(re)Search my Trash

<body> <div align="left"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="800" cellpadding="0" height="100%"> <tr> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/square.gif" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="592" valign="top">  </td> <td width="4" rowspan="3"></td> <td width="100" rowspan="3" background="../stylepix/squareright.gif" valign="top">  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top">    <table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="205" align="right"> <tr> <td width="100%"> <p align="right"><img border="0" src="../stills/badgergame-poster.JPG" width="200" height="297"></td> </tr> </table> <p>Alex (Augie Duke) wants her sweet revenge on Liam (Sam Boxleitner) because she was his mistress but he wouldn't leave his wife for her and slept with other women on the side. So she thought up a blackmailing scheme to teach him a lesson. Jane (Sasha Higgins) wants her revenge on Liam because he has tortured her for two days straight at some point - in exchange for money, but still, she thinks he has to suffer. Alex's brother Kip (Patrick Cronen) is in because he has never amounted to anything much in real life, he's totally into the "get rich quick"-scheme blackmailing promises, and he has some criminal energy that might actually help the "project" along.<p>And Shelly (Jillian Leigh)? She doesn't even know Liam, she was once best friends with Alex, but that was before Alex seduced her boyfriend - now she couldn't care less who broke Alex's heart ... but she really could need the money. So she agrees to play the gang's bait, to get him to their lair (for some reason, kidnapping Liam is part of the plan), but when she picks up Liam, she pretty much falls for him, even if he's just pulling wool over her eyes.<p>Anyways, Liam ends up being tied to a chair in Kip's garage, and our blackmailing foursome try to squeeze the money out of him in animal masks ... but that's not as easy as it was supposed to be, and soon enough Kip proves to be a bit of a liability, having a very short fuse, and at one point he almost poisons Liam. Of course, the girls don't prove the best assets, either, Alex still being in love with Liam, Shelly at least feeling for him and Jane just wanting to castrate him. And then Liam makes a getaway - and though recapture is no issue, he finds out who's holding him, but being a hemophiliac and having hurt himself untying himself, he's losing blood ... and lots of it, so it's not even sure if he's going to survive until being able to order the money transaction - and of course, our heroes can't take him to a hospital ...<p>Things go from bad to worse when a privat eye (Mark Siciliani) hired by Liam's wife shows up at their hideout to instead of giving Liam's wife what she wants trying to blackmail our foursome. Now sure, he's killed off quick enough, but now there's also a corpse to deal with - and with all our heroes on their edges, it's only a matter of time before everything goes down the drain ...<p> <p><b>The Badger Game</b> is basically real good genre fun: It's mean, it's a bit gory and gross at all the right moment, there are some sexy bits, and tons of pulp mainstays the genre fan will enjoy ... but that's not to say this is just another cookie-cutter genre piece, quite the contrary: It's a well told tale carried by some rather outrageous (though utterly believable) plot elements, some very dark humour, enjoyably eccentric characters brought to life by a more than accomplished ensemble cast, and a directorial effort that really carries the story rather than rely on spectacle.<p>And if you can live with a little meanness, irony and controlled madness, you'll in all probability really like this one!<p>  </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="592" valign="top">  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> currentyear = "2015"; </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="../scripts/endcredits.js"></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> dosworsdonn(); </SCRIPT> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body>