Movie Review: End Game

Hello, ladies and gentlemen,

for my first post today, I thought that I would tackle something kind of brutal that I just got to watch. Starring TNA Superstar Kurt Angle and former TNA Knockout and Survivor: Amazon winner Jenna Morasca, I bring you...End Game.

Let's get one thing straight here: this poster is very, very misleading. When I looked at this photo pictured here, I honest to God thought we had a cat-and-mouse game starring Kurt Angle and Morasca as our heroes, and potentially as lovers. While the latter is true (thank God we don't see that), the former couldn't be further from the truth.

Kurt plays Brad Mayfield/Alex Minert (why the Mayfield thing even comes into play is beyond me), a psychotic rapist/murderer who is being hunted by the complete idiot that is police detective Dan Burke. I kid you not; www.thewrestlingfan.com's review of this movie says it best: "How in the hell can somebody be so smart yet so stupid?"

The film opens on a rainy night at a seedy hotel where Kurt Angle is about to claim a victim. Quite frankly, the opening scene was so awkward to me, I had to get up and leave. I don't know how anybody else feels about our Olympic hero, but I could definitely live without the image of him having intercourse. Just a bit too awkward for me. Anyway, during these opening moments, he kills his first victim, who is later described as Beatrice Fraser.

This movie is horrible. Catherine Perez of thewrestlingfan.com calls it a "21st century Suburban

Commando, but with less commando and more rapist/murdering". Frankly, I think she's being way too generous; Suburban Commando is entertaining because of the camp value. Any camp value that's taken out of this movie is based on the film's shortcomings, which include a complete disregard for continuity (example: in one scene, Detective Burke wakes up after having a nightmare -- at night -- to receive a phone call from Kurt, who is sitting in broad daylight on a boat), horrendous disguises that Stevie Wonder could have seen through, scenes that don't really need to be in there (like Kurt urinating in a cramped hotel bathroom), and the most wooden acting this side of Keanu Reeves and Kristen Stewart.

Don't get me wrong; I wasn't expecting to see something like American Beauty when I watched this film. In fact, thewrestlingfan.com's summary of the film was so hilarious that I went and got my hands on it. But I didn't find it as entertaining as they made it. I will say that the funeral for Beatrice Fraser is probably the biggest highlight of the movie...that and Kurt Angle dressed up as Buffo the Tuffo clown (pictured below).

You're welcome.

Anyway, despite a few entertaining bits of entertainment during the movie (all for the wrong reasons, I assure you), I really feel like this movie was an experiment in failure by North Shore Pictures (which Angle is the 30% owner of). As much as they tried to make Kurt Angle into a creeper, or into somebody who is one step ahead of the police, the way the film is written makes it seem like everyone is just dumb.

If you're a huge Kurt Angle fan and you absolutely just have to see this, I'd say check it out. But the most important thing that I can tell you is not to expect anything even WWE-Films caliber. Find humor in it and go with it, because there isn't really anything else that stands out in this movie.