Wild Christmas

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Movie
German title Wild Christmas
Original title Reindeer Games
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2000
length Theatrical version: 104 minutes
Director's Cut : 124 minutes
Age rating FSK 16/18
Rod
Director John Frankenheimer
script Honor Kruger
production Marty Katz , Chris Moore , Bob Weinstein , Harvey Weinstein
music Alan Silvestri
camera Alan Caso
cut Antony Gibbs , Michael Kahn
occupation

Wild Christmas (Original title: Reindeer Games ) is an American thriller written by John Frankenheimer from 2000.

action

Car thief Rudy Duncan shares the prison cell with Nick Cassidy, who was jailed for manslaughter. Both of them only have a few days to go before they are released from prison. Cassidy is in heavy correspondence with a woman named Ashley Mercer. He claims he met her through a personal ad and fell in love with her. He has never seen her and only knows her from pictures Mercer sent him to prison. He shows his cell neighbor Duncan the photos and tells him precise details about this woman with whom he is planning a future together. Duncan, on the other hand, only has the desire to enjoy a Christmas dinner with his family at home again. Shortly thereafter, Cassidy gets into an argument with another inmate in the prison dining room. The impression arises that Cassidy will die in the process.

Just before Christmas, Duncan is released from prison. From the prison bus he sees Cassidy's friend, who is waiting for him in front of the prison. Ashley turns out to be a big-eyed, gentle beauty. Duncan hesitates at first, but then he jumps off the bus and pretends to be Cassidy to her. The two spend a love weekend in a log cabin. In order not to reveal his true identity, Duncan destroys his own papers.

When the two return to the hut from their Christmas shopping, Ashley's brutal brother Gabriel and his gang are already waiting for them there. As Ashley told Gabriel about Cassidy's previous job in an Indian casino, Gabriel is planning a robbery on The Tomahawk casino during the Christmas holidays. For this they want to use Cassidy's knowledge. Duncan's assurances that he is not Cassidy at all are not believed because he no longer has any evidence to convince Ashley and the gang of his true identity. When Gabriel threatens to kill him, Duncan sees no choice but to continue playing Cassidy's role and participate in the planned raid on The Tomahawk casino .

As a result, Duncan is busy first of all to take part in the attack, but also to take every opportunity to escape. After exploring the casino, he tries to escape with Ashley, but it fails. Before the attack on the casino, the gang settled in a motel. There, Duncan discovered by chance that Ashley and Gabriel are not siblings, but lovers.

During the attack on The Tomahawk on Christmas Eve, the gangsters are disguised as Santa Claus. The robbery succeeds, but a shoot-out breaks out, only Duncan, Ashley and Gabriel survive. Ashley reveals herself through her knowledge of how Cassidy died - although Duncan never told her about it. She shoots Gabriel. The supposedly dead Nick Cassidy reappears; it turns out that he had a relationship with Ashley even before his imprisonment and that Ashley also has a different identity. She turns out to be a femme fatale who is only interested in money. Cassidy is the only person she really loves. Cassidy and Ashley want to burn Duncan chained in a car, but Rudy as a former car thief starts the car and almost drives Cassidy to death. When Ashley sees her beloved, believed to be dead, and realizes that she has forever lost the only person she has ever loved, she finally turns into a wild fury. She shoots at Duncan, but falls down an abyss with his car. Then Duncan kills the badly injured Cassidy by causing him to fall into the ravine as well.

Duncan makes his way to his family. Disguised as Santa Claus, he distributes some or all of the booty on the way to his home town (he is standing in front of his parents 'house without the 2 sacks) in the neighbors' mailboxes. At the end he sits happily with his family while eating.

Reviews

Mick LaSalle wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that the film was one of the smartest thrillers in years. It is also particularly refreshing and resembles Tarantino's films , but without Tarantino's heartlessness. The changes in the character of Ashley Mercer are worth seeing. The film is funny in places, but without sliding into a satire or a parody.

William Arnold wrote in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Ben Affleck did not appear credible in the film that was conceived as a star vehicle for him. He praised the action scenes and the dialogues. The performances of Gary Sinise and Charlize Theron were also praised.

The Lexicon of International Films wrote that the film was "a highly schematic action film overloaded with cheap effects". He “completely misses the director's personal signature”.

Awards

The film was nominated for a Taurus Award in two categories in 2001.

backgrounds

Production cost $ 36 million. The film was shot in Canada . It was the last movie by the director John Frankenheimer.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ San Francisco Chronicle
  2. ↑ Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  3. ↑ Wild Christmas. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 25, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used