GATLOPP: HELL OF A GAME (REVIEW)

Dir. Alberto Belli

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

GATLOPP: HELL OF A GAME opens up with so much promise that it feels like it's a deserved movie to have the tagline of the grown up JUMANJI. 30 minutes in, it suffers from just that, being far too grown up.

The mundanity of working a 9 to 5, with catching up with your friends in a town house talking about how high the electric bills are or how few beers you can buy for a tenner nowadays. Yep, these guys took it way too literally and made a fun concept dull.

Instead of allowing the action set pieces to follow, budget seems to have gotten in the way and instead of lambasting the principle plot point of a game that brings actions to life, turns into a truth or dare game with very few repercussions.

The cast play their part and play out their dramatic lifestyle choices over the evening but the impact and consequence of the game never really land. More like an arrow to the leg than one to the heart. At times even the likes of JUMANJI and ZATHORA feel more life risking than what is on offer here and despite an effective piece of indie film making we have here (with a tone much akin to the far superior and enjoyable DAVE MAKES A MAZE), the risks are never high enough to get excited about.