Gamer Reviews - Mixture

Thanks to IMDb.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/movies/05gamer.html

BULLETS, BUTTOCKS AND BUTTON PUSHING
Jeanette Catsoulis
Published: September 5, 2009

If you thought that Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the brain trust behind the “Crank” franchise) had already plumbed the basement of bad taste, be prepared to discover the sub-basement: “Gamer,” a futuristic vomitorium of bosoms and bullets.

Set in a society where pornographic and punitive fantasies are indulged through online games featuring live avatars, “Gamer” pretends to care about Kable (Gerard Butler), the taciturn star of a self-explanatory game called Slayers. Desperate to neutralize the technology in his brain, along with its billionaire creator (Michael C. Hall), Kable escapes the game environment by stealing a truck and filling the tank with alcohol and urine. (Mr. Neveldine and Mr. Taylor may share the directing instincts of a nerd on house arrest, but they could have a lucrative future in the renewable-energy field.)

Edited to invoke grand mal seizures (the opposite of what you might expect from an editor named Doobie White), “Gamer” is happiest when shadowing the rear of Amber Valletta (playing Kable’s wife and a reluctant sexbot avatar). But as the audience’s surrogate is an obese shut-in sweatily masturbating to Ms. Valletta’s various humiliations, her artistic contributions are finally more depressing than titillating.

In the press materials Mr. Butler informs us enthusiastically that the movie “has all the hallmarks of Neveldine’s and Taylor’s sick, yet genius minds.” At least he’s half right.

“Gamer” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Women lift their shirts, and men lower their IQs.

GAMER Opened on Friday nationwide.

Written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor; director of photography, Ekkehart Pollack; edited by Doobie White; music by Geoff Zanelli; production designer, Jerry Fleming; produced by Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Skip Williamson and Richard Wright; released by Lionsgate. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.

WITH: Gerard Butler (Kable), Michael C. Hall (Ken Castle), Amber Valletta (Angie), Alison Lohman (Trace), Logan Lerman (Simon), Terry Crews (Hackman), John Leguizamo (Freek), Ludacris (Humanz Brother) and Kyra Sedgwick (Gina Parker Smith).

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http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=1791

GAMER - A movie review by James Berardinelli

U.S. Release Date: 2009-09-04

I wonder if Gamer might make a good game; it certainly doesn't make a good movie. However, add an element of interactivity into the hyperkinetic, repetitive action, plodding narrative, and stupefyingly obvious social commentary, and the potential might exist for something entertaining. As a series of images projected on the screen, it's a waste of time and talent. Writer/directors Neveldine and Taylor, the men behind Crank and its sequel, subjugate plot to style, except here they do it without the wit and audacity that characterized the two Jason Statham movies. Gamer is dark and dreary; even the "catharsis" as the end is shrouded in gloom.

The biggest problem with Gamer is the basic incoherence of the action sequences. They are shot using a shaky camera and edited by someone with ADD in hyperdrive. It's as if Neveldine/Tayor are trying for a Guinness world record for most number of cuts in a 90 minute movie. It's not only the action scenes that suffer. An innocuous sequence set in a rave is assembled in a similar manner. Paradoxically, this style is intended to bring the viewer into the action; it does the opposite. First-person might work in virtual reality, but it fails in motion pictures. (As has repeatedly been proven - why does no one get the message?) The way the movie has been shot and presented also corrupts and sabotages the storyline. The filmmakers are so obsessed with being "cool" - different color schemes (wildly exaggerated for the VR worlds, black-and-white for reality), faux news broadcasts and television entertainment clips; gaming screens - that they quickly lose sight of plot and character. We're treated to a collage of images that add up to very little. It has no heart or soul, and very little in the way of a brain. It's the deficiencies of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow in one package.

Gamer takes place in the near future where living on-line has become more of an obsession than a pastime. The newest rage is "Slayers," a game whose feeds are broadcast on television for the world to see. There are human players controlling (via a direct mind link) living "icons" - death row inmates who have volunteered to "play." The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the promise of freedom if they survive all 30 battles. Anyone who saw The Running Man or Death Race knows victory is an unattainable myth. The current hero of "Slayers" is Kable (Gerard Butler) - under the control of master gamer Simon (Logan Lerman), Kable is moving to the final three rounds. This concerns media magnate Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), who can't risk Kable being reunited with his beloved wife, Angie (Amber Valletta), lest information he possesses become public. This is exactly what a resistance group is hoping for, so they plan to find a way to help Kable break free of Simon's leash. And a persistent reporter (Kyra Sedgwick) is along for the ride in order to get the story of a lifetime.

