This evening we sat down to watch a DVD that Amazon kindly sent us – Operation:Endgame.   Having heard nothing about it, I wasn’t expecting much, but it turned out to be hugely enjoyable with some great performances, notably from  Rob Cordory

Here is what I wrote about it:

Imagine taking The Office and mixing it up with Japanese cult film Battle Royale. You would probably end up with something like this.

This film features office politics of the worst kind. The workplace looks pretty normal but it is located in an underground complex deep beneath Washington and all the employees are secret government assassins, so when things get nasty they can get very nasty indeed.

Joe Anderson plays The Fool on his first day on the job – everybody there has a codename based on tarot cards. Before he has even had his first staff meeting his boss gets killed and the complex goes into lockdown mode: the only exit is sealed shut and the countdown starts for a whole pile of napalm to go off. The only way out is to find the legendary emergency exit, but the workforce is organised in two opposing teams and they take teamwork very seriously.

Despite the mayhem and bloody slayings with office equipment this is a comedy, albeit an off-beat and clever comedy, which had me laughing right the way through. A lot of the light relief comes from the security men upstairs who have the whole complex under surveillance and provide a sort of commentary on the action.

I’m not sure why this film had its name changed for the UK market. Its original title of Rogue’s Gallery suits it much better as a description of the ensemble cast. There are no big name stars except Ving Rhames who is very under-used in this film, but lots of faces that you half-recognise. I think it works better for this film than a big-name cast would do.

I started watching this with no preconceptions, was very quickly hooked by the quirky humour of it, and stayed hooked right to the end. Mind you, I may never be able to look at a staple remover or paper shredder the same way again!

The extras on the DVD are a very forgettable behind-the-scenes feature, an alternative ending and an alternative beginning, which are worth watching. Had the alternative beginning been used the film would have made a lot more sense but I don’t think it would have been as enjoyable. It really gives away far too much far too soon and would have spoiled the film so well done for chopping it off the finished product, but even more well done for putting it on the DVD.

I’m not sure why this film is not a whole lot better known as it is much more entertaining and intelligent than all the blockbusters out there.