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weepingwillow314
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X gêmu (2010)
"X-Game" and "Deathtube" are separate movies!
The other reviews on this page are for Deathtube, a different film by the same company. I watched X-Game on Netflix where it was actually labeled Deathtube.
I enjoyed the heavy anti-bullying message of X-Game. Hideaki is our "hero" through much of the movie, yet his character proves to be more complex in the last third of the film, as do the roles of all the "bad guys."
The characters are well-developed and their stories are told from multiple viewpoints. Some of the special effects are cheesy but it can be forgiven as the film works hardest to establish the roles and responsibilities of its many characters. The gore is gory, standard horror fare. Truly horrific is the bullying using the X-Game box to deliver red paper penalties, for both the children and the adults.
There are no heroes when the bullied strive for revenge ... there are only new bullies. Where will it stop? Not at the end of this film. You learn in flashbacks and late reveals of the forces behind this chain of revenge. It may cause you to change your mind about the characters several times during the film.
Bane (2008)
Succeeds in creep and gore,, fails in plot (spoiler!)
Four women wake up in a room without their memories, and their only clue to their identities are names written on their wrist-bands. Cue very creepy, gory and (the director hopes) terrifying goings-on. Of course here's a twist at the end.
***here be the spoiler!***
The problem with the entire movie is: the twist is revealed in the first minutes of the film. There was only one woman, in the opening credits, to sit down in the chair calmly and receive the injection. That gave it away entirely, and the "explanation" at the end is so little-explored within the film, they just don't matter.