There are some ideas of interest floating around in Gamer, but they're never developed in ways that are interesting or compelling. There probably is a good movie in there somewhere, but it never emerges. It could be about existence in a VR universe (The Matrix) or futuristic blood sports (The Running Man) or the way in which relying on computers and robots results in physical deterioration (WALL-E). Those concepts are tossed around, but the filmmakers use them as props and plot elements. There is a vague and poorly defined attempt at making a statement about corrupt governments and overcrowded prisons (there's even a mention of spiraling health care costs), but it's a regurgitation of themes presented with intelligence in other, more clever movies. I found it irritating to be preached at during the course of such a gory, mindless enterprise. I was here for the battles - to seen the grizzled underdog kick ass. Because of the style, I was cheated of that.

Gerald Butler spends his screen time looking grim and depressed, and the mood is enhanced by his unpromising environs. There's no character to speak of here. We get glimpses of a happy past and hints of the tragedy that resulted in his incarceration, but the filmmakers aren't sufficiently interested into building Kable into something more than the icon he represents. Maybe that's a statement. Regardless, it doesn't make for an involving story. There are few things more tedious than action movies where no character is sufficiently developed to represent a rooting interest. As the villain of the piece, Michael C. Hall is miscast - he's more fatuous than sinister. Dexter fans are advised not to bother. Amber Valletta and Kyra Sedgwick have forgettable supporting roles - the paychecks must have been good.

Lionsgate is making a double statement about their belief in the movie's potential and quality by releasing it on Labor Day weekend (one of the two worst weekends of the year to open a film) and by electing not to screen it for critics. Although one suspects this strategy will maximize Gamer's limited revenue potential, nothing will save the production from the savage word-of-mouth likely to develop. Anyone interested in playing would be better served staying home and turning on the PS3. And anyone interested in seeing a movie would be hard-pressed to find a worst option. Game over.

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http://boxoffice.com/reviews/2009/09/gamer.php

Gamer by Amy Nicholson September 4, 2009 1:34 PM

SECOND LIFE RUN AMOK

Shoot-em-up auteurs Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor straddle the line between aping and perfectly executing violent action movies. They spin a wild premise into a rampage that could either be the end-all of bloodbaths or merely a sign of how high (or low) that bar will be in five years. Here, Neveldine and Taylor—or Neveldine/Taylor, as they prefer—top The Running Man by shooting a film about a death game for inmates like an actual video game with jarring bursts of computer static and immersive, frenetic disorientation. Many of the fanboys who should pack in at least late night screenings of Gamer won't have read the recent New York Times profile that describes Neveldine/Tayler as "deeply skeptical of the amoral trash culture they seemingly embody." They just want to know if it's awesome, and to them I say: 'Eh, could be better.'

Billionaire programmer Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) made his fortune with his smash hit Society—an interactive Second Life where players control actual minimum wage humans who wear, say and screw whatever their operator wants. Nine months ago, Americans voted to allow Castle's sequel, Slayers, on the market. This game funds the prison industrial complex by offering convicts a chance to fight for their lives in a kill-or-be-killed brawl where bored teens are controlling their moves. ("It's not murder. It's Slayers." boast billboards mounted everywhere from Times Square to the pyramids of Egypt.) If a living avatar survives 30 battles, they win their freedom. No one has survived even ten—until Kable (Gerard Butler), who's just three battles from escape.

Kable was a murderer when he entered prison, and he's only gotten better since—a tally at the end of his matches shows he regularly scores in the triple digits. His wife (Amber Valletta, one of the last supermodels) is an actress/hooker for Society; his daughter is a pawn in the foster care system. (The nuclear family re-imagined as game pieces.) And his controller, Simon (Logan Lerman), is a rich 17 year old brat whose main interest in keeping Kable alive is maintaining his internet celebrity, which he measures in videos of girls flashing him their tits.

There's too much chaos here for anyone to register as a character. Butler merely glowers (though he still seems to be having more fun than he did in The Ugly Truth), and as his wife Valletta is the ne plus ultra of passive hot heroines. Her fur vest and hot pants were picked by a grotesque mouth-breather in his apartment (Neveldine/Taylor pore over his sweaty 400-pound bulk like they're discovering a new planet) and even when Butler makes a rescue attempt, the nanocells in her brain won't let her speak or run for herself. (Though she retains the ability to furrow her brow.)

The only people having fun here are the directors and Michael C. Hall, TV's Dexter and a former Shakespearean actor, who invests his Bill-Gates-if-stoned-and-sociopathic mastermind with the ambition of Iago and the confidence of Othello—qualities he retains even when Neveldine/Taylor have him do a softshoe routine to Sinatra as his minions batter Butler. Despite Neveldine/Taylor's own ambitions, this feels less like a perversion of action flicks and more like the clodding, sincere real thing. But to their credit, they do get a good (if incidental) dig at Sarah Palin's 'Death Panels' when Ludracis, playing the leader of an anti-avatar gang called The Humanz, asks Butler to imagine the next batch of desperate people to fight for our entertainment. Expensive Chemo Treatment Cage Match, anyone?

