Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

Survive the Game Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 28, 2021

Hopefully Lionsgate has a supply of airbrushed photos of Bruce Willis on hand that they can keep recycling on the seemingly endless supply of VOD- esque productions the actor keeps choosing to do for the studio. In that regard, the very title of Survive the Game might be a suitable description of Willis' career strategy, since he seems to have forsaken any attempt at challenging roles in favor of what has been a relentless parade of supporting roles he was probably able to wrap in a day or two, pick up his (probably sizable) paycheck, and retreat to whatever lair he waits in to receive his next marching orders (that's said with tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course). Survive the Game is a tired, unexciting and derivative piece, which makes it pretty much completely in keeping with a litany of previous Lionsgate releases which tend to prominently feature Willis on the cover, but which then tend to only offer him in the relative background of the tale.

Lionsgate has gotten to the point it short hands its cover images to at least allude to whether Willis is a good guy or a bad guy in any given enterprise, with a police badge often showing up on his outfit to indicate heroism (which is not always the case, as with regard to First Kill, where Willis' lawman turned out to be a scoundrel). Survive the Game doesn't even go to the "artistic" levels of First Kill , offering Willis as policeman David, who with his partner Cal (Swen Temmel) end up chasing a gang of bad guys to a remote farm owned by Eric (Chad Michael Murray), who is (no surprise here) a haunted, tragic sort trying to recover from a horrifying mishap in his life.

The result is a more or less typical "home invasion" drama, but what's kind of odd about Survive the Game is that it has a frankly head scratching tonal imbalance. The film begins in resolute action mode with a shootout between the cops and the bad guys, and then supposedly gets into "darker", more intimate, territory with the introduction of Eric, but then pretty much out of the blue the bad guys (and gals) turn into updated versions of The Three Stooges.

Survive the Game Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Survive the Game is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Unsurprisingly, the IMDb has no technical information on this, and the closing credits offered none of the usual suspect logos in terms of how the imagery was captured. As I tend to do with these bargain basement offerings, I'm assuming the DI was finished at 2K. The palette here is kind of evocatively skewed toward yellows and greens, which gives an almost appropriately tropical feeling to what were evidently Puerto Rico locations. Detail levels can be decently strong a lot of the time, but the presentation suffers from things like shoddy compositing (look at screenshot 9 for just one example), and there are a couple of other odd anomalies like sudden fuzziness that show up from time to time.

Survive the Game Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Survive the Game features an intermittently boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The opening sequence which offers both a shootout and a car chase display some of the film's showiest effects, but the location work which includes a lot of outdoor material is populated with decent ambient environmental sounds. There's the usual glut of source cues that provide a bit of propulsive energy in the mid and lower ranges. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Survive the Game Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:19)

Additionally a digital copy is included, and packaging offers a slipcover.

Survive the Game Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kind of hilariously, it was just a bit over a year ago that I was reviewing Survive the Night, another generic release from Lionsgate starring Chad Michael Murray and Bruce Willis. That might lead some to believe this is some kind of sequel, and considering the fact that this offers yet another rote story and Willis in "check pickup" mode (with the side benefit of a little vacation in Puerto Rico), maybe it is. Even technical merits are a little shoddy on this one, for those who may be considering making a purchase.