"Gamer" callbacks those dreadful virtual reality flicks from the 90's "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Virtuosity". Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the film is fashionable rubbish; a mess that is just about purposeless. I'm sure there's a parable about today's interactive amusement, but it's lost among the heavy combat scenes that are dreadfully shot. If you want action that makes no good sense in the least, check out "Gamer".
In "Gamer", Gerald Butler acts as a contemporary gladiator that is actually an avatar for a 17 year old gamer. He's an inmate who's a contestant on "Slayers", a reality TV show (that is also a video game tourney) which has become worldwide phenomenon. In the beginning of the film, Kable (Butler) has 4 combats (of 30) left before he is rewarded with freedom. The rest of the movie deals with his wife (who's also an avatar) and a group of renegades (led by Ludacris) that would like to close down the organization due to its ugly beginnings. Michael C. Hall plays a youthful millionaire who made the game and it's predecessor "Society". Joystick jockeys will pick out the hyperrealist urban-combat model from their own couch-potato calls of duty, and may well appreciate it as bona fide; others will flinch from the commonly crass penchant for ultraviolent sensation over the flimsiest trace of narrative, humor or humanness.
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Butler creates a credible action hero, but he was a good deal more effective in "300". His execution here is borderline (he appears low-spirited most of the time), but that's evidently due to the dull script. Virtually playing an action figure, bulky Butler does not deliver a performance so much as an exercising routine; the best that can be said for him here is that he shows endurance. Other, finer actors are likewise underutilized, including Alison Lohman as a dreadlocks-sporting insurgent, and Kyra Sedgwick as a cheesy chat show host who’s carted into service in the war against Hall’s megalomaniacal Castle. Near the end, Hall has one catchy scene wherein he does a soft shoe tap to a Sammy Davis Jr. number. It’s the closest "Gamer" comes to comedy, but it isn’t funny. Do not get me wrong the action sequences, especially the slayer matches, were very cool but the camera angles are so bad it’s almost impossible to tell what was carrying on. To make matters worse they chose to use digital effects in center of the action to try and give the feeling that it was really a game but that just made it worse. Couple that with the bad plot, some of the strangest scenes I have ever seen and you got yourself a recipe for a really bad movie.
Overall, "Gamer" is more amusing than "Halloween II" and "The Final Destination", but it's still a film that wasn't established with critics in mind.
Tags:
movies,
games,
entertainment