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http://www.sover.net/~ozus/gamer.htm

"ABOUT AS GLOOMY AS LOOKING INTO THE HEAD OF A HACKER"
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor ("Crank") write and direct this high-concept dark action sci-fi thriller set in the near future. The derivative plot line (much too similar to Schwarzenegger's 1987 "The Running Man") has humans who pay to control other humans by using high tech mind control devices implanted into the brain, in a popular online video game show created by Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). The evil entrepreneur overnight became the richest man in the world. It's more a video game than a feature movie, and about as gloomy as looking into the head of a hacker.

The current hot virtual reality game is "Slayers," a follow-up to Castle's popular "Society," with the hunky player Kable (Gerard Butler)--a death row inmate, like all Slayer players, who can earn his freedom by completing 30 missions--being the superstar and cult hero of this ultraviolent first person shooter war zone game, who keeps on ticking because he thinks only of returning to his wife and kid. Kable is controlled by the wealthy 17-year-old geek Simon (Logan Lerman), a gamer with rock star status who continues to defy all odds by guiding Kable to victory for more sessions than anyone else has ever guided a player. The backstory is that Kable was taken from his family, imprisoned and forced to fight against his will. He has become the modern day gladiator who must survive to get back what was his and, I might add, to save mankind from 'Big Brother' Castle's power over him. To add to the buzz, the disembodied head of Ludacris pops up throughout as he hacks into the TV broadcast delivering cryptic warning messages to the public on a giant screen, Gina Parker Smith (Kyra Sedgwick), the news reporter/talk-show host tagged as the media whore, rants and raves about one thing or another, a psychopathic killer maniac named Hackman (Terry Crews) enters the game bent on stealing the glory from Kable by engaging him in online combat, and Castle chills over how wired he is to the gamer mentality of the populace and is able to deliver really sinister smirks that could scare the living shit out of you if you didn't realize this is just a friggin' game and a robotic killer film that could have been acted by wooden puppets and you might not have noticed the difference.

Everything is undeveloped (from storyline to acting), even as it grabs you by the balls and won't let go until you looked at all the titty shots and blood-splatter. The crass and joyless film celebrates violence and sexual perversity as what rocks the entertainment world, while giving lip service that it's spoofing such tried and tested sleazy projected big box office entertainment films.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/movies/orl-movie-review-gamer,0,3575096.story

Movie review: GAMER -- 1 out of 5 stars

The few fun, demented, over-the-top moments in "Gamer" make you realize this could have been more

Orlando Sentinel Movie Critic September 4, 2009

When did Gerard Butler hire Jason Statham's agent? When did the star of 300, Friend of Guy (Ritchie, of RocknRolla), savior of Katherine Heigl (The Ugly Truth), need to do B-movies built on video-game cliches, conventions and stereotypes?

Gamer, a movie abandoned on Labor Day weekend, has Butler playing a convict trapped in a "real life" video game in which the players shoot their way through levels until they're killed. Or they make it through 30 "missions," and are freed.

Doesn't that sound like Statham to you, or WWE wrestler-actor fare?

Butler puts his game face on for Gamer, playing a man unjustly convicted of murder, determined to escape his doom in this weekly worldwide telecast of the game Slayers, where he is the heroic "first person shooter" named Kable. His real name is Tilman.

Tilman needs to survive, but he's trapped in the "moves" made by a famous and soul-deadened teen gamer (Logan Lerman) with a knack for pulling the game trigger faster than his competitors. Tilman is under the thumb of game guru Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), who is using this "opiate of the masses" to rule the world. Or so the HUMANZ, say. They're a rebellion against Castle and Slayers, hacking into telecasts. Ludacris delivers their messages about what Castle is REALLY up to.

Meanwhile, Tilman's wife (Amber Valletta) can't find their child because she's taken a job as a "Sims" actor, playing the alter ego/avatar of cretinous junk-foood junky recluses (a video-gamer cliche) who want to pretend to be her or sexually assault her in that simulated "sims" world of nerdy teens, violent punks and women who bare their breasts for every social reject who walks up to them in the gamescape.

Oh, and Kyra Sedgwick is a TV chat-show hostess who wants to get to the bottom of this story. That's a lot to digitize into a movie that's basically Death Race or The Condemned, with really cool interfaces and graphics. Very little room for acting (Butler is merely a presence here) or emotions or anything of real interest.

The Crank co-directors, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, only find the wit that those movies had in a couple of musical moments. Hackman (burly funny-scary guy Terry Crews) is sent into the game to kill Kable. He has no game player behind him, no puppeteer pulling his strings. So Neveldine and Taylor got Lionsgate to pay Disney for the rights to Crews singing a sadistic "There are no strings on meeee."

And Castle, in a demented "evil villain" flourish, leads a gang of robotic henchmen in a Sammy Davis Jr. song and soft-shoe that makes you wish the rest of the movie had gone this way -- demented, over-the-top, not serious.

