Reindeer Games is a picture like that. If I had a checklist, I could mark off things about the film that are flawed. There are some pretty big plot holes and lapses in logic. The story is not particularly original, especially in this post-Pulp Fiction movie world. Some of the characters are rather underdeveloped. A "surprise" plot twist is not particularly surprising. And yet, against all logic, I enjoyed Reindeer Games strictly for what it was: a turn-your-brain-off action picture.

Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron play some deadly Reindeer Games

Ben Affleck stars as Rudy, a car thief scheduled to get out of prison in three days. His cellmate, Nick, is also due to be sprung. Nick has been corresponding with a beautiful pen pal named Ashley (Charlize Theron). She has sent love letters and pictures, and made promises to be outside the prison walls when he is released. With only a day to go, Nick is killed in a riot. When Rudy gets out, he sees Ashley waiting and pretends to be Nick, if only to get her into bed.

Things start out okay, but then Ashley's brother Monster (Gary Sinise) shows up. Monster knows that Nick once worked in a small, out-of-the-way Indian casino. Backed by a posse of bad-ass truck drivers, Monster plans to force Nick to help him rob the place. Since Rudy has already pretended to be Nick (and since the bad guys would kill him if they knew otherwise), he is forced to help them knock over a place he knows nothing about.

In some ways, Reindeer Games is a twist on the standard heist movie formula. We're used to seeing characters use their knowledge of a specific location as a means of conducting robbery. Part of why I liked the film is that Rudy is just making things up as he goes along. He has no clue what he's talking about, so there's some suspense when the heist actually goes down.

Ben Affleck is really good in this kind of role. As he showed in the famous "retainer" scene of Good Will Hunting, he excels at playing characters that are all soft beneath their bluster. The actor gets off some funny punch lines as well. Charlize Theron is also effective, giving Ashley different layers that become apparent as the story rolls on. As the bad guy, Sinise is menacing, although the part is underwritten.

Reindeer Games was directed by John Frankenheimer (Ronin, The Manchurian Candidate) who keeps the pace moving quickly enough to skim over the plot holes. While not the most exciting movie ever made, the action scenes here are well staged, especially one in which Rudy and Ashley fall under the ice in a frozen lake.

What Reindeer Games lacks in logic and development, it makes up for in energy. The actors seem to be having fun with their parts, Frankenheimer is obviously having a ball behind the camera, and screenwriter Ehrin Kruger (Scream 3) comes up with a few wittily skewed ideas (e.g. having the robbers dress up as Santa Claus). The fun is contagious. I turned my brain off and just had a good time with it.

( out of four)

Reindeer Games is rated R for profanity, nudity, and graphic violence. The running time is 1 hour and 44 minutes.