Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor are not known for quiet, thoughtful dramas, taylor made for the Lifetime channel. Crank 2 can easily be described as an all out orgy of carnage and psychotic behavior, but Gamer is a whole different animal. This is a near future in an alternate universe where gamers log on and pilot a living, breathing human being in a life or death struggle. The winner … well .. .they get to live … and if they live long enough they might just go free! See, the human beings are also convicts. PLOT TWIST!!
To prepare Gerard Butler for his marathon of gunfire, the Neveldine/ Taylor connection employed the usual acupuncture needles and actors aflame they used for Pathology, adding a full on Navy Seal training camp to wuup Butler’s body back into prime 300 shape. All of that is a joke of course. Don’t sue me … but they did say it! Meanwhile, Terry Crews, who always arrives jacked up, plays Hackman, taking the reality show hopeful personal to the Nth degree by committing murder to get thrown in jail and take on Butler’s Kable.
Dexter’s Michael C. Hall arrives as Ken Castle, evil games master who feels no remorse about trading on human life. Hall remarked that there are definite similarities in the justifications used by Castle and Dexter and their unwavering resolution..but even so, Dexter would take great joy in ending Castle’s life.
The one thing painfully apparent in the themes of Gamer is the realization that this could very well become a reality. Amber Valletta and Alison Lohman remarked that, while they know nothing about where we are in terms of nanotechnology and interactive murder, we may not be far away from being a society that accepts murder for entertainment purposes. Neveldine and Taylor agree without hesitation. A world where people accept that the events of Crank 2 could happen on any given day in America, its not a far leap to the world of Gamer.