Gamer [Blu-ray]
Gerard Butler stars as Kable, condemned criminal and globally famous super-soldier in the ultimate multiplayer game, “Slayers.” Human controllers direct each thought and move of real-life prison inmates battling in hyper-intense environments – where the goal is freedom and the penalty is death. But when Kable suddenly decides he wants out, his rebellion threatens the twisted plans of game creator Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall, TV’s “Dexter”), who will stop at nothing to crush the renegade commando in this taut, adrenaline-packed action-thriller.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Interesting take on the future
As another reviewer said, this is a film you either love or hate. I found it to be somewhat predictable but even so I thought the ideas and the technology presented were close enough to reality that they are worth considering. This is NOT a film bashing gamers. It IS a film that makes you stop and think about where technology is and where it’s going. I saw it twice in theaters and am buying it, but then I’m a Gerry fan and would have bought it anyway. That said, I am happy to buy this particular film because I think the ideas presented are shown in an interesting light and deserve serious debate. It’s a shame Gamer didn’t receive more advertising as I think that was what kept it from becoming more successful. There are so many films that are just bland and boring that have bigger box office receipts, Gamer could have done so much better with proper backing. I do think the acting was good (especially Logan Lerman playing the teen controller, and of course Michael C Hall) and there are some plot elements that I didn’t see coming, so overall I give this film four stars.
5 Stars Worth getting
I saw this movie 2times and thought it was worth buying im not a hardcore gamer or enything so I dont know if for some reason hardcore gamers dont like it? But if your like me and like buying and watching good movies get this one its good.
5 Stars The revolution will involve air hockey
Maybe “Gamer” is just too close to the truth for comfort, and this is why critics are panning it. After all, true masterpieces are 20 years ahead of the curve. Maybe we’ll get it in 2029, about the same time, hopefully, that our houses will be fashioned with special Web screening rooms where we can lie down and people will automatically be able to invade our privacy on humongous video screens.
There’s a key scene in the film where Kable has just been declared “fragged” and the general public is left holding its breath, all their hopes and dreams resting on this death row inmate besting the big corporate stooge. And it just drives the point home how we are so obsessed with violence in America that we make idols of our Mansons, our Dahmers and our George W. Bushes. Maybe it is just too hard for most of us to accept the fact that we are bloodthirsty beasts more sympathetic to villains than pesky peacenick, compost-loving heroes. I mean won’t spoiled cabbage just deterioriate on its own just fine at the landfill, seeing as it’s biodegradable anyway?
“Gamer” ends up being better than “Blade Runner,” which was based on a short story by a drug addict who thought God lived in a mainframe on Jupiter; it’s better than “Strange Days,” written by a Martin Scorsese groupie (if you can get any more sad than that I don’t even want to know); and it’s way better than “The Matrix,” which was nothing more than Zen Buddhist propaganda anyway as a favor to Keanu Reeves, who was still reeling over the fact that Brad Pitt had scored the main role in “Seven Years in Tibet” two years earlier. On top of which, Gerald Butler is a more convincing actor than Russell Crowe any day of the week … and there is a really cool car chase scene.
1 Stars What A Mess
After seeing this film, I looked it up and found that it was from the same duo that made Crank (Widescreen Edition) and Crank 2: High Voltage. If you’ve seen either one of those movies, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect: lots of violence with a plot put together by a 3-year-old. When it was clear that this movie was going nowhere, I found myself wondering what the actors saw in the script that made them want to do it.
A perfect metaphor for this film I take directly from it: in order to fuel up an empty vehicle, Gerard Butler uses his own vomit and urine to fuel it (those aren’t typos). All I can say is that I’m glad I didn’t pay to see this.
But as in every pile of crap there is one thing that stands out, and in this film that one thing is a fight set to “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”. But that is nowhere near to making up for the rest of this cinematic abomination.
4 Stars A visually engaging treat!
Perhaps flying in the face of the many not-so-positive comments, I personally found this movie to be a very enjoyable romp in fantasyland! Drawing inspiration from the Death Race, Kill Bill, and Punisher movies, it relies on intensive action visuals rather than plot complexities to hold your interest. Not being a gamer, I was unburdened by the inconsistencies in video game correctness; further, I thought the dance sequence was totally fun and appropriate, only serving to show off the arrogance of the self-obsessed billionaire creator of the human control mechanism! My only quibble with the film was the style of editing; the choppy, resolution-varying images made it difficult to appreciate the myriad of details during some of the faster-paced scenes. Like many action movies, this film was intended to dazzle through visual stimulation; for me, it succeeded!
Filed under: Blu Ray Movie Reviews