off Amazon for 1¢. A serial killer flick with a baseball connection? This I had to see.
The plot, or at least the motive of the killer, was intriguingly unique: a reliever cut from the team exacts revenge by using his hook (which replaced his throwing hand lost in a bus accident that occurred when he was going back to Triple-A) to slash blonde women who resemble his replacement's new wife, striking when the new star pitcher posts a win. Cool, right? Like the movie BLINK, this killer's motive is unlikely but plausible; it could have made a decent movie (like BLINK).
But NIGHT GAME --um, don't want to go there...but..okay -- strikes out with poor directing, most notably in the complete lack of suspense during the stalk sequences. This is one of those movies where the female victims do nothing to defend themselves, actually putting themselves in unnecessary danger. The worst offender is the last victim. Question for the ladies: If you were being followed by a creepy truck in the middle of the night, would you run into a construction site, up the stairs, with your shoes off? Suppose you would; after stepping on a nail, would you cower on the edge of the floor begging for mercy, or pick up a 2x4 and defend yourself?
One other attack doesn't make much sense either. Two young ladies are murdered inside a carnival's house of mirrors. Now, wouldn't you think somebody would notice a guy with a hook for a hand enter/exit the attraction? With a serial killer on the loose who already killed an employee of the carnival, security would be stepped up just a bit, don'tcha think? One expects these lapses in a Jason flick, not a supposedly serious movie starring the man who killed Jaws. These scenes (actually, every scene in the movie) are directed with the minimum amount of energy required, and so forty minutes into the movie you're wondering how much longer 'til the end.
There's not enough bloodshed here to satisfy the gore crowd, only one gratuitous boob shot to please those looking for gratuitous boob shots, and not enough actual baseball intertwined with the plot to make those like me recommend it on those grounds. In fact, the only things I got out of this movie are some shots of the Astrodome and some movie-geek trivia: here's a movie with actors from Jaws 1-2 (Scheider) and 4 (Karen Young I think her name is, possessor of aforementioned boob). Too bad Dennis Quaid or Lea Thompson didn't make an appearance.
The plot, or at least the motive of the killer, was intriguingly unique: a reliever cut from the team exacts revenge by using his hook (which replaced his throwing hand lost in a bus accident that occurred when he was going back to Triple-A) to slash blonde women who resemble his replacement's new wife, striking when the new star pitcher posts a win. Cool, right? Like the movie BLINK, this killer's motive is unlikely but plausible; it could have made a decent movie (like BLINK).
But NIGHT GAME --um, don't want to go there...but..okay -- strikes out with poor directing, most notably in the complete lack of suspense during the stalk sequences. This is one of those movies where the female victims do nothing to defend themselves, actually putting themselves in unnecessary danger. The worst offender is the last victim. Question for the ladies: If you were being followed by a creepy truck in the middle of the night, would you run into a construction site, up the stairs, with your shoes off? Suppose you would; after stepping on a nail, would you cower on the edge of the floor begging for mercy, or pick up a 2x4 and defend yourself?
One other attack doesn't make much sense either. Two young ladies are murdered inside a carnival's house of mirrors. Now, wouldn't you think somebody would notice a guy with a hook for a hand enter/exit the attraction? With a serial killer on the loose who already killed an employee of the carnival, security would be stepped up just a bit, don'tcha think? One expects these lapses in a Jason flick, not a supposedly serious movie starring the man who killed Jaws. These scenes (actually, every scene in the movie) are directed with the minimum amount of energy required, and so forty minutes into the movie you're wondering how much longer 'til the end.
There's not enough bloodshed here to satisfy the gore crowd, only one gratuitous boob shot to please those looking for gratuitous boob shots, and not enough actual baseball intertwined with the plot to make those like me recommend it on those grounds. In fact, the only things I got out of this movie are some shots of the Astrodome and some movie-geek trivia: here's a movie with actors from Jaws 1-2 (Scheider) and 4 (Karen Young I think her name is, possessor of aforementioned boob). Too bad Dennis Quaid or Lea Thompson didn't make an appearance.