Gamer

I went into this expecting to see... well, basically what's been described so many people here. Mindless, extreme action. Sometimes, that's what you want to watch, sometimes it isn't. Today, I was curious.

One of the first things that struck me (besides the use of 'teabagging' as seen in various FPSes) was how video game violence translates to "real film". Gamer is the most effective translation of video gaming to film, and it made me realise just how horrific some of the things we find hilarious and awesome in our games would be in a more realistic medium. Body parts go flying, heads are blown off, and every step of the way, the game/film connection felt very deliberate and fairly powerful at times.

The social commentary is not very deep or subtle, but it's interesting and probably not as far from the truth as one would want to think. The film goes to extremes because it tries to portray the extremes of humanity in a world where Second Life and Modern Warfare are real. It's not, as one reviewer here calls it, a misogynistic and homophobic film.

Visually, it's as over-the-top as everything else in the film. The jittery, jolted imagery is meant to convey the game world and succeeds some of the time and fails miserably some of the time. Most of the time, it works just about enough for me to roll with it without making too much of a fuss. The Kingdom was much worse in my opinion.

Perhaps I just had really low expectations. Perhaps I'm a braindead dimwith. Whatever the case, I quite enjoyed Gamer.

Tarkovsky, Kubrick or Kaurismaki this ain't. Don't expect it to be a ponderous, slow-moving meditation on the devaluation of human life like Moon. Expect it to be a crazy, extreme belly-roar about how human life is worth flick-all these days. Take it for what it is.

**** spoilers ****

Basically, Gamer is a reworking of The Running Man - death-row inmates are given the option to participate in an ultra-violent combat game, with the chance (ha-ha - as if!) of winning their freedom. The twist here is that boo-hiss villain Ken Castle (played with relish by Michael C Hall) is into a little nanotechnology mind-control. It's loud, it's trashy, with lots of shaky-cam effects and seriously (I mean nausea-inducingly) strobing, quick-changing images. There's plenty of OTT action - some impressive and some downright silly - can you really run a car on alcohol-tinged vomit and urine?. Butler, although somewhat hamstrung by the whimsical script, does a decent enough job, but he was put to far better use in 300 and Beowulf and Grendal.

It's all a bit soulless though. We all know that the baddy will get his comeuppance - conveniently broadcast for the media-hungry public to see (once again a la Running Man) and loving family man Butler will earn his reward, but did I really care? Not much, to be honest.

It's not as clever as it thinks it is and certainly not as good as the films it seeks to emulate (as well as The Running Man, I detected some hat-tips to the original Rollerball and The Matrix). Leave your brain at home though and go with the flow and Gamer's crazy ride should just about keep you entertained for 90 minutes - special mention to the utterly off-the-wall song and dance routine just before the grand showdown!

This is a great movie not only if you are an action fan but a gamer i would recommend this to anyone