13: Game Of Death - Unrated (Dimension Extreme)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Feature: D
At first,
I had some optimism for the Thai import 13:
Game Of Death - Unrated (2005) about a poor guy who is tricked into a game
(yawn!) that could pay his debts, but will more likely get him killed. Then the screenplay became highly implausible
quickly and the whole affair collapses very early on. Then it gets worse and starts to have graphic
torture porn sequences that make the whole affair look desperate.
In the
end, it is illogical, laughable, idiotic and does a very bad job of retreading
what little amount of interesting ideas it comes up with. The ending looks as bad as a lame 1960s
B-movie and maybe if more work was done to make this coherent, this could have
been a fun, unintentional howler. Guts,
bloods and mutilation are the main points, which bury any potential this import
has and is best skipped.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is soft throughout and has some motion
blur, but also has some nice shots (especially outdoor) via Chitti
Urnorakankij’s cinematography. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix is weak, obviously not created to utilize multi-channel and
that applies to the original Thai and English dub versions. The only extra is a making of featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
