Lucifer_666
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Series 7: The ContendersI just watched this last night and thought it was brilliant......its a comedy thriller that was originally released in 2001 which is really a very clever satire on reality type shows and the methods they use to attract viewers
Set in the future, the film basically and cleverly displays a hit tv reality show now starting its seventh-season called "Series 7: The Contenders," in which contestants are selected via state lotteries and given guns with which they're expected to hunt down and kill their fellow contestants (although they're free to use their own weapons and be inventive).
The object is to stay alive and whoever does after 3 Contenders seasons wins his/her freedom from the high-rated program/ordeal. The champ is Dawn Lagarto (Brooke Smith from Silence of the Lambs), a pregnant, troubled woman who has been trapped in the program for the past two seasons, Dawn's reluctantly willed herself into becoming a frighteningly efficient killing machine to keep herself and her unborn baby alive. For her third and final season, "The Contenders" sends Dawn to her hometown of Newbury, Connecticut where she goes up against the other Contenders consisting of prim, religious but also ruthless ER nurse Connie (played great by Marylouise Burke) teenage Lindsay, whose well-meaning but overbearing parents coach her for the show as if she were trying out for an athletic competition, unemployed asbestos-removal worker Tony, who's trying to use this cruel TV twist of fate to unite his family, crazed conspiracy theorist Franklin; and Jeff, an artist who's dying of testicular cancer -- and who also happens to be Dawn's high school sweetheart.(he's played by Glenn Fitzgerald who also plays the Reverend son in Dirty Sexy Money and its funny because Brooke Smith plays his ex in that series aswell  ) There is a great scene where they show clips of the low-budget student film they made in high school when they
were Goths and Joy Division's Love will tear us apart is playing
The film really does give an authentic television-like feel to bring about the story featuring it entirely through such TV conventions as voiceovers, interviews, cutaway footage, bumpers, dramatic re-enactments of events by doubles, and exciting tag lines and you feel like your watching one of those reality shows particularly the ones imported from the States...where they display the emotional elements of their every day lives yet somehow switch off from the fact that the show is geting them
to kill one another
Definitely well worth the watch.... I loved the killer Nurse
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Catnapper
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I can't say as I've heard of it before Luc...never mind seen it  I usually mark things I want to watch or record and this film totally passed me by! I think I'll have to look out for it if it's as brilliant as you say 
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Lucifer_666
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I never heard of it before either and caught it by chance on Film Four...they may repeat it so watch out for it babe if your interested. ..it was a pleasant surprise....I thought it was very good
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Catnapper
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Let's hope they don't put it on so late next time. How did you manage to stay awake till that time?!
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Lucifer_666
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Uh oh don't kill me..  .I didn't intend to stay up but it gathered my interest
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Catnapper
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Well don't go complaining about being tired then!
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Lucifer_666
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Whose complain......  ing
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Catnapper
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I managed to find the DVD at a carboot sale   I thought it was cleverly done......you feel like you're watching an actual reality show because the contenders talk to the camera and you even get the same kind of music they have during the talkovers on proper reality shows
I thought Lindsay's parents were the freakiest of them all........when she pretends she's scored a kill they force her to go back to do the job properly
The film does have some black humour.......there's a hotline the contenders can phone where they press 1 to report a kill I thought the ending was good and very funny too!
It's a good film and a clever satire of reality shows........when Brooke Smith, who plays reigning champion contender Dawn, read the script, she asked if it was a satire before she agreed to star in it
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Lucifer_666
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Great review babe  I'm glad you liked it now
I really enjoyed this film...and would recommend it..... however it doesn't feel like your watching a film but more as you say Cat one of these American reality import shows ...and it was all the better for it in my mind...it was very different
She must have thought it could have been a serious action movie or something
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