''Live!'' is a 2007 American

mockumentary A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...

film written and directed by

Bill Guttentag Bill Guttentag is an American dramatic and documentary film writer-producer-director. His films have premiered at the Sundance, Cannes, Telluride and Tribeca film festivals, and he has won two Academy Awards. Career Guttentag won an Oscar for ...

, and starring

Eva Mendes Eva de la Caridad Méndez (, ; born March 5, 1974), known professionally as Eva Mendes, is a retired American actress. Her acting career began in the late 1990s with a series of roles in films such as '' Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror ...

David Krumholtz David Krumholtz (born May 15, 1978) is an American actor. Krumholtz is best known for portraying Bernard in ''The Santa Clause'' franchise (1994–present), Michael Eckman in '' 10 Things I Hate About You'' (1999), Goldstein in the '' Harold & K ...

, Rob Brown,

Katie Cassidy Katie Cassidy (born November 25, 1986) is an American actress. Following several minor television roles, she came to attention as a scream queen after starring in the horror films ''When a Stranger Calls (2006 film), When a Stranger Calls'' (2006 ...

Jay Hernandez Javier Manuel "Jay" Hernandez (born February 20, 1978) is an American actor. After making his television debut in NBC's '' Hang Time'', he made his film debut opposite Kirsten Dunst in the romantic drama '' Crazy/Beautiful'' (2001). He has sin ...

Eric Lively Eric Lawrence Brown (born born July 31, 1981), known professionally as Eric Lively, is an American actor. He played the role of Andy Evans in '' Speak'' (2004), Carey Bell in '' So Weird'' (1999–2001), and Mark Wayland in ''The L Word'' (200 ...

Monet Mazur Monet Happy Mazur (born April 17, 1976) is an American actress. She is best known as Laura Fine-Baker on The CW show '' All American''. She was born and raised in Los Angeles and she started acting in her early teenage, Monet is also a profession ...

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Jeffrey Dean Morgan (born April 22, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the character Negan in the AMC horror drama series '' The Walking Dead'' (2016–2022) and its spin-off '' The Walking Dead: Dead City'' (2023–present ...

Missi Pyle Missi Pyle (born November 16, 1972) is an American actress and singer. She has appeared in films including ''Galaxy Quest'' (1999), ''Josie and the Pussycats (film), Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Bringing Down the House (film), ''Bringing ...

, and

Andre Braugher Andre Keith Braugher ( ; July 1, 1962 – December 11, 2023) was an American actor known for his roles as Detective Frank Pembleton in the NBC police drama series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' (1993–1999) and Captain Raymond Holt in the ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

on April 28, 2007. It was released theatrically in select international markets starting in November 2007, followed by a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

release in the United States on December 1, 2009, by

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lionsgate Studios Corp. (simply known as Lionsgate Studios) is a Canadian-American film and television production and distribution conglomerate, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and primarily based in Santa Monica, California. It was f ...

Plot

Television executive Katy develops what she hopes will become the most watched television show of all time, the ultimate game show called ''Live!'', in which six contestants play

Russian roulette Russian roulette () is a potentially lethal game of chance in which a player places a single round in a revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against the head or body (their opponent's or their own), and pulls the trigger. If the ...

with a

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

with six chambers loaded with one live cartridge and five dummy cartridges. During the show, after the

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

is randomly turned, the six will fire the gun one by one pointed at their head, without intermediate extra turning of the cylinder, until one is killed. At first the idea is to give each of the six contestants $1,000,000, but while there are more applicants at the auditions than expected, they are suicidal people. This is not desired, the contestants should want to live; therefore the prize is raised to $5,000,000 each for the surviving contestants, while the family of the killed contestant does not get any prize. As the TV executive struggles to overcome the challenges by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

, her network, and the show's advertisers, a documentary filmmaker, Rex, films every detail of her glamorous, high-powered life. Rex becomes involved in the making of the show by creating biographical segments about the contestants. They are Byron, a young, struggling writer; Brad, an

extreme sport Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are physical activity, activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk of injury or death. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly speci ...

s star; Rick, a man who had to spend much on medical bills for his young son and is now trying to save his family's farm; Jewel, an aspiring actress; Abalone, a former supermodel turned performance artist; and Pablo, a young, gay Mexican immigrant determined to help his family. Jewel is first, Pablo next, both are unharmed. Next is Abalone; before pulling the trigger with the gun pointed at herself she does a performance in which she frightens others by pointing the gun at the host and threatening to kill him; she is also unharmed, but plays falling dead. The fourth is Byron, also unharmed. Brad is fifth and kills himself. Katy is shocked and feels guilty, and goes to the bathroom to throw up. The body is quickly removed off-camera. Rick, who would be sixth, wins the prize without having to pull the trigger. After that, during the after-show press gang, a man comes forward with another gun and kills Katy. The network claims the murder is unrelated to the theme of the show. Apart from the murder the show is a success. It has become an annual broadcast, with six new contestants every year.

Cast

as Katy *

as Rex * Rob Brown as Byron *

as Jewel *

as Brad *

as Pablo *

as Abalone *

as Rick *

as Plummy *

as Don *

Jessica Collins Jessica Collins (born Jessica Lynn Capogna; April 1, 1971) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Dinah Lee Mayberry on the ABC soap opera '' Loving'' (1991-1994) and Avery Bailey Clark on the CBS soap opera ''The Young and th ...

as Starlet *

Winston Story Winston Story (born October 5, 1971) is an American actor who is best known for his work in ''Grey's Anatomy'', ''Henry Danger'' and ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' is an American police procedural sitcom television series that ...

as Camouflage Guy

Reception

References

External links

* * {{Bill Guttentag 2007 films 2007 comedy-drama films 2000s American films 2000s English-language films 2000s mockumentary films 2000s satirical films American comedy-drama films American mockumentary films American satirical films Atlas Entertainment films Films about competitions Films about death games Films about television Films directed by Bill Guttentag Films produced by Charles Roven Reality television series parodies English-language comedy-drama films