If you haven't seen The Game already, run out and rent it. I will do my best not to give anything away in this review. I really liked this movie when it came out, I liked it a lot. My friend hadn't seen it, so we rented it. Simple enough. A second viewing gets demoted to rental because it doesn't have the better-the-second time slyness that Dead Again has, nor does it somehow make you forget the ending like Running on Empty does.

It is still interesting, and it's fun to try and look for clues along the way, much as with Presumed Innocent. However, Fincher is so determined to not let you figure out what is going on, the Game is played so perfectly, that the joy of repeated viewings is diminished by the general absence of sly and subtle arrows to the end.

I read in some magazine that in one scene in a car, Sean Penn is supposed to be holding back laughter, which we would know to look for the 2nd time around to show his role in the thing. I think the author was exaggerating Penn's behavior in that scene. But that is the kind of thing I would have wanted to see on a second showing - all the almosts and the wow-imagine-if-he's that make a complicated story a pleasure to revisit.

Dead Again I think I have seen maybe 10 or more times. Every time I get something new out of it and it is just delicious to see how they give the ending away from a retrospective perspective (that doesn't sound right!). If you have seen the Game and Dead Again once each, rent Dead Again and just treasure your memories of the Game. More satisfying that way.