"Game" is a near-future action/thriller starring Gerard Butler (Kable) as the champion of an online game called "Slayers". Mind-control technology has taken society by storm and "Slayers" allows humans to control other humans in a mass-scale, multiplayer online game. With his every move tracked by millions, Kable's ultimate challenge is regaining his identity and launching an attack on the system that has imprisoned him.
by drozzytom
on 12/10/2009 3 of 7 people found this review helpful
What I loved most: High Tech, the ideas in the show
What I really hated: not much character development. too short.
Interested idea of reality game. At the start of the movie it catches your attention- "wow! got such a game.", "Gay shit game!"..This movie is good because it looks real, and you always want to know what happen if the 'controlled' came face to face with the 'controller'? Average action scenes, and the ending confrontation between Butler and the villain is interesting.
you would expect more relationship between the Controlled and the Controller, but it didn't happen. Wanted to see more of that happening. The story is too short for any character development and the suddenly introduction of the "hacker" group makes it weird.
All in all, not a bad movie, but definely can be improved if the movie expended for another 10-20 min.
"Death Race" meets "Gladiator" with hints of "Run Lola Run" fun, as Gerard Butler bulldozes and bamboozles us through more than two hours of explosions and dirty debris in a story about societal breakdown through technological advancement. However, not even 300 more of him could save this movie from being a mildly amusing, below average shoot-em-up pinned down by fast visuals with low engagement.
Set in a not-too-distant future where the people can control other people on a empire-like gaming environment, we follow how an unwilling action hero named Tillman is a death row inmate given a shot at escape by winning an online live action game. However, other forces like evil media mogul and gamemaster Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), ratings-obsessed talk show host Gina Parker Smith (Kyra Sedgwick) and a rebel group leader (Ludacris) come into play to force a clashing of sorts.
The talking point in "Gamer" is definitely not the action because as noted by one other reviewer, it has "low replay value". What we can amuse ourselves with is the highlight performance by TV's Dexter, Michael C. Hall, as the maniacal villain who did something screenworthy with his enourmous presence and a crazy musical sequence ("I've Got You Under My Skin") reminiscent of Alex and "A Clockwork Orange". There are also small roles for Milo Ventimiglia ("Pathology"), Alison Lohman ("Drag Me To Hell") and John Leguizamo (Ice Age 3"), not to mention a prominent parading of the freckled beauty Amber Valletta, who plays Tillman's wife in funky, plastic sex suits. She sure reminds us of Peta Wilson in TV's "La Femme Nikita". Rap star Ludacris also lives up to his name by providing a completely unbelievable and cliched turn as a rebel leader.
Somewhere within "Gamer" is a good story but unfortunately the tedious, unconvincing actioner just comes off as a computer game gone wrong and instead got projected onto a theatre screen.
One recent film that critics like to compare "Gamer" to is the 2007 actioner "The Condemned", starring wrestler Steve Austin and footballer Vinnie Jones. The critical reception to that movie was overwhelmingly negative and reviews for this one has been shaping up the same way. Oh well, at least we get a glimpse of Kyra Sedgwick on the big screen every two years, eh?
