Paintball (2009)

A truck rumbles down a potholed track. In the back sit a group of passengers, their eyes blindfolded... See full synopsis »

Director:

Daniel Benmayor

Writer:

Mario Schoendorff

Stars:

Brendan Mackey, Jennifer Matter, Patrick Regis

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brendan Mackey	...	David
Jennifer Matter	...	Anna
Patrick Regis	...	Eric
Iaione Perez	...	Iris
Neil Maskell	...	Frank
Anna Casas	...	Brenda
Peter Vives	...	John
Claudia Bassols	...	Claudia
Felix Pring	...	Hunter
Josep Seguí	...	Russian
Lucy Tillet	...	Russian Assistant
Lada Rudakova	...	Redball Announcer
Joshua Zamrycki	...	Orange Player 2
Joyce Müller	...	Orange Player 1
James Phillips	...	Organization Client

Storyline

A truck rumbles down a potholed track. In the back sit a group of passengers, their eyes blindfolded... See full synopsis »

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Plot Keywords:

two way mirror | sniper | game playing | masked men | thrown through a window | 

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Taglines:

There's nothing like a brush with death to make you feel alive

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [jp]

Country:

Spain

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 July 2009 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Paintball: Jouer Pour Survivre

Filming Locations:

Cataluña, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castelao Producciones, Filmax, TVC

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Color:

Color (35 mm version)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

References Hostel (2005)

User Reviews

Game over, already!

I don't exactly know anymore why I thought that "Paintball" could easily have been a cool and exciting survival/slasher movie when I rented it… Maybe because I went paintballing with a group of friends recently and you immediately link this game to adrenalin-rushing action and sportive kicks? Or perhaps because I have a tremendous weakness for equally obscure and similarly themed flicks from the 1980's, like "TAG: The Assassination Game", "Master Blaster" and "The Zero Boys"? All these flicks share the same plot, namely that a dim-witted but fun shootout game turns deadly when one or more participants start using real ammunition. None of them are to be considered genre classics, or even remotely great films for that matter, but they nonetheless provided pure and unpretentious entertainment. Entertainment is also exactly what I wanted to get out of "Paintball", but apparently that was too much to ask for … It's truly a dire effort, with an utterly dumb and implausible plot, and sadly also severely lacking gore, brutality and fast-paced suspense/excitement. "Paintball" is a European production – more specifically a Spanish one – and the creators obviously wanted to further exploit the worldwide impression that ALL Europeans are psychopathic butchers with a fetish for torturing Americans. Hence we're getting some kind of ridiculous mixture between the aforementioned 80's titles and Eli Roth's "Hostel". A bunch of people are in the back of a shaky truck, heading out to the remote Redwoods area and preparing themselves for a large-scaled and allegedly super-deluxe paintballing contest. Upon their first confrontation with another team already, it becomes clear that they are all defenseless puppets in much more sadistic and profitable game, run from an illegal control room somewhere in the city. It's kind of a dumb twist, if you ask me, but even more imbecilic than the plot are the totally bland and unremarkable characters. Each and every single member in the group of protagonists irritated me enormously, what with their whining and selfishness, and I literally wished for none of them to survive the ordeal. Director Daniel Benmayor also thought it would be a good idea to film all the killings from POV angle and through a sort of unclear brown camera filter. Result: the killings are hectically shot and extremely dull. There's nearly not enough bloodshed or cruelty for die-hard horror fanatics, let alone the admirers of the nowadays popular torture porn genre. The film doesn't take enough advantage of the sublime forestry filming locations and we don't learn enough about the actual villains that are running the show. "Paintball" a complete failure across all departments.