Gamer - Film Review
Gerard Butler Must Kill for His Freedom within a Real-Life Videogame
Sep 4, 2009
The same writing and directing team behind Crank and, their unsuccessful sequel, Crank 2: High Voltage, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, have managed to squander talent in front and behind the camera. Worse, their latest film, Gamer, offends women, and, to a far greater extent, gamers.
Shoot Me First and Frag Me Later
With a cast consisting of Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Kyra Sedgwick and John Leguizamo, this sci-fi action thriller naturally raises expectations. With great disappointment, Nevedine and Taylor show no gift for directing actors or delivering a good story.
The first half of Gamer consists of frenetically violent action sequences that make it so unintelligible, that it has to drastically slow down in the second half to relate the actual plot of the movie. Not to mention, the curiously weird inclusion of a dance routine performed by Michael C. Hall’s character and his henchmen.
The Goreous World of Gamer
A death-sentenced inmate, Kable (Butler) agrees to become a Slayer in futuristic real-life online gaming environment, created by billionaire software genius, Kastle (Michael C. Hall as a younger and evil version of Bill Gates). Under the mind control of a teenaged player, Kable’s objective is to survive 30 game sessions.
His success will gain his release from prison, and reunite with his wife (Amber Valletta). However, the game requires the modern-day gladiator to play or die in the brutal videogame fantasy that uses real humans as killing targets.
Prior to his Slayers game, Kastle invented an online world community, called Society. Resembling the multi-player internet game Second Life, participants in Society either pay to command their avatar or pay to become a controlled avatar.
In this vividly-colored dream world, sexy vixens of the music video variety act out their male players’ fantasy lives. To the point of vulgarity, the players’ vampish avatars repetitively expose their breasts and display girl-on-girl lip locks. Some even demonstrate bizarre fetishes, such as having their female character urinate on another female.
If the filmmakers had any true talent, they might have made a clever and sophisticated film by developing this subplot of their script, instead.
The Cast and Crew of Gamer
“Gamer” stars Gerard Butler (The Ugly Truth, 300), Michael C. Hall (Showtime’s Dexter), Chris “Ludacris” Bridges (RocknRolla, Crash), Amber Valletta (Transporter 2), Kyra Sedgwick (TNT’s The Closer) and John Leguizamo.
Co-written and co-directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Cinematography directed by Ekkehart Pollack. Edited by Peter Amundson, Fernando Villena and Doobie White. Production design by Jerry Fleming. Art direction by Peter Borock. Set Decoration by Betty Berberian. Costume design by Alix Friedberg. Original music by Robb Williams and Geoff Zanelli.
(Running Time: 95 min)
(Rated: R for Frenetic Sequences of Strong Brutal Violence Throughout, Sexual Content, Nudity and Language.)
 |
