kclipper A clever and intriguing concept is poorly handled in this 'killer snake' thriller starring Trudy Styler (wife of pop icon, 'Sting'). This starts off brilliantly as twisted boyfriend and video game engineer, Greg Henry purchases a deadly black mamba off of nomad snake-handler (played well as usual by Bill Moseley in an all-to-brief appearance). This opening scene does a tremendous job of displaying the icy remorselessness of Henry's character as he disposes of Moseley just before unleashing the snake into the giant loft apartment of his artistic ex-girlfriend, Styler in order to play a sick revenge game. This takes a turn for the worst as Styler acts in the most ridiculous of ways. Instead of avoiding the mamba, she taunts it by yelling at it, throwing matches at it...etc. She sinks an all time low in her eccentric display of stupidity when she dumps powder all over the floor and gets on top of the refrigerator, pointlessly attacking the snake with eggs and shouting "filthy, filthy!", meanwhile, Henry watches on his computer in a near-by, high-tech stakeout. Its a decent premise wasted by one of the most annoyingly absurd characters in screen history. Styler eventually redeems herself in a clever and final confrontation with Henry, but by then, it loses interest, and the camera prowling about the floors of the apartment imitating the snake looks unrealistic. Its worth seeing for the good opening and Greg Henry as the cold and abhorrent villain, but Styler's character's attempted self-redeeming woman is just so laughable.

stevecliff I had the dubious pleasure of attending a pre-screening of this movie at a Los Angeles studio in 1987 or 1988, and I find it really hard to believe that it ever made it out of editing room garbage cans. On the other hand, maybe I should take that back; there are good bad movies, and there are bad bad movies, and I have to admit that I really enjoyed guffawing in disbelief throughout this one. Still, my favorite part of the screening was filling out the evaluation form after seeing this gem: I have never had a more fruitful opportunity to exercise my limited abilities in sardonic wit. If I remember correctly, that document was my masterpiece in the genre. I wish I had a copy. Many thanks to my friend and student at the time, Sergio Canto, who got the passes to the screening.P.S. I could take a line or two to outline what I remember about the plot of the "film," but that's as much as the writer did, so I guess I won't bother.

dee.reid (This has all the makings of a cheap exploitive thriller.)"Mamba" ("Fair Game" in the United States) is a decent, albeit somewhat exploitive thriller about Gene (Gregg Henry), a deranged computer game designer who locks his ex-fiancé Eva (Trudie Styler) inside their apartment with a deadly Black Mamba snake.Directed by Mario Orfini, he keeps a tight pace and strong sense of dread as Eva runs around her apartment trying to avoid certain death at the fangs of a lethal snake, all the while Gene watches the madness from a car parked down on the street. Styler really carries this film on her delicate shoulders, even remaining strong in some of the sillier haunted house/slasher-style moments. It does seem kind of strange that her apartment is devoid of windows (thus setting up the fun-house element for Gene's later entertainment).One thing that does seem to bother me is how the camera does seem fixated on Styler during a few instances when she has to strip off her clothes. While the camera misses a few of the more explicit shots of her feminine features, you kind of get the idea that Orfini (and the audience) are still getting tantalized."Fair Game" gets a fair rating for at least keeping you watching.4/10

Coventry "Fair Game" or "Mamba", which is the less imaginative but apparently official title for this film, actually is the simplified and much more straightforward version of the British early 80's thriller "Venom" starring Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski. That movie revolves on petty criminals facing the threat of a venomous black mamba snake whilst trying to take hostage the sickly son of a rich family. It's a fun but incredibly far-fetched (the mamba ended up in the house through an "accidental" wrong delivery) film and the script is over-ambitious for its own good, with police forces surrounding the house and virulent intrigues between the kidnappers mutually, whereas basically it should have just been a claustrophobic lethal-snake-on-the-loose suspense movie. Mario Orfini, writer/director of "Fair Game" and of course an Italian, obviously saw "Venom" as well and immediately realized that only the escaped snake formula is more than enough to attract horror audiences. The rudimentary plot of "Fair Game" is reasonably effective just because of its simplicity, and it's merely the details and character drawings that cause major disbelief. Gregg Henry ("Body Double", "Slither") is almost too good as the frustrated and seriously deranged ex-husband who can't process the separation from the joyous artist/play-dough sculptor Eva. What do you expect? If you compare their personalities, they must have formed a terrible mismatch of a couple since day one! So, what's a lunatic video game designer to do? He buys a mamba, kills the seller, injects the animal with hormones to make her even deadlier and finally lets it loose in Eva's hermetically sealed flat without windows. She faces a virulent battle with the slithering dose of venom whilst the psychopath watches everything in his car via a computer-designed game. "Fair Game" naturally is a highly improbable thriller, of course, but the approaching snake sequences are undeniably suspenseful. The score and sound-effects, although inspired by the legendary "Psycho" shower sequence noises, are terrific and the film contains approximately 30 ingenious POV shots, even though admittedly they serve more to provide glorious shots of Trudie Styler's bottom. Speaking of which, Mrs. Sting proves herself to be a very untalented actress but, in all fairness, performing all alone with just a not-so-talkative animal in the room isn't exactly the most grateful role you can get. The script is full of ludicrous little details and the finale is extremely forced and implausible. Interesting little detail for horror fanatics surely is that Bill Moseley forms the entire supportive cast all by himself in his second 'important' role after starring in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II".