SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS

2001

It was just a matter of time before Hollywood put out a satire on the whole fiasco that is "reality-TV" (The Real World, Survivor, Temptation Island, The Mole, etc.) and this is it. Daniel Minahin has created this take-off, which in the typical Hollywood excessive style, takes a group of randomly selected contenders and pits them against one another. The tongue-in-cheek gimmick here is that the contenders actually have to kill one another in order to survive and win! Don't laugh: I predict that given the mentality of the TV audience today, someday we WILL be seeing a variation of this horrendous theme on actual TV. At present in the film's TV show, the reigning champion is eight-months-pregnant, and played excellently by unknown (to me) actress Brooke Smith. A fascinating, exciting, and very scary (in its theme) film! What I DIDN'T expect however, is that this movie is absolutely hilarious! Biting, sarcastic, over-the-top, and even slapstick...this is easily the bloodiest and funniest movie of the year so far!

5 Stars

NJB