Ewan's Musings

De Niro - The Movie Links Game

I got a happy fright on the tube last week. Two people opposite me were playing De Niro. This lovely little movie game was taught to me by Joe Keenan, and I think I should post it up here for other people to enjoy - and perhaps have an online game, assuming we all promise not to use IMDB.

Okay, you start De Nero with 6 'lives,' each represented by the letters in De Nero. When you loose a life, you loose a letter. So 5 lives and you are "e Nero," 4 lives makes you "Nero," and so on until you are "o" and loose that last letter. Then you're out.

If you remember playing "Donkey" as a kid catching a ball and not dropping it, the lives work in the same way.

So, the first player starts (and you an have as many in the group as you want - the bigger the group the longer (and better) a game is). He (or she!) can name an actor, an actress, or a movie. Let's say Anna starts by saying "The Princess Bride."

Bob is second in the circle. He now has to name an actor or actress who appeared in Anna's film. Bob chooses "Carey Elwes." Charlie now has to name a film with "Carey Elwes." He chooses "Hot Shots!"

And so on and so on, until someone can't name an actor or a film. they loose a letter from De Nero, and start the next round with either a film or an actor (their choice).

One last rule - the challenge. If Derek (who was after Charlie in the example above) doesn't think Charlie knows any other actors in "Hot Shots" he can say Challenge. Now if Charlie can't name an actor, he looses a letter. But if he can, then Derek looses a letter.

So, it's time to play!

This is obviously related to "The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," which I'll discuss shortly.