2008 Woodie Awards
'The Game' Finishes too Early
Independent film's message gets lost in its own jokes.
Jeremiah Magan
Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: Entertainment
|
"Finishing the Game" is not one of those movies.
"Finishing the Game" is a movie pretending to be a documentary that turned into a mockumentary about the making of a movie. It sounds more confusing than it actually is.
When Bruce Lee died in 1973, he had started shooting his passion project, "Game of Death." Roughly 12 minutes of the action sequences were completed and archived at the studio. The studio executives decided that they were going to finish the film by hiring someone that looked like Lee to shoot the rest of the movie.
Director Justin Lin ("Better Luck Tomorrow") put a subtle message in the movie. The message was supposed to illustrate the denial that the major players in Hollywood in the '70s were in as they tried to piggyback on the last shred of Lee's career. Another message in the film is more directly aimed at current day Hollywood; to show that Asian Americans can do more than just play the stereotypical "Asian roles" they have always been given.
Dustin Nguyen's ("21 Jump Street") character Troy Poon carries out this message. After being cast as the first non-stereotype Asian character in a TV show, Poon's co-star dies, leaving him to play a Chinese delivery boy until he gets the chance to replace Bruce Lee.
His manager (M.C. Hammer) tries to get him to try out for the role as he is one of the few qualified to play the part. Poon sticks to his morals and passes on it because he believes he should play a role that is not stereotypical Asian.
This is obviously one of Lin's primary goals as an Asian-American director, but his message feels both forced and lost. Poon is one of the focuses of the documentary even though he never even auditions for the part. His segments are forced in and have nothing to do with the film. The main message about denial gets lost in the over-the-top humor.
The director and the casting director, who act like they just walked off the set of "This is Spinal Tap," have a long conversation about which actors they want to move on in the auditions based solely on whether or not they would have sex with them. The casting director makes horrible decisions and pushes around the impressionable, rookie director who, aside from wanting to make the film, has good instincts.
Be the first to comment on this story