Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Brennan Camacho
Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
Marva-nova
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Tanuccoon
All's fair in love and murder, apparently, as a man attempts to kill his ex-wife through use of a modified exotic, poisonous snake. The man, some computer bigwig, plants a tracker on both the snake and the woman so he can view their proximity to each other while he waits outside in his car. To ensure that his wife not escape, he jams her door (apparently she only has one?) and taps into her phone which allows him to periodically call in to make sure she's still alive.Fair Game probably has one of the most interesting premises I've seen in a while but, due to only having one real potential victim, it gets bogged down by a ton of false scares. You keep seeing the snake seemingly draw near or think it's going to pop out only for the woman to miss it entirely. Humorously, she goes a fairly long while before she realizes it's even in the studio apartment with her. After that, the woman's paranoia causes her to act out in increasingly bizarre ways as he panics.Long before Kill Bill popularized the black mamba, it was being used as the exotic snake of choice in this movie. In retrospect, it's actually a huge step up from other films which favored things like cobras. I suppose it's just one more thing that sets this movie apart. Trudie Styler, the intended victim, gives a very witty, neurotic performance that will endear her to some while likely annoying others. This level of weirdness, however, may make the viewer question why she'd be the one to leave the relationship >_> Gregg Henry, her would-be killer, plays the role rather stoically and has few bits of dialog to speak of. He essentially serves as a background piece, a catalyst for this fateful encounter. The real action remains squarely between the girl and the snake. More interesting than either the male or female leads is the brief cameo by Bill Moseley, who ironically is the only cast member to really do much with the rest of his career (one that's spanned numerous horror films, might I add).The title refers to the notion that the man is giving his ex-wife a chance of survival. The snake, which has been doctored with some chemical that makes it both hyper-aggressive and more toxic but also means that it will die on its own in an hour, is a less than perfect execution method. The concept kind of justifies the rather bizarre attempt on her life, although the story still slightly pushes the boundaries of credulity. If the movie has one real fault it would be that very little happens at first but once things start happening it quickly loses the shock value and gets fairly campy.
Comeuppance Reviews
Gene Campbell (Henry) buys a deadly black mamba snake and traps his former wife Eva (Styler) in her apartment with the snake. He sits outside in his car, monitoring both the snake and Eva on a computer tracking device. Will Eva escape? Man, this is one weird movie. The plot, the camera angles (including, you guessed it, "snake vision"), lighting and the strange dialogue all add up to one off-kilter experience. Speaking of dialogue, Henry is great in his role as the deranged electronics whiz who, feeling jilted by his former wife, decides shooting and stabbing her are so old-fashioned and having her get bitten by a poisonous snake is the wave of the future. He gets to say totally natural lines that people say to each other every day, such as: "You're so weak. So sweet, shy and impressionable. It was me, wasn't it? I suffocated you with my strength. Took you over, I corrupted you with my money and my power. You had to ditch me to defend the delicate little flower of your weakness. You can't imagine how much I despise you - I despise weaklings" ...and it goes on from there. The best part is, Henry pulls it off! He is such a great actor, you totally believe him as the nutjob who hates weakness. Did I mention he hates weakness? Of course, this begs the question, why did he hook up with quirky, artsy-type (She wears two different color socks) Eva in the first place? She must make a lot of money making play-doh sculptures of octopi to afford her gigantic, vast, windowless apartment. In fact, rather than just chop the snake's head off with a knife, she actually jogs laps around the place "to confuse it". She doesn't wear pants throughout most of the movie, even when putting on all her clothes to protect herself against the snake, the pants don't last very long. She also must talk to herself for about 90 percent of the running time. You'll wonder why Sting wanted to marry her.It is established that Eva is an animal lover, so maybe it was out of pure diabolical evil that Gene wanted to use that against her and kill her with a snake. There is an animal theme throughout the movie, from Eva's shirt with a fish on it, to their names (Eva = Eve, i.e., Adam and Eve and the snake, and Gene = the genetic map of life), and her sculptures.Also, music legend Giorgio Moroder not only did the music, but also co-produced the film. Clearly the man knows what to invest his money in.When it came out on VHS in the U.S. on Vidmark, it was labeled as an "erotic thriller". Unless you have a snake fetish, this is a miscategorization. There are only three characters in the entire film, and one, Bill Moseley's character, only in the beginning as the snake salesman. Technically, there is also an uncredited actor as a delivery boy, but this primarily two-person (in two separate places, mostly) film almost could have been a play. Hey Broadway: "Fair Game": the musical? Eh? Eh? Bizarrely directed by Mario Orfini, "Fair Game" is an oddity.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
blautens
You know how some movies are so bad, they're good? My wife and I laughed out loud more watching this than we do watching some comedies. DVR this...watching it double speed is fine - just slow down for the ridiculous rare dialog.The film appears to be entirely an Italian production. I kept guessing that the only way this was made was that it was written, directed, and starring Trudy Styler, and produced by Sting...to keep her busy. But nope, unless Sting paid off a bunch of Italian people, it looks like someone actually read this and thought "hey, this worth making". I can only guess that substantial drug use let this little turd get green lighted. Or Sting paid them off. But that's it - the only 2 plausible explanations.
dee.reid
(This has all the makings of a cheap exploitive thriller.)"Mamba" ("Fair Game" in the United States) is a decent, albeit somewhat exploitive thriller about Gene (Gregg Henry), a deranged computer game designer who locks his ex-fiancé Eva (Trudie Styler) inside their apartment with a deadly Black Mamba snake.Directed by Mario Orfini, he keeps a tight pace and strong sense of dread as Eva runs around her apartment trying to avoid certain death at the fangs of a lethal snake, all the while Gene watches the madness from a car parked down on the street. Styler really carries this film on her delicate shoulders, even remaining strong in some of the sillier haunted house/slasher-style moments. It does seem kind of strange that her apartment is devoid of windows (thus setting up the fun-house element for Gene's later entertainment).One thing that does seem to bother me is how the camera does seem fixated on Styler during a few instances when she has to strip off her clothes. While the camera misses a few of the more explicit shots of her feminine features, you kind of get the idea that Orfini (and the audience) are still getting tantalized."Fair Game" gets a fair rating for at least keeping you watching.4/10
