DEATH’S ROULETTE (2023)

DEATH’S ROULETTE (2023)

Tagline: There’s A Hell In Every Secret

(Drama, Thriller, Some Of The Worst Writing I’ve Seen This Year) [PG-13]

Note: This movie was never given an MPAA rating, but it would likely get a PG-13.

If they’re going to kill us, I’d rather die on a full stomach. 

In this one, a group of seven strangers wakes up in a remote mansion built on the side of a mount overlooking the ocean. Once they untie themselves it becomes clear that they are going to be killed if they don’t play a deadly game with 3 rules. 1. They must choose one of themselves to die. 2. The one that is chosen must agree to their own death. 3. No one can offer themselves to die. As the story unfolds we find that all seven people have something in common. 

First off, this is not a new concept, we’ve seen this type of thing before so at that point it all boils down to execution. What we do get in this thing is some pretty outstanding performances. The sets are quite well done and we actually do get a pretty decent soundtrack. After that, this thing is just a downhill plunge into depressing backstories, dark secrets, and a pretty boring pace that had me just wondering when they were going to get it over with especially since the mastermind behind the killing is pretty obvious after the first 20 minutes or so. I am not a person who is any good at figuring this stuff out, but even I was like – “well it’s that person”. 

I do like mysteries and that part of it I was looking forward to, but this damn script is horrifyingly bad. It made me feel like if taking the Lord’s name in vain wasn’t an option, the movie's entire script would have consisted of about 20 other words. That is how garbage this thing is. 

When it comes to the characters in a movie I always kind of like to pick who I am going to root for, but when we hear who all but one of these characters are, I just kind of wanted the movie to be over. I can’t get into films where the script is wildly uninspired and uninteresting. It’s almost like all of these writers have some sort of Godophobic stick up their behinds and no one will help them pull it out. I mean, it’s just way up there and I don’t like saying stuff like that, but it is what it is. I hope they all get some help. 

Acting wise I thought this cast actually did a great job as I eluded to earlier. None of this comes across as phoned in and when it comes to just doing what you were asked to do and doing it well, this cast gets props. Maribel Verdú (PAN’S LABYRINTH) plays a role I wouldn’t wish on anyone as Marta. I don’t want to give away the plot of how she relates to the other characters, but she’s pretty solid in this. Manolo Cardona (BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA) is also good but wasn’t’ asked to stretch all that much emotionally like the other cast members were. Dagoberto Gama (ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO) is also pretty good in this, but like every other character in this movie, I just wanted nothing to do with any of them. 

This movie's ending was a sigh of relief and to be honest, if you want to watch something along the lines of this thing, I would suggest investing some time in the show 3%. It’s about one million times better than this thing and it has a far better script. Just a heads up if you normally love stuff I can’t stand and you absolutely need to watch this for some reason, this one has subtitles for anyone that doesn’t speak Spanish. I don’t mind subtitles at all so just that alone never takes a movie off my radar. 

Overall this is just a rough watch as high as the quality is. After watching this last night, I had it as the worst movie of 2023 so far, but I calmed down and moved it up 1 spot. It’s the 2nd worst so far. Even the acting couldn't bump this up to a 2. I actually think that the talents would have been doing us all a favor by having them just burn this script and start over, so because of that, the best I can do is a 1 out of 7.
 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF 11:11 FILMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.