Blu-Ray Review: ‘Gamer’ Gleefully Tortures Characters, Viewers

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CHICAGO – Welcome to cinematic hell. Some films are torturous purely because of their predictability or poor quality. “Gamer,” the latest ambitious effort from “Crank” creators Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, is blatantly visceral torture aimed directly at a moviegoer’s eyes and ears. It’s nearly impossible to watch the film’s opening minutes without feeling the instinctual need to switch it off.

This is a detestable example of filmmakers wanting their blood-spattered cake and eating it too. Combining the formulas of two recent flops, “Death Race” and “Surrogates,” the film takes place in a dismally dark future populated by people who participate in multiplayer games where the main goal is to blow stuff up (sounds a whole lot like the present). Here’s the twist: players are actually controlling the minds of human prisoners forced to wage battle like suicidal marionettes. After surviving thirty battles, the prisoners are promised to be set free.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 1.5/5.0

Any tidbits of social commentary are rattled off unintelligibly by the characters, who are primarily concerned with moving the action along. The filmmakers pretend to take a moral stance on the violence while glorifying it every step of the way. As the reigning star of the real-life shooter game “Slayers,” Gerard Butler spends most of the film looking as miserable as the audience. His misery is increased when he develops the ability to communicate with the brat who’s playing him, leading to scenes reminiscent of the equally obnoxious “Last Action Hero.” Meanwhile, Butler’s wife (Amber Valletta) “acts” in a real-life “Sims” game where her body is controlled by assorted perverts (this is as revolting as it sounds).

Gerard Butler invites Michael C. Hall to dine in cinematic hell in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s Gamer.
Gerard Butler invites Michael C. Hall to dine in cinematic hell in Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s Gamer.
Photo credit: Lionsgate Home Entertainment

The evil creator/puppet-master of “Slayers” is played with wickedly entertaining relish by Michael C. Hall, whose performance offers the only fleeting moments of human interest. Neveldine and Taylor take various visual and thematic risks in the film, yet the only one that works involves a song and dance routine performed by Hall to the tune of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” Hall is so delightful that he makes the proposition of a “Dexter” musical sound not all that absurd. The rest of the cast is wasted in maddening fashion: John Leguizamo mumbles to characters who refuse to listen, while super stunt woman Zoe Bell is brought on just to get her head blown off. “Gamer” offers proof of two enduring principles: 1.) Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should, and 2.) No film including Marilyn Manson’s cover of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” ever turns out to be any good.

Gamer was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on January 19th, 2010.
Gamer was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on January 19th, 2010.
Photo credit: Lionsgate Home Entertainment

“Gamer” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio), accompanied by English and French audio tracks, and comes with a digital copy of the film. The BD-Live menu system, Lionsgate Live, gives viewers access to exclusive online content, while the BD Touch and Metamenu allow disc-specific features to be accessed through an iPhone or iPod Touch. The disc also comes equipped with a D-Box Metadata track to fully ensure that viewers will remain physically nauseous during this entire ordeal.

There are multiple feature-length commentaries, including expanded visual commentary with “Neveldine/Taylor,” which may have been interesting to watch if the film were even remotely watchable. The rest of the special features are so thorough that they reveal in crystalline detail exactly where the filmmakers went wrong. A 16-minute featurette explores the Red One, a high-res digital camera that the filmmakers utilized to capture their startlingly clear images. In a feature-length making-of documentary, the filmmakers then discuss how they squandered this picture quality by replicating the style of first-person shooters, employing “run ‘n gun”-style techniques that make the dizzying action practically incoherent. Yet the worst contributions came from editors Fernando Villena and Doobie White, whose intricate edits meant to resemble “technical glitches” mirror the protagonist’s “loss of control” all too well. The most revealing insight comes from Neveldine and Taylor, who admit that their goal was indeed to torture their characters and audience. Mission accomplished.

‘Gamer’ is released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment and stars Gerard Butler, Amber Valletta, Logan Lerman, Michael C. Hall, Terry Crews, Ludacris, Alison Lohman and Kyra Sedgwick. It was written and directed by Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor. It was released on January 19th, 2010. It is rated R.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

Mark_Jefferson's picture

Gamer

Thanks for your honest and detailed review of Gamer. I don’t think this is a movie that I will be seeing any time soon. There are so many bad movies out there and it is great to read what reviewers like you have to say before we buy. casino online

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