End Game

I’m a fan of professional wrestling so I always keep an eye out for  wrestlers venturing into the film business. More specifically, I’m a fan  of TNA Wrestling (WWE can go to hell) so I was quite surprised when I  discovered Kurt Angle and Jenna Morasca’s  “End Game”. Those keeping  track of wrestling events will know Jenna had a short  stint with TNA last year with the Main Event Mafia stable whose  leader was Angle himself. At first, I was puzzled as to why TNA hadn’t  advertised the flick like WWE usually does when their talent stars  somewhere. After watching it though, I think I can understand their  reasons for wanting to keep it under the radar.

Kurt Angle plays Brad Mayfield, a serial killer who kills women during  sex.  Jenna Morasca plays Carol, a stripper whose whore roommate was  killed by Mayfield and naturally – she's his next victim. Eric Wright is  the detective, Burke. Guess the rest.

“End Game” was supposed to be a psychological thriller, but in reality  is a complete and utter joke… a bad joke! Angle is a former Olympic gold  medalist and possibly the greatest pro wrestler today, but I doubt  he’ll make a career in acting. And it was a stupid thing to cast him in a  role like this. Take Stone Cold Steve Austin or John Cena, for example,  they can’t act but they play lead roles in simple, straightforward  action flicks that require no acting. To pass as a believable deranged  psycho killer, you gotta have some good talent, which Kurt just doesn’t  have. The closest he got to a “psycho” was smiling ominously into the  camera in a close-up and dressing like a clown.

Not to mention he is paired with Jenna Morasca, also a first time  actress whose biggest success was winning a season of Survivor and more  importantly, posing  for Playboy. “But, wait!”, some of you may think, “She posed for  Playboy AND she plays a stripper in this? Does that mean— ?“. No, it  doesn’t.  There’s no nudity in “End Game” or nothing remotely resembling  it. Actually, her role is so “convincing” that she’s a stripper that  doesn’t even strip, for fuck’s sake!

As if the atrocious acting and even worse dialogue weren't enough,  there’s a bunch of plot holes and some plain absurdities. Brad’s first  on screen victim, Beatrice. Brad was nailing her from behind when he  asphyxiated her… by putting a hand over her mouth! I mean… what? The  Police later said she died because of “severe lack of oxygen”, but the  whole scene looked absolutely ridiculous. There’s Kurt, thrusting, and  maybe 10 seconds after (tops) he puts a hand on Bea’s mouth, she dies.  Severe lack of oxygen my ass, more like he fucked her to death (which  would be more believable, too).

Then there’s the “SWAT team”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought  SWAT’s are usually deployed in organized teams wearing full combat gear.  The guys in “End Game” looked like neighborhood watch peeps who put on a  T-shirt and a hat with “SWAT” printed on it. Geez.

Do not waste your time with this. It’s total crap. And coming from a guy  who can take a lot of cinematic crap, that’s gotta mean something. STAY  AWAY!

Rating: 1/10

- review by Ventilation Shaft