Gamer

Review By: Ryan Hamelin
RyanHamelin@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: C+

Welcome to the near future. A world where reality has become the video game, and games have ballooned into a full-fledged reality of their own. Ken Castle, reclusive multi-billionaire and founder of Castle industries, is running the show and has the world’s capital tied up in real life simulations of sorts. You can act out your darkest fantasies through the manipulation of a real person, an “actor” in a psychotic playground of delights reserved for the most perverted minds our species has provided. The people playing the game pay in, the people acting in the game get paid, and the whole structure soon becomes as integral to our society as watching sports on TV. Which is why they’ve created a new sport, the hit program “Slayers”, which pits death row inmates against each other, giving them the shot at freedom if they survive 30 consecutive matches. Most don’t survive into double digits however, as they are computer controlled by “players” who act as the manifestation of video game tester fantasies. Enter Kable, a former soldier and all around badass. He’s already survived to round 27, and his wife and child are out there, somewhere, waiting for him should he make it through. What will happen next?

Such is the set up for Gamer, the supposedly “high-concept” sci-fi film from the directors of Crank and Crank: High Voltage. In the hands of a gifted screenwriter, such a premise could make for a deeply disturbing and thought provoking metaphor for the booming technological age we live in. It could have it all, the explosions, the horror, the drama, and the emotional impact of a freight train. Gamer has all the pieces it needed to tell that story, they just don’t come together to create a cohesive whole, and fall apart rather brutally in the process.

Much of the credit must be sent out to whom so ever was in charge of casting this film. Convincing this many talented actors to take part in a completely off the wall action movie is no mean feat, and the film does boast its version of an all-star cast. Michael C. Hall, in particular, seems most at home with his eccentric billionaire caricature and manages to squeeze out a few moments of wonderful performance in between the explosions. Gerard Butler performs admirably despite his dialogue disadvantages, and you come away rooting for everybody you’re supposed to root for and hating everybody you’re supposed to hate. The film could’ve used a little bit more emotional investment in the characters were it to maintain its vaguely serious premise, but that’s not the kind of movie these guys wanted to make.

The result is a loud, abrasive, and completely unapologetic action romp that glazes over deeper questions and skirts the trials of complex meaning with plentiful ammunition and shakier than earthquake camera shots. The stylized look works wonders in the more intense action moments, but unlike Crank: High Voltage, this one does try ...