Dirty Games (2022) - Not as clever as it thinks

I remember when 'Big Brother' first aired on the UK television (2000, I believe).  It was new, fresh and unlike anything the viewing public had really seen before.  It took the country by storm and the world followed, often being credited as revitalising the 'reality TV genre.' Now we come to 'Dirty Games' (made in 2022) - a British film about - effectively - a 'Big Brother-style' environment where a handful of good-looking youngsters are in a house together, being filmed 24/7 and under threat of being voted off my the public.

Unfortunately, the movie has many negatives and not many positives. For a start, the the most part it's nothing that different to what we've seen on real reality TV shows like 'Big Brother.' If you're looking for nudity and a film that indulges in 'soft core' activities, so to speak, then you may enjoy this.  But I've seen more explicit scenes on reality TV and the 'mystery' as to why they're all really there doesn't really play much of a part in it until the end.  You're effectively watching a film that is one long reality TV show!

Maybe, if it had a lot of twists and turns, it might be better.  But then we come to the acting.  I've watched a lot of B-movies and seen the odd 'wooden' performance here and there, but normally it's just one or two actors out of the bunch who stuck out.  Here, it's like every last one of them is a second-rate part time drama student who's only just read the lines before they had to film them.  Seriously, in true reality TV form, new 'contestants' arrive in the house and I kept thinking that each had to be a better actor than the last.  They weren't.  Although, none of them could compare to the 'host' whose American accent is truly one of the worst I've ever heard (I'm assuming she's really not an American native, but if I find out she is I truly don't know which part of the country she comes from!).

It's not outright terrible.  If you're in the mood you'll probably watch until the end just to find out a few answers to various big questions, but, as I say, the best way to describe it is just like a regular reality TV show where everyone is unlikable and only trying to outdo the others in their quest for fame and fortune.  If this had been made during 'Big Brother's' heyday it might have been a lot more novel, but I've seen films based on the genre and there's actually a fair few who did it better than this (TV's 'Dead Set' being the best, in my opinion).

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back