Gamer

I went into this fully expecting to hate it but then something strange occurred. The same crew behind the ‘Crank’ series of movies created a future world both real and terrifying. A world where advertising dominates entire buildings and a real life ‘Sims’ game called ‘Society’ allows people to control the actions of others from the comforts of their computer chairs. Such control is used to satisfy their most base instincts. However, the greatest guilty pleasure comes from the playing of the game ‘SLAYERS’ which takes live convicts and put them under the control of video game players in a live action real person shooter. Like in ‘The Running Man’ the rules are simple. A convict survives 30 battles and they get their freedom. Gerald Butler of ‘300’ fame is Kable, the convict who is nearing his 30th battle and thus freedom from his wrongly imposed sentence. But we all know that the creators of the game (uber billionaire Kastle, played by Micheal C. Hall of Dexter fame) can never let that happen. Butler is their whole franchise and the wrongly accused man must stay right where he is or die in the attempt. Throw into the mix a group of hackers called the ‘Humanz’ who are working to bring down Kastle and his nanotech controlled empire. Like Robocop the movie combines intense actions and violence with social commentary in an effective way that is often dizzying. I appreciated the filmmakers style that is like a video game itself. That is because Slayers IS a video game with home players having full control over the fighters in the game. Teen game wizard Simon now controls Kable and in effect OWNS him. Other live human convicts agree to be ‘gibblets’ who in effect are unarmed background figures who often are slaughtered in the game for additional points or amusement. The whole drama comes from the way all these story elements intersect with each other and work to set or don’t set our hero free. I especially liked seeing my favorite character actor Keith David as a police detective. Fast moving and unrelenting, 83 minutes of Gamer goes by fast. We don’t ask for much more than being entertained at the movies and this movie certainly entertained me.