Gamer (2009)
Stars: Gerard Butler, Amber Valetta, Logan Lerman, Michael C. Hall, Alison Lohman | Written and Directed by Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
The Crank team of Neveldine/Taylor return with another in your face action movie that is set “Some years from this exact moment.” In this future, entertainment boils down to playing real-life sim “Society”, or watching the latest episode of “Slayers” in which death-row inmates act as human avatars for bored rich gamers as they battle it out in a brutal real-life videogame. For the inmate, the prize is freedom – survive thirty ‘battles’ and you are given a pardon and set free – and for the player comes fame and celebrity. No inmate has ever made it to the end of the ‘game’, but coming close is Kable (Butler) – who is controlled by cocky teenager Simon (Logan Lerman), who has become a online superstar since playing the game. Slayers is created and run by Ken Castle (Hall), a megolomaniac recluse who motives for creating the game are more than fame and fortune.
OK, let’s get this out of the way first, yes, Gamer is very similar plot-wise to Schwarzenegger’s The Running Man, and even last year’s remake of Death Race, with it felons fight for freedom concept – only it does what they did to excess, with more guns, more violence, more sex, and more gore; and where Running Man satirized the growing obsession with reality television, Gamer takes a pot shot at the world of online gaming, from Second Life and The Sims (Society) to Call of Duty and Gears of War (Slayers), offering a scary view of gaming’s future where sweaty obese men get turned on by seducing other men in the online guise of women.
Neveldine and Taylor are best known for their off the wall action movie Crank, and it’s sequel. Like those, Gamer offers another crazy cinematic ride, with plenty of frantic action and a sleazy undertone that runs throughout the film – most notably in the sequences set in “Society.” The body count in Gamer is ridiculous too, with deaths into at least the triple digits; and what deaths: exploding heads, limbs and bodies fill the screen and if they’re not exploding they are flying through the air or being run over my man and machine. It’s interesting to see is that the fast cut, shaky cam style of action that has become the norm over the years actually fits the plot of Gamer perfectly, immersing you into the action in the same way a first person shooter does. The film also throws up a barrage of cameos: Psych’s James Roday as a TV reporter, replete with 70’s moustache; Zoe Bell (Death Proof) as an avatar in the game; John Leguizamo as a fellow prisoner; and the wierdest cameo of them all – Milo Ventimiglia, who previous worked with Neveldine/Taylor on Pathology, as an uber-sleazy “Society” pervert called Rick Rape!
Whereas the direction takes things to excess, the acting is all about subtlety. Gerard Butler and Amber Valletta both perfectly balance the slight differences between themselves as human and themselves as avatars, and Butler shines as the action hero, managing to act as well as fight! The supporting cast including Alison Lohman, Ludacris and Kyra Sedgwick do a fine job in their roles as freedom fighters and TV chat show host respectively. Terry Crews as the films secondary villain, Hackman, is criminally underused and his final fight with Butler is over way too soon…
Gamer is a loud, brash action movie of the best kind. Neveldine and Taylor manage to bring video games to life in a more sophisticated way than any other big screen game adaptation ever has. And who other than Neveldine and Taylor would have the balls to indulge in an impromptu musical number set to “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” that turns into a brawl of ballet proportions?
**** (4/5)