When you set your sights on mimicking and commenting on a first-person-shooter game where the body-count and the score are all you're really interested in, you've set your sights too low. This was never going to be much, but it could have been more than this.   Gamer One of five stars Cast: Gerard Butler, Amber Valletta, Michael C. Hall, Ludacris, Logan Lerman, Kyra Sedgwick Directors: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Industry rating: R for frenetic sequences of strong brutal violence throughout, sexual content, nudity and language.

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http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=4481

GAMER by Nick Schager
Posted: September 4, 2009

Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor drop the gonzo cartoon humor for Gamer, a laborious bit of sci-fi grimness that dully updates The Running Man for the 21st century. In the near future, Ken Castle (a devilish Michael C. Hall) has made billions through two virtual reality games, the Sims-like Society and warzone actioner Slayers, in which real people are remotely controlled by players such as Simon (Logan Lerman), a teenager-cum-celebrity thanks to his Slayers success with Kable (Gerard Butler). Like all Slayers contestants, Kable is a death row inmate who can earn his freedom by completing—which, in this case, means avoiding death during— 30 missions, and as in the aforementioned Arnold Schwarzenegger classic, the protagonist is actually a hero framed by his Orwellian masters to cover up their own evildoing.

Uninterested in significantly altering their spiritual source material's basic narrative template, Neveldine/Taylor retain their digitized schizo-blitzkrieg style but otherwise alter their own proven formula by draining the mayhem of zaniness, as the film's signature tone—courtesy of an ashen color palette, nasty violence, and use of Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams" cover—is severity. The directors smartly posit bloodlust and sexual perversity as core elements of media entertainment. Yet any critique is offset by their predictable celebration of those twin attributes, not to mention their crass treatment of the obese, African-Americans, and women, as well as their unwillingness to bother fleshing out their core conceit, such as with regard to Slayers's gamer POV (is it a first-person shooter? Third-person?).

Kyra Sedgwick's news reporter provides trace elements of Verhoeven/Death Race satire while Ludacris and a ludicrously dreadlocked Alison Lohman help foment the story's central anti-Big Brother fervor. All of them, however, fail to overshadow the monotonous gravity of wronged-man Kable and the shamelessness with which Neveldine/Taylor tease nasty eroticism via the saga of Kable's short shorts-clad Society-employed wife (Amber Valletta). After over an hour of bludgeoning combat and facile commentary, the film momentarily comes alive when Castle performs a phenomenal taunting song-and-dance routine alongside his servile marionette goons to the tune of "I've Got You Under My Skin." Alas, it's the only novel, lighthearted button the otherwise leaden Gamer pushes.

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http://www.scifimoviepage.com/upcoming/previews/game.html

GAMER (2009) - PREVIEW

Starring: Gerard Butler, Milo Ventimiglia, Michael C. Hall, John Leguizamo, Aaron Yoo, Kyra Sedgwick, Amber Valletta
Director(s): Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Rated: Unrated
U.S. Opening Date: 4 September 2009

THEY SAY: In the not too distant future, Kable (Gerard Butler), a death row inmate, has unwittingly become a pop culture hero.

Every week, millions worldwide tune in online to watch him and hundreds of other convicts battle in Slayers, an ultra-violent multi-player online game invented by technological genius Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). To the wealthy young gamer who controls his every move, Kable is just a sim (simulation) character. To the resistance group that opposes Castle's games as high-tech slavery, he is a critical element in their battle to take down the inventor.

Caught in the crosshairs of two opposing forces and under the command of a teenager's remote device, Kable must use his extraordinary fighting skills to escape the game, bring down Castle and overthrow the system.

WE SAY: It’s an action flick directed by the guys who did Crank and stars Gerard Butler of 300!

So at a certain brain-dead teenager boy level we’re quite excited. After all, we liked Crank as much as the next guy. But come on! The whole futuristic blood sport thing is as old as science fiction itself! Or haven’t anyone seen Rollerball (the original made in 1975) and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Running Man (1987, based on a Stephen King story)?

The filmmakers however promise something a bit more cerebral though: “It’s a little more Kubrick than Neveldine / Taylor at times,” says writer / co-director Mark Neveldine. Adds Butler: “To me, this is layered. It’s showing how society allows real violence into our lives.”

Neveldine is however quick to add: “It’s about ideas. But it’s also got bigger action set-pieces.”

http://www.usccb.org/movies/g/gamer.shtml

GAMER

Brutal futuristic gladiator tale in which a wrongly convicted death row inmate (Gerard Butler) who has been bio-engineered for remote control battles to stay alive and eventually win his freedom under the online direction of a rich teen (Logan Lerman) in a combat game developed by an evil genius (Michael C. Hall). Co-writers and directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s dystopian mishmash also samples the mastermind’s other game where players use similarly altered people to act out their sexual fantasies. Constant action violence, much of it gory, mutilation, brief graphic aberrant sexual activity, upper female and rear nudity, a few uses of profanity, much rough and crude language. O -- morally offensive. (R) 2009

The concept of simulation gaming is taken to brutal and perverse extremes in the futuristic gladiator tale “Gamer”.

