Review: End Game

Cuba Gooding Jr. plays a top Secret Service agent and close friend of the President (Jack Scalia- didn’t he almost used to be somebody?) and the First Lady (Anne Archer). When Cuba fails to stop an assassination of POTUS (in a cruel twist, Cuba gets shot through the hand trying to save him but it just makes things worse!), he turns to drink in order to live in his misery and perhaps misplaced guilt. Meanwhile, nosy freelance reporter Angie Harmon thinks something conspiratorial is afoot when everyone she talks too ends up dead. A failed attempt on Cuba’s life soon has him a believer too, as they join forces to uncover the dastardly plot, despite stern warnings from his boss (played by James Woods), and a friendly General played by an intimidating-looking Burt Reynolds, to cease any investigation. Peter Greene turns up in a smallish role as a midlevel bad guy.

 

With a cast like this (and EP Brett “Rush Hour” Ratner), you’ve gotta wonder how it ended up straight-to-DVD. Well, once this 2006 political conspiracy thriller starts, you start to work it out. Why? Because 2006 already had this film in cinemas, it was called “The Sentinel” (Being from Millennium films also explains things a bit, too). Now, “End Game” is a bit better than “The Sentinel”, insofar as I worked out the villain in “The Sentinel” as soon as they appeared on screen, whereas here there’s at least a credible red herring or two. Marking the directorial debut of Andy Cheng (a stunt co-ordinator associate of Jackie Chan), the only thing really missing from this film is a good script. I may not have pegged the culprit, but otherwise, writers Cheng and J.C. Pollock offer up clichés and familiar trappings that stop this from being good instead of merely OK.

 

Cuba Gooding Jr., in what might have been one of his first direct-to-DVD efforts (of now sadly too many)  is fine in the lead. I really feel sorry for him because I’m not sure how he ended up in such mediocre-to-poor circumstances over the last decade. One too many bad Disney comedies? Then again, I think he was overrated in his Oscar-winning turn in “Jerry Maguire”. He’s the modern day Lou Gossett Jr., when you think about it. Anyway, it’s one of his better performances post-“Jerry Maguire”, certainly. The film is also fast-paced, and like I said, unlike “The Sentinel”, there’s a moderate amount of suspense in intrigue in the plot, formulaic and clichéd as it may be. The variety of potential suspects keeps you going, even if Angie Harmon (the poor man’s Demi Moore) is rendered a mere passenger as she and Cuba have no chemistry at all, and Anne Archer continues to be one of the most neglected talents of the last 25 years. Mind you, in regards to Harmon, it could’ve been worse, the role could’ve gone to fellow crime TV stalwarts Jill Hennessy or Kathryn Morris (both of whom are insanely irritating to degrees far higher than even Harmon). Burt Reynolds is his usual fatuous, smug self, and ends up a distant second when attempting to go toe-to-toe with master scene-stealer James Woods in a scene or two. Woods is the best thing in the film, though he barely breaks a sweat, if that. Jack Scalia looks suitably Presidential, but his role on film is simply to appear and then die, to set the plot in motion. Peter Greene turns up for the first time in seemingly ages, to play the same chain-smoking goon he used to play in the mid-90s before his stock seemed to fall, so to speak.

 

Look, this isn’t very well-scripted, but it’s better scripted than “The Sentinel”, and since both films are virtually identical, I ended up moderately enjoying this one where, without comparison, I might’ve had a lesser impression. It’s OK, but nothing essential. Sometimes a few solid red herrings, Award-calibre actors (and Burt Reynolds), and a cracking pace are just enough to make you forget you’ve seen this all before. Or in this case, enough to make it watchable, in spite of the familiarity.

 

Rating: C+