Every year, audiences all over the world revisit the same films on an annual basis to help get the holiday spirit running through their veins, but we didn’t expect Reindeer Games to be one of the titles to suddenly emerge from the wilderness to be put under the microscope for reappraisal.
On a base level, absolutely nothing about the critical and commercial disaster makes a lick of sense. It’s called Reindeer Games, and Christmas is sort of a major plot point because Ben Affleck’s Rudy wants to be go home to be with his family after being released from prison, but when his cellmate is killed he assumes his identity to go and have sex with Charlize Theron in a cabin instead.
It was also released in February, marked the final feature from legendary director John Frankenheimer before his death, was written by the brains behind Scream 3, and features an eclectic ensemble that includes Gary Sinise, Dennis Farina, Donal Logue, Danny Trejo, Isaac Hayes, Ashton Kutcher, and Ron f*cking Jeremy of all people.
Insane in the strangest way, Reindeer Games ended up cratering at the box office after failing to recoup its $42 million budget from theaters, with critics and audiences thoroughly turning their noses up at what it had to offer. And yet, an intrepid band of Redditors have rallied around the misguided caper in an attempt to paint it as an unsung holiday classic.
Absolutely bonkers in every imaginable fashion, the heist thriller with a bizarre Yuletide twist is nothing if not a fascinating watch, but it might be a stretch to say that it deserves to be held in higher regard than it currently is, has always been, and probably always will be.
