Review of House of Games (1987) by James M — 15 Jun 2013

House of Games has a brilliant plot that felt like it would work better in a book, and falls a little flat in film. The dialog delivery felt unnatural, like it was being read directly from the pages of a novel. The acting seemed forced and downright terrible at times, especially in the first 20 minutes. The characters, dialog and acting were so stiff that I almost walked away from this movie after the first 10 minutes.

That said, I'm glad I didn't walk away from it. As the story and plot unfolds, and the characters (slowly) begin to develop, the movie begins to get much more interesting, albeit predictable. House of Games started with a definite "this is going to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen" sentiment, but ended up finishing feeling like cult classic material (take that as you will) - neither forgettable nor unforgettable.