So much average

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Angie Harmon who seems to have more success on the small then the big screen with Law&Order and Rizzoli&Isles to her credit teams up with Cuba Gooding, Jr. to investigate nothing less than the assassination of President Jack Scalia. In fact it was rather a freakish event in and of itself. The assassin's bullet passed through Secret Service Agent Gooding's hand and may have changed direction ever so slightly and killed Scalia. That's left Gooding bummed and looking for answers.Harmon plays an investigative reporter looking for the truth as well. But this particular president led a secret life as well along the lines of JFK and Gooding was the one who kept the secrets. He and Harmon team up for the investigation, but Gooding feels a loyalty to his former boss and wants to preserve his legacy. At some point they could be working at cross purposes.The action is exciting however the story had a lot of holes in it. Harmon and Gooding work well together. They could have used some better direction as well. Playing a most mysterious role is a retired general Burt Reynolds. He definitely knows more than he's letting out.Fans of the two leads should like this one.

I recommend "End Game" to all JFK buffs, as an example of covert propaganda. The premise is ridiculous and the conclusion outrageous. For the real "End Game", see the Alex Jones documentary. And for the real Secrect Service agent account, see Abraham Bolden's book. This film, and I hesitate to use that designation "film" as it is a padded hour TV show at best, cannot be taken seriously as entertainment. The 90 min. run time is merciful. I would think it was intended as a joke were it not in such bad taste. A suspension of disbelief is required and critical thinking will just spoil the intended effect which I assume is gullible acceptance of a twisted world view.

End Game certainly has a star studded cast with Cuba Gooding Jr, James Woods and Burt Reynolds. Thankfully for your eyesight Reynolds is only in for a few scenes because he looks awful with his plastic surgery and bad wig.Gooding is a secret service agent who was injured as the President was assassinated. A pushy journalist uncovers a conspiracy and people start dying. She teams up with Cuba and discover that there are CIA black ops people involved and people close to the President might have been involved in the assassination.End Game is never going to rival Three days of the Condor or The Parallax View. The writing is no great shakes, the photography looks cheap. Yet the cast actually make it watchable. Its rather a decent time waster. The film drops a few clues as it goes along and there is some nice action sequences.

Cuba Gooding Jr just hasn't had the best of script servicing after his rise to fame. Despite being an enticing personality this movie is I'm afraid not salvageable.The whole premise for the story is bordering on stupid. But it is nowhere as moronic as ultra secret service agents planting bombs to kill off an elderly lady and a homeless man. One would have thought they could come up with something at least the slightest bit subtle. But nope - big blasts and machine-gunning police cops in broad daylight is apparently very CIA slash secret agent type behaviour.The acting starts out on a real low and even Cuba looks dredge-awful... Everyone else in movie is at best unmemorable, but Angie Harmon makes a great effort at acting out of a paper bag. Unfortunately she fails miserably... but at least she tried.Nothing really good to say about this movie. It was trite, repetitive and needless, but well... it is watchable. With must count for something.