Co-writers and directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s dystopian mishmash sees wrongly convicted death row inmate Kable (Gerard Butler) bio-engineered for remote control and fighting for his life under the online direction of rich teen Simon (Logan Lerman) in an all-too real combat game that pits him against other condemned prisoners for the amusement of a worldwide audience.

Kable hopes to win the 30 victories that, under the rules, will result in his being freed. But Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), the evil genius who developed the competition, has other ideas.

In between the flying bodies and spurting blood, viewers are given a sample of Castle’s other popular amusement in which people who have been similarly altered -- including Kable’s beloved wife Angie (Amber Valletta) -- act out players’ sexual fantasies. The resulting flashes of nudity and female-to-female interaction only add to the already obvious message: Game Over.

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http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/Gamer-4168.html

Reviewed by Katey Rich : 2009-09-04 18:49:31

So did you see Death Race around this time last year? You know, the movie where Jason Statham is a death row inmate forced to participate in a brutal game in order earn his freedom, and is desperately trying to get back to his wife and daughter on the other side? Good. You can completely skip Gamer, a movie in which Gerard Butler is a death row inmate forced to participate in a brutal game in order to earn his freedom, and is desperately trying to get back to his wife and daughter on the other side.

Sure, neither of these movies are the first or the last to use a bleak future as an excuse to treat human beings as gun-wielding action figures. But it says a lot about Gamer that it pales in comparison to a Jason Statham schlockfest like Death Race, especially since it's directed by Neveldine and Taylor, the duo who made Jason Statham an unlikely geek icon with the Crank movies. For everything fun and over the top about a Crank movie, Gamer is a dull slog of endless action and sex, trying so hard to push the pleasure centers on the brains of its adolescent male audience that it wears itself, and the audience, out well before the end can blessedly come.

The movie's twist on the present is actually pretty clever, presenting a world in which everyone is obsessed with either The Sims or Halo, except you're actually playing with real people. Kable (Gerard Butler) is one of the death-row inmates forced to play a shooting game while being controlled by a teenager (Logan Lerman) who has achieved celebrity by getting Kable through more levels than any other inmate has before. Meanwhile Kable's wife (Amber Valletta) is essentially a pleasure model in the Sims game, manipulated by a fat guy at home and walking around in booty shorts and a series of wigs like a zombie.

Pulling all the strings is Michael C. Hall as a kind of Bill Gates from hell, who has framed Kable-- of course-- and doesn't actually plan to award him his freedom, as promised, after beating 30 levels of the game. And trying to bring down the Matrix, so to speak, is a rebel group led by Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and a weirdly dreadlocked Alison Lohman, who snag Kable when he breaks free from the game and help him retrieve his wife and end the game for good.

There are so many absurd directions to go with this classic premise, and Neveldine and Taylor occasionally indulge in some out-there weirdness-- there are two musical numbers, for example, and the look of the Sims-esque world is so plucked from 90s rave culture (bright neons, furry jackets) that it could almost pass as a joke about the Internet game culture beginning in that era. Almost. But mostly Gamer focuses on shoot-em-up action that's cut so quickly it makes no sense, and indulgent shots of bare breasts and lesbian kissing that define the word "pandering." With the world of the two video games so poorly explained, it's hard to feel engaged in Kable's battles at all, and with no sense of stakes, the endless shots of heads blowing up and cars exploding feel repetitive rather than thrilling.

Hall and Kyra Sedgwick (as a slimy TV reporter) give campy performances that are fun but feel out of place, while Butler as the wronged man, Maximus-in-Gladiator type, is never asked to do anything but scowl. All in all the movie feels like a slog through an adolescent brain, where curse words have to be used in every sentence, breasts bared at every turn, and shooting someone in the head is the pinnacle of cool. I'm pretty sure any version of Grand Theft Auto would provide basically the same experience.

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http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Reviews/G/Gamer/2009/09/04/10756396-sun.html

'GAMER' FAILS TO THRILL

By KEVIN WILLIAMSON -- Sun Media

Gamer isn't yet another miserable movie based on a video game -- it just feels like one.

In fact, this joyless, head-throbbing Running Man rip-off turns out to be based on excruciatingly very little. Not on compelling writing, certainly. Or coherent filmmaking. Or intriguing characters. Or good taste or common sense or any sensation that's remotely appealing, thrilling or entertaining.

It is, in the end, a migraine in search of a movie-goer, one that hypocritically berates pop-culture's bloodthirst even as it eagerly quenches it with a sadistic barrage of severed limbs and crushed skulls.

Behind the camera -- and in full-tilt seizure mode -- are directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the Retalin-deprived duo responsible for the two Crank films that starred Jason Statham as a hit man who proves ludicrously resilient to death.

Last year Statham starred in his own grungy futuristic inmates-as-gladiators thriller in Death Race, a retread I guiltily enjoyed because for all its raucous stupidity and repellent violence, it had the self-awareness of disposable fun. Gamer, by comparison, is bleak and leaden, an epileptic cartoon as sour as the grimace on Gerard Butler's face.

