Review from DVDtown.com
GAMER is a 2009 science fiction action thriller film written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. The film stars Gerard Butler as an unwilling participant in an online game in which participants can control human beings as players.
After directing the frenzied CRANK, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor helm another adrenaline-fueled film with this thriller. 300’s Gerard Butler stars as Kable, a man living in a near-future dystopia driven by online games. Kable is the world’s best player at its biggest game, where players take control of real people, but the competition really begins when he tries to fight the system itself.
In 2034, mind-control technology has taken society by storm, and a multiplayer on-line game called “Slayers” allows gamers to control human death row prisoners in mass-scale deathmatches. Any inmate who lives through 30 matches wins his freedom. Simon (Logan Lerman) controls Kable (Gerard Butler), the on-line champion of the game, having won 27 matches and lived through them all. With his every move tracked by millions, his ultimate challenge becomes regaining his identity and independence by defeating the game’s mastermind (Michael C. Hall) through launching an attack on the system that has imprisoned him.
DreadCentral.com awarded Gamer four out of five, saying “Gamer is a top of the line action/terror trip with more exploding carcasses than the latest installment of Rambo.”
Theatrical Review by Tim David Raynor
Imagine if you will a plot that takes a male convict, places him in a violent shooter game, and if he survives he will receive freedom from incarceration. Sounds kind of familiar, doesn´t it? Well, any sci-fi, action enthusiast should be familiar with the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film “The Running Man,” and in Mark Neveldine´s and Brian Taylor’s 2009 film “Gamer” we get the same basic plot. However, this fresh monster is equipped with new twists, turns, technology, and all the shallow substance and style we are all too familiar with in new-millennium action films. Yes, I´m sure you know what that means: Get ready for a good-old, handheld, shaky camera, high-speed film, and gritty dark contrasts. As if we have not seen enough of this particular style, “Gamer” goes so completely over the edge with it that you tend to forget there is a story in there somewhere.
What story line we do get unfolds in a unique mess of style over substance, yet it can never make up its mind what that substance is. There are times the film is outright corny and times it is trying to be something genuine and meaningful. Not to mention, the action is quick, brutal, intense, and downright disgusting (which ought to please the heart of any action lover). Nonetheless, I couldn´t help but notice how this film is geared at a younger, male-adult audience. There´s plenty there for the video gamer to enjoy, along with tangible connections to cyber porn just in case the action sequences are not enough. Therefore, what you have is a film that looks genuine enough to satisfy and entertain, yet is a mess poorly constructed and delivered.
“Gamer,” of course, is set in the near future where gaming itself has taken a new leap in technology. Instead of playing a game where you control a computer animation, as we are all used to, one human gets to control another human. You can choose to be the human inside the game being controlled or be the player controlling another real, live person. We learn quickly how it was created by its inventor, Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), through the use of nanotechnology. As you can imagine, Ken Castle turns out to be the villain in the plot, much like Damon Killian (Richard Dawson) from “The Running Man.” Sure, one is a game-show host while the other is a mad scientist bent on mind control over the human race. What doesn´t work in comparison is that Ken Castle is horribly written and talks like white trailer trash, which I wasn´t buying for a second.
Our hero, Kabel (Gerard Butler of “300″), is a convicted murderer who is forced to play a game created by Ken Castle called “Slayer.” The game is a violent shooter that takes place in a rundown city grid that is overshadowed by a dark future. If Kabel can survive the allotted number of game sessions, he will be set free for life. However, Kabel is not alone in his survival as he is controlled by a seventeen year-old boy named Simon (Logan Lerman). Simon has all the virtual reality luxuries of any spoiled geek, and the mystery is how did he get them? I mean, you never see his parents, nor do you know if he has any. The problem is, if you think too much about it, you´ll probably want to walk out of the theater. And did I mention the action takes place in a city grid in a clichéd dark future? For some reason I kept thinking of a similar movie from 1987…could it be?…nah, forget I mentioned it.
Along the way, we run into other characters that add subtle interest to the shaky plot. Kabel does have a love interest, Angie (Amber Valletta), who works as a game character in a sim-type game known as “Society.” This is where the film plays into erotic, sexual fantasies, as sex is the only thing game players seem interested in doing. Well, I must admit, it does give a whole new meaning to cyber sex. We also get Kyra Sedgwick as a media whore named Gina Parker Smith. Her job is no more than window dressing to the storyline since she never seems to add much, other than to be somewhat annoying. She´s the star of her own popular talk show, but her acting chops are as predictable as they are hackneyed. It´s unfortunate because I do like Kyra, and I just can´t figure why she would commit to such a lowball movie.
My Review
It was a non-stop action movie that takes place in a futuristic setting of a world where people can control other people. It’s like the SIMS game, except you’re actually controlling real people. There are two games you can play. Society, which is very much like SIMS with a Rave theme and lots of sex and possibly drugs. Then there’s the game Slayers. That game is full of prisoners from penitentiaries in the USA. It’s a survival game. You control your player to stay alive while they all try to kill each other off. There are 30 game sessions in Slayers. If your player makes it through to the 30th game he’s fully pardoned and becomes a free man. Gerard Butler plays Kable in Slayers. He’s in there for first degree murder. His wife is in Society. Their daughter is with a foster family. Anyway, Kable is hugely popular when the movie starts because he’s made it to session 27. Most prisoners die much earlier than that. He’s controlled by a 17 year old boy. They can control people because of nanos. They implant them in your brain and that’s how people can link up to you through computer technology. Anyway, there’s a plot to make sure Kable never makes it free to 30. There’s a resistance group called Humans who are trying to take down these games and they try to help Kable. I’ll stop there.
We watched it because there wasn’t much of anything else to watch at the moment. It was the only movie we could all agree on. hehe. I remember Gerard Butler from 300 where he was amazing. Here he looked like Russell Crowe. Seriously. The action sequences were very good. If you like action you’ll like this film. There was a scene with Castle, the creator of the Nanex and the games where he was singing Frank Sinatra’s “I’ve got you under my skin” while controlling like six to eight warriors/fighters. It was rather strange. The whole concept was rather strange. I thought it was cultural commentary on the current gaming society today. Geeky gaming freaks basically. I do hope that this nano technology never develops in the future. Imagine a world of controlled slaves. *shudder*
I liked the film because it was action-packed and kept me riveted in my seat. The special effects were awesome. And I liked the ending. I give it 3 and a half stars out of five. I don’t know if I’d recommend going to the theater to see this film unless you want the big screen experience. You could wait until it goes to DVD or Cable. Gerard Butler could be Russell Crowe’s brother. hehe. Seriously. He’s totally badass. Kyra Sedgwick is in it playing a journalist. It was nice to see her around again. Amber Valetta plays Kable’s wife. I’m not too familiar with her.
To be honest I wouldn’t have watched that movie on my own. It’s just that my friends and I wanted to do something and that got the most votes. lol. The action scenes, which was absolutely throughout the film, were very good. And Gerard Butler is a cutie. hehe
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Tags: Amber Valetta, Gamer, gaming, Gerard Butler, Kyra Sedgwick, movie review, movies
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