Gamer (2009) - Movie Review

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's "Gamer" attempts not to be an epic drama with a story that captivates the entire, but simply a bloody action thriller that allows the audience to just turn off their brains and watch. The story is of the mind-controlled "Slayers" who are hardened criminals seeking freedom by entering themselves into a team death match tournament, controlled by outside players like a video game. Whoever survives thirty rounds gains their freedom back, which no one has been able to accomplish yet. The star of the Slayers is Kable played by Gerard Butler, who has survived twenty-seven of his previous death matches and is three away from victory. Ken Castle played by Michael C. Hall is the creator of the Slayers does not want Kable to survive for unknown reasons, so he injects a new player into the Slayers named Hackman played by Terry Crews who is unbound and free to move about in the death matches to kill Kable. Will he succeed in his mad plan to kill Kable? Watch and find out.
The first thing that I enjoy about this film is the direction of it by Neveldine and Taylor because in certain scenes every looks brilliantly colorful and beautiful. The best example of beauty in this film is when they show the live game Society which is also created by Ken Castle, in which players control real people in a game. What is so beautiful in the scenes is the comparing and contrasting colors that are almost other worldly in their brilliance. I found myself wanting to see more of the Society game because it captures everything crazy, fun and beautiful about their directing ability. It was a true joy to watch in certain scenes.
Another thing I enjoyed was that this film does not try to take itself too seriously which is good because I don't want a film that tries too hard to be vastly intelligent when I am going to see a film called Gamer. This film is a guilty pleasure movie in that it is more like a exploitation film in it's raunchy use of violence and sex. This film captures the gross and fun sides of sex appeal without bombarding the audience with a gigantic story or epic proportions. This is simply a movie to relax and take a load off to.
The last thing that I really enjoyed about this film is that in the beginning of the film there is a Slayers advertisement on the side of a building which is extraordinary looking. Kable in full tactical army gear stands holding a tattered American flag in his hand staring down at it in a pure comic book cover fashion. It reminds me of the great Captain America and is incredibly picturesque in its beauty. For any comic book fan, that brief visual packs a punch of meaning and nostalgia, Kable is not just a killer, he is a hero in the eyes of the world.
What I disliked in this film was the embarrassing "tea bagging" video game reference. Early on in the film there is montage of Slayers killing their opponents and out of nowhere a guy gets shot and a Slayer runs up to his corpse and starts standing and crouching in rapid succession, tea bagging his opponent. It's not comical because it's placement in the movie, in a montage of murder and violence, out of nowhere a guy gets tea bagged. It is one of the moments in film watching where I placed my palm on my face and said "Oh no, they actually went there." I don't need to be reminded that they are in a real life game by a ridiculous gaming reference like that.
Another qualm of mine is the ridiculous enemies in this movie, mainly Terry Crews as Hammock or Hancock or whatever the hell his name was. His introduction into the film as a "psychotic killer" is awful. Ken Castle shows his advisor a video of the new crazy killer where he simply grunts, breathes excessively hard and sweats profusely, attempting to show his crazy side I guess. He succeeds in only being a caricature of someone scary, in other words a joke.He provides more of a comedy relief for someone such as myself, as he plays with blood in his hands acting insane, I can only look and remember "You play Chris Rock's dad." The transition from teddy bear to psycho killer must be incredibly tough, and that challenge shown threw here, because it simply was not done well. (for the record I fucking love Terry Crews.)
My final consensus for "Gamer" is that I give it no thumbs! It is a neutral movie in terms of bad or good because the beautiful aspects of the cinematography and direction cancel out the ridiculous bad aspects. This movie is not good or bad, it simply is.

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[HIGGINSs]

I would tea bag someone too if I was controlling them..

[gregarganda]

@HIGGINSs -sighs- I probably would to

[grendel576]

i hate that fat sweating guy from Gamer

[gregarganda]

@grendel576m To think of him being a puppet master using Butler's wife like that acting like he is her is twice as bad. *shudders*

[Jbpc9]

your a funny dude

[Tphras12]

its very hilarious how ppl are dead on with the plot. lol. SOCIETY = PSN HOME EXTREME lol, SLAYERZ = the running man.

i dont want to give away plot but its just plain true lol.

also.. it MAKES SENSE WHY THEY HAVE GERARD BUTLER, three words.. god... of.. war. HAHAHAHAHAHA.

also so much subliminal msging going about within our society as a gamer.

FREE KABLE!!!! FREE KABLE!!! FREE KABLE!!!

[sluggo06]

Google Hells best kept secret

[puremana22]

I MISS SPARTAAA!!

[11kick]

i like the titties :)

[pyrosplodeyflames]

Absolutely. Especially in Uncharted 2.

[DontFearTheReaper1]

@makki9119 That was the very same thought that came to mind when I was forced to watch this piece of shit.

[DontFearTheReaper1]

I'm sorry, but after I was forced through the scene where a fat, 300-pound pig and a man-hating dyke force there avatars to rape eachother, I decided this movie was shit!

I feel really sorry for Gerard Butler. He gave a great performance in this movie. But the movie itself is crap and doesn't really show well on any filmography. You can't even call this movie a guilty pleasure!

Unless your a sadists, STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS MOVIE! Your brain and your sanity with thank you for it later!

[JMort95]

wen ur high sounds control u, u need a bowl haha

[makki9119]

is it me?! or does "society" resemble Playstation Home O.o!! but like.. a nasty version