Butler -- who appears intent on squandering his post-300 career -- stars as Kable, a death-row prisoner who, thanks to the advent of mind-control technology, is a pawn in a murderous multi-player online game in which players pit human avatars against each other, gladiatorial games for geeks, if you will. Among these so-called Slayers, there's no bigger star -- sensationally watched by millions around the globe -- than Kable, who's in turn controlled by a 17-year-old brainiac named Simon (Logan Lerman).

Of course what Kable, a remarkably sensitive sort as far as convicts go, really wants is to be reunited with his wife and child -- a desire that pits himself squarely against the game's designer Ken Castle (Dexter's Michael C. Hall in easily the film's most engaging performance), an enigmatic billionaire with the brain of Bill Gates, the hucksterism of Richard Dawson and the humanitarian streak of Dick Cheney.

Then again, Kable's tough-as-nails determination to return home to his wife makes a little more sense when we see her: Amber Valletta, who spends a good portion of the movie bending over in a teeny pair of bright blue shorts that would make Megan Fox blush.

Neveldine and Taylor are equally subtle with their social commentary. There are digs at U.S. health care and the prison system, as well as the field of online gaming in which disconnected people interact via digital drones. How far will society eventually go for vicarious thrills? How detached from violence will humanity someday become as technology isolates us from real-life consequences?

Apparently these are among the questions we're meant to ponder when not gawking at the numerous naked breasts on display or Valletta's remarkable, um, shorts.

Not surprisingly -- and why this review is appearing today -- Gamer wasn't screened for critics. If only the studio could have extended the same courtesy to all audiences permanently.

Sometimes good actors make not so good movies, but still do a good job, hence the movie is good to watch.

Does anyone say that G did a great job? That his acting is worth the ticket price?

My two cents:

Well, Gamer is a bit over-the-top, very adolescent. And you know? We went to a cinema out of town (since the movie wasn't playing in my hometown), and we hit the early showing---the theater was practically EMPTY save for about 10 people. Yikes.

Back to it being adolescent. And crude. Which I suppose is for the shock factor. To me it had a smattering of Blade Runner. And I read that it's similar to Running Man, although I don't remember ever watching that flick.

Kinda dismal. Gerry is all action, no smiles, no real dialogue. Kinda stiff, except for one pivotal scene in which G invokes a bit of emotionalism---my favorite kind of acting from G!

I suppose the rest of movie is just for pure entertainment(?) or escapism. I wish Leguizamo had more of a part. Most of the characters weren't that endearing to me, a little to brash, over-the-top.

And too, think about this: If that kind of technology didn't already exist (or was close to existing) a story like this would not have been written. Creepy. They discussed something like this on CBS Sunday Morning today. How someday tvs won't be that box everyone congregates to but perhaps something like a contact lens that you where, or something embedded inside the brain so that you simply see images.

How creepy is that?

Okay. I love my Gerry. The movie was OK. A little dark for my taste, but that's any movie in this genre. He kicks arse in this one, for sure.

I'm hoping that in LAC his character is well-developed and one that the audience can feel for, and then get creeped out by. LOL!

where?

Darn it.......I mean to write WEAR, as in wear contact lenses.

Regular peeps are able to edit their posts, no?

I'm wondering if I should put spoiler warnings on this thread.

If you want to post something "spoilery", here's a hint:

Use the tags [spoiler] [/spoiler] around the spoilery text.

Sorry, DK.

No, don't be sorry! It's fine, I expect there will be quite a few spoilers in this thread as more and more see the movie.

The spoiler tag is wonderful. You can put it out there and people don't see it right away. I didn't mean people couldn't comment...that's to be expected.

Carry on!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32692562/ns/entertainment-movies/

‘Gamer’ doesn’t have the fun of ‘Crank’
Over-the-top style and a stab at traditional narrative don’t mix

REVIEW
By Alonso Duralde
Film critic
msnbc.com contributor
updated 1:43 p.m. ET Sept. 4, 2009

With their first two features, “Crank” and “Crank: High Voltage,” the directing team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor succeeded in creating a kinetic brand of all-sensation-all-the-time post-narrative filmmaking. Michael Bay may get the money and the occasional grudging critical respect for his 3-hour farragoes, but Neveldine/Taylor make hyperactive cinematic freakouts that are both fun to watch and, on their own terms at least, logically cohesive.

That’s not so much the case with “Gamer,” however; where the “Crank” movies stripped everything down to the basic “Jason Statham IS the bus from ‘Speed’” premise, this latest one piles on more and more plot in a tale of a near-future where everyone is obsessed with playing videogames morning, noon and night. Given how much the two “Crank” films borrowed from the first-person shooter aesthetic, it feels a little too on-the-nose for these filmmakers to straightforwardly exploit and comment upon videogame culture here.

