THERE’S NO SURVIVING ‘SURVIVAL GAME’

“Survival Game” (citywide) conjures up the notion of a diabolical exercise where people are pitted against impossible forces of man or nature. It’s ad shows two people behind bars; the copy-line reads: “They played by the rules . . . it got them nowhere!”

Taking the slogan to heart, the producers have led us down the garden path. The film is not a survival game as promised, even if it does test the viewer’s mettle. Without overstating the point, it is dull, dull, dull and dumb, dumb, dumb.

Mike (Mike Norris) does work at a survival camp but this has virtually no bearing on the story. On his way home one day, he’s involved in a car accident with C. J. (Deborah Goodrich). She tosses him a book of matches from the pizzeria where she works and speeds off to meet her father, the ‘60s drug guru, Dr. Dave Forrest (Seymour Cassel), who’s being released from prison after 17 years.

C. J. misses her dad at the prison but this enables the film makers to stage the family reunion at the restaurant. Conveniently, Mike pops up too, as well as kidnapers who abduct Dr. Dave, presumably because of the legend that he has $2 million stashed away.

It defies logic and jurisprudence, but the two youngsters believe they’re prime suspects in the crime and decide not to call the police. Nonetheless, the FBI, former colleagues, the military and, yes, the police are trying to figure out Dr. Forrest’s whereabouts.

Amid this mess, director and co-writer Herb Freed actually provides five minutes of watchable action in which Mike and C. J. are pursued through a department store by the two goons holding Dr. Dave. But the sequence makes no sense to the plot and doesn’t explain why the rest of the film is so flat, dramatically and technically. Old reliable Cassel brightens up the screen a few times but Norris is a kick off the old block of father Chuck--a sure-fire martial arts champ stymied by a paper bag when it comes to acting.

“Survival Game” (MPAA rated: R, for violence and language) limps along like something unprepared for the challenges of a cinematic obstacle course.