Common Sense Media Review
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Gore and language in thoroughly repellent thriller.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 17+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders
What's the Story?
In DANGEROUS GAME: THE LEGACY MURDERS, pharmaceutical magnate Ellison Betts (Jon Voight) is celebrating a birthday and has invited his family to his new remote compound. His passive son, Alec (Will Sasso), arrives with wife Marie (Laura Mennell) and snarky teen daughter Livie (Megan Charpentier). Alec and Marie's older son, Cameron (Dylan Playfair), arrives separately with his girlfriend, Tara (Kaya Coleman). And Ellison's other son, Kyle (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) -- who now runs the family business -- comes with his girlfriend, Joy (Skyler Shaye). Rounding out the group is Burnham (Bradley Stryker), Ellison's servant. After some drinks and gift opening, an alarm goes off, and storm doors descend. The family is trapped in the house, and a voice announces that they must play a game. Beating the game will buy their freedom. But there are consequences for not playing.
Is It Any Good?
This gory, nasty murder mystery skims over the mystery part and collapses into a thunderstorm of hateful shouting. It feels like a low-budget attempt to find an intersection between Knives Out and Saw. The three "name" stars (Voight, Rhys Meyers, and Sasso) are the most unpleasant among the cast of Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders, with Voight and Rhys Meyers nearly dripping with venom and rage, while Sasso lacks the confidence to tangle with them. The movie can't cut through the negativity to find their humanity; we just watch them go at it. And it's hard to have much sympathy for Cameron, whose demise is purely based on his lack of intelligence.
The women are more interesting, thankfully; they're the ones who actually try to play the game and save the day. But it's hard to get too excited about them in a movie that allows a cat to be ground up by a garbage disposal (and then shows the bloody corpse) and includes a character eating a popped-out eyeball from a recent stabbing victim. These are hard-core gore images, and they feel out of place for a movie that seems to want to be sophisticated and clever. The entire thing reeks of disdain; it's a far cry from Clue, Ready or Not, and its other inspirations. Admittedly, the movie does a good job of hiding its ultimate secret, but at the same time, half of the big reveal doesn't make any sense. If Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders fools you, you feel picked on, rather than being in on the fun.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders' violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
How is the women's behavior different from the men's here? Which characters have the most power? Why?
Is it possible to make a good movie about bad behavior being rewarded? If so, how?
How can power be admirable and attractive and yet thoroughly corrupting at the same time?
Movie Details
- In theaters : October 21, 2022
- On DVD or streaming : October 21, 2022
- Cast : Jon Voight , Jonathan Rhys Meyers , Will Sasso
- Director : Sean McNamara
- Inclusion Information : Latino Movie Writer(s) , Multiracial Movie Writer(s)
- Studio : Paramount Pictures
- Genre : Thriller
- Run time : 96 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : strong violence, gore, and language throughout
- Last updated : November 8, 2022
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