Gerard Butler stars as Kable, the star of a hot new videogame called “Slayers.” The premise of the game is that players at home are controlling flesh-and-blood individuals, death-row convicts who have had revolutionary nano-tech injected into their brains that makes them respond to commands given by the controller. Any participant who can survive 30 missions is granted freedom, but no one has come close — until Kable.

“Slayers” is the creation of eccentric programming genius Castle (Michael C. Hall), who previously revolutionized the industry with a game called “Society,” a “Sims”-like experience that again used real people as stand-ins for the people playing at home. Castle uses the proceeds from the two games to underwrite the nation’s prison system but, naturally, he’s got more ambitious and more nefarious plans in mind. And Kable knows too much about it, making it unlikely that he’ll survive his 30th mission.

Where Neveldine/Taylor lose their way is by trying to marry their no-shot-lasts-longer-than-five-seconds style with overstuffed storytelling; along the way we also meet an ambitious talk-show host, a renegade band of anti-Castle hackers (that seems straight out of “The Matrix”), Kable’s teenage controller and a vicious killer who has been unleashed into “Slayers” with no one commanding him in the hopes of taking down Kable once and for all. (I’m not saying who plays these various characters; one of the pleasures of “Gamer” is the bevy of familiar faces that pops up in random roles throughout. Try to keep from peeking at the IMDB page beforehand if you’re going to go.)

The film’s climax has a scatter-shot, we’ll-try-anything aspect that just feels desperate; say what you want about the amped-up loopiness of the “Crank” films, but at least they kept an eye on the prize. Not even an out-of-nowhere pre-melée dance number — which allows Hall to show off his Broadway-musical chops while lip-synching Sammy Davis, Jr.’s version of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” — makes the cluttered third act work.

Knowing Neveldine/Taylor’s work so far, I certainly didn’t expect “Gamer” to play by the usual cinematic rules. Sadly, the film also doesn’t work by these directors’ singular set of standards. I’ll still be looking forward to what they do next, but “Gamer” qualifies as their first real misstep. Time to hit the Reset button.

http://www.filmarcade.net/2009/09/gamer-review-by-spaldy.html

"Gamer" Review
by Spaldy 2:57 PM

Starring: Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Ludacris, Kyra Sedgwick, Amber Valletta, Alison Lohman, Terry Crews
Written & Directed by: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor

"Gamer" is a mix of equal parts "the Sims," "Running Man," "Ender's Game," and "Death Race." The movie is shot in the style of a video game; that is to say constantly spinning and always focused in a close up shot. As someone who got their gaming start with the trusty Atari 2600, my current days of game play consist of my inability to direct the camera POV on the item I want to shoot. Instead, I'm constantly spinning round and round, trying to find the target for my guns that are a blazing. The direction of this movie was kind of like that.

Set in the future, the evil love child of bizarro Will Wright and Bill Gates is the game mastermind named Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). At first Castle created an online community of people who interact and play online in a world called "Society." The difference between "Society" and something like "the Sims" is that the avatars they inhabit are real people with computer nanites in their brain. You want to be a beautiful blonde lady with no moral qualms or inhibitions? Great! For a small fee you can order around a beautiful blonde woman to do your bidding from the safety of your chair at home. Assuming you can get past the idea that the woman may be doing this out of a necessity to feed her family or drug habit rather than a desire to be controlled by some stranger, than you should have a swell time.

Even beyond this very disturbing premise is the next level: actual killing. Castle's newest game "Slayers" has all the vicariousness of "Society" but it also comes with the ability to immerse yourself in a war like environment. The fighters are all death row inmates who have gambled on fighting to live rather than passively awaiting the inevitable conclusion of their death sentence. A slayer must complete and survive 30 combat missions in order to be set free. For anyone that saw "The Running Man" (or even read the Richard Bachman story), you know that the powers that be will not let any of the fighters win the game.

Kable (Gerard Butler) has completed 27 missions and is poised to win his freedom and return to his wife and daughter. Brace for this spoiler plot point: he was wrongfully imprisoned by Castle. I know, I was totally shocked too. However, Kable is an interesting character who doesn't talk in quips or witty one liners like the usual action star character. Kable runs. Kable shoots. Kable kills quickly and efficiently and is always on the move for the safe zone of the mission. I think I liked this most of all about the movie. Kable is likeable not because he is charming or amusing or even because he is innocent: Kable is killing to survive and not taking any pleasure in it or spending any more time than he needs to do it. Kable rarely talks, and just keeps going.

The creator of the game, Ken Castle, is clearly unstable from the first moment we see him, and I think it is kind of unbelievable that no one would find an ulterior motive in the fact that he is slowly replacing the brain cells of the people of the world with mind control computer nanites. If you thought people were unhappy with the idea of a DNA database, would those same people be okay with any corporation having the ability to completely and utterly control your body? Most people I know don't even like to be given advice on what to do from friends they trust much less a corporation or anonymous guy in an armchair in Scranton. It seems highly unlikely.

Still, the idea is a horrific envisioning of a possible future. The thirst for reality television seems to grow more each year, and the desensitization of humans toward violence in gaming seems to occur even faster. That said I still don't believe civilization will actually come to "Society" or "Slayers." Though I could argue that no one would want to expose themselves to a situation that is tantamount to experiencing emotional, mental, or physical rape, I am reminded that people do that every day in the real world (i.e. prostitution). Though "Society" would offer a supervised environment, one would never have that crucial thing that keeps us human: the ability to say no.

But enough with the philosophy of possibilities and probabilities of this world actually occurring. Regarding the movie itself, it is an interesting bit of mess. At times the movie is kind of exhilarating and enjoyable, quickly followed by a section that made me want to leave the theatre. The directing style is a bit at odds with itself (even beyond the frenetic camera work). One moment it tries to be a serious action flick (think Statham) but is then quickly followed by perverse over the top humor (like a sexually amped "Fifth Element" if you will).

Still, the action sequences were good when you could see what was going on. I like that Butler's fight moves were simple punch and kick combos rather than a bunch of ornate choreography. Kable prefers a quick snap of a neck to a grudge match, and honestly, that was more interesting to me. Disturbing for sure, but more realistic. I found Terry Crews scenes to be kind of giggle inducing. That was due in part to his over the top character in this movie but mostly because every time I looked at him I thought of his character on "Everybody Hates Chris." Crews may be a large man, but he just didn't seem all that scary to me because of that show.

The other moment I kind of loved was the unexpected and firmly left field surprise of a dance sequence near the end of the movie. I don't know what inspired it (other than Hall's Broadway roots), but it kind of saved the movie for me. I mean looking at Gerard Butler can only carry a movie so far before you need another reason to keep sitting in the theatre. (For example, it won't even get you in the door to see "The Ugly Truth." Trust me.)

Overall it was an interesting movie. I wouldn't recommend it beyond cable (or maybe DVD rental), but honestly I don't know if I would recommend it for that either. Other than the dance sequence near the end and a couple of neat fight scenes, there really isn't any reason to watch this movie. In fact, the cameo appearance by Milo Ventimiglia was so repugnant that it makes a strong argument against seeing the movie at all. Though the movie might be a good jumpstart to a conversation about humanity, its weaknesses, and which hand basket it will be riding to hell in, in all honesty, any episode of "Seinfeld" could probably get the ball rolling on that conversation too.

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movie_review_detail.php?id=13796

Gamer Movie Review

By: Michael

Gamer stars two of my favorite actors Gerard Butler and Michael C Hall. Gerard of course starred in 300 which is one of the best action flicks ever made. Michael is the star of Dexter which is one of the coolest shows to ever grace TV. So when you toss them both into the same movie you have to have magic in the making... donut you? Lets start off with what Gamer is about:

GAMER is a high-concept action thriller set in a near future when gaming and entertainment have evolved into a terrifying new hybrid. Humans control other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online games: people play people...for keeps. Mind-control technology is widespread, and at the heart of the controversial games is its creator, reclusive billionaire Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). His latest brainchild, the first-person shooter game "Slayers," allows millions to act out their most savage fantasies online in front of a global audience, using real prisoners as avatars with whom they fight to the death.

Kable (300's Gerard Butler) is the superstar and cult hero of the ultraviolent "Slayers." Kable is controlled by Simon, a young gamer with rock star status who continues to defy all odds by guiding Kable to victory each week. Taken from his family, imprisoned and forced to fight against his will, the modern day gladiator must survive long enough to escape the game to free his family, regain his identity and to save mankind from Castle's ruthless technology.

Having watched the trailers, and done quite a bit of reading about the film and its progress I will admit I was pretty damn excited for the film to hit theaters. I expected a combination of Matrix meets Death Race and frankly I was spot on right. The problem is it has elements of Matrix and Death Race but unlike those two films... Gamer sucks. OK it doesn't SUCK but it gets pretty damn close. If you liked Death Race you will likely find elements of Gamer worth talking about but otherwise you will likely be turned off of this movie.

Gamer has a fantastic premise that is very poorly executed and has characters that are confusing and shallow. Despite one of the coolest premises in awhile it appears that bad editing and bad direction have brought Gamer to its knees. Its very rare that I call for a remake but this one I am calling for a remake right out of the box.

Lets loose the ankle deep puddle characters and develop some deeper thinking moments. Lets keep all the action but slow it down so you don't have an epileptic seizure trying to follow the action at its insane pace. Lets also see a bit more focus on the story and a lot less focus on blowing bodies to pieces.

Gamer is a cool concept poorly executed that is best passed over. If you must see it wait to see it on DVD.

Well, I love this guy, Gerard Butler, but I'm sorry to say that I've never planned on seeing this movie. It's not my cup of tea. But I still believe in his acting, as he puts his heart and soul into every character he plays. For that, Mr. B., I